Long Live Colonial Books!

When I first started writing - seriously writing for publication - I started in the Colonial era. One of the first things I was told was "You can't sell a Colonial story, those books are dead on the shelf."

It wasn't just one person who told me that, and my Colonial trilogy has never found a publishing home.

BUT! Then I was introduced to the Barbour historical romance collections. The first one I sold was not Colonial, but the second two were. And just last month:

My first Colonial-era novella, In Sheep's Clothing, won the Romance Writers of America - Faith, Hope, & Love Chapter - Reader's Choice Award.

Reader's choice. That means it was judged and chosen by ... readers. Readers who enjoyed a Colonial story.

To add to my unofficial and unscientific refute of the "Colonial is Dead" advice I'd received, both In Sheep's Clothing and my second Colonial-era story, Her Redcoat, are finalists in the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Awards, the winners to be announced at the ACFW conference the last weekend in September. 

The moral of this post? Don't let what "they say" turn you away from writing - or reading! - the stories you love. You'll never please every reader. Nobody can. But if you write a compelling story, there are readers out there who will enjoy it. And may even give it an award.

Pegg Thomas writes History with a Touch of Humor