I’m going to take this question a bit further and respond to why I write historical romances, mostly westerns, but any historical time period will do when an idea comes to me.
I have three general points for why I tend to write historicals and particularly stories set in the American Old West.
Reason 1—Research
Every historical I write allows me to follow rabbits down research rabbit holes. I’ve discovered the most intriguing and amazing tidbits of history in my historical research Wonderland. It’s important to me to have the details in my stories as historically accurate as possible.
Reason 2—Living vicariously in the past
While I’m writing a story set in the past, I get to travel to a different place and time and live in someone else’s shoes, so-to-speak. I’m like Anthony Marston in Quigley Down Under, “…Some men [women] are born in the wrong century.” All my life I’ve felt out-of-place living in our ‘modern’ world.
Reason 3—Challenge of overcoming inconveniences
I like writing stories that lack our modern-day conveniences. Without the amenities we’re accustomed to, there are so many juicy complications for the characters to face, deal with, and overcome that otherwise could be written away with a call or text on the cell phone or by taking a fast mode of transportation instead of having to send a brief message via telegraph or endure a stagecoach journey. The possibilities for plot complications in the areas of communication, transportation, and relationships in general are endless.
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
writing through history one romance upon a time
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