Historical fiction
The agency's historical fiction was a small group, eight listings captured between 1999 and 2008, but it ranged widely in period. Landrum's Hypatia was narrated by a slave bought by the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria and watched the city's religious conflicts close in on her. Dr. W. Bradford DeLong's Voices of the Living Grail imagined a thirteenth-century European kingdom ruled by descendants of the Grail. Larry Maisner's Glorious Whore of Milan was set in sixteenth-century Italy during the Renaissance.
Closer to the present, Nora Milner's Flowers on Stone began in France in the late 1880s and moved to Panama. Robert O. Carman's Hampton Wick was a romance set in an English village beside an American air base after the Second World War. J. David Woodard's Momentary Anger retold actual events in Alabama in the early months of 1965 through a journalist who was failing as a husband. Torena O'Rorke's Chasing the Moon set the spirit of a sixteenth-century Moroccan sorceress, trapped in a portrait at a New York antiquities dealer's home, beside a present-day archaeologist. None of the eight carried a publisher on the agency's site.
- CARMANHistorical romanceHampton WickRobert O. CarmanIn postwar Europe, a quiet English village is changed by the arrival of Americans at nearby Bushy Park Air Force Base, and young servicemen…
- DELONGHistorical fictionVoices of the Living GrailW. Bradford DeLongA spiritual adventure in a 13th century European kingdom ruled by descendants of the Grail keepers, built on the idea that the Grail is a…
- LANDRUMHistorical fictionHypatiaLandrumDardania, a slave bought by the philosopher Hypatia, narrates life in Alexandria amid religious conflict and the political danger that…
- MAISNERHistorical fictionGlorious Whore of MilanLarry MaisnerIn sixteenth-century Lombardy, Caterina, the daughter of exploited Flemish immigrants, shows signs of genius as a child. After the governor…
- NORAHistorical fictionFlowers on StoneNora MilnerIn 1880s France, Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, fresh from the Suez Canal, takes on a new challenge: a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.
- ORORKEHistorical romanceChasing the MoonTorena O'RorkeIn New York, the spirit of Selene, a Moroccan sorceress trapped in a portrait, watches archaeologist Tara Bold hunt for the Deigratia…
- PEWTHERSHistorical fictionPaganTom PewthersHistorians Sophie Warren and Blake Stuart are caught between the Muslim Brotherhood and Opus Dei in a novel about religious conflict…
- WOODARDHistorical fictionMomentary AngerJ. David WoodardA fictional retelling of events in Alabama in early 1965, following journalist Cole Graham as he covers the desegregation story and…
Questions
Why so few historical novels?
The agency listed Historical as one of its showcase categories, but only eight manuscripts were labelled that way across the captures. Other period novels, such as Robert Dunn's Vice Squad 1942, were filed by the agency under mainstream and stay there.
Were any of these published?
No publisher was named for any historical listing on the agency's site, and none appeared on its Published Works page.