10 Tips for Writing Accurate and Engaging Historical Fiction
Making Historical Characters True to Their Times--Yet Relatable to Modern Readers
Promoting Your Book: Beyond the Instagram Posts
Threading the Needle Between Truth and Accuracy When Writing Compelling Historical Fiction
Structure as Strategy: Building Pace in Historical Narratives
Reweaving History
Discovering the Unique Voice of Your Historical World
Meet the speakers
Erin Bledsoe
Erin Bledsoe is the author of Mob Queen. In middle school, she was told that her essay on Marie Antoinette showed promise, fueling her dream to write about historical women, particularly the ones that behave badly. When she’s not writing, she’s wrangling children, exploring nature, or rolling dice at a table with friends playing Dungeons & Dragons. She lives with her husband and children in Michigan, where she’ll occasionally have her coffee outside just to watch the deer.
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Judith Lindbergh
Judith Lindbergh’s debut novel, The Thrall's Tale about women in Viking Age Greenland, was an IndieBound Pick and praised by Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks and Robert Olen Butler. Her essays have appeared in publications including Newsweek, Zibby Magazine, Next Avenue, and Archaeology Magazine. She is the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle, a NJ-based creative writing center. Her latest historical novel, Akmaral, about a nomad woman warrior on the ancient Asian steppes, was published by Regal House Publishing in May 2024. https://judithlindbergh.com/
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Susan Meissner
Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than three-quarters of a million books in readers' hands and translations in nineteen languages. She is an author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include Only the Beautiful and The Nature of Fragile Things, both of which earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly; The Last Year of the War, named to Real Simple magazine’s list of best books for 2019; As Bright as Heaven (starred review in Library Journal); Secrets of Charmed Life (Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015); and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. She attended Point Loma Nazarene University in California and makes her home with her husband and yellow Lab in the Pacific Northwest.
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Valerie Nieman
Valerie Nieman’s new novel, Upon the Corner of the Moon, begins the story of the historical Macbeths, with The Last Highland King coming in 2027. She is the author of six other novels, including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award-winning In the Lonely Backwater, plus fiction and poetry collections. She is a graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.
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Elizabeth Bass Parman
Elizabeth Bass Parman grew up entranced by family stories, such as the time her grandmother woke to find Eleanor Roosevelt making breakfast in her kitchen. She worked for many years as a reading specialist for a non-profit and spends her summers in a cottage by a Canadian lake. She has two grown daughters and lives outside her native Nashville. Connect with Elizabeth online at elizabethbassparman.com.
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Sharon Short
Sharon Short is the author of fifteen published books. As Jess Montgomery, she writes the historical Kinship Mysteries set in the 1920s and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff. Sharon is a contributing editor to Writer’s Digest, for which she writes the column, “Level Up Your Writing (Life)” and teaches for Writer’s Digest University. She is also a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio). When not writing, Sharon enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, swimming, and occasionally hiking. Learn more about her work at www.sharonshort.com or www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com
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James Wade
James Wade is the author of River, Sing Out and All Things Left Wild, a winner of the prestigious MPIBA Reading the West Award for Debut Fiction, and a recipient of the Spur Award for Best Historical Novel from the Western Writers of America.
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