Thursday, November 21, 2013

Little White Lies

Hello! After spending last evening cavorting around Westminster for the Romantic Novelists' Association party, I'm feeling ever so slightly delicate today. So I'm pleased to turn the blog over to the wonderful Kat Sheridan!

Take it away, Kat.

Little White Lies

I write historical romance, which means I probably spend as much time researching as writing. I not only need to know the big things like current events of the period. And it’s not just about the clothes, either, although that’s important. Woe the writer who errs in writing a love scene with a heroine who’s wearing gloves, a bodice, a skirt, multiple petticoats, drawers (in certain time periods—in others the ladies went “commando”), a corset, chemise, stockings and garters. And shoes. I always forget shoes. And don’t get me started on men’s clothes and the question of wigs, beards, sideburns or handlebar mustaches (and whether or not the lady shaved!)

But after reams of research are complied and sorted (clothes in that stack, politics in this one, carriages and how fast trains in that one), the writer needs to make a final decision on which facts (or misuse of fact) will throw a reader out of a story, and which ones can safely be elided, or perhaps just carefully shaded.

Food, for instance, can be problematic. An author friend once got a nasty email from a reader annoyed that a character was eating potatoes in a time when they were not yet a popular food (the author, stung, revised the book so the characters consumed the more accurate turnips). I ran into a similar problem with a plot thread concerning peaches in my debut release, luckily caught just weeks before publication. I discovered they were rare and expensive at the time, eaten for dessert, and not likely to be made into jam. I hastily swapped peaches for Gillyflower apples.

One scene involves the hero washing the heroine’s hair. She’s been through a bad time, and the scene is used to show the hero’s tender, protective side. The problem is that during the mid-19th century, hair-washing for ladies was an arduous task, undertaken only a few times a year. Forgetting for the moment that a peer of the realm would be unlikely to know the first thing about washing a lady’s hair and hardly likely to do it himself, it was simply too large a chore, and could be quite injurious to hair, given available washing ingredients of the time. Ladies, whose hair was often long enough to sit on, did keep their hair clean with daily brushing with clean brushes, and the use of oils to keep hair and scalp healthy, and with powders similar to some dry shampoos we use today. But there was no such thing as “shampoo” as we know in the time period of my story. Soap was used. Soap which was based on lye and other chemicals that could be outright dangerous to healthy hair.

But I wanted that bathing scene. So I deliberately and with malice aforethought ignored all the research I’d done on 19th hair washing and soap. My heroine got her hair washed by the hero. If you’re a reader, would that be enough to make you fling a book across the room? And if you’re a writer, have you ever glided over fact for the sake of a story?


ABOUT KAT

Kat Sheridan is a former project manager whose very serious exterior hides a secret romantic. She is fond of books, bourbon, big words, coffee, and shiny things. Kat splits her time between the Midwest in the summer and the South in the winter, sharing her home with the love of her life and an exceedingly dignified Shih Tzu. She loves to hear from readers, and can be contacted at www.KatSheridan.com.

 ABOUT ECHOES IN STONE

When Jessa Palmer journeys to a castle in Cornwall to rescue her niece, she discovers the past still haunts Tremayne Hall and its brooding master, Dashiell Tremayne. Then the accidents begin. Soon Jessa must choose: abandon her mission to rescue the child or surrender to a dangerous passion.


 TO BUY



Thank you, Kat!

I'll see you all next Thursday when I shall be fully recovered. Have a lovely week, everyone.

25 comments:

  1. I don't write historical and can't imagine the amount of research you have to do!
    Little things like that wouldn't throw me out of a story. As long as I buy the basic premise, small liberties can be taken.

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    1. Hi, Alex! I often say that the reason lots of writers like to write historicals is because it gives us the excuse to research weird and wonderful things! And thank you for being forgiving of little white lies!

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  2. Hi, Tallie, and thank you for having me here! Hope you're feeling in tip top shape soon!

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  3. I don't write historical fiction either, though I did incorporate the history of places into my work. It does require a lot of research and fact checking...

    Nice to meet you, Kat!

