WRITING THE HISTORICAL FICTION WHEN YOU CAN'T GET THERE (part II)

HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

These are valuable resources! Of course, as I said in the first part of this article, you’ll find all of their contact information either at the library or on their website. If you do use a computer to find historical societies, you’ll also find their current president listed there too. You’ll also find several other things on their website including a gift shop. Take full advantage of the gift shop. I sure do!

You can purchase period music, postcards, books about your subject and the era plus a whole lot more. If you’re interested in the books and they aren’t in your local library there’s no problem. Just email the historical society and explain what you’re doing. If they don’t have the book(s) for sale on their website, explain what you’re doing and ask them if you can purchase the book through the mail. I can guarantee you from personal experience that you can do this. The members of a historical society are very eager to help you. Take full advantage of this service! You’ll find a plethora of information for your children’s fiction or non – fiction book there.

HISTORICAL WEBSITES

You name it and you can find information on historical websites. I did an internet search search and came up with over 16,000,000 websites! Just type ‘historical websites’ into the search bar of your favorite search engine and just see what you get back. A lot of these historical websites didn’t apply to my current children’s book that I’m researching but you get the idea. Whatever you’re hunting for, you can most likely find. To narrow your search down to what you’re researching, type in your subject’s name or the town and state where the historical event happened.

Is your historical children’s book set in another country? There’s no problem there! Just go to your favorite search engine and type historical websites + England (or whatever the country is) in the search bar.

LINKS

In part one of this article, I promised to share some links with you. I hope by following these links you find the facts you need to bring your children’s book to life!

Library Spot http://www.libraryspot.com. This is my favorite place to start since it’s a portal. You can find anything from government documents to learning the law to genealogy here.

Internet Experts http://www.internetexperts.info. This is full of additional links that will help you on any subject.

Ask.com http://www.ask.com. Just type your question in their search bar and they’ll take you to several links that will help you on your quest!

Just Answer http://www.justanswer.com. Here, you’ll find experts in any field, not just in history.

MAKE YOUR HISTORICAL CHARACTERS COME TO LIFE

Now, you’ll have to find out your how your characters dressed, spoke, what their customs were and more. I’ve found some links to help you (at least I hope they help you) there.

History of Western Fashion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Western_fashion. I really like this site. You can pick out from the list what era you’re writing about and scroll down to men’s, women’s or children’s fashions of the era. To find more about fashion, or speech or whatever your hunting for, just go to your favorite search engine and type historical speech (or whatever you’re hunting for) in the search bar.