Back from the Historical Novel Society conference

Just noticed this is my 800th post!

I returned late Tuesday night from the 5th North American HNS conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The weather was sunny and beautiful (if very muggy) every day, the Vinoy Renaissance hotel was absolutely gorgeous, my room was large and quiet, the hotel staff were attentive and helpful, and the panels I attended were all professionally run and informative.  My sparkly sandals even cooperated; I made it through without bandaids.  This was my first time there as a regular attendee rather than an organizer (many people came up to me so say how relaxed I looked!) so I had time to catch up with old friends and meet up with many others I'd only communicated with online.  These conferences really are all about the people, after all -- making connections with fellow HF nerds that endure long after we're all back home.

Because I find it hard to keep up with online stuff while the conference is on, I didn't tweet or FB very much and also didn't take many photos (the one above is a scene of the ocean inlet across the street from the Vinoy).  For a great compilation of photos that also tells a story of conference happenings, let me refer you over to the Storify site put together by Audra of Unabridged Chick.

I leave tomorrow for ALA in Chicago and am working the late shift tonight, so things are kind of crazy around here, but I thought I'd post some info on the panels I attended and some other highlights of the conference:

• Anne Perry's inspirational Friday night guest of honor speech emphasized the role of story in historical fiction and the need to make these works emotionally resonant. And she spoke for over half an hour without any notes!  Wow.  A wonderful way to start off the event.
• Early on Saturday morning, I attended the first agent/editor panel session, which turned out to be a Q&A for aspiring writers.  This may seem an unusual choice for someone like me who doesn't write fiction, but I like hearing what things are like on the other side of the table.Advice from agent Stephanie Cabot: Each book in a series should stand alone, and in the case of a trilogy, don't end book 1 with a cliffhanger.  Agent Helen Heller mentioned "the Tudors have been overfished" although this depends on the quality of the work in question; she also advised authors writing query letters not to start with a provocative question about the plot, but simply to say what the book  is about and about themselves.  Agent Diana Fox said that trends can make a novel easier to sell, but the writing is what matters most. From agent Greg Johnson: a series can benefit both authors and readers and save authors time in creating backstory.  Small press editor Jean Huets focuses on American settings and is looking for new voices in this area.  This was the only panel where I took notes, so this is rather long!
• Susan Spann ably moderated a panel of historical mystery writers with settings as diverse as 19th and 20th-c South America (Annamaria Alfieri), Victorian England (Anne Perry), 1st-c Jerusalem (Frederick Ramsay), and Judith Rock (17th-c France). Susan's debut, Claws of the Cat, comes out next month and features a ninja detective and a Jesuit solving mysteries in 16th-c Japan.  I loved the variety showcased here.
• Christopher (C.W.) Gortner's lunch speech, focusing on community and how HNS had helped him along his publishing journey, set the perfect tone for the conference.
• "To Trump or Trumpet the History Police" - Will historical purists come out to get you if you fudge the facts?  The conclusion was: sometimes they will!  The authors (Stephanie Cowell, Christy English, Margaret George, Anne Easter Smith, with CW Gortner moderating) had a lively discussion/debate about historical accuracy  vs. the importance of creating a good story.  Each has condensed a timeline to some degree or eliminated unneeded characters for the sake of the story they wanted to tell.
• "Virtual Salon: The Historical Fiction Blog" - a great intro to the many purposes for a blog in the historical fiction world, whether they're written by authors or reviewers/readers.  There was a lot of positive buzz surrounding this panel.  Speakers were Deborah Swift, Amy Bruno, Heather Rieseck, and Heather Webb, moderated by Julianne Douglas.
• The "Off the Beaten Path" workshop with bloggers & authors Julie Rose, Heather Domin, Audra Friend, and Andrea Connell was a treat for readers (like me) who seek out less common settings and types of characters in their historical novels. Check out their page of info with publishing & reviewing trends as well as their lengthy reading list.
• Gillian Bagwell did a smashing job in her role as Joan, Lady Rivers emceeing the costume pageant, and Teralyn Pilgrim, as a pregnant vestal virgin, was an obvious choice for winning "most authentic historical costume."  I hope her on-stage interview with Lady Rivers was taped!  I was very tired by that point and didn't stay for most of the late-night sex scene readings, but was entertained by Margaret George's reading from her Autobiography of Henry VIII.
• On Sunday morning I went to just two sessions, one author presentation and another with "cold reads" of unpublished manuscripts.  In the former, Susanna Kearsley gave advice on how to flesh out historical characters' backstories and discover new connections between them using genealogical research.  As a sidenote, I last saw Susanna at the last ever BookExpo Canada in 2008, when I was probably the only American in attendance.  After she signed a copy of The Winter Sea for me, I asked her if her new books would be published in the US at some point.  At the time, US publishers felt the stories were "too quiet" and weren't interested.  Now her novels, out from Sourcebooks, are bestsellers, which is great.  Goes to show that sometimes the industry has no clue.

