I’ve had six novels published, some contemporary, some historical, and now I’m going mad and publishing a SciFi novel set a couple of centuries in the future. In theory, it should be more of a challenge to write about a time that we know nothing about and situations that may never happen, with people who might have entirely different outlooks that we have now. In reality, it’s easy. It’s fiction, pure and simple.

Historical fiction is far more difficult because it involves events that did happen. That means you have to get them right, and the characters need to have a mindset appropriate to their era, quite often totally alien to our own, with all our instincts itching to correct their outdated beliefs, prejudices and hygiene. We want historical women to marry for love, succeed in business, challenge any restriction on their freedom and have an obstinate belief that blood-letting…