[Sca-cooks] OT: How to destroy a book

[Laura C. Minnick]

On 8/21/2010 1:46 PM, emilio szabo wrote:
> Adapting and even "manipulating" historical subjects to one's own literary
> purposes has a long history. Genre names like "historical novel" indicate that
> there are licences and no footnotes ...
>    

For some. :-) Ok, I don't go for footnotes in fiction, even if it is 
historical fiction. However, it is a long walk between simply having 
actual historical personages in a story, and manipulating them and 
history to suit your plot. Those around you could tell you how I've 
turned the world upside-down trying to find out where Henry Plantagenet 
was during August and September of 1154. It has been YEARS I've been 
doing this. He was not yet king of England and his movements were not 
yet in the royal chronicles/annals or in the exchequer's accounts. I've 
also gone back and forth through the chronicles and calendars trying to 
track Eleanor's movements, particularly pregnancy timelines. Henry and 
Eleanor are not the central characters in the tale, but a fair portion 
of Our Hero's life and actions hinge on what Henry in particular is 
doing. It may be just because I'm a historian, but I feel that the story 
must conform to established historical fact. Not the other may around.

Just my two livres,
Liutgard

-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."  -Albus Dumbledore

~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/