Tag: The Price of Light by Ellis Peters

What Time Periods Do You Like to Read About in Fiction?

What time periods do you like to read about in fiction

May is historical fiction on JPC Allen Writes. Along with having guest authors share their process for writing historical fiction, I’ll have prompts to relating this genre. If you like history, what time periods do you like to read about in fiction? Because my mind seems bent on crime, I like my historical fiction to revolve around a mystery. Some of my favorites are:

  • “The Price of Light”. This Christmas short story features medieval monk and detective Brother Cadfael. Not only is it a fun mystery, but author Ellis Peters gives you a real sense of living in the setting with the characters.
  • Dr. Sam Hawthorne short stories. These stories feature a doctor who runs into impossible crimes in and around his small Connecticut town. The series begin in the 1920’s and follows Dr. Sam into the 1940’s.
  • Uncle Abner short stories. These mysteries take place in West Virginia when it was still western Virginia. Since there’s no police force, Uncle Abner helps Squire Randolph to solve mysteries and right wrongs before the Civil War.

So what time periods do you like to read about in fiction?

For more historical fiction writing prompts, click here.

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Writing Tip — Writing with Senses: Writing about the Sense of Touch

handsw-2667461_1280In the story “The Price of Light”, author Ellis Peters brings medieval England to life through the senses, and especially through texture.

Once I sat down to analyze touch, I realized it encompasses many different kinds of sensation.

Texture

Not only clothes, but everything we touch has some kind of texture, if we think about it. The table I’m eating on, the chair I’m sitting on, the jacket of the woman I brush up against in a crowded mall, the goop my kid just invented in the basement. If the point of view (POV) character is touching something, I can switch from sight to touch to give my description variety.

I’m sensitive to food textures. Regardless of how a food tastes, if the texture triggers my gag reflex, I’m done with it. In fact, I will soldier through food that doesn’t taste good but can’t choke it down if the texture is bad. Marshmallows and meringue are two foods with textures I literally can’t swallow.

Air

The temperature and moisture of the air around us is sensed through our skin. So instead of limiting myself to how a snowy scene looks, I will add how the cold makes my POV character feel. Humidity can be described the same way. Instead of writing how the sweat glistens on someone’s face, I will write about how humidity wraps around my skin like a wet quilt. When describing wind, I can switch to how it feels, rather than the effects the character sees or hears.

Pressure

Pressure on the skin signals all kinds of emotions. If you want large man to intimidate your small main character, he can press against her, crowding her, trapping her. A squeeze of the hand can mean reassurance, a slap on the back affection or anger, a handshake, depending upon the strength, friendship or fury.

I know I haven’t exhausted the possibilities. How would you write about the sense of touch?

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