The Inquisitive Inkpot
Exploring Tales and the Art of Telling
What? Why?
A Brief Introduction
At this point, you might be wondering two things:
What is the point of this blog?
What’s up with the name?
It’s really quite simple: I tell stories set in the past.
Chances are, if you landed on this site, you are also either a storyteller or a history geek—or better yet, both. Or maybe you’re just an avid reader of folklore, fantasy, or historical fiction. In any case, I’m glad you visited, because there’s a lot to talk about—hence the name.
By now, you’ve derived that the “inkpot” theme comes from past eras…
So why “inquisitive?” There are two sides to that.
One is the main source of my stories: asking of the past, “What might have happened?”
The fact is, no matter how documented and complete our history of a given time period, there will always be things we don’t know. People whose names were forgotten. Events that slipped through the cracks, or were deliberately left off the books. Historical purists find that problematic—I find it exhilarating, because where the known facts end is where the imagination begins.
There is a caveat to this, and it marks the line between fact-finding and storytelling. If a well-informed person reads Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl or watches Randall Wallace’s “Braveheart” expecting a 100% accuracy score, they will be disappointed—and rightfully so. Neither of these works presents itself as an authentic historical account. Instead, both invite the reader and viewer to explore a real time period and ask real questions faced by both real and imagined characters. This is the same adventure I invite my readers to join.
The other half of “inquisitive” is yours to fill in.
Each addition will open with a post related to one of the stories I have published, or genres/time periods I am currently researching—but that is just the beginning. The rest is yours. If you share the same curiosity in the past or in storytelling (either as a reader or an author), then you have something to contribute. Raise questions. Answer questions. Tell us about whatever you’re working on, or whatever fascinating gems you know about a particular era. Come join the adventure!
Shiloh
Hope to read more of your works soon.
Yes, the small details of normal people’s lives… they are always missing. And so much research is needed to discover them!
What’s extremely fascinating is seeing how, even though daily life and cultural norms change with time and culture, certain elements of human nature remain constant. I think that’s part of our job as historical fiction authors: to bridge the gap between people of the past and present.