Evolution of This Blog

Not quite three months into the life of my blog, I find its purpose has evolved. Like most authors, I suppose, I started blogging as a way to promote my books. However, since I find self-promotion rather tedious (and presume the reader does as well) I thought I’d start writing about the research I was doing in the course of writing. That way, I’d at least have something that appealed to 18^th century American history buffs.

While I hadn’t intended to write about the business side of writing, I also found that as I explored the business of selling books and building readership (a.k.a. customers) it’s not unlike my first career in marketing. I naturally gravitated toward dabbling in a little bit of advice such as 8 Twitter Tips for Writers, even though I felt a little badly about being “off topic” in a blog about history.

This morning in the shower, it all came together for me. (IMO, showers are one of the greatest advancements in the history of civilization, but more on that in a later post) My blog has evolved into a resource for fiction writers focusing on 18^th century America.

Going forward, I hope to make it an especially valuable resource for writers of the romance genre. I think our genre is unique as compared to historical fiction more targeted toward the male of the species. For one, we focus more on the daily and emotional lives of the individual. That means I can explore things like18th century underwear, wig wearing in the 18^th century and the history of reading on the toilet without being thought too odd.

Personal note: Although I’ve noticed a trend toward realism in novels written in the last decade, I tend to leave the really personal details out. For example, I might allude to how my heroine in an upcoming story, Sea Wolf’s Surrender, found privacy on a ship full of men to use the facilities, but I leave it almost as much of a mystery to the reader as it is to the captain.

One of the advancements I’ve added is a section after many of the posts called Giving credit where credit is due. While I always try to give attribution for any direct quotes or materials in the post, I often reference a number of sites and resources as I fact check my details. In addition to giving these authors a bit of promotion, I hope this section is helpful to any writers who might want to delve further into the topic.

I’d love to hear what you think about this new approach, and if you have suggestions for ways I can make it an even more valuable resource, please let me know.

All the best!

MJ