Ariel Ashira

@seekjustice

I went to check. Marie Curie lived from 1867 – 1934 in Poland and France. She went to boarding school as a girl but but was rejected by regular institutions for higher education because she was a woman. Instead she went to a clandestine Flying University, a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted female…[Read more]

@valtmy

When did Marie Curie live? I can’t remember exactly how much formal education she had, but she was an extremely clever woman who definitely had a lot of knowledge (and would have made a good forensic scientist :P, which I’m sure would be helpful for your character).

When I create fictional countries/cultures I tend to make them a mash up…[Read more]

@seekjustice

Haha but if I make my MC an upper class woman you wouldn’t like her, would you? 😛

I’m trying to see if there’s any place and period in history where it wouldn’t be so unheard of to have a woman to be educated and working as a procurator. I’m thinking maybe the early modern period because I think that’s when women began going to…[Read more]

@valtmy

I don’t know. They’re new(ish) books, so they wouldn’t be in the public domain yet. Are you part of an online library like BorrowBox or Overdrive? They’d probably have some.

The thing I’ve noticed, in Western societies at least, which is what I know the most about, is the whole “you can’t do this because you’re a woman” is much more of a…[Read more]

@seekjustice

I have heard of the Brother Cadfael mysteries but never read them before. Are they available to be read online?

One thing that is stopping me from really considering this story idea, though, has to do with deciding on the setting. I want the setting to be based on a society that is historical but also one that is relatively…[Read more]

@valtmy

I like the sound of that idea! Have you ever read the Brother Cadfael mysteries? They’re quite fun and they’re about a medieval monk during the first English civil war solving murders. I quite enjoy reading those, especially since it’s very obvious the author did her research.

@seekjustice

Haha that’s good to know.

Unfortunately, the other historical adventure/fantasy story idea I currently have has to do with upper class characters as well. But I have another historical story idea that is sort of like a mystery/detective story. I’m thinking that it will be about a procurator who is charged with the investigation and…[Read more]

@valtmy

Well, you’re my friend, so I would feel bad if I couldn’t overlook your annoying MC (and yes, she is annoying. I hope she gets better before the end). 😀 But when its just a book written by someone I don’t know, I have no patience.

@seekjustice

I’ve just got to pop back in here and say it’s hilarious that you have Joe Bloggs in Australia.  In America we have John Does. 😛

(At least I assume that’s what you meant by Joe Blogg.)

I will definitely answer your questions about his-fics in our next conversation. 🙂  Goodnight!

@rochellaine

Goodnight!

@seekjustice

Haha but would you be interested in reading my WIP anyway? My MC hits pretty much every point you’ve made. She’s noble, rich, whiny and uh… wishes that she is in a romance novel instead of the story that I’m writing. But she won’t remain noble and rich for long 😉

@valtmy

That’s the problem. I absolutely adore historical fiction but can’t stand half of it. Or more than half of it. But yes, I have an extreme affinity to the “Common man”, which leads me to reading a lot of war historical fiction, because the war (both first and second world wars) were really won by the courage of the average Joe Bloggs. I…[Read more]

@valtmy Yes, it’s funny – and kinda sad – how wrong modern perception of history is.  There are so many things the history books just don’t tell you, and so many things they tell you that are just fabricated because “winners write the history books.” 😉

Anyway, I’ve got to go now.  Goodnight!

@seekjustice Rochellaine’s next mission: Think of h…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Oh. I suppose there’s Southern Belles in other time periods which I probably never noticed.

Ah, that’s true. European serfdom completely slipped my mind for a moment. Funny how much the Atlantic slave trade has shaped the common perception of slavery even though it happened through a much shorter period in history, right?

@seekjustice

Given the historical genre’s obsession with the upper class, I doubt you can find many historical fictions that you would like.

@seekjustice There are some GREAT modern his-fics, and there are some HORRIBLE modern his-fics. 😛

@valtmy Well, I can just say I’ve seen the type all over the place, in 1870s heroines, in 1910s heroines, 1930s heroines…you can see where this is going. 😉

Well, I don’t really see why that makes her more similar to the Southern Belle than to…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Oh. The main criticism I’ve heard against Southern Belle books have a lot to do with racism and slavery etc. so I’ve always associated Southern Belles with the Antebellum South. Never really heard of Southern Belles outside that time period.

Hmm now that I think about it, my MC is sort of an East Asian ‘Southern Belle’ because…[Read more]

@valtmy

Yeah, true. I tend to dislike high born lady types (it’s the Australian in me), so that’s probably why I don’t like them. I also dislike the Regency era ladies in Jane Austen 😛

And yeah, you would think so. But in my experience, people will write anything in their diaries and that usually shows you their more flawed side, which you tend…[Read more]

@valtmy My reply to @seekjustice above covers some of what you’re talking about.

I agree that they’re a subset of the noblewoman/lady stereotype.

I don’t think they come from a specific time period, though.  They originated in the pre-Civil War era, but they had existed before then, in women like Martha Washington and Martha Jefferson, and they…[Read more]

@seekjustice I read Anne Frank’s diary too, and I both liked it and hated it. 😛  I don’t know, I feel sorry for her because while she was not perfect by any means, I think perhaps if her family hadn’t been so messed up and her life hadn’t been so messed up, she might not have been so messed up.

But Agnes Lee’s diary is completely different!  S…[Read more]