Sir Thomas More by Hals Holbein (Accessed via Wikipedia ) During lockdown, we had Time. Remember that? I was in my probationary year of teaching: almost certainly among the most exhausting years for any profession. All my time had been taken up with school work, and I regularly stayed at school until after 6pm, having arrived there at eight in the morning. Now, children, this is not sustainable and, very soon, I decided I didn’t like working where I was. Then I realised that I didn’t like teaching at all. But, in fact, neither was particularly true: I just needed to be true to myself and to say no, which would give me the ability to manage my work/life balance in a more appropriate way. What does this have to do with historical fiction, I hear you say? Well, during March 2020, we went into lockdown and suddenly I went from working ten-hour-days to ten-hour-weeks. I met up with my class on Google Meet, I put work up for them on a meticulously designed Google Classroom, but I just h...
I'm not good at being told what to do. It's not just in writing, but in all walks of life. I don't mind guidelines - in fact, they can be very useful to creativity - but writing to someone else's criteria is another thing. So, back in 2021, when my sister Judith told me about Sapere Book's competition to write a series of books on one of their briefs, I initially ignored it. But then she said she would submit to their Age of Sail brief if I did the Medici/Borgia books. I was still on something of a high after the success of The Year We Lived, but equally stuck in a deadspot in terms of creating a book which could live up to it, so I agreed to have a go at it, the resulting story being Poisoned Pilgrimage.
My research took me far away from anything I had ever written creatively. Instead, I returned to my degree days and wrapped myself in the theology of the day. And it was good to be back! My set of stories was not selected by Sapere, but it didn't matter. It had been enough to take me onto a new journey and it also rekindled my love of church history in all its messy unpleasantness as well as its heavenward study.
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| The Savonarola Journals Weighing in at approximately 150,000 words |
The opening chapter for Poisoned Pilgrimage was accepted into the Embark journal and, during 2022, I kept a journal of research observations and commentaries on the life and works of Savonarola. Ironically, it was this dipping of my toe into the waters of nonfiction which gathered a lot of interest from fellow researchers, but at this point in time I have no plans to take it anywhere. I wrote it for myself about a man who became a fascination to me. One day, I intend to write a complete thesis on Savonarola as a medieval embodiment of Moses, but that is so far back on the boiler it's practically falling off!
The rejection letter I recieved from Sapere was very nice. I'm sure it was generic, but it invited me to submit to them once more and - being a glutton for punishment - I am doing exactly that. This time, I'm tackling the Age of Sail brief. My story is not a great match for the brief, so I'm not holding out much hope, but it will at least be heartfelt and characterful as it takes my own ancestors (anyone else here related to the Richardsons/Woods/Dances/Spurrels/Mariners from Aldeburgh?) on their seabound adventures.
So, Writers of Historical Fiction, it is worth having a crack at one - or more - of these briefs. You might not win, but what you will have is the start of a fabulous new adventure to explore. Don't be afraid to put your own slant upon each brief. Just remember: if you want to write it, someone will want to read it.
You can find the Sapere Books competition briefs here!
Happy writing!
[Incidentally, Judith never submitted her Age of Sail series in 2021, but this time she's already written the Gothic Mysteries - much more her sort of thing!]
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