Playing in the Past

 

Lately I’ve been playing around with the idea of writing a vampire/werewolf tale set in Victorian Louisville.

It wouldn’t be my first historical. As a rule, I don’t write them very often. Nevertheless, I enjoy reading such stories, particularly those set in the 1920s-1940s. The clothes, the cars, even the music... What’s not to love?

I first ventured into writing historical stories while in high school. Many of these were crime dramas set during Prohibition. Even then, I did my research. However, given these were stories written for English class or a few friends, I didn’t have to worry about historical accuracy, although I tried to be as realistic as possible.

Flash forward a decade or so. After graduating with a degree in English, I pretty much stopped writing creatively. When I decided to write my first novel, a YA horror, I set it in a village trapped in the American Colonial past. The following year I participated in my first National Novel Writing Month challenge. My story about a vampire hunter was partially set during the French Revolution.

Neither of those stories will see publication.

So why this renewed interest in  writing historicals? I think it’s simply a matter of needing a change, of wanting to write something different.  

And there is that Tod Browning idea...