From the Publisher:
HOW TO WRITE KILLER HISTORICAL MYSTERIES
by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Subtitled The Art and Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past, this useful guide will inspire and delight writers and readers of historical mystery fiction. The popular genre features the amateur sleuth or early PI/police-equivalent confronted with crime at any period during the last few thousand years, and is an enjoyable and memorable way to experience history up close and personal, combined with an intellectual puzzle. Ranging from Samurai Japan to turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York, from Medieval and Renaissance Europe to the American frontier, these books open a vast historical panorama to the curious reader who enjoys murder and mayhem along with past mores and morals.

Veteran historical novelist-nonfiction author Kathy Lynn Emerson published her first mystery back in 1985. How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries is her thirty-sixth published book, and it draws on her experience in researching, writing, selling, and sustaining both her Lady Appleton series, set in Elizabethan England, and her Diana Spaulding series, taking place in the U.S. in the 1880s. This unique reference book also includes the contributions of more than forty other historical mystery writers. Their books’ backgrounds and settings are as diverse as Ancient Egypt and Rome, antebellum New Orleans, early Constantinople, Jazz Age England and Australia, Depression-era California, Victorian London, and 18th-century Venice. Emerson’s book includes the authors’ anecdotes, practical advice, and suggestions for research—as well as additional input from assorted editors, booksellers, reviewers, and fans.

How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries is a useful, complete, and fascinating guide that no mystery or history buff should be without. For the published or the aspiring historical fiction writer who wants to bring the past alive, it’s a must-read.

Advance Praise:

from Carolyn Wheat, author of How to Write Killer Fiction:
"I can't imagine a question about historical mysteries that isn't answered here. The past is a foreign country, and Kathy Lynn Emerson is a wonderfully informative tourguide. Do not start writing your historical mystery without this book!"

from Hallie Ephron, author of Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel
"Kathy Lynn Emerson takes the mystery out of writing a historical mystery. The book is a comprehensive guide, full of seasoned advice and rich examples."

From the Reviewers:

review by Marv Lachman in Deadly Pleasures:
"Kathy Lynn Emerson’s HOW TO WRITE KILLER HISTORICAL MYSTERIES from Perseverance Press is the best book about writing mysteries that I have ever read. Even if not read as a “how-to” book, it is a splendid introduction to this sub-genre of the mystery, at all times informative and lively reading."

review by Jon L. Breen in Mystery Scene:
"One of the best specialized technical manuals in the crime fiction genre."

review by Susan Cook in Historical Novels Review:
"I actually had to remind myself to write a review of this book, as I was so busy putting it to use. It is an excellent introduction for writers starting out in the genre as well as a handy reference guide and encouragement for the more experienced."

review by Christine Zibas in Reviewing the Evidence:
"This wealth of information is a gold mine for anyone interested in the world of historical mysteries, whether he or she is a would-be author or not."

Available from both online and brick and mortar bookstores or order direct from the publisher, Perseverance Press

Interested in arranging for Kathy Lynn Emerson to present a historical mystery writing workshop?
Click here for information:

Click here for a schedule of upcoming workshops and other appearances

The Writer's Guide to Everyday life in Renaissance England
Writer's Digest Books (1996)
out of print but available as an e-book

THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO EVERYDAY LIFE IN RENAISSANCE ENGLAND
(revised and expanded version of the volume published by Writer's Digest Books in 1996)
click on the cover to order

"Even if you're not writing historical fiction, this volume is full of fascinating period information."
(Booklist)

"An invaluable reference book for scholars of the Renaissance
as well as for librarians, genealogists, and Women's Studies specialists."
(Virginian Pilot and Ledger-Star)

For some additions and corrections to the 1984 edition click on the button.

PLEASE NOTE: This book was written in 1980 and published in 1984. With the advent of the Internet and search tools like Google Books, many more resources became readily available to those unable or unwilling to brave dusty public records offices, search out private collections of documents, or locate dusty tomes published in the nineteenth century. Information on the women written about in this volume should be looked at as a starting point and nothing more. Many of the entries contain outdated or incorrect (or contested) information. The publisher, without my input, continues to make the original work available through print on demand. I hope, in the future, to put online a series of mini-biographies of some of the subjects I included in 1980, adding accounts of other interesting women I've discovered since then, but at the moment this project is in the "hobby" category. Don't expect to see anything any time soon.

© 2008 Kathy Lynn Emerson. All rights reserved.
Last updated 6/1/2008