History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

Trick #1: The sympathetic character
Always make your protagonist the most sympathetic character in the story. Remember that the reader unconsciously judges her every action (and every word), and in order to care about what happens to her, must like her.
(excerpted from an e-mail to A Writer Friend) She -- the sympathetic character -- allows us to look at all the other nasty, crazy characters in the story from a safe space.  That's why I wrote THE BORGIA BRIDE from Sancha's point of view instead of Lucrezia's.

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.