I’m not exactly a history buff, but I love accurate historical details in fiction! What are they wearing? What’s on the table? How are the streets and buildings like? What are they drinking? What kinds of people are in their neighborhood? What are they like? 

Suffice it to say that I can’t stand the thought of making any mistakes with these details in my own writing. I would like for readers to trust and enjoy any little bits of historical trivia when they read my books, because I know how fun it is for me when I can believably experience the atmosphere of another time when I read. I actually have to go back and fix a little goof I made in Merrick, when William first meets Theo and the cobblestones are glistening under the gaslights — because I just found out that there were no gaslights in America until several years after the dawn of the 19th century! 

It’s shocking how much research is required to avoid little mistakes like that when you’re describing your characters, their clothing, and their surroundings. Maybe I’m a little OCD, but I don’t want to say the dude’s got buttons on his breeches and then find out they only had laces. Or that they were drinking bourbon when they would have been drinking rum. Or that they had sausage for breakfast when they would have had bread and milk. 

So why, why, why did I choose to make New York City in 1800 and France in the 1530s so significant in this book? I always love the in-between periods of history, but they can be a pain in the ass to research! And there are fewer recognizable landmarks to help readers imagine the landscape. It would be much easier to say “Setting: New York City, American Revolution!” But no. I’m like, “New York City: When nothing was really going on that you ever read about in history class!” Same with France in the 1830s. Things were about to get really, really interesting there, but most recognizable names from around that time would be Francis I and Rabelais.

But at least as far as New York is concerned, I am actually, like, in New York. So I should probably shut up and start hitting some museums? You think? 

And as for France, I’ve got these YouTube playlists to set the mood…I guess…