Historical Subgenres Part 2

Last week's post on Historical Subgenres created some discussion about other favorite categories of Historical fiction.

"I suppose genres in historical fiction would be things like historical romance (no more, please, the world is sinking under the weight of the existing books); historical crime (e.g. Ellis Peters), historical mystery etc. And, of course, literary historical fiction - Hilary Mantel etc. [...] historical revisionism is often popular, starting with Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, although not strictly a historical novel." ~ Caroline Miley, The Competition

"Late Stuart period." ~ Carole Penfield

"[...] Tudors, the Stuarts, the English Civil War and Restoration, the colonisation of North America." ~ Alison Morton

"Where is the Renaissance? Tudor era England? Elizabethan England? English Civil War? What about the near and far East?" ~ Emily Cotton

"Roman Britain history between A.D. 43 and c.A.D. 400." ~ Nancy Jardine

"USA 19th century, Settlement, Native American, Civil War, etc." ~ Janet Oakley

"Australian colonial History! convict battles, Rum rebellion, vinegar Hill and later the Eureka Stockade! All Fascinating Historical accounts! Sheila Hunter wrote 3 novels around this era - minus the battles! #sheilahunter." ~ Sara Powter

"GEORGIAN: 1714 (with the accession of George 1) to the death of William IV and accession of Queen Victoria 1837 (also known as the LONG eighteenth century). REGENCY: 1811-1820, when George the Third's son, the Prince of Wales was regent. I would LOVE to see Amazon give the Georgian era its own category! :)" ~ Lucinda Brant

"How about Renaissance Italy or France? The Medici and Borgias in Italy? The Sun King (Louis XIV) in France? The French Revolution? :-) " ~ Cathie Dunn 

"Historical paranormal....like what if the princes in the tower were bitten by werewolves or vampires! What if Richard the Lionheart was vampire? :) What if Darnely were a dangerous werewolf and had to be killed and Elizabeth knew about it which is why she waited so long to have Mary killed?" ~ Helen R. Robare 

"That's what you would call The Golem and the Jinni, a recent bestseller." ~ Emily Cotton 

There are so many fascinating eras to write about. Each of the European monarchs could be explored, not only those from England, but Spain, The Hapsburgs, the Russian Tzars, etc. Asian, Indian, African, and Australian time periods languish in the mists as far as American publishing is concerned. Though History is not as lucrative as Romance or Mystery, there are fans waiting for stories that haven't been told.

For help with building the Historical novel, check out the Historical Build A Plot Workbook print and e-book. and the Build A World Workbook.

Next week, we will look at the building blocks for the Historical story skeleton.

For more about how to craft plots using conflict check out, Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of conflict available in print and e-book and check out the free tools and information about the series on my website.