Now you must understand, I’ve been a historical novel geek for 75% of my life. I have devoured historic novels (interspersed with histories and biographies) in all of my relaxing downtime. I will confess my addiction!
It started with the great masters of the genre, James Michener, Irving Stone, Leon Uris, Gore Vidal, Jean Auel, Edward Rutherford, and Antonia Fraser, with a shout-out to one of my other favorites, also now passed, Gary Jennings. Then I added Allison Weir, Margaret George, Dan Brown, Philippa Gregory, and Ken Follett.
But more recently, I have discovered a new generation of wonderful writers who delight and surprise us with their page-turning gifts. So you could imagine the smile on my face when The Historic Traveler had the opportunity to sponsor the bi-annual conference of the Historic Novel Society of North America (HNSNA) in Las Vegas recently.
I found myself face to face with such remarkable talents as Fiona Davis, Kate Quinn, Margaret George, Sarah Penner, Laura Morelli, Madeline Martin, Stephanie Cowell, Sophie Perinot, Zenobia Neil, Vanessa Riley, Donna Russo, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Jeffrey Blount, Susan Meissner, A.M. (Alison) Stuart, Rita Woods, Judith Lindberg and many more!
I sat in on their panels and group readings; sauntered into their “cozy chats;” discovered some of their secrets of plotting, characterization and exposition; listened to keynotes by Fiona Davis and Silvia Moreno-Garcia; learned the current state of the publishing world –what will speed a book to publishing and what will get a thumbs down; got a bestselling author’s perspective on the hot topic of AI, and dined with some truly lovely people.
I was particularly refreshed by how gracious and down-to-earth some of the biggest superstars are — willing to share their knowledge and experience. I came home laden with books signed by Fiona Davis, Kate Quinn, Margaret George, and Sarah Penner, to name a few. And keep your eyes open, several of them kindly agreed to be our author interviews in future issues of The Historic Traveler Magazine.
And, of course, what could be more fitting than holding such an event at Caesar’s Palace, a faux Roman monolith!
The event closed out with a costume contest, with authors wearing the wardrobes of their characters — from Jane Austin to Rosie the Riveter. (BTW…one thing I learned is that the current wave of WWII women’s heroine novels has worn out its welcome with publishers and the reading public.)
Part of the fun was shopping in the conference bookstore and discovering so many books I hadn’t seen before –or at least only seen them on Amazon! But also discovering what is on the horizon. (Margaret George tipped me off that she’s researching a new book after a decade’s hiatus, and Sarah Penner is just turning in a sequel to The Lost Apothecary.—such juicy inside knowledge! And Kate Quinn is going metaphysical!)
Enjoy some of the pictures from this amazing event!
Meanwhile, all this got me to thinking… maybe I should put together two cool new resources!
The first is a collection of My 100 Favorite Historic Novels — I’ve paved the path for you if you’d like to explore both well-known classics and some more interesting off-the-beaten path books (Judith Lindberg’s The Thrall’s Tale, for instance—or my favorite current series’ from Jodi Taylor (The Chronicles of St.Marys) or S.J. Parris’ Giordano Bruno series.
But I’m very excited about The Historic Traveler HOT 25 Historic Novel List –This will be a regularly-updated review of what are the hot selling or expected to be hot selling books by many of the folks above and others who are topping the charts with their novels. You’ll hear it here first—if you’re looking for your next read! Go on and wander over!
(PS..I couldn’t help myself…this first list of 25 is actually 29! I couldn’t rule out so many great books from my new friends at HNSNA!)
