Real Life Women

Starting in 1787 and continuing for over 80 years, Britain shipped about 160,000 male and female convicts to their penal colony in Australia. On board the very first fleet was Ann Inett, a convict, widow and mother of two. Ann would become mistress to Philip Gidley King, the third Governor of New South Wales and she provides the main point of view for this novel.

In our interview, author Sue Williams discusses the inspiration for the book: the arrival in New South Wales of Gidley King’s very pregnant wife. She also talks about her fascination with the opportunities – and lack of opportunities – the women convicts found in this new land, and shares her challenges with finding the source material she needed to provide historical validity.

My feature article for the Historical Novel Society is here.

In 1575, Luisa Abrego, a freed slave from Seville, was tried in Mexico for bigamy by officers of the Spanish Inquisition. Aside from the trial record, no other documentation of her exists. Intrigued by that scrap of information, Renaissance historian and author Erika Rummel resurrects Luisa in her latest novel. Rummel uses a unique storytelling approach to describe Luisa and her life: ten fictional characters tell what they know (or think they know) about Luisa; Luisa’s point of view is not part of the novel.

In our interview, the author explains why she made this deliberate storytelling choice and reveals how writing this book helped expand her knowledge of the Renaissance era and refine her writing techniques. You can read all about it here.

Among her many achievements, Bessie Coleman was the first American to earn a civilian aviation certificate from the French Federation Aeronautique Internacionale (FAI). This was something she had to do because, being African American and female in the 1920s, nobody in the United States would train her to fly. So she took three years of night school classes, became fluent in French and earned her brevet – a full two years before Amelia Earhart.

Author Carole Hopkins – who is also a 737 Captain with United Airlines – described in our interview the challenges that caused this book to be 12 years in the making, and the ways she is inspired by “serving the legacy that Coleman started.”

Read my interview with Carole Hopkins here.

One of the “treasures” Queen Victoria acquired from her vast empire was her African goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta. Sarah was a princess whose family was massacred by a rival tribe. They enslaved her for years until an English sea captain rescued her, changed her name from Aina to Sarah Forbes (his surname) Bonetta (the name of his ship) and presented her to the Queen as a gift.

Author Denny S. Bryce reveals in our interview the surprising series of events that led to her writing Sarah’s story. She also shares the details of her writing process, including how her background in public relations and marketing contribute to her approach to researching historical novels.

Read my interview with The Other Princess author Denny S. Bryce.