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    1. Nice to meet you too, William! I love seeing the history of real places in stories! But oh, the fact checking! Thank goodness my editor likes doing that as much as I do!

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  4. And I agree with Alex. Little things like that wouldn't really throw me out of a story either, but there are people out there who are nitpicky.

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    1. Heavens, yes. I posed a question on Facebook the other day about my current WIP (work in progress). It involves a cursed blue gem. I wanted to use the words "aqua" or "turquoise" to describe it. While those words did exist during that time period, they were not used to describe actual colors (aqua meant water and turquoise was a gem). Most responses said it would be ok to use those words, as most readers would be accepting of them. But one pitched a fit and told me it would throw her right out of the book. Ah well.

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  5. Thanks for sharing a little of the work it takes to write historical fiction accurately!

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    1. Hi, Betty! It's work, but I do confess, it's also fun. I'm a bit of a magpie with weird facts and trivia, so my writing gives me a good excuse to go wandering in the more offbeat and obscure places on the Internet!

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  6. Hi Kat! Lovely to meet you! Gorgeous hero washing fabulous heroine's hair with or without shampoo is totally scrummy especially when hair washing was only done a few times a year!! Imagine the anticipation!! Imagine the wetness...! Yay!

    Take care
    x

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    1. Hi, Kitty! Author friends joke that every romance requires at least one wet and yummy water scene, whether it's a shower, a rainstorm, a swim in lake (think that lovely scene of Mr. Darcy coming up out of the water!), or even just washing the dog together!

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  7. Oh Kat, your research shines through and small things such as a bath become an accepted part of the story. I personally love that scene. You addressed the propriety issues that would normally send me over the edge. When an author explains the motivation for the deviation it helps a great deal. And you do it oh so well.

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    1. Ah, Glamour, you're a doll! I'm glad you enjoyed that scene! I had SUCH a fun time writing it and did worry how folks would accept it. It's so lovely to hear a reader enjoyed it!

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  8. I can't imagine all the research you have to pour into writing about another century. I have trouble keeping up with my own times....AND, I still have to do research. LOL

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    1. Hello, Desert (it's Eve, right?) The good thing about writing historical vs. contemporary is that the information is pretty much fixed in place and won't change. Queen Victoria will always have reined from 1837-1901. we'll always know what clothes looked like, what food they ate, etc. I think folks who write contemporary things have a much harder time--the names and face are constantly shifting, informtion comes a mile a minutes, technology changes every nanosecond. Good for yiu for keeping up with it all!

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  9. I think it sounds like a good scene. But women only washed their hair a few times a year? Eeeps! I wouldn't necessarily stop reading a book because of something like that, especially if I really liked reading the book and the characters.

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    1. Yes, the idea of washing hair a few times a year freaks me out, too. Although my mother only washed hers once a week. She'd go to the salon and have it washed, styled, and lacquered into a beehive style that didn't move, even after sleeping on it!

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  10. Interesting how people lived so long ago, compared with the modern conveniences of today!

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    1. It's amazing how much we take for granted. I remember going to visit my great-grandfather. He still had an outhouse, water was drawn up in a bucket from a well, and the "bath" was a pan of water heated on the coal stove in the kitchen!

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  11. I had no idea it was so hard to wash hair then. Fascinating insights Kat.

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    1. Thanks, Maurice. Guys had it soooo much easier! And washed way more frequently. The other thing we forget is that there were no blow dryers bac then. Once they had that hip length hair washed, it took hours and hours and hours for it to dry.

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  12. Brings back so many memories of those times, Kat.

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    1. Hi, Carole Anne! Glad I could help with those memories!

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  13. I have only written one book set in historical times and that was 1665's. The research was enjoyable but difficult. And I agree that you can end up fussing so much about getting the facts right that the story is liable to be sacrificed.

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    1. Pat, I find that to be very true. It's also so very tempting to add in all the interesting little bits one discovers, but I find I leave 98% of the research out, just hinting at it instead. And it's the silliest things that take the longest, such as the proper way to address a lady's maid (by her surname, not her first name.)

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Coffee and wine for all!