LGBT Historical Fiction

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Tue January 18th, 2011, 11:09 pm

I think the category that interests you has very few novels in it - all of which you seem to have either read or written, Kujaku. You're doing the right thing by writing some of your own, which is really the only solution to the problem, and probably the thing that got a lot of good writers started!

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Tue January 18th, 2011, 11:25 pm

Pirates and seamen have their own codes of behavior. I wonder how openly anyone in any rank could live an alternative lifestyle, particularly in the past? This might be another reason it doesn't come up very often, or gets swept under the rug.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Tue January 18th, 2011, 11:47 pm

[quote=""Ash""]
What is MB?[/quote]

Message board.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Wed January 19th, 2011, 1:37 am

I wonder how openly anyone in any rank could live an alternative lifestyle, particularly in the past?

Not very openly, I would think. But potentially deadly secrets often serve as the basis for compelling fiction.

wendy · Post by **wendy** » Wed January 19th, 2011, 12:59 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]Not very openly, I would think. But potentially deadly secrets often serve as the basis for compelling fiction.[/quote]

Certainly not openly. There are many accounts of the awful punishments the Royal Navy inflicted on gays. But this may have been one of the many reasons that piracy was so appealing - in their own democracy they were free to make up their own rules! And they did.

George Gardiner · Post by **George Gardiner** » Thu January 20th, 2011, 7:08 am

As a new chum to Historical Fiction Online I can suggest several sites where GLBT historicals may be located. But to make it easy, my own blog has two lists of relevant links to some better sites & publishers, among other things.

It's at http://www.mmromancenovels.blogspot.com Scroll down to the service lists in the side bar.

I must add that my own historical opus with a GLBT slant, "THE HADRIAN ENIGMA: A Forbidden History", has its presence at this blog. It recently shared in a 3-way win as "Best Historical Novel" in the annual Rainbow Awards.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Fri January 21st, 2011, 12:13 am

George, can you correct the link? It's not going anywhere.

rockygirl · Post by **rockygirl** » Thu February 10th, 2011, 2:31 am

I just reread A Freeman of Color, a historical mystery by Barbara Hambly. One of the minor characters is a closet transsexual. I don't know if this will fit the bill, but it was the first thing I found.

annis · Post by **annis** » Sat February 12th, 2011, 2:23 am

I just recently read Aussie author Jesse Blackadder's novel The Raven's Heart, which would fit into this category. The lesbian aspect of the story is woven with subtlety into the novel, which is a stylishly written tale of obsession, violence and treachery. Blackadder was inspired to write the story after investigating her family history.

Article from the Australian Herald Sun

Some quotes:

"Blackadder started writing The Raven's Heart in 2004, "an epic historic thriller with a lesbian cross-dressing subplot" set in the time of Mary Queen of Scots.
She created the character of Alison "Robbie" Blackadder, a girl brought up as a boy to survive the family's cut-throat politics, who becomes one of Mary's ladies-in-waiting.
"I found quite a lot of references in books about Mary to unnamed female servants or ladies-in-waiting who helped her escape from difficult circumstances or rode out with her," she says."There was enough mentions of them that I thought it could all be the same person."

Blackadder says British writer Sarah Waters paved the way for an acceptance of stories of lesbian relationships in a historic context.
"It would have been harder to get a publisher for The Raven's Heart if Sarah Waters wasn't around. She has crossed so successfully into the mainstream with those sorts of stories," she says.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sat February 12th, 2011, 7:27 am

She created the character of Alison "Robbie" Blackadder, a girl brought up as a boy to survive the family's cut-throat politics, who becomes one of Mary's ladies-in-waiting.

This is less far-fetched than it might seem. One of my ancestors in Germany appears in the church birth records under a girl's name, and his later marriage record gives a male name but refers back to the birth record with the girl's name. I have no idea why he was baptized with a girl's name, but in the process of trying to figure this out, I discovered that at some periods of German history, boy babies were registered as girls in the hope that it would help keep them hidden from the authorities so they could avoid being conscripted into the army when they came of age.