Sally asked Jodi Taylor:

I have read all your books. They make me cry/laugh each time I read them, I restart the series each time a new full book comes out. Luckily for me I started reading late in the series. How do you pick the events in history? I am in the US and in my 60's so I really don't know much of English history and I love it. Any thoughts about doing other countries?

Jodi Taylor Hi Sally, thanks for your question. I stick mostly to British and European history - with occasional forays to Australia and once to the US because it's what I know. It's so, so easy to make a silly mistake and I know from experience it just throws readers right out of the story. And you don't know you've done it. I once read a very excellent book set in England in the 19th century and one of the characters asked for a shilling. The other character counted out five pennies. Well, yes, there are five pennies in a shilling now, but in the 1800's (pre-decimalisation) there were twelve pennies in a shilling. It's a basic mistake - I'm sure the author googled (or knew) how many pennies there are in a shilling now - but was unaware the currency changed in the last century.
I'm certain if I attempted anything similar with say, US history, I would make far worse mistakes than that.
I do occasionally think about branching out - I'm slowly reading up on Chinese history but I need to establish how easy it would be for Europeans in medieval China. How would they be received? Would their appearance cause such a sensation that they would, literally, be changing History? And we all know how that usually ends.
Thanks again for your question. Sorry I don't have a better answer.
Jodi.

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