I am so happy to have one of my favorite historical fiction writers on the blog today. Lynne Kennedy is an amazing researcher who turns history into imaginative fiction. Pick up some of her books and join me in admiring her work. Welcome, Lynne!
Writing historical mysteries is a juggling act. Writers must create a fictional plot with
fictional characters around a historical time period with real people. . . and
somehow suspend the readers’ disbelief.
Many writers of historical fiction choose a particular time
period and stay with it. I’m thinking
Anne Perry, Phillipa Gregory, Charles Todd.
I, on the other hand, am intrigued by so many time periods, I skip
around. Each of my mysteries takes place
in a different place and time, which enables me to do the thing I love most:
research. The risk, of course, is that
I will know only a little about each time period as opposed to Anne Perry who
knows a great deal about Victorian England.
Once I settle on a time period, I read and read and read
about it. I visit the places in
question, interview experts, historians, and read and read and read some
more. By this time, I usually have a
kernel of an idea for the plot and maybe even a character sketch or two.
Building fictional characters around authentic ones is
key. Unless your character is
transported from modern times to the past, he/she must act, speak, dress like
the time period. In using real people
from the time period, they must be as genuine to history as I can make them.
As the story develops and takes twists and turns on its own,
I find I am bending the truth a bit–creating an “alternate history.” This is fiction, after all. The book I am working on now, Time Lapse, will be a totally new take
on the Jack the Ripper murders. Some
will think it’s an outlandish scenario, completely out of the realm of
possibility, but since there have been hundreds of theories and books written on
this serial killer, why not one more? The backdrop and many characters are
authentic, but the storyline meanders considerably from what we know to be
historically accurate. Still, Jack has
never been caught. What if my resolution
is. . . never mind.
In fact, the questions I ask take the form of “what if” and I
let my imagination run free. It’s a rare
writer that can devise a plotline that hasn’t already been done. But even a clichéd plot can be made new and
fresh with unusual twists, powerful characters and exceptional prose.
As I put the final touches on this fifth novel, I realize I
am bending history to fit the story.
That’s the advantage of fiction.
And its strength.
With
a Masters’ Degree in Science and more than 28 years as a science museum
director, Lynne Kennedy has had the opportunity to study history and forensic
science, both of which play significant roles in her novels. She has written five
historical mysteries, each solved by modern technology.
Time Exposure: Civil War photography meets digital photography to solve
a series of murders in two centuries.
The Triangle Murders was the winner of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers
Mystery Category, 2011, and was awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Award
for independent books of high standards.
Deadly Provenance has also been awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion and was a
finalist for the San Diego Book Awards. With the release of Deadly Provenance, Lynne has launched a
"hunt for a missing Van Gogh," the painting which features
prominently in the book. "Still Life: Vase with Oleanders" has, in
actuality, been missing since WWII.
Her
fourth book, Pure Lies, won the 2014
“Best Published Mystery” award by the San Diego Book Awards, and was a finalist
in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award.
Time Lapse,
her fifth and latest mystery, premiered at the end of 2016 to all 5-star
reviews.
She
blogs regularly and has many loyal readers and fans. Visit her website at www.lynnekennedymysteries.com
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