It’s difficult to remember when I wasn’t drawn to things in different time periods other than the one I was born into.
In college, I fulfilled a degree requirement by taking U.S. History from discovery through 1865. In high school, our head football coach was my U.S. History teacher, and he taught the subject well, made it personal.
I traveled with my 8th grade class to Sacramento, and visited the Wells Fargo Museum and the Pony Express statue. In elementary grades, our field trips included tile-and-stucco missions and the replica of Independence Hall at Knott’s Berry Farm.
Growing up in Southern California, aside from the missions and the gold rush, history in the Golden State seemed “new” compared to faraway places like Virginia and Massachusetts. The 1849 gold rush happened more than 200 years after Jamestown was founded and the landing at Plymouth Rock.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books were birthday gifts before they were a weekly television series. I watched shows like “The Young Rebels,” “Here Come the Brides,” and “M.A.S.H.” with my Daddy. I wore out his 8-track cassette of Johnny Cash’s “America” and National Geographic’s production of “Cowboy Songs.”
Daddy used to incorporate stops at historical sites during vacation trips between California and Minnesota. Some of those places I’d read about in the Little House on the Prairie books, in DeSmet, South Dakota, and Mansfield, Missouri. We also went to National Parks at Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, and the Grand Canyon—all places with their own unique historical backstories.
Historical fiction novels opened up eras and areas previously unexplored. “The Greek Wedding” by Jane Aiken Hodge was set during the Greek War for Independence (1821-1827) and taught me about places and conflicts previously unknown to me. I won a trivia game when an answer to a question was a geographic detail I’d learned from reading that story.
When I was approached to write a book, I drew on past influences that made historical fiction an easy choice, and historical accuracy a high priority.