Guest Blog by Debra Hamel

Part I: WHO AM I AND WHY AM I HERE?

You may well be asking yourself just that because the blog you're standing in, Mary Sharratt's Sphinx Rising, is devoted to historical fiction and the strong female protagonists therein. I haven't written any historical fiction, or published any other kind of fiction, for that matter. But Mary thought it mightn't be a terrible thing to include the occasional mention of nonfiction on her blog. So I'm in.

In my book Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003; ISBN 0300107633) I tell the story of a woman, Neaira (pronounced "neh-EYE-ruh"), who was put on trial in Athens in the 340's B.C. when she was in her fifties. She had been a high-class prostitute (a "hetaira") earlier in her life, but prostitution was not illegal in Athens and it was not the reason she was tried. Indeed, the offense for which she was hauled into court was not on the face of it a particularly interesting one: the claim was that Neaira was a non-citizen (which was certainly true, and no one was contesting the fact) and that she had broken the law by living with an Athenian citizen as his wife rather than, say, as merely a concubine: marriages between citizens and non-citizens were illegal at the time, while less formal relationships were unproblematic.

But in trying to prove Neaira guilty of the charges against her...or perhaps I should say, in trying to prejudice the jurors against Neaira so that they'd vote against her for some reason, the prosecutor in the case--a certain Apollodoros--wound up dragging into his speech all manner of dirt. Thus we learn about Neaira's early life in a brothel, and about her stint as the sex slave of two joint owners, and it is alleged that Stephanos, the man with whom she supposedly lived as a wife, pimped her out to other men even after she had bought her freedom and settled down with him. We're also told a great deal about Phano, who was either the daughter of Neaira or of Stephanos (or both), and who reportedly followed Neaira's example when it came to behaving licentiously. Apollodoros used all of this back-story to make his case that Neaira was not an Athenian citizen, a charge, as I said above, that no one was denying. When it came to proving his second point, that Neaira had acted as if married to Stephanos, the prosecutor was on far shakier ground.

Apollodoros himself may not have believed that Neaira was guilty of the charge leveled against her. He and Stephanos had been enemies for some time, and part of their feud, at least, had been playing itself out on Athens' legal stage. Stephanos had attacked Apollodoros in court at least twice before, on one occasion actually prosecuting him for murder. In bringing a case against Neaira, an innocent bystander in his feud with Stephanos, Apollodoros was merely seeking vengeance. If she was found guilty by the jurors, so much the better, but harassing Stephanos by making him prepare a defense and by disrupting his home life may have been its own reward.

Gearing up for The Living History Tour

In June, to celebrate the publication The Vanishing Point, a literary novel of dark suspense set in 17th century Maryland, I will be going on an extensive tour of Living History Museums and quality bookstores in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and my native Minnesota.

If all goes well with the costume designer, I'll be appearing in authentic 17th century garb. (The image on the cover isn't quite true to the period--more pre-Raphaelite, actually!)

I spent 10 years researching this book, visiting the very sites I'll be returning to on my tour, so I'm very excited.

The dates thus far:

1:00 Saturday, June 10: Mystery Loves Company Bookstore,
Baltimore, MD

11:00 Sunday, June 11: Annapolis Visitors Center, Annapolis, MD

2:00 Sunday, June 11: The Compleat Bookseller, Chestertown, MD

1:00 Monday, June 12: Bowes Books, Lexington Park, MD

7:00 Tuesday, June 13: Chapters: A Literary Bookstore, Washington, DC

7:00 Wednesday, June 14: Robins Books, Philadelphia, PA

4:30 Thursday, June 15: Hard Beans & Books, Annapolis, MD

5:00 Friday, June 16: Book Crossing, Brunswick, MD

11:00 Saturday, June 17: Historic St. Mary's City, St. Mary's City, MD

4:00 Saturday, June 17: Colonial Williamsburg Museum Bookstore, Williamsburg, VA

12:00 Sunday, June 18: Jamestown Settlement Museum Bookstore, Jamestown, VA

4:00 Sunday, June 18: William & Mary College Bookstore, Williamsburg VA

7:00 Tuesday, June 20: Merriam Park Library, St. Paul, MN

7:00 Wednesday, June 21: Micawber's Bookstore, St. Paul, MN

7:00 Thursday, June 22: Amazon Coop Bookstore, Minneapolis, MN

Guest Blog by Susanne Dunlap

I have a confession to make. I have to be writing something, all the time. While I've been waiting for my editor's feedback on my upcoming book (Liszt's Kiss, due out from Simon & Schuster March, 2007), I've been working feverishly on another book, which is a little bit of a departure for me.

Its working title is The Heretic's Song, and it's been quite a project.My struggles have to do with several different things: the fact that the average reader knows very little about the period or the place-- 13th century southern France (more on that later); the dearth of documentary evidence of how people lived on a daily basis; using language that is vibrant and fresh, but does not introduce words that didn't come into being until well after the 13th century (thank the Lord for the OED online).

But most of all, there's the music. My angle on historical fiction is musical. In other words, my characters are musicians and composers, and the musical culture of the time is important to the plot. It was actually an idea about music that led me to this book. The unique culture of the Midi at this time (a loose collection of counties and baronies and fiefs, some tied to the kingdom of France, others to Aragon) included the courtly love lyric of the troubadours. These sung poems could be simple declarations of love, or they could be lengthy written conversations between two lovers, or adversaries. Much of the literature was written by women-- the Trobairitz-- and much of it was also highly topical. The church, politics, the nobility were all occasionally skewered, especially in the sirventes, a very complex poetical form.

The challenge with The Heretic's Song has been that the music associated with these lyrics is almost unknown to modern ears, little of it is written down, and no one really knows how it was performed (a capella? melody doubled by a vielle? rhythm beat on a drum?). In the other two books, I had music to listen to and scores to read. Although there are plenty of recordings that give their best guess, it is just a guess.

I've been fortunate in having some generous souls help fill in some of the gaps in my own knowledge, but most of all I've read copiously, more than for either of the other two books, or the one that so far has not been published (Love in Excess, about the novelist Eliza Haywood and a foiled plot in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745). At this moment my bibliography is at 35 actual books and growing, not counting the articles read and online sources consulted.

I don't think I'll be able to find answers that scholars have been searching for decades to clarify, but I think I'll be able to live with myself if at least I've left no stone unturned. It has truly been an incredible journey doing the research for this book. Aside from the musical and poetic background, the politics, the religion, the astounding cultural richness of the time and place have all inspired me.

What's the moral of this little piece? Be careful of biting off more than you can chew, I suppose. But if you do, be prepared to throw your heart and soul into it. I think it will be both difficult and a great relief to get back to the 19th century when I start the editing process on Liszt's Kiss. To close, I'll confess something else though: I've fallen in love with the period and place, and am finding it much easier than I thought it would be to populate it with characters who engage me.

Wish me luck!

The Challenge of Research

Sandra Gulland's fictional trilogy about the life of Josephine Bonaparte is an international bestseller. Her website is a fabulous resource for writers researching the 18th century and the Napoleonic era. In this lovely essay, she describes the challenge of writing about such a monumental figure.

Animating History: The Challenge of Writing an Historical Novel About Josephine

March is National Women's History Month

Here is a great link:

The History of Women's History