Ancient/Classical History Forum discussion and questions on topics related to historical fiction and the craft of writing, including finding an agent, organizing notes, naming geographic areas, the movie Gladiator, Colleen McCullough, unusual perspectives, and writing dialogue.

BRAIN DEAD
"I thought it would be an easy sell, but after six months of query letters, I still don't have an agent to represent it (my previous agent died). It seems that when you say 'Roman Empire' to someone in the American publishing industry their brain shuts off."

CLAUDIUS THE SADIST
"Some of the summary accounts I've read suggest that Claudius' proclivities included the sadism and self-indulgence characteristic of many of the other emperors - traits hard to reconcile with the narrator of Graves' novels."

GLADIATOR, THE DREAMWORK MOVIE
"I wonder how much they bent history. For example, that battle at the end of the film? Does history say that happened?"

GLADIATOR: THE MOVIE
"As Gibbon said, when the Romans finally learned to say, “Domine”, they had already lost their liberties and were no better than their slaves."

INDEX NEEDED?
"Why don't historical fiction books have an index?"

MCCULLOUGH'S STANDARDS FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
"Sometimes McCullough's depiction of certain characters makes me sit back, shake my head, and think, 'There's no way the real person would have said this!' Of course, I don't know that -- part of the fun and trickery of historical fiction. But the reader shouldn't be put off for no good reason."

NAMING CITIES
"I'm starting work on an AH story, whose premise is Alexander leading his troops North rather than East. How did new cities or states or nations get names? I know that some nations get it from the dominant tribe of the area, or from an old name for the land?"

ORGANIZATION
"Do you use a computer database? Do you use index cards or Post-It (tm) notes? Do you use a word processor for your notes, an outliner, or something else?"

ROMAN HISTORY THROUGH A WOMAN'S EYES
"I believe that there was a film that depicted Boudicca, the druid Princess (or in Woody Allen's joke, "the druish Princess") who fought against Paulinus in Britannia in 61 CE. I remember flaming red, wild red hair, but much of the rest escapes me."

UNRELIABLE EXPERTS
"Never take an expert's opinion or knowledge of a historical matter as certain. Unless it is very recent history, they weren't there."

WRITING AUTHENTIC DIALOGUE
"What sorts of techniques do you employ to achieve authentic-seeming dialogue? How do you portray the speech of characters from different societal strata?"