Friday, January 09, 2009

Excuses, Excuses

I've been real quiet, I know. It's not because I'm lazy (though that should never be entirely discounted) but because the final version of my third book is due to the publisher on the 15th, and the publisher is great at some editorial, but not consistency, and in an ongoing family saga, consistency is really important and you should spend a lot of time checking for it.

And it's historical fiction, meaning I can tear out all the hairs and read all the books I want, but people are still going to find mistakes and write about them in reviews.

7 comments:

Aun-Juli said...

Good luck =D

David said...

Wrong kind of shoelace! That shoelace design wasn't available till 1872!

I wrote a chunk of an historical novel long ago, and I got sort of paralyzed by such fears and put it aside. Although the correct response to that type of criticism might be, "Get a life."

Don said...

My WiP is historical. I've decided that if I can't find something out, most other people can't either and I should feel free to make stuff up. I've been generally pleased with how often my made-up stuff turns out to be spot on as further research develops.

Liz T. said...

That's why I love science fiction: no fact-checking! Although consistency still counts, or so I hear. :)

none said...

Eh, we have to fill the review with something!

Anonymous said...

And it's historical fiction, meaning I can tear out all the hairs and read all the books I want, but people are still going to find mistakes

On the other hand, historical fiction written by actual historians is rarely as entertaining as that written by laymen with a penchant for conscientious research.

Anonymous said...

Good luck!

I love historical fiction, too. That's mainly what I write and what I read.

I don't mind some inaccuracies--I know there's bound to be some in mine. It is fiction after all--but if it's something blatant, like having people riding a train before trains were common, and it's not alternate history or steampunk, then I'm annoyed by it. But I don't pay attention to tiny details.