Why I Write Historical Romance

Today we have the wonderful and talented Allison Knight, historic author extraordinaire, who gives us her secret on how she started writing historical romance. Please join us in giving her a big welcome!

“One night, while the Earl of Sandwich was playing cards, he got hungry...” So began another dinnertime tale about people to whom my father swore we were related.

Allison's 17th Historic Novel

With every story Dad told, he instilled a love of history in all of us. For example my sister has become a genealogist. I wonder if it isn't inherited for I have a granddaughter following in my sister's footsteps.

But Dad wasn’t the only one. My grandfather, a great story teller, would delight in gathering his grandchildren around him and telling us about his life. He described how the snow came through the cracks of their one room log cabin on the night he was born, why he never got further in school than third grade, although by all standards he was a very successful man. Of course there was the tale about our great grandmother who had been capture by the Sioux and released in a trade in Detroit.

And believe it or not, that story was true. Although I'm not so sure about the Earl of Sandwich being related to us.

Mother also had stories to tell.  Her tales also centered around an antique left to her by a distant relative who journeyed to the US from Germany, Holland, even a bride from Spain who was supposed to have been a purchased bride. I even have a rose bush that has traveled around the US with us, which supposedly came with one of the relatives from Holland nearly two hundred years ago. Notice -- I said supposedly.  Unfortunately, it must not like the southern climes for it has only given me one rose in three years.

Is it any wonder I turned out to be a historical romance writer. Not only do I like to visit the past but I also have to have a happy ending to my stories. Yeh, I really like those fairy tales which have 'and they lived happily ever after' endings. And I find the past intriguing.

I also love delving into facts, researching a book. I can get lost in research. Finding an old book, a reference to an unknown fact on the 'net', get fascinating information from ,y sister or granddaughter can mean hours delving into the past, sometimes long past. I spent hours and hours researching the care of King Edward I of England's forests. I also found some of the most interest facts about those forests and the kind of trees that grew there.

However, some facts have a nasty habit of alluding an author, no matter how many attempts are made to discover the truth. So, as an author, I get to imagine how it would have been. After all, it’s called fiction for a reason.

Allison

Award winning author, Allison Knight claims she's married to the world's greatest husband because he's her biggest supporter and works with her on all her projects. The mother of four children, Allison retired from teaching to enjoy her six grandkids but now that they've grown, her three cats. She has published seventeen romances, her latest, available November, 2011, is the third in a series of medieval romances about the  members of a thirteenth century Welsh family drawn into the turmoil of the times.

Because she can never quite step out of teaching mode, she blogs often sharing the knowledge she gained writing and publishing in the romance genre. She also loves to talk  about the growing digital market.

You can find Allison at www.allisonknight.com and at her publisher, www.champagnebooks.com.