History surprises me, anyway. As many of you know, I now live in New Zealand, in a place which once saw copper mining, just up the little one-lane road from me. This road’s very straight and level, compared to most of the ground around here! But why so?
When my partner and I were out planting native trees a little while ago, we made an interesting discovery.
“Plink,” went my partner’s spade. I winced.
“What did you hit?” I asked him, knowing there shouldn’t be any metal water pipes on that part of our farm.
“I don’t know,” he said, dropping his implement and kneeling to sift through the dirt. “Here it is. What is it?”
I smiled.
“This road,” I nodded at the tar-sealed road over the fence, “sits over what was once a railroad.”
“Really?”
“Yep. And these are the nails that held the rails down.”
“Looks like it, to me,” he said.
“You should write a blog post about this,” he said…
And so it happened.
Yes, history surprises me sometimes. It made me wonder: why do I write history? What draws people to history?
Is it the romance of a different time from our own?
Is it what history can show us about ourselves?
How we’re different from or similar to others in the past?
Does it show us links to the people we were, and how we will be in the future?
Does it show us where we’ve diverged when people have made new beginnings?
Do we hope it will give us hints about where to seek in the eternal quest for who we are and where we fit in to this world?
This last reason is why I write in the historical genre. When I began writing, I never thought about all this. I only knew I was drawn to stories of the past. The Dark Ages, the Elizabethan Period, and the Old West equally held me enraptured since even before I began to read myself, for the simple first reason above.
I began researching and writing historical novels only a few years ago. It soon became clear that I was looking for answers to questions in my own history and present. What I discovered has helped me become more comfortable with the person I am.
As I swat up, I repeatedly ask myself how I can make the information I unearth palatable to someone who might never pick up a book of historical fact, search out an old battle record or travel to a remote graveyard to read the inscription on an old tombstone. Can I offer readers some inkling of what happened in their own town or country to give it the unique flavour it carries today? Some idea of why a certain town emerged just when it did? Most importantly, to shed light upon the reasons a particular society developed the way it has? Perhaps it will provide a piece of the puzzle, which will allow a whole population to try to open the doors previously closed upon the past, allowing healing of the hidden wounds that prevent peaceful cohabitation.
Several towns in the West define themselves as being part of the Pony Express Trail. The stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder played a large part in my understanding of the westward-moving American pioneer, and the peoples and lands they encountered, and how the settlers dealt with adversity. In my first novel, A Long Trail Rolling, Aleksandra, the daughter of a Polish immigrant trapper family, shows us snapshots of 1860 life in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. She must survive when she is left alone in the world, and becomes a “boy” rider for the famed Pony Express.
Although the ‘Pony’ as it was called, only lasted for a mere eighteen months, it still captures the imaginations of thousands, if not millions, of people, even one hundred and fifty years after its inception.
In the novel, you’ll see interactions with American Indians, both positive aspects and negative.
In my third novel, A Sea of Green Unfolding, built around Aleksandra and Xavier’s story, you’ll find aspects of 1860’s history from both the San Francisco Bay Area, (or the part from Redwood City, via La Honda, and through to San Gregorio) and 1863 New Zealand. Why did Redwood City grew so quickly? And why did they call it that? There are few redwoods there now!
In the same book, Aleksandra, Xavier and a host of both natives and settlers give you a peek into aspects of New Zealand history which are certainly not taught in primary, and only rarely in secondary schools here. They are shadowy aspects of our history which many of our society would rather forget. Although almost apologetic, many of those who know are content to bury it beneath the carpet, so most people are unaware of the whole story and resolution cannot be attained.
This untold history has shaped us as the people we have become. The conflicts began long ago between the Maori (and before that, the earlier Moriori) people who had already settled New Zealand before Captain Cook came in the 1700’s, and the white settlers from England, Europe and Asia. There was wrongdoing on both sides, but much has remained hidden from the general view.
Anyway, enough of me and my history surprises. I hope you can see pictures as you read my story, stories of life in the times about which I write—not by painful historical info-dumping, but by living, for a little while, as one of my characters. They’re alive to me, and I hope, to you.
Thanks for reading!
You’ll find my historical books here
COMING SOON: Tatiana!
Xx
Lizzi Tremayne