I wish I'd gotten to more sessions; choosing was very difficult!  What I valued even more were the many conversations I'd had with other attendees in the lobby, at the receptions, and over meals. Shout-outs to the late Thursday night dinner crowd at Fresco's on the waterfront; my library school buddy Vicki (we graduated almost 20 years ago); all the HNR reviewers and HNS members I chatted with; the blogger lunch group on Sunday with Audra, Heather, and Meg; and the fabulous members and organizers of the new Great Lakes HNS Chapter. The gathering ended on a high note with a group excursion (Alison, Jessica, Marie, Meg, and myself) to a robot-themed sushi place on Sunday night and drinks out on the veranda.  Later we watched as a bus of VIP types (later revealed to be a certain Toronto baseball team) climb out of their bus and walk into the hotel.  I have no photos; even if I'd wanted them, the hotel had signs up about that...

And so another HNS conference has wrapped up.  Congrats to Vanitha Sankaran and the rest of the board of directors for a job well done.  I'm already looking forward to London in September 2014.

En route to San Diego

I'm on my way to San Diego (literally - I'm writing this during an unexpectedly long layover at O'Hare) for the 4th North American Historical Novel Society conference.  A group of us have been planning this event for the last two years, and I'm really looking forward to it!

The trip started off appropriately, as I got to talking with another traveler while waiting in Champaign - she was reading Sarah Blake's The Postmistress so I mentioned where I was heading... and recommended the author's earlier novel Grange House.  She told me she'd look out for it.

I'll try to post some pics here from the conference, and I'll also be tweeting from the event as time permits. For those who'd like to follow along with the conference virtually, look for the #HNS11 hashtag.

Today's plans - after our plane shows up and we finally get out of here - are to get to the hotel, hang around a bit, and commence to stuffing the goody bags!

Does this look familiar? and other news

The weekend is finally here, after a 6-day work week that included two late-night shifts and one Sunday... My annual evaluation portfolio is done, the book reviews that are in have been edited; I'm hoping I can get back to reading.

My gallery of reusable cover art saw a considerable increase in traffic on Tuesday, after the Smart Bitches linked me; check out the comments on their post, too, for some interesting discussions on the reuse of art (specifically classic paintings) on historical fiction covers. I've added half a dozen new entries to the gallery since then, thanks to some eagle-eyed readers who spotted yet more dupes and emailed me about them. (Thanks, folks!)

A reader from Australia notified me about the reuse of La Grande Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1814) on two different book covers, but neither one was from a historical novel, so it's not included in the gallery... yet. I swear I've seen this painting before on historical fiction, though. Does it ring a bell with anyone?


If so, let me know and I'll credit you in the gallery.

Other random bits and pieces:

If you've been thinking about joining the HNS but haven't gotten around to it, March may be a good time; readers from North America who join or renew during March will be entered into a drawing to receive either Nicole Galland's Crossed or Tasha Alexander's A Poisoned Season, courtesy of HarperCollins. We have five copies of each to give away.

