What makes us choose . . .

[Jen Black]

[quote=""ejays17""]Also just joined the board - I tend to "lurk" more than post in various boards.

I was heavily influenced by my English/History teacher (she was thrilled to find someone who read "for fun", and constantly leant me books from her own colections), so my favourite periods of history are Ancient Egyptian, Roman, and English 1066-Oliver Cromwell. But within that 600+ years of English history, the Plantagenet time (mostly becuase of Robin Hood ) is a particular obessission.

Oh, and I also love graveyard/cemetaries. The family history you can trace through the ones in small country towns is just fascinating.[/quote]
I like cemetaries too, but my better half hates them to the extent that he waits outside if I go in. Doesn't matter if they're pretty or ancient rather than modern and ugly. He gets the shivers, so I don't go in much.
Jen

[Kasthu]

My periods are the medieval period (which I see as the legalization of Christianity by Constantine in 313 to the beginning of the black death in the mid-fourteenth century), and Victorian. My fascination with the medieval period began in 1994 with a family trip to England to see all the old castles there (my imagination was especially struck by the Tower of London). Then, in the fifth grade, my class did a unit on the middle ages and I did a research project on medieval castles. Still later in college, I majored in English and history and created my own minor in medieval and early modern studies; and I'm currently considering the idea of going back to school for my master's degree, though I'm not quite sure what I'd do with it. Maybe write my own historical fiction? I've always thought that Christine de Pizan would make a good subject for a historical novel, even though there's no great love story there. But she was very modern in a lot of ways, which might appeal to many readers.

I don't quite know where my fascination comes from with the Victorian era; maybe with all those "loose baggy monsters" I had to read for an English literature class on Vic lit in college. Needless to say, I'm fascinated by the Victorian period because of the clothes they wore back then. And when I read historical fiction, the Victorian era is more or less a comfort zone for me.

[Ash]

[quote=""Kasthu""] I've always thought that Christine de Pizan would make a good subject for a historical novel, even though there's no great love story there. But she was very modern in a lot of ways, which might appeal to many readers.[/quote]

I read her book City of Ladies in college and was amazed by her; I think it was the first time I thought about women in medival times as having a mind of their own, which is one factor that probably lead to me reading more HF about the time period. I don't know if there is a HF about her; I"d read it if there was.