Susanna Calkins, Author
  • Home
  • Lucy Campion Mysteries
    • A Murder at Rosamund's Gate
    • From the Charred Remains
    • The Masque of a Murderer
    • A Death Along the River Fleet
    • The Sign of the Gallows
    • The Cry of the Hangman
    • Death Among the Ruins
  • The Speakeasy Murders
    • Murder Knocks Twice
    • The Fate of a Flapper
  • Short Stories
  • Blog
  • News & Events
    • Event Photos
    • Archived Guest Posts & Interviews
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • 17th c. England
  • Writing Resources
  • Nonfiction
  • New Page

Will anyone notice if I'm off by a year?

12/4/2011

10 Comments

 
When I teach history, I always ask my students to view every "fact" as relative and subject to interpretation.  Inevitably, someone will ask: "Well, what about dates? Those are facts."  But dating and calendar systems vary widely, and may not be consistent across different groups of people. 

I've been thinking about this recently as I struggled with the timeline of my own novel. Monster at the Gate begins a few months before  the plague struck London in the 1660s.  I start the novel on Shrovetuesday in February 1665 (a crazy strange  day before Lent) and end with the Fire of London the following year (September 1666). Two clear beginning and ending dates,  spanning about nineteenth months in total. Easy enough?

NO! As I was writing, I kept running into odd inconsistencies with the historical records I was using (such as Pepys' Diary), trying to double-check details. I kept finding that Tuesdays should have been Sundays, or that Easter had occurred at a different time than I expected.   I knew that historical records would say 1664/1665 or 1665/1666, but I couldn't remember the exact details of how contemporaries kept time.


(MUCH GNASHING OF TEETH!!!!
)

Finally,  I sorted it out.  England was still on the Julian Calendar (which had been adjusted for a missing ten days), rather than moving to the Gregorian Calendar used by most of Europe  (it did not reform its calendar until 1752). To make it even more confusing,  the Julian Calendar year starts on March 26, not January 1.  But luckily I found a historic date calculator to help me keep it all straight.

So, my book technically starts on Feb 7 1664, and ends September 3, 1666, and that's still only nineteenth months.  You do the math!


But I'm wondering if it will confuse my readers if they think the book is starting in 1664, when by today's modern calendar, it would actually be 1665. What do you think?





10 Comments
Alexander
12/4/2011 09:47:29 am

This fascinates me--two different calendars, missing days, and a new year on March 26th! When people say that 'time is relative,' I never thought that applied to the past as well.

As a reader, I'd find it easier if the 19 months began in 1665 and ended in 1666. I wonder if you could have a historical note in the book that explains how the true dates might work. Would that satisfy the historian side of you?

Reply
Jaynes
12/5/2011 01:13:20 am

Tricky tricky...but then what is a misplaced year or two between friends and readers. Assuming the majority of your audience will not be hardcore historians, your attention to detail will be applauded but not scrutinized...breath a sigh of relief.

Which leads to my next topic...I happen to get old horror and sci-fi books sent over from the UK because they are out of circulation. A big reason is because the writers are English with English slang and points of view.

How are you going to write your novel...an English story from an American perspective or will you try mimicking an English style to fully immerse the reader??

Reply
Susie link
12/5/2011 03:35:03 am

Alexander, I think that's a great idea! thank you. I do want to situate my reader, so I'll do that the easiest possible way (by saying Feb 1665). And then if someone tries to call me on it, I'll have my bases covered with the historical note at the end. Thanks for the comment!

Reply
Susie link
12/5/2011 03:41:30 am

Jaynes, English sci-fi books--so awesome!! My novel (thankfully finished!) is meant to be true in spirit, but not to the letter, to the seventeenth-century era. I originally thought about writing it in the prose of the time, but I thought it might be off-putting to the reader. I have scoured the text for clear Americanisms (okay, gotten, etc), and I try to sprinkle in language from the time (gaol, not jail). But I don't go overboard. Honestly, English at this time was not standardized, and it would read a lot like Shakespeare (although not with his beauty of course) or Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe). I might write more fully on this topic, so stay tuned! thanks for the comment! (and hey, are you still writing these days?)

Reply
Matt
12/5/2011 08:49:50 am

I like Alex's idea...seems like the best of both worlds. Easier for the reader, but you maintain your historical integrity with the note.

Is gaol still pronounced like jail?

Reply
Susie
12/5/2011 09:25:11 am

Matt, yes gaol is pronounced like jail. It comes from an old French word. I believe it is still spelled that way in Great Britain today, but for sure that's the spelling in seventeenth century. Thanks for commenting!

Reply
Jaynes
12/6/2011 05:51:14 am

On second thought, I think I am going to ding you on the date problem on my Amazon review of your book. It will go something like this:

"Would have given the novel 5 stars but the dates don't seem right. I'm not a Historian by any stretch, but the missing months smack you right in the face and the whole thing starts to unravel from there... Nearly dropped my Afternoon Tea after realizing 1664 just up and disappeared...Thinking maybe there should be an "Occupy The Publisher's Office" movement for letting this shaky timeline be printed... Other than that, it was a good read..."

I will sign it Dr. Who or something smart like that...

Attention to detail is what separates the great writers from the average ones. Keep it up.

I actually have a few hundred pages written on a story. Multi-plot lines with a lot of cliff hangers, very fun. I haven't had time lately to get back to it, but I will once I get some free time. So far, its one of the best stories I have ever read...

Reply
Susie link
12/7/2011 03:18:11 am

Jaynes,
that's hilarious! I look forward to that review! I'm so glad to hear you're still writing! I'd love to read it sometime!

