The Historical Novel Society North America 2025 in Quotes: Part One

Yesterday I returned home from my third in-person Historical Novel Society North America (HNSNA) conference and my sixth HNS conference overall. This time the conference took place in Las Vegas! As I’ve done at the last few conferences, I’m sharing some of the favorite quotes I heard from fellow authors and a handful of publishing professionals over the last few days. A Part Two post will follow when I’ve had a chance to listen to the recordings of the sessions that I did not attend IRL.

Reporting from #HNS2025!

As usual, research continued to be a hot topic among the historical fiction community, with many writers sharing their go-to resources.  Jennifer S. Brown: “When I’m stuck, I dive into historical newspapers and magazines and see what was going on in the world.” Amanda Skenandore: “Old travel guides can be a treasure trove.” Judith Starkston: “Travel is the best kind of research.”

But Special Guest Silvia Moreno-Garcia urged us to consider oral history in addition to classic archival and library research: “Oral history paired with research can be a valuable foundation for your book.” She also shared that, “An erroneous memory can be more interesting than a real one. We must understand the lie and the truth inside it.” Spotlight Author Jeffrey Blount had a similar perspective: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received is, ‘listen.’”

Special Guest Fiona Davis also had helpful advice about some of the pitfalls of researching, suggesting we, “Keep meticulous records of the materials that helped shape your novel.” She also talked about how we can get lost in our research: “I can pack in too much research and have to strip it out.” Meanwhile, A.M. Stuart had a helpful reminder that we’re writing about historical fiction rather than history: “I’m not writing non-fiction. I make things up.”

Drafting was also a hot topic, with Kelsey James telling us, “It’s important to have momentum when drafting,” and Spotlight Author Sarah Penner keeping her advice straightforward: “Finish the book.” Hazel Gaynor touched on the software we’re using to draft: “I’ve heard that if you go towards the light of Scrivener, you never go back.” And when it comes to knowing if your draft is final, Jeffrey Blount noted, “A novel is never really finished. It’s abandoned.”

The perennial debate between plotting (i.e., outlining) and pantsing (i.e., flying by the seat of your pants) continued. Natasha Lester: “I have no idea what I’m doing when I sit down to write a book. That’s part of the fun. It keeps me entertained.” Jonathan F. Putnam: “I wish I knew from the beginning who did it.” Fiona Davis: “I know the twist and the ending.” Hazel Gaynor: “I write my book in the order the reader reads the book.” Amanda Geard told us, “I use guidelines vs. an outline,” while Hazel Gaynor had a great anecdote: “My cat moved a scene when a post-it note got stuck to her tail.”

Characters were also a big discussion. Rita Woods: “We’re not telling history. We’re telling the story of a person within history.” Natasha Lester advised, “When choosing POV, I consider ‘who is the best person to tell this story?’” Elizabeth Blackwell reminded us, “Your character doesn’t know how history is going to go.” And Louise Fein suggested, “Give your protagonist helpful skills and interests.” Janyre Tromp: “Think of one metaphor for your main character. Figure out how that relates to what they’re hiding.”

On the topic of characters, authors were asking agents and editors about the ethics and marketability of writing from perspectives other than your own. Editor Melissa Richter: “Mostly we are looking for people who are writing from their own experiences.” Agent Amanda Jain: “A sensitivity read is not a magic wand.”

Other craft topics talks covered included setting (Kelsey James: “Setting is often the first inspiration for me.” Amanda Geard: “I really love writing place as a tie between timelines.” Hope C. Tarr: “A historical saga makes you feel like you’ve been somewhere on vacation.”), tapping into the five senses (Kelsey James: “When people think of taste, they always think of food, but there are other things you can taste, like blood in your mouth.”), subtext (Janyre Tromp: “There are 40 things going on in my head but only one of them comes out of my mouth.”) and flashbacks (Hope C. Tarr: “If you’re relying too much on flashbacks you might not have started your novel in the right place.”).

When it comes to these finer details of honing your craft, Amanda Skenandore reminded us, “Adding nuance is often done best at the revision stage.” And, of course, no 2025 writing craft conversation would be complete without references to Artificial Intelligence. Jeffrey Blount: “I would not like to read a book written by AI.” Agent Ariele Friedman: “Please don’t use ChatGPT to write your book.”

