Why did I choose Historical fiction for my first book?
As an engineering graduate, writing a book was not even a crazy passing thought.
A younger version of me, who was just beginning to explore the world, had only heard that my mother’s family had a few authors and columnists back in the late 60s and 70s.
I wasn’t curious to dig deeper.
Until I found a hardcover at my aunt’s place, while curiously rummaging through a cabinet of old, discarded books.
Provided, my unexplained relationship with vintage books, I had a tendency of secretly escaping with them if I ever found them discarded by the owners. (And yes I never return them!)
Firstly, because they were old and might have entertained a few if not hundreds of readers.
Secondly, they were written in the past (history fascinates me; except the political side of it) and had wonderful stories set in a time that I had no knowledge about.
Thirdly, the smell from these books was enough to enchant me.
Surprisingly, this old hardcover that I found in the cabinet was written by my maternal grandfather and also had a sketch of his wife (my maternal grandmother) on the dedication page.
The book was about the folk literature of the Indian state where they were settled; Chhattisgarh.
I was intrigued.
I dusted it with my bare hands and tried to sniff its pages; divine. Anyway, I couldn’t read it then.
But the fact that it was written in the past and talked about the rich culture of the Indian state from the beginning of the time, stuck with me for years.
Then I read my first historical fiction; Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran that pulled me into a world that I had only heard about and the experience was truly magical.
I decided to give other historical books a try; I picked up a non-fiction this time, The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank.
There I was, following the girl around the country I never cared to know about. It opened my mind to a very different period and of course the harsh realities of the world wars.
My next historical fiction was set in the similar time period; The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.
This was a curious attempt to know more about the time gone by, as I was a stranger to Holocaust until then.
And then I randomly picked, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini which was another beautiful read. The impact it had on me was unimaginable yet extraordinary.
This way my journey into the the world of Historical Fiction continued with several others.
I wouldn’t say I’ve read all the best ones as I still have many in my reading list but the mere fact that these stories are set in the past provides richness to the plot in a distinct way.
Maybe that’s because some of us say, World history is a treasure.
Another reason why I was so taken by this genre was that there are numerous possibilities of a story being written anywhere in the history. This makes writing even more exciting.
It’s more dramatic when you come up with various stories and random characters then decide the setting or the time period you want to explore ( or that suits your storyline). I usually go this way. I experiment a little. Once I have a setting and finalized the plot and the characters, I bring them together.
It’s like a puzzle for me and I devote all my time to solve it.
I had read somewhere, Historical Fiction makes you feel whatever the protagonist of the story feels.
It’s similar to living someone else’ life in those pages.
Nothing can be more intriguing than visualizing yourself in that era.
Ten years later, I might re-read my first ebook and feel ashamed and annoyed with myself, but at least I’ll know why I chose this genre to begin with.
This ebook; The Blue Bottle may not be a perfect start and I may have made several mistakes but it was definitely a beautiful experience for me being a first time author.
Cheers to writing more books in the future!
