A warm welcome to author Jamie Sullivan who is joining us today to talk about new release “The Persephone Star”.

Writing Historical Fiction

I have something to admit: I’m terrified of writing historical fiction. It just seems like such a daunting challenge: in addition to crafting good characters and a compelling plot, you also need to get your facts right. The minute details of life, that we barely think about in contemporary fiction, are all slightly different in the past and require maybe hours of research for each tiny detail.

I remember reading a book set in the mid-Victorian period, and at one point the main character went and brushed their teeth. It was a minor detail and certainly not the focus of the scene, but the character picked up a tube of toothpaste. Unfortunately, toothpaste wasn’t sold in tubes until the 1890s, when Colgate began selling their toothpaste in this now iconic form. This tiny detail, then, took me right out of the scene – and then I began to wonder what else the author had gotten wrong. Everything started to look inauthentic.

The Persephone Star is set in the Arizona territory, shortly after the Civil War (around 1870). I knew from the very start that I wanted to write a western – but I also knew I’d drive myself crazy trying to depict the era accurately. So I decided that it would also be steampunk.

Not only is steampunk a very fun aesthetic, but it gave me the freedom to be just a little bit wrong – or rather inventive – about the details. For instance, ever town mentioned in the book was once a real place in the Arizona territories. I took the names Fortuna, Copper Creek, and White Hills from a list of ghost towns in Arizona. But the fact that these towns no longer exist, and the fact that I was writing an alternate history, gave me the freedom to move them around to suit the needs of the narrative. So, don’t try mapping the novel onto a real historical map – it simply won’t line up!

I tried to be as accurate as possible about things like how long it would take a man to ride thirty miles, or how fast the Star could fly, but I also tried not to sweat the small stuff. After all, this is a world in which airships fly over the desert, and steam power has given the characters what are essentially cars, thirty-eight years before Ford’s Model T became available to the masses.

So if you notice anything like the tube of toothpaste, try not to hold it against me!

About The Persephone Star

Love looks different from a thousand feet up.

Postmistress Penelope Moser has recently settled with her father in the Wild West town of Fortuna. Shocked by the violence around her and the depressing lives of the town’s women, she throws herself into her job. She’s determined to make the best of it before she has to marry the odious town sheriff.

But when the Persephone Star is spotted in the territory, danger literally hits close to home. Its captain—the famed outlaw Mirage Currier—is fresh out of prison and gunning for revenge on Penelope’s fiancé for locking her up and sentencing her sister to death. Penelope’s pleas to avoid violence are ignored, and a bloody showdown seems inevitable. That is, until Penelope is kidnapped and held hostage on the Star.

Shockingly, Penelope finds intrigue rather than danger in the air. Mirage’s reputation as a hardened criminal doesn’t fit with the Star’s vibrant young captain whose only goal is to save her sister from the gallows. With her sympathies shifting, Penelope must decide whether to remain loyal to her father and the man she promised to marry, or face an uncertain future with an enthralling outlaw.

Available now from Riptide Publishing!

Amazon

About Jamie Sullivan

Jamie Sullivan has been writing for what feels like her entire life – her parents’ attic is full of notebooks brimming with early attempts at fiction. She’s found her stride, however, in romance. She’s happy experimenting with genre, and has written supernatural, science fiction, and realist stories.

She can be found on Twitter @jsullivanwrites and blogging at jamiesullivanbooks.wordpress.com. Come talk!

To celebrate this release, one lucky person will win a $10 gift card to Riptide! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on February 15, 2020. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. For more chances to enter, follow the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!