The next Historical Novel Society conference in North America will take place on June 12-14, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Woodfield in Schaumburg, IL. Mark your calendars if you plan to attend; speakers and registration info will be announced at a later time.

Kelly Hewitt of Loaded Questions told me she'll be publishing an interview with Judith Merkle Riley in the near future, and holding a giveaway for copies of The Serpent Garden, which I reviewed about a month ago... watch her blog for details.

This year I'm planning on attending BookExpo Canada rather than the usual American show, so I'll be in Toronto from June 12-16, networking with Canadian publishers, attending workshops, and visiting a couple friends. If anyone reading this is also attending or will be in town then, let me know! I'll be back at BEA next year, when it's in NYC.

Now on to some publishing deals.

DeAnna Cameron's THE BELLY DANCER, set during the 1893 Chicago Worlds' Fair, in which a sheltered young woman's marriage and attempts to enter high society are threatened by a scheming widow with designs on her husband and by her fascination with the Fair's scandalous Egyptian dancers and their handsome, mysterious manager, to Jackie Cantor at Berkley, by Ellen Pepus.

Shawna Yang Ryan's LOCKE 1928, which weaves history and mythology around a community of Chinese immigrants in a small California town in 1928, exploring the lives of a beautiful young prostitute in love with the preacher's daughter; a husband and wife mysteriously reunited after ten years; a lovesick brothel owner who can see into the past and the future, and the ghosts haunting them all, to Jane Fleming at Penguin Press, at auction, by Daniel Lazar at Writers House. [HNR covered this in late 2007, based on its original publication by a small press. Very nice review.]

Beth Kery's TEMPTATIONS OF TIME, a present day detective travels back in time to 1906 Chicago in order to save the woman featured in a set of discovered erotic photographs from being murdered, to Leis Pederson at Berkley Heat, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

John Pipkin's WOODSBURNER, chronicling the lives of a lovesick Norwegian immigrant farm hand, a struggling bookseller, a fire and brimstone preacher, and a pencil maker named Henry David Thoreau as their stories intersect over a fire Thoreau accidentally set which burned 800 acres near Walden Pond, moved with Janet Silver to Nan A. Talese, in a good deal, in a pre-empt, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Rory Clements' MARTYR, a first historical thriller pitched as in the vein of CJ Sansom, about John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer to Queen Elizabeth, ordered to protect England's "sea dragon" Francis Drake from an assassination plot, to Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell, by Patty Moosbrugger at Patricia Moosbrugger Literary Agency.

Facebook, HNS, and me

Because I really don't have enough to keep myself busy these days, tonight I created a Facebook group for members and fans of the Historical Novel Society... it's open to everyone, so if you're on Facebook too, feel free to join in. It has the approval of Richard Lee, HNS founder, and we plan on posting updates on HNS publications and events.

I was wary of Facebook initially, but a half-dozen librarians at EIU decided to sign up last fall, as one of us had been reading about the possibilities for promoting library services and events there... "Go where your patrons are" is a guiding principle in libraries these days. I've poked around in the system, joining a few historical fiction-related groups (which don't seem to get much traffic), friending people I knew, and, of course, checking our library apps to make sure they continue to work. I regularly update what books I'm currently reading, change my status line to something pithy, and see what all everyone else is doing - nothing too complicated.

I'm still not sure how people spend hours and hours there, but I'm pretty impressed with it as a social networking tool. It lets you learn more about people you interact with mostly online, and I've used it to stay in touch with friends I haven't seen in person since high school and college.

My Facebook profile is here, and if you're a regular reader of this blog, feel free to friend me. There's a group just for Sarah Johnsons, which freaks me out, considering it has over 300 members. Some of them even have my middle name.

Short and late post

I meant to post earlier, but things like work and writing got in the way. We were interviewing for a new cataloging librarian last week (which involved daily presentations) , plus I needed to get a first draft of my Christian fiction chapter finished. Aside from assigning keywords and annotating 2008 titles I don't know about yet, it's done. And long. 22,000+ words long. Pruning will be necessary.