Moving from craft to the state of publishing, speakers on all sides of the business weren’t shy in sharing their opinions. Sarah Penner: “The world of traditional publishing is a complete mess…Publishing is risk averse. They don’t care about quality. They care about making money.” Agent Ariele Friedman: “There are more books to publish and few people [working in publishing] to publish them.” Agent Amanda Jain: “I’m not going to say that traditional publishing is nimble, but it’s a little faster than it used to be.” The impact of #BookTok was also a hot topic. Agent Ariele Friedman: “Self-publishing is for powerhouses right now. If you’re crushing it on TikTok, go for it.”

As usual, there was plenty of chatter about the time periods and subgenres that are currently hot or not. Gill Paul had two pieces of advice when considering the salability of your novel: “You can choose a ‘less fashionable’ time period, if you pair it with a modern timeline [in a dual timeline],” and, “I like linking books to a centenary or other anniversary. It helps with press.” Hope C. Tarr also reminded us, “A tough sell does not mean an impossible sell,” when sharing the story of her novel’s path to publication.

One of the main themes we kept hearing about was genre blending. Agent Ariele Friedman: “Historical plus [another genre] gives you an advantage.” Many speakers focused on historical fantasy or historical fiction with elements of magical realism. Zenobia Neil explained her attraction to this subgenre: “I exist in the non-magical world every day and it’s really a drag,” with Rita Woods expressing a similar sentiment: “There isn’t enough magic in the world.” Vanessa Riley: “You can blend genres to make a bigger story that engulfs you.” Silvia Moreno-Garcia: “The real becomes more real with the inclusion of the fantastic” and, “There need not be an explanation for the fantastic.” For those for whom mixing genres is new, Pat Murphy had some advice: “Dip into historical fantasy by writing a short story—there is a robust market for sci-fi and fantasy stories.”

We also heard about what writers were reading (and not reading!). Janyre Tromp advised that we should, “Read scripts if [we] struggle with dialogue.” Rita Woods noted, “If I read while writing I start channeling the other writer.” And Silvia Moreno-Garcia also cautioned against modelling your style on canonical works: “When you imitate too closely, it has no life.”

There was also discussion around how published authors can best deal with our readers’ responses to our work. Sarah Penner: “Some people will love it, some people will hate it, most people will like it…Grieve in private and don’t burn bridges.” Heather Webb: “You can’t control the expectations readers bring to the page…It gets easier with readers over time.”

Writers also shared about the emotions that come with the ups and downs of a writing career. Sarah Penner: “I deal with imposter syndrome every day. And I didn’t when I worked in finance.” Kris Waldherr: “There are physical and psychological reasons for writer’s block.” The conference was a supportive forum for voicing these feelings. After all, Fiona Davis reminded us that this is not a zero-sum game, and that we shouldn’t be viewing fellow writers as our competition: “We should have, not a scarcity mindset, but an unlimited buffet mindset” (now that’s a Vegas-approved metaphor!).

I’ll wrap up Part One of this roundup, with a quote from Hope C. Tarr: “We’re not here because it’s easy. We’re here because we love it.” As we all fly back to our different cities and countries, I hope we remember this love of writing that unites us. I’m looking forward to listening to the other panels and talks and continuing to enjoy HNS from home. Stay tuned for Part Two!

Want to get or stay in touch post-HNS? Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. And sign up for my monthly email newsletter here. 

A Q&A with Hope C. Tarr, Author of Irish Eyes (2023)

Welcome back to the Secret Victorianst for a different sort of blog today—an interview with fellow historical novelist, Hope C. Tarr. You might remember Hope from the virtual panel event I did with Lady Jane’s Salon, the NYC-based romance readers’ club she co-founded, back in 2020. Next month, Hope’s debut historical novel Irish Eyes will be released by Lume Books, and I know readers of the Secret Victorianist are going to love it. Irish Eyes opens on the Aran Islands in 1898 and takes readers on a journey, with its heroine Rose, to the streets of late nineteenth/early twentieth-century New York City. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Hope and enter for a chance to win a copy of her novel below!

