History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

I do Google myself at times to get a feel what readers are saying, and I’ve learned that many of you appreciated the afterword I wrote for THE BORGIA BRIDE. (When I wrote early scenes in that novel, I thought, “Everyone’s going to think that I came up with the unbelievable, gruesome notion that Sancha’s grandfather kept a ‘museum’ of his mummified enemies.” Also, the Borgias’ behavior often strained credibility, so I wanted my readers to know that the more fantastic parts of the novel weren’t just the result of a histrionic imagination.)

Quite honestly, I was late delivering I, MONA LISA and didn’t have time to write an afterword again. So here’s a bit of “insider information,” if you will, about the way I put the story together.

I often hear the question: “How much of what you write in your historical novels is actually true?”*

A lot. At the beginning stages of a book, I sit down with all the reliable recorded information that I can find about my hero. I write a timeline of notable events in the woman’s life, then study up on the most important people in her life and how they interacted with her.

Then I meditate on those things, and using those events and people, come up with a dramatic overlay of a plot with a strong theme and gradually-building conflict. It’s usually pretty easy to spot the most crucial moment in my protagonist’s life, and the big pay-off centers around that moment. In most cases, I focus on a particularly dramatic time in my character’s life; right now, with THE BLOODIEST QUEEN, I’m tackling Catherine de’ Medici’s entire earthly existence.

Okay, here's a charmingly useless and silly site for those of you who enjoyed I, MONA LISA (aka PAINTING MONA LISA outside the U.S.)

My favorite one? The first one, Mona meets Frank.