I hope you enjoyed Sleep, Dearie, Sleep! If you haven’t read it yet, you should be aware that this post contains spoilers. If you want to read the novella first, start here.
This story was a bit of a departure for me. The idea of writing historical fiction has always intimidated me. It involved a lot more research than I’m used to, and I did my best to stay true to the period and avoid anachronistic idioms or patterns of speech. I also knew from the start that this story could only be written in an epistolary and journal format, which was also intimidating. It meant immersing myself in the minds of the characters to get their voices right, an exercise that proved emotionally taxing, to say the least. But it was worth it if I pulled it off.
I confess that I cheated a bit. Having read Diana Gibaldon’s Outlander series a couple of times through, I felt like I was on fairly comfortable ground depicting late 18th century Scots settle…
