Vicki Palmquist of Winding Oak asked me an intriguing question the other day: When you are writing historical fiction, do you worry about today’s child making a connection to earlier times? Do you make a particular effort to provide a connection?
I told her, no, I just write to tell a story, the best story I can. I think each reader will make connections in his or her (mostly her) own way. And sometimes they’re surprising. I had a five-year old tell me The Midwife’s Apprentice was a story about a cat. And a woman in Pennsylvania says she gave Catherine Called Birdy to a young girl who was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. After finishing the book, the girl called crying and said she felt exactly like Catherine, that she too had few options and opportunities but would figure out how she could survive and thrive, just like Catherine. Wow. That was a connection I could never have imagined.
