Patricia Bernstein's Blog

Reprinted with permission from the 2025 Summer Issue of Write On!, the online magazine of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, part of the Spotlight on Diversity and Inclusion series. Beginning novelists are always admonished to “write what they know,” but I subscribe fully to the belief that a novelist is allowed to imagine all kinds […]

The post Writing About a Religion Not Your Own appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

We lovers of history and historical fiction just can’t seem to get enough of King Henry VIII, his obsessive quest for a legitimate son, his six, ill-fated queens, and his three children who ruled after him, including the magnificent Elizabeth I. Yet perhaps the best novel of the many written about the colorful Tudors, The […]

The post MY FAVORITE HISTORICAL FICTION NOVEL: THE MAN ON A DONKEY appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Patricia Bernstein on the pros and cons of depicting real-life characters in historical fiction. Contemporary critics have complained about novelists who depict characters of recent memory, even sometimes pretending to reproduce their thoughts without any proof that these people ever thought any such thing. In the novel Blonde, for instance, Joyce Carol Oates goes so far […]

The post The Historical Novelist Confronts Real-Life Characters appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Wars over religion plagued Europe from the beginning of the Protestant Reformation well into the 18th century. While Catholics dominated France and Spain, a spirit of virulent anti-Catholicism prevailed in Britain. When I began to write my novel A Noble Cunning, based on the true story of persecuted Catholic noblewoman Winifred Maxwell, I was shocked to […]

The post Religious Freedom was a Long Time Coming appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Patricia Bernstein Historical Novel Society of North America Guest Post “Writing About the Mysterious World of the 12th Century” In the 12th century in England, there were no carriages, no fireplaces, very few actual chairs, no beer, and possibly no underwear for women!  These are just some of the surprises I encountered when I switched […]

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I have just been notified that I have won first place in the American Book Fest in the category of Religious Fiction. My novel A Noble Cunning was also a finalist in the categories of Historical Fiction, Inspirational Fiction and Literary Fiction. I am delighted and also somewhat surprised. My novel A Noble Cunning is […]

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He was called “Bobbing John” and it wasn’t a compliment. He was even immortalized as “Bobbing John” in the famous Scottish folk song, “Cam Ye O’er Frae France” because he changed sides so many times. He was John Erskine, Earl of Mar. He could have been the feckless and unfortunate follower of an exiled prince. […]

The post “Bobbing John” was either unlucky or he was a traitor appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Historians didn’t begin speculating that Richard the Lionhearted was gay until the 20th century. In his book The Plantagenets, John Hooper Harvey claimed that earlier historians had engaged in a “conspiracy of silence.” According to Harvey, they were determined to hide the fact that Richard, the great emblem of all chivalric virtues, was a homosexual. […]

The post Richard the Lionhearted Wasn’t Gay appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Here we jump from the 18th century and the Jacobites to the Middle Ages. I am currently writing a novel set in 1194 which involves Richard the Lionhearted. This blog entry concerns a great historical massacre that took place during the Third Crusade. The great stain on the legend of that celebrated paragon of chivalry […]

The post The Darkest Stain on the Memory of Richard the Lionhearted is the Massacre at Ayyadieh appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.

Throughout my novel A Noble Cunning, the Glentaggart family drinks Scotch whisky to welcome guests, celebrate joyous events, or just to refresh themselves after a hard day. Even when my protagonist Bethan and her companion Lucy are offered fine champagne in London, they each recognize that they would secretly prefer a dram of Scotch. So, […]

The post The Origins of Scotch Whisky, The National Beverage of Scotland appeared first on Author Patricia Bernstein.