Reply
Jaynes
12/9/2011 09:35:49 am

You know I will take you up on that offer. A couple of my relatives have had their books published, (a couple of years ago) which caused me to seriously put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). I have a few storyline skeletons and one story (few hundred pages). Part of the reason I stopped, I didn't know which ones would really interest a reader more.

I will email you a couple chapters from each that I like and you can give me your objective opinion. I do my stories in layers. Get the plot down. Flesh out the characters. Add the surroundings and descriptions. Fact checking. Add humor and plot twist.

I find this really funny, I feel like a waiter trying to get his screenplay read when someone in the biz is getting something to eat. Very funny...

Reply
Susie link
12/9/2011 11:08:13 pm

Jaynes...WHERE IS MY PINOT GRIGIO?! I've been WAITING!!!
Of course, I'd love to read anything you've written. Send me your favorite, if most troublesome, stuff!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Susanna Calkins

    Historian. Mystery writer. Researcher. Teacher.  Occasional blogger.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    1660s
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    1910s
    1920s
    19th C.
    20th Century
    21st Century
    A Death Along The River Fleet
    Advertisements
    Alcohol
    Alpha Reader
    Amazon Pre Order
    Amazon Pre-order
    A Murder At Rosamund's Gate
    Anagrams
    Anne Perry
    Anthology
    Art
    Authorship
    Award
    Awards
    Blogger's Block
    Blogging
    Blog Hop
    Blog Tour
    Bloody Good Read
    Bombings
    Book Events
    Book Giveaway
    Booksellers
    Book Trade
    Bouchercon
    Calendars
    Card Playing
    Caricature
    Cats
    Chambermaid
    Characters
    Charles I
    Charles Ii
    Charles Todd
    Chicago
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Cia
    Cockney Slang
    Cocktails
    Coffee
    Coincidence
    Contemporary
    Cover Design
    Covers
    Creativity
    Crime
    Criminals
    Critical Thinking
    Cromwell
    Crossroads
    Csikszentmihalyi
    Cuckold
    Curiosities
    Defoe
    Detectives
    Detectives Oath
    Disease
    Dogs
    Early Modern
    Easter
    Editing
    Edwardian England
    Etymology
    Examples
    Excerpt Marg
    Excerpts
    Fairs
    Fate Of A Flapper
    Feedback
    Female Protagonists
    Female Sleuths
    Fire Of London
    Flow
    Food
    Forensics
    Forms Of Address
    French History
    From The Charred Remains
    Ftcr
    Future
    Games
    Gangs
    Giveaways
    Golden Hind
    Great Fire
    Great War
    Grit
    Guest Blogs
    Guest Interviews
    Guest Post
    Guest Posts
    Guilds
    Hanging
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Mysteries
    History
    Imagination
    Inspiration
    Interviews
    Ireland
    ITW Authors
    Jests
    Jewelry
    Language
    Last Dying Speeches
    Leisure
    Libraries
    London Bridge
    Lucy Campion
    Macavity
    Magistrate
    Malice Domestic
    Maps
    MARG
    Markets
    Masque Of A Murderer
    Matg
    Medicine
    Medieval
    Medieval Period
    Memory
    Merriments
    Merry-making
    Methodists
    Midwives
    Mindset
    Miscellany
    Monsters
    Moonstone
    Motivation
    Murder
    Murder At Rosamund's Gate
    Murder Ballad
    Murder Knocks Twice
    Mysteries
    Mystery
    Mystery Tv Shows
    Newgate
    Newspapers
    New Woman
    Nietzsche
    Nursery Rhymes
    Opera
    Orwell
    Persistence
    Pets
    Philadelphia
    Piracy
    Pirates
    Plagiarism
    Plague
    Poison
    Popular Film
    Popular Press
    Potions
    Printers Row Lit Fest
    Printing
    Private Investigators
    Proactive Interference
    Procrastination
    Prohibition
    Promoting Books
    Pseudonyms
    Psychology
    Publication
    Public Executions
    Publishing
    Punishments
    Puritans
    Puzzles
    Quakers
    Radio Shows
    Reader Questions
    Reading
    Receipts
    Reformation
    Rejection
    Religion
    Research
    Restoration
    Riddles
    River Fleet
    Samuel Pepys
    Scene Development
    Science Fiction
    Scold's Bridle
    Secret London
    Setting
    Seven Things
    Shakespeare
    Short Story
    Sign Of The Gallows
    Sleuths In Time
    Smithfield
    Speakeasy Mysteries
    Speech
    Spying
    Strange Things
    Teaching
    Thank You
    The 1640s
    The 1650s
    The 1660s
    Theater
    Thief-taker
    Timeline
    Titles
    Travel
    True Crime
    Tyburn Tree
    Valentine
    Wilkie Collins
    Winchester Palace
    Witches
    Women
    World-building
    Writier's Life
    Writing
    Writing Prompts
    Young Adult

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    September 2018
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • Lucy Campion Mysteries
    • A Murder at Rosamund's Gate
    • From the Charred Remains
    • The Masque of a Murderer
    • A Death Along the River Fleet
    • The Sign of the Gallows
    • The Cry of the Hangman
    • Death Among the Ruins
  • The Speakeasy Murders
    • Murder Knocks Twice
    • The Fate of a Flapper
  • Short Stories
  • Blog
  • News & Events
    • Event Photos
    • Archived Guest Posts & Interviews
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • 17th c. England
  • Writing Resources
  • Nonfiction
  • New Page