SV: How did you first get the idea for your novel, Irish Eyes?

Hope: Irish Eyes is very much a love note to my Irish ancestors, who came to America on the coffin ships at the height of the Great Hunger. For years, I batted around the idea of writing something with an Irish heroine. Finally, on a hiking trip to Western Ireland in (gulp) 2008, I stopped at the famed Cliffs of Moher and gazed across Galway Bay to the trio of islands known as the Arans, and Rose O'Neill’s story began taking shape in my mind. Back in Manhattan, running along the Hudson River, looking out to Ellis Island and Lady Liberty helped further flesh out Rose’s story.

SV: How did the book evolve from your first to your final draft?

Hope: Whoever first said that “writing is in the rewriting” was wise indeed. Irish Eyes changed so many times. Originally, I had a prologue, in fact two prologues, which I really loved. The first prologue began with Rose in 1922 at mass narrating her life story to the parish priest. The second prologue started with Adam, Rose's future love interest, at the Battle of San Juan Heights during the Spanish-American War. I've actually shared that prologue on my History With Hope Substack! To pick up the pacing and start in the thick of the story, both of these very different prologues ended up on the chopping block. A la Stephen King, sometimes you really do have to murder your darlings. 😉

But by far the biggest shift in molding the story was also the scariest. At the onset, I'd written the entire book in my trusty go-to perspective: third-person. But something was missing. The story wasn't... gelling. As a reader, I'd always adored novels written in the first-person—du Maurier’s Rebecca, anyone? —but I'd never had the courage to try first-person POV myself. Once I did and rewrote the entire book in Rose's voice, it all began coming together.

SV: How did writing historical fiction differ from the genres you've written in in the past?

Hope: After wonderful years spent writing 20+ romances for Penguin, Harlequin, and Macmillan, I was ready for a BIG change. Ready to push the boundaries of genre and do a deep dive into history, in this case, mostly early twentieth-century history. Ready to write the sort of big, sweeping historical novel that I'd grown up devouring. Books like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, technically romance, where you get to spend time with the characters, who evolve over not days/weeks/months but years. In other words, a saga. For a while now, “saga” has been something of a dirty word in American publishing. For that reason, I suspected I was going to have a tough time selling this book, especially as it would be my historical fiction debut, which probably explains why it took me so long to finish it and then shape it into a shoppable manuscript. That being said, if I had to sum up the experience of writing Irish Eyes and bringing it to this point, that word would be “freeing.”

SV: Do you have any tips for writers of historical fiction who are trying to make their books relatable to modern readers without being anachronistic?

Hope: Admittedly, this can be a tough balance to strike, especially when keeping in mind younger readers, who approach fiction with a very different set of expectations than I did at that age. With Irish Eyes, as with any historical fiction, I try to step back and ask myself, “how critical is this point/word/phrase to telling a great story?” If the answer is “not so much,” I may leave it out rather than veer into anachronism. But I also think it's important to understand how we've collectively evolved over the eras. And not evolved. So many of the issues addressed in Irish Eyes—immigration, the roles and rights of women, labor reform, income inequality—are eerily reflective of our present moment. History is cyclical, not linear. It's important to bear in mind that we are making "history" every waking moment.

SV: Your novel, while it's one woman's story, touches on major world and local events, e.g., WWI and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. What was your process like for naturally weaving these references into the novel?

Hope: The biggest challenge in writing Irish Eyes was to decide what historical events not to include. (Back to murdering those darlings!). The book covers 24 years in Rose's life. While the 24/7 news cycle is a recent phenomenon, newspapers were a big, busy feature of turn-of-the-century life. In writing the novel, I put in, and later took out, several events that, while interesting, wouldn't have directly impacted the immigrant community of my fictional heroine and her growing family. For example, the assassination of President McKinley (September 14, 1901) gets a brief mention while the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of March 25, 1911, in Lower Manhattan, gets a half-chapter.

SV: You're a New Yorker yourself. How did this help your process in writing the book?

