My history teacher in 8th grade tried to convince us that history was like a soap opera. At the time, I saw his claim as a thinly veiled effort to garner a little more support and cooperation from his teen audience.
Funny how smart I used to think I was. Funnier still that these flashbacks keep coming back to haunt me.
I couldn't stand most of my history classes in school. And yet, he had a bit of a point. Now I find a great deal of interest in some of our more obscure histories. I'm alarmingly wrapped up in the story of 1910 in Butte, Montana right now, but I keep stumbling over little nuggets that inspire ideas for me. One future idea is going to be set in a town where a train crash was staged as a promotional event that took a fatal turn, for example. My current project began when I saw an advertisement for The Dumas, the longest surviving brothel in the U.S. A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a passenger ship called The Mauritania, and its grandeur inspired Bonds of Matrimony.
The trouble I have with so many historical romances is the swooning women. Our world could not possibly be what it is today without the strength of its women. And so while I aim to create a fictional soap opera around some little-known history, I also strive to demonstrate the strength and passion of the "fairer" sex.
And after I dabble a bit in the past, I am sure that I will surface again for a contemporary snack and maybe even a paranormal nibble here and there. (I had far too much fun with The MaCall Prophecy Trilogy to not try another paranormal in the near future.)
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