History is People

Be A NovelistA Quote that Touches My Heart

I have always respected David McCullough as a writer and as a historian. This quote from him touches my heart.

“My interest as a writer is in people. It is the humanity, the great human current in the past that has drawn me to it. History is people and if the research and writing of history is sometimes difficult, it is because people are difficult to know. But without the feel of life all that we struggle to say about the past, to record and save and pass on, all the names and dates and shelves of data are of little consequence.”

David McCullough for The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal

History is High Drama

My love for historical fiction is exactly what McCullough describes here – it is the people and their stories that make historical facts come alive. It’s sad that our children sit through history class bored to tears because it appears to be only about dates and times and places. When all the while history is exciting high drama played out on the world stage.

When I was first asked by my editor at Barbour Publishing years ago, to write historical fiction, I actually balked. But the tug was there – a tug that I was unable to resist. Once I said yes, and once the Tulsa series was birthed, I was hooked on historical fiction. And still am!

Be A Novelist

Birth of the Tulsa Series

Eventually, there were four titles in the Tulsa series. Originally published in the 1990s, they are now re-released in digital form. Each book is still a living organism, still teaching readers about the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and how people’s lives were forever changed because of that one historical event.

Like David McCullough says, “History is people…”

For me, that’s where the fun begins!

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 Books 2, 3, and 4 in the Tulsa Series

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Be A Novelist

Be A Novelist

 

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