Monday, October 16, 2017

Historical Novelists: Check Your Facts!

I couldn’t believe the proofreader of my second published historical romance Ransom’s Bride felt it was necessary to verify every little detail in my manuscript. I was a history instructor at the local junior college. It wasn’t possible for me to write a historical romance without filling it with accurate historical details. If I wrote that a certain train went from Nashville to Atlanta on a certain day at a certain time, then that train existed and I had checked its time table.

Even though I was miffed at her thoroughness, I was also delighted because she found no inaccuracies. After reading some recently released historical fiction novels, both traditionally and indie published, I’m beginning to think some of today’s editors and writers need the services of my thorough proofreader.

Which is hard to believe since today’s writers have unparalleled access to mountains of information. The advent of the Internet has made it possible for any writer who wishes to research an obscure fact to find it quickly. No more weeks of waiting while that reel of microfiche, which your friendly local librarian requested from a faraway university or state archives, wends it way to you via the postal service.

Nor is there a need to amass a library of costume books in order to dress your characters in period clothing. An Internet connection and a few clicks of the mouse can put you into just about any museum or era specific website filled with beautiful examples of what people wore through the ages. A writer can easily locate the information needed to outfit a character appropriately for any occasion.

What surprises me the most is a total lack of understanding when it comes to the value of money in earlier time periods. We hear about inflation everyday. How our money buys less and less. Doesn’t that mean smaller amounts of money bought more in the past? Did you know $50.00 (USD) fed a family of four well for a week in the 1970s? Today, you’re lucky to get out of the grocery store with one half-filled plastic bag of groceries for $50.00.

If a historical writer is going to use money in a story, he or she has to have a grasp of the value of money for that era.

I started reading (note the key word here, started) a Regency era novel whose young heroine was being blackmailed for £10,000.00. First of all, I doubt few single young females today would have access to that amount of money, much less an unmarried, young female of that period. Second, a quick check of the value of £10,000.00 in 1800s England revealed it would be the equivalent of £700,000.00 or $1,073,663.34 today!

What heroine today would be able to drum up a million dollars to pay a blackmailer? On the other hand, what blackmailer would bother to demand that much money from a young female?

Another writer took two characters on a train ride in a story set in 1870. The hero paid $150.00 for their one way ticket. Doesn’t seem like much does it? But run that $150.00 through a historical money equivalency calculator and those two tickets to ride a train from mid-California to San Francisco cost them $2,500.00. And this supposedly down-and-out hero just happened to have that much money in his pocket?

In another novel, a young, poverty-stricken character waltzed off to India in the early Regency period with a £150.00 stake. This guy was so poor, his sister died because he couldn’t afford a doctor. Guess what. In today’s economy, £150.00 is the equivalent of £10,000.00. Had he possessed that much money there would have been no need to go to India to earn his fortune. It may not seem like much today, but that £150.00 would have put the hero and his family into a comfortable income bracket in 1800s England. It certainly would have been enough to pay the doctor.

If a historical writer can’t get something as basic as how much money is worth in the story’s time period, what other fallacies would my check-every-fact proofreader find?