Arthur Rackham's timeless illustration (from Wikipedia ) There was a big push a few years ago to rewrite fairy tales. Snow White and the Huntsman got a less than warm reception, but Maleficent was more kindly received. Not wanting to be left out, I also had a go at rewriting a fairy tale, although I think I was a little bit late to the party. Memories of the Grand Tour was based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel , and features my only female narrator. I don’t know particularly why I chose a woman’s voice for this one. Generally, I find men in Gothic Horror to be easier to write about, simply because they had more possibilities and options during the time in which I set most of my writing. A Victorian woman sitting alone in a pub, for example, would say a great deal about her character before the story even starts, whereas male characters in the same situation wouldn’t even invoke a raised eyebrow. Strangely, by contrast, both Gothic Horror novels which I am cur...
First of all, thank you to everyone who got in touch about the Science Fiction in Historical Fiction blog a few weeks ago. It is great to have such feedback and super to hear that these two genres are rubbing along so well! At the moment, I'm doing very little writing. It's not intentional, it's just other things have been taking me in other directions. I'm truly honoured to have been asked to be a critical reader on a book set in 1490s Florence. I can't even begin to describe how much it means to have been asked! I finished it earlier this week and you can expect a post on it when it hits the bookshelves! I've also been spending time in the Realm of Family Tree. This landscape is justly given its capital letters and, historical writers, I cannot tell you how important this is to your research. It is worth having access to genealogy sites just for the information, whether the people there are your ancestors or not. It's the looking beyond the names which su...