Among other news:

I just posted November's issue of Historical Novels Review Online. The print issue should be out soon. Anyone seen it yet? It has a purty purple cover, and a feature article on historical graphic novels.

I'm looking for a few HNS members interested in joining the Historical Novels Review's North American review team. You should be able to write clearly and concisely and keep to deadlines. More specifically, I'd like to find reviewers able to cover novels set in a wide variety of historical periods/places (not just, for example, medieval England or ancient Rome, as we'll have little to offer you). Particularly needed are readers of historical romances, historical Westerns, and/or novels set in the 20th century, as many of our specialists in these areas have dropped out.

HNS members only, please, from either the US or Canada. (If you live in the UK or elsewhere, I'll pass your note of interest along to the British editors.) Email me for the guidelines.

Oprah's newest book club pick is Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. Which I haven't yet read. You may not realize it's also an award-winning board game [per Library Journal].

On Loaded Questions, Kelly Hewitt is giving away an ARC of Lauren Willig's The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. She's hoping to run more giveaways in the future, so watch her blog for details. You may recognize George Romney's Study of Emma Hart as Circe gracing the cover.

Literary agent Dan Lazar of Writers House is actively interested in acquiring historical fiction.

I'm drowning in piles of recent acquisitions, but what else is new. When people give me birthday money to spend, you can probably guess what I go out and buy.

Various HNS things

This may be old news if you're on the HNS e-list, but the editors' choice selections from the upcoming November Historical Novels Review are online now.

The HNS Conference board of directors is looking for a new publicity coordinator for the 2009 North American conference. Details here.

Mark and I each brought a mail bin full of review books to the PO today (me to Charleston, him to Savoy, where they tried to make him say there were "personal notes" in the packages - there aren't). So if you got assigned a review book from me, they're en route. I think this is the fastest I've ever gotten them out.

Some links of interest:

Via Marg at Historical Tapestry, Rosina Lippi (aka Sara Donati) interviews Diana Norman (aka Ariana Franklin) on her blog. My review of Fitzempress' Law from this time last year is in the blog archives.

The 2nd authorized sequel to Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler's People, comes out November 6th. I loved GWTW, and am curious about the new book, if only to see whether it reads anything like the original... I suspect not, as Donald McCaig has a much more literary style (I reviewed Canaan earlier this year). The novel has an official website.

News on Ken Follett's upcoming epic trilogy, and it's not medieval.

A long-lost love story written by James Michener, now in possession of one of his (many) ghostwriters, and available now (Amazon link) from the University Press of Florida.

Australia's The Age doesn't like Colleen McCullough's Antony and Cleopatra, because of prudish and unnatural dialogue and odd sentence constructions. There are no comments on the book's Australian cover, which is different from both the US and cartoony UK versions. I think it makes Cleo look like a perfume ad model, but maybe that's just me.

Non-historical fiction reference. Before we moved out to Illinois, we bought many pieces of furniture from Jordan's in Avon, Massachusetts. This includes our blue livingroom sofa, a couple of chairs, and the bed that's in our guest room. Too bad we weren't back there last spring to go shopping, or we could have gotten all of those items free. I'm glad the Red Sox swept the series, for obvious reasons, but also because I'm tired of staying up till midnight.

The usual quarterly announcements

The editors' choice reviews from August's HNR are online.

The forthcoming books page has been updated (par moi) with US titles through April '08, and a selection of UK titles through the end of '07.

There aren't any new deals to post because historical fiction hasn't been mentioned much on Publishers Marketplace lately.

I'm presently very itchy and sleep-deprived after a much-needed weeding of the garden last Sunday resulted in a bad case of poison oak. So I expect I'll be posting more later, when I'm more coherent.

More notes from the conference

I realize you may be tired of hearing about the conference, but there are more links I just have to post, because unlike me, some people in the audience actually took notes and reported back, on their blogs, in great detail.

