Why I Write Historical Fiction - Guest Blogpost from Scott Amis
Joseph Scott Amis retired from a thirty-year professional and business career in 2004. He has since devoted his time to medieval and Crusades studies and writing historical fiction. Until recently, Scott was a writer and features editor at Real Crusades History. A native Texan, he lives in Dallas.
Good question. In junior high andhigh school, my best subjects were English, history, languages, and art.This should have told me something, but I never once considered studyingto become an artist, architect, writer, or historian,and I certainly didn’t want to be a dentist or a lawyer.
Off to college, and yearsspent muddling through stints in pre-med, anthropology, and finearts. After nine years of “in and out”, I surfaced in the real worldwith a degree in architecture. This proved to be a late but wise career choice,and I married and settled in soon after. And finally, my momwas happy!
My wife and I are both readers,and, in the days before the internet and Amazon.com, our Saturdayswere often spent at the public library. My interests inevitably ran tohistory and historical fiction; my wife’s, to biographies of famouspeople, both historical and pop-culture. As time went on, I foundmyself dreaming about writing a novel, but what to write? As a“dyed-in-the-wool” Southerner - both of my great-grandfathers fought for theSouth in the US Civil War - and as a “boomer” whose parents and theirgeneration were directly involved in World War II, thoselegendary conflicts would seem to be my favorite choices.
But, by then, my reading was almostexclusively centered on medieval history and the Crusades, and the 2005 firstrelease of Ridley Scott’s epic “Kingdom of Heaven”, though deeply flawed,seemed to light a spark. I was going to write a novel about the FirstCrusade!
Aware that this project would require meticulousresearch and development of a polished style, I began with a short storyabout an ongoing conflict between neighboring feudal polities in late eleventhcentury France. The story was successful for my purposes, and became the basisfor a fictional account chronicling a young knight’s adventures in France,beginning with his coming of age in 1086 through 1095 and the eve of the FirstCrusade, and ultimately, ending with his death in the Kingdom of Jerusalemthirty years later.
Having read my share of Crusades novelsand a fair sample of scholarly works, I opted for an atypical approach. Insteadof beginning with armies of eager Crusaders setting out for the Holy Land, ToShine with Honor commences in 1086, nearly a decade before Pope UrbanII delivered his immortal address to the noblemen, knights, and commoners assembledin a field outside of Clermont in November of 1095. Thus, I hoped to show theeveryday lives and struggles of people of all social classes in the unsettled anddangerous world of late eleventh century France, and the circumstances whichinfluenced some to become Crusaders.
By early 2010, I had a 900-page firstmanuscript, and, after numerous rounds of editing and revisions, the firstvolume of was published in summer of 2016to unexpectedly positive reviews and surprising literary recognition. Thesecond volume continues to be a work-in-progress. Find out more about ToShine with Honor at: (hotlink to amazon page).
Find out more about To Shine with Honor at: here.
Blog Host Helena P. Schrader is the author of 25 historical fiction and non-fiction books, eleven of which have one one or more awards. You can find out more about her, her books and her awards at: https://helenapschrader.com
Her most recent release, Cold Peace, was runner-up for the Historical Fiction Company BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 Award, as well as winning awards from Maincrest Media and Readers' Favorites. Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/cold-peace.html
