Category Archives: Historical Fiction

On December 14th, 2011 Irene Watson and Tyler R. Tichelaar spoke with romance author, publisher, and entrepreneur Donna Winters about writing regional historical romances. Donna Winters and her husband Fred Winters are the owners of Bigwater Publishing. Since 1989 they have released 15 of Donna’s historical romances for ages 12 and up under the Great Lakes Romances imprint. We covered a wide-range of topics from writing to marketing, including:

Historical romances vs. contemporary romances
Research methods
Historical characters
Images
Names
Character development
Historical dialog
Historical costumes
Historical transportation

Donna Winters

Donna adopted Michigan as her home state in 1971 when she moved from a small town outside of Rochester, New York. She began penning novels in 1982 while working full time for an electronics firm in Grand Rapids.She resigned from her job in 1984 following a contract offer for her first book. Since then, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Zondervan Publishing House, Guideposts, and Bigwater Publishing have published her novels. Her husband, Fred, a former American History teacher, shares her enthusiasm for history. Together, they visit historical sites, restored villages, museums, and lake ports, purchasing books and reference materials for use in Donna’s research.

Donna has lived all of her life in states bordering on the Great Lakes. Her familiarity and fascination with these remarkable inland waters and her residence in the heart of Great Lakes Country in Upper Michigan, make her the perfect candidate for writing Great Lakes Romances®.

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Susan Violante – Writing Your Book with Oral History Techniques

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On October 5th, 2011 Victor R. Volkman and Donna Winters spoke with writer, broadcaster, and historical fiction writer Susan Violante about incorporating research from oral history into fiction and non-fiction contexts. In 2010, she published her Young Adult novel Innocent War: Behind and Immigrant’s Past — Book One. She currently works as the Editorial Assistant for Reader Views and First Chapter Plus. During the course of her writing she used tapes her father recorded as well as one-on-one interviews to flesh out the events, characters, and emotions that she hoped to capture in her book. In this wide-ranging discussion, we covered those issues and much more:

Researching for your book
Benefits of Interviewing as a research tool when writing any story
Different Interviewing tools and techniques.
Quick tips to interview like a professional.
How to use your story’s research to Market your book.
Creating Podcasts using recorded interviews done during story research.
Using your contacts generated through story research to promote your book.

Susan Violante

Born and raised in Venezuela from Italian immigrants, author Susan Violante completed a BA degree in Political and Administrative Cs. and worked as Founding General Director of a Environmental Foundation before moving to the US. Although she built a career as a Business Analyst/Accountant since 1987, she also kept herself active as a Freelance writer. In 2010 Violante finally retired from Accounting and leaped to the publishing industry. She is also finishing her first picture book titled Tuma: The Little Indian Princess while working on Book 2 