Suzanne Adair, author of the Revolutionary War mystery Paper Woman and a member of Mary Sharratt's "rewriting the role of women" panel, kept a travel diary of sorts, and if you want to know what C.C. Humphreys, Irene Goodman, our invited editors, and Diana Gabaldon talked about in their sessions, read her blog. The conference-related entries are on June 8 and 9. This is the most comprehensive writeup I've seen so far, given that, of course, it was impossible for any one person to attend everything.

At History Hoydens (a blog I need to add to my sidebar) novelist Amanda Elyot discusses the differences between historical fiction and historical romance, along with reader expectations of each. Excellent genre analysis, although I'm not so sure about the "French" thing. I haven't seen all that many historical romances set in France, yet in historical fiction, I can name quite a few recent and successful novels - those of Susan Carroll, Sandra Gulland, Maggie Anton, Debra Finerman, Susan Vreeland - although (hmm) most of their novels, with perhaps the exception of Anton (about the daughters of the medieval Jewish scholar Rashi, who I don't think many mainstream audiences have heard of, yet) their novels have so-called "marquee names" in them. Such as Catherine de Medici, Josephine Bonaparte ...

Also, imho, if you're writing literary historical fiction, the editorial preferences for historical fiction expressed in this blog entry (and which do exist) are not nearly so firm. I haven't yet started my "literary fiction" chapter, but I know from my own observations that in terms of setting, time period, and fictional vs. historical characters, they're all over the place. (Sorry, I got sidetracked, but my upcoming book will be all about this stuff.) Anyway, both this entry and the lengthy comment trail are well worth reading, along with her earlier summary of Cindy Vallar and James L. Nelson's "Bringing Pirates to Life" session. The same holds true for Elyot's own novel Too Great a Lady about Emma Hamilton, which I reviewed for HNR's May issue.

Last but not least, conference attendee Anne Beggs did a funny writeup of the "Writing Love Scenes: How Much Sex is Too Much" panel (and if you went to the panel because of the catchy title, you can thank me, because I made it up - one of the hidden contributions I made to this conference). Apparently this panel was a big hit, although I missed it because I was at Tamara Mazzei's very informative panel on publishing options.

And here I intended this to be a short post, just a few links here and there, because I have to pack up review books tonight.

The conference committee

There'll be more photos forthcoming on the HNS website later, but here we are - the HNS conference board of directors, hanging out in the Desmond hotel courtyard just before the Friday night banquet. From left to right: Carol Anne Germain (hotel liaison), Claire Morris (publicity coordinator) standing behind Jane Kessler (bookseller liaison), Trudi Jacobson (program chair), me (treasurer), Nancy Castaldo (secretary), Jerry Burke (local coordinator), Val Perry (volunteer coordinator), Alana White (editor/agent liaison). Click on the photo for a larger version. Ann Chamberlin, past chair, was attending her son's graduation and arrived at the conference on Saturday.

My living room, post-conference

I'm back in the land of corn, soybeans, and bugs, and mostly unpacked, although my mind is still back east, in NYC and Albany. The photo above partly explains why. It shows a portion of the books and galleys I found waiting for me when I returned home. Some are ones I shipped from BEA, while others arrived while I was gone. Most will be going out for review for HNR's November issue, though others will wait for February's, if they're 2008 publications. I've got an equal number of books that I picked up for myself, and a similar number for the library, though those are still on shelves in my office.

I dread the trip to the post office, and I don't think I have enough jiffy bags, either.

Because I'm nosy and a fan of Google Alerts, I found these reports of people's HNS conference experiences online today:

• Favorite PASTimes (Cindy Thomson)
• History Buff (Michelle Moran)
• Article from the Albany Times-Union (posting for interest, though the reporter wrote this before the event)
• Compuserve's Books and Writers Community (various attendees)

One member of the latter group posted a copy of the handout from my own presentation (attached to post #8), which I think is pretty cool. However, as a slight correction, none of us are agents - we're all librarians - and we didn't run out of time before the end. But this and the other handouts she posted are decent writeups, and I'm glad to see them, as there were so many sessions I didn't get to see myself.