Hope: Living here as I've been privileged to do, the city's history is all around, waiting to reveal its stories to those open to knowing them. I was here in 2011 for the centennial commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at the Brown Building (formerly the Asch Building) where the factory was housed in 1911. The long-anticipated memorial was dedicated in October 2023. The adjacent Washington Square Park began as a potter's field when a series of yellow fever outbreaks starting in 1797 caused the city morgues to overflow. Human remains still rest beneath the elegant fountain and curated plantings. McSorley's Old Alehouse, NYC's oldest continuously operating bar (1854-present), which I recently revisited for another History With Hope episode, serves the same cheddar cheese and onion platters it did back when the great illusionist Houdini stopped in for a post-performance pint.

SV: What historical novels have you read and loved recently?

Hope: I'm very keen on World War II at the moment, likely because I'm working on the sequel to Irish Eyes, set in occupied Paris. I recently finished, and loved, Good Night From Paris, by Jane Healey, a fictional account of the real-life Hollywood screen actress, Drue Leyton, who was living in Paris with her French husband when the Second World War broke out. Rather than return home to the States, Drue accepted a position broadcasting from Paris to the (then neutral) US. Under the Nazi occupation, she repeatedly risked her life working for the Resistance.

SV: What should we look forward to seeing later in the American Songbook Series?

Hope: As I cagily slipped in above, I'm at work on a sequel, Stardust! The second book in my American Songbook series, Stardust follows Rose's granddaughter, Daisy, into the late 1930s and 1940s. Fashioned in the image of her indomitable Irish grandmother, Daisy will take the reins of Rose's Kavanaugh's Department Store when the time comes. In preparation, Rose sends Daisy to Paris to apprentice with the iconic couturier and fragrance entrepreneur, Coco Chanel. In shadowing the mercurial Chanel, Daisy is thrown into the thick of a glittering and treacherous cast of characters—American and British expats, the Parisian haute-monde, war correspondents, and German spies—all of whom congregate at the Hotel Ritz. While she's there, the Nazis invade and occupy Paris. Like the world-famous Chanel No. 5, a blend of 80 secret ingredients, no one in occupied Paris is what they at first seem. 😉

Hope C. Tarr

SV: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Hope, and for giving me the chance to read Irish Eyes ahead of publication. 

Hope: Thank you so much for having me! I hope readers will enjoy Irish Eyes as much as I loved writing it.

Would you like to win a signed paperback copy of Hope C. Tarr’s Irish Eyes, alongside a signed paperback of my own historical novel, Bronte’s Mistress? If so, sign up to my monthly email newsletter here. Anyone who subscribes to the newsletter between 21st November 2023 and 7th December 2023 (the Irish Eyes release day!) will be entered into a random draw to win both books. Already signed up? Spread the word to friends and family who might want to win and stay in touch with me via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

March/April 2021 Articles about Bronte’s Mistress

It’s now under a month until the release of the Bronte’s Mistress paperback! And I’m continuing my roundup of press, with a post covering articles about the novel that were published in March and April this year.

Fellow historical novelist, Asha Lemmie, who I did an event with in September last year, recommended Bronte’s Mistress to Good Morning America fans, in a piece about Women’s History Month. Check out her other picks, along with Fiona Davis’s here.

Nicholas E. Barron republished our 2020 interview on Medium. He asked me questions about Oxford, research surprises, Lydia’s relationship with her daughters, and more. And Bronte’s Mistress got a shout out in another Medium article on how adults can embrace “Back to School” rituals to make first days more bearable. 

I spoke to A Sweat Life about how people can reach their reading goals. The Bear View gave Bronte’s Mistress a great review. 

Meanwhile Sharon Van Meter included my novel in a list of the best books that illuminate lesser-known historical events for Off The Shelf. Bringing us full circle, Asha Lemmie’s Fifty Words for Rain was also featured in the same article!

I’m getting busy again with events, giveaways and more planned for the Bronte’s Mistress paperback release. But if you’d like me to talk to your book club or interview me for your blog, get in touch—via Facebook or Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. For monthly updates from me on my books, blog and other writing, sign up to my email newsletter below.

Get updates on my novel - Bronte's Mistress

* indicates required

Email Address *