Writing Influences in Historical Fiction

As a writer, I often get asked what my favorite book is. My answer is always a resounding, “I can’t pick just one!” 

The same answer rings true with the question, “What book influenced you to write historical fiction?” 

But while the answers to these questions are the same, I can, at least, pinpoint a very specific list for the second question, so I thought I’d share this list with you today. 

1. Little House on the Prairie (whole series) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I can’t remember exactly when I first read these, but I know I began the series in early elementary school. I received the book set for a birthday when I was 7 or 8. Since those days, I’ve read through each book numerous times. But what I want to point out is how these books influenced my writing today. I adored the way they followed Laura from early childhood through motherhood. Something about that journey intrigued me. And her depiction of the characters on the page made them so real in my mind. Which, yes, they were, but since I didn’t know them when they were alive, I feel like I know them now. 

2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This book was recommended to me by a classmate in 6th grade. By this time, I was already thinking about and trying my hand at writing. But this book—this book stirred my desire to write in new ways. Honestly, I think it’s where my love of all things British began! The depth of this story impressed me most, especially compared to the lighter reads of my elementary school years—books such as Nancy Drew and the like. Don’t get me wrong—I still liked those other books a lot! But this one set a whole new bar of excellence for story and use of words. 

3. Margaret’s Story by Eugenia Price

When I was in my later middle school years—I’m pretty sure it was late 8th grade—my mom often bought books through a mail order book club. This book was one of them. I can still remember lying on my bed finishing this book with tears streaming down my face. And I remember my exact thought—I want to write books like this one day, novels set in history with a distinctly Christian thread. This was the first “real” novel I remember reading that didn’t shy away from faith. In fact, the faith of the characters was crucial to the story.

This wasn’t a book from a Christian publisher, mind you. Those publishers hadn’t yet made the foray into fiction. No, this was a general market book. And it fueled my desire to write in the same genre. 

4. Savannah (and the other books in the Savannah quartet) by Eugenia Price

Mom sent me this book around November of my sophomore year of college. Why do I remember that so specifically? Because it was the year I was attending college with Jeff, and he continually chided me for reading instead of studying for finals! (I did fine on my finals, by the way, and I finished the book!) This series really brought home to me the opportunities in historical fiction to teach history to people who don’t like history. Why? Because I later gave these books to my sister, who was not a reader or a history-lover, and she commented how much more she learned about the Civil War from these books versus her history classes in high school or college. 

5. Vienna Prelude (and all the Zion Covenant series) by Bodie Thoene

Christian fiction picked up steam during my college years. In our early married life, with me in college and Jeff in law school, I would occasionally scrape together the cost of a book and walk to the nearby Christian bookstore (which is still there!) and get a new novel. I’d read all of Janette Oke and Gilbert Morris when a new series came on the scene and rocked my world. Not only was it Christian, it was historical (World War II), romantic, and exciting! Stuff happened! Constantly! This truly began my love of Christian fiction as a reader. And the more I read it, the more I wanted to write it. 

6. Those Who Love by Irving Stone

This was not my first time to read a biographical historical novel, but it was the most influential. Honestly, I can’t remember if I read it before or after I started doing my college honors thesis on Abigail Adam’s. But it doesn’t matter. The point is that I loved how Irving Stone brought a historical person to life on the page! I loved that it was well-researched, but it was also written as a good story. It’s still a dream of mine to write this type of book, and I’m getting closer, I think! One of these days I’ll find the right story. 

7. Bright Captivity by Eugenia Price

This book came in my early motherhood years, and it wrecked me in all the best ways. Mostly it made me run to the Lord and repent of my selfish behavior toward others. Why? Because the character in this book made me say, “I don’t want to be like that!” It was the first time I understood that sometimes God uses fiction to crack open your blind spots so you can see yourself as you really are, for good or bad. And I’m not sure that would have happened for me with a contemporary novel, either. I think the historical setting helped me drop my defenses, not thinking I’d see myself in someone from another era. From this book I took the understanding that I could write in such a way as to effect change in a reader through a historical story by the working of the Holy Spirit in both the writer and the reader. 

Can you see how these books made me the writer I am today? My love for history and historical fiction runs deep—and has for much of my life. But I don’t want to just write decent historical novels. I want them to be stories that boldly proclaim life in Christ and perhaps open a reader’s eyes to something they’ve been missing in their own walk with Christ. And while I can point to this list of books that influenced me to write historical fiction, if you notice, I can also narrow it down to one person: Eugenia Price. I wish I’d written to her before she died to tell her how much I loved her books and how much they influenced me. Although I didn’t, at that point, know the extent to which I’d be able to say that. She died in 1996–a full fifteen years before my first novel was published.

I am grateful that all these books and authors crossed my path. But I’m also grateful for the many other books and authors that have given me hours of joy in reading. 

If you are a writer, what books influenced you to write? If you are a reader, what books influenced you to love books?