I guess there are a couple other things I brought back from Albany, namely a sore throat and bad cold. Not sure who to blame for this, though.

BEA/HNS conference trip, day 11

After two years of planning and preparation, it's hard to believe the Albany conference is over. It was a pretty intense three days, and it's hard to describe (and record) everything that happened since Thursday, though I'll try to write up my own experiences, at least briefly.

I didn't get to nearly as many panels and workshops as I'd have liked, as I was too busy getting people settled in / answering questions / whatever, but those that I did get to went very well, at least it seemed to me. My own panel ("the best new historical fiction: what to read and why") was slotted second on Saturday morning, and we nearly filled the room, despite being scheduled opposite Stephanie Cowell/Judith Lindbergh/Lyn Cote (in one room) and Irene Goodman (in the other). Two fellow librarians and I "booktalked" around 35 of our favorite historical novels from the last two years, telling the audience what they were about and why we enjoyed them; a slideshow of book covers accompanied the talk. We went in chronological order by the novels' settings, and finished exactly on time. I even got a few laughs, which was gratifying if occasionally surprising. I have the habit of unintentionally making double entendres, though if people thought I was being funny on purpose, I'll take credit for it.

I didn't make it to Chris Humphreys' panel first thing Saturday morning, or anything scheduled opposite for that matter, though apparently he did such a great job that his novels sold out at the bookseller room right afterward. He also had a huge line at the group book-signing that afternoon. Mary Sharratt's panel on "rewriting the role of women" was also a favorite, with all the panelists sharing their perspectives on writing about historical women, both fictional and real. And lots of people were taking notes during the "publishing continuum" panel run by Tamara Mazzei, Nancy Attwell, and Patricia Wynn during the final timeslot this morning at 10:30.

I didn't attend the "writing love scenes" panel, but I heard much laughter coming through the walls.

Note to self to stop making snarky comments about BEA in LA next year (only in relation to the weather, mind you, as I've never complained about the show itself), as there's a chance I'll end up going after all. It's fairly easy to convince me to go to book events.

Probably the best part of this conference was meeting so many people I've known only over email and/or this blog. Karen Mercury and I hung out at the Saturday evening dinner, I got to meet many authors, HNS members and reviewers for the first time, and I reconnected with other people I haven't seen since Salt Lake City. Since the conference was on the east coast, many HNS members from the UK and Europe made it over; I had some nice conversations with a historical fiction fan from Dublin, and a few others who were based in London. And, hey, I even sold seven books - and got to sign two of them. The Salt Lake City bookseller was convinced they wouldn't sell and only ordered three of them, which sold out immediately. This time, the bookseller (Blackwood and Brouwer out of Kinderhook, NY) ordered ten.

Mark didn't go to the conference per se, although he volunteered to chauffeur some of our guests of honor to/from the train station in Rensselaer. He picked up Irene Goodman on the 4pm train Friday from NYC and promptly got stuck in Albany rush-hour traffic on the way back to the Desmond, but I understand the people in the back seat (other conference goers also en route to the hotel) kept everyone entertained.

Oh, and the food at the Desmond was delicious - no "rubber chicken" or "rolled stuffed hamster" there (that's Mark's phrase to describe typical conference fare, normally chicken cordon bleu or some such). In her keynote, Diana Gabaldon mentioned it was the best food she'd ever had at a conference. I'll be curious to hear what other attendees thought, about this or any other aspect of the conference, pro or con. Any attendees reading this who didn't fill out a feedback form, my address is on the top if you want to mail it back to me, or just email me your thoughts if/when you get around to it. We really do take all comments/suggestions seriously, and we used a number of the ideas on the Salt Lake feedback sheets to plan the program for this one.

I came back from the conference energized, eager to start working again on v.2 of my book, though I'm sorry it'll be another two years until the next conference in North America. We'd do these conferences every year if they weren't so much work, and if we weren't obliged to rotate locales around the continent (which means choosing a new hotel). The good news is, though, that we've had many expressions of interest from people interested in helping with the next event, and after we decompress a little, we'll start evaluating our options. And maybe Mark and I will head to York (England) next April, where I understand the next HNS conference will be.

Conference photos forthcoming, eventually.

We're in Newington, Connecticut tonight and most of tomorrow, heading back to Indy and Charleston tomorrow night.

More galleys to grab, and HNS updates

I probably won't be around here much until my whirlwind conference tour of New England is over in mid-June, but here are some quick updates.

Publishers Weekly just posted its BEA issue with their "galleys to grab" picks. All the ones I'm interested in are ones I mentioned earlier, so I'll let that list stand. In addition, I'll be at the show looking for galleys of many novels on HNS's forthcoming books list, which I spent four hours updating last night with titles through December '07. Not all publishers have their fall catalogs out, so there'll be some updates down the road.

I posted the editors' choice reviews from HNR's May issue last weekend, if you want to take a look and see what novels our reviewers enjoyed the most. I admit I don't understand the cover design for Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave, UK edition, and having read it, I agree wholeheartedly with Mary Sharratt that the UK cover design for Michael Wallner's April in Paris is inappropriate. It's a historical thriller, not a frilly romantic wartime saga. Oh well. It is a good book, though.

Everything old is new again

Occasionally I get questions from people asking why the HNS bothers reviewing novels that are reprints. The February HNR, for example, contains reviews of Anya Seton's The Winthrop Woman and Ben Ames Williams' A House Divided, both reissued by Chicago Review Press in late 2006; William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth, a 3-in-1 compilation of his classic sea trilogy, from Farrar Straus & Giroux; and Judith Merkle Riley's In Pursuit of the Green Lion, rereleased by Crown/Three Rivers to coincide with publication of v.3 in her Margaret of Ashbury trilogy.

We don't review every novel of this type. Very few of the Plaidys, either the Three Rivers trade pbs or the UK editions with the attractive new covers, have been revisited by us. It all depends on space, whether publicists decide to send them, and whether the editors think they're worth extra attention. (At the risk of derailing this post, I'll mention that some Victoria Holts will also be reissued soon, but the covers are, imho, garish in an odd psychedelic way and a little creepy.)

It struck me while reading the 1/29 Publishers Weekly over lunch that HNR isn't unusual in sometimes reviewing new editions of older books, although I haven't seen this done in PW very often. On p.42 I found a very nice review for Orson Scott Card's Saints, in its new Subterranean Press edition. Saints is a historical novel about Dinah Kirkham, a heroine of the early Mormon church; born in Britain, Dinah lives through the Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century, converts to Mormonism, and emigrates to America, where she becomes one of the wives of Church founder Joseph Smith. The novel has an interesting history in itself. First published in 1984 by Berkley as A Woman of Destiny and marketed as a romantic saga, it was renamed Saints and republished by Forge as a mainstream historical in 1988. It also appeared as a Forge trade paperback in 2001. (I own the original and the 2001 editions. Yes, I realized they were the same book. I liked the 2001 cover better.)

A quick trawl through the PW and Booklist databases reveals no previous reviews for the earlier editions of Saints, under that title, though plenty of libraries own copies - well over 300 holdings in WorldCat for the two combined, plus 70 holding libraries for the original Woman of Destiny. So it's not quite the undiscovered gem the review hints at (emphasis on "undiscovered").

Still, six years after its most recent edition, it gets republished, repackaged, and garners a rare starred review from PW. Not bad at all for a historical novel on its fourth life in print.

Writer wanted for historical anime piece

The Historical Novels Review is looking for someone interested in writing a piece on historical anime films for our regular "History and Film" column in the magazine. Length should be 1500-1800 words and can either deal with a single film or a collection of them. The piece would accompany a longer article on historical fiction graphic novels, which is currently in preparation.

If interested, please email managing editor Bethany Latham at blatham@jsu.edu for details. The HNS is an all-volunteer organization, and as such, we cannot offer payment - but if this is a topic that interests you and you'd like to write about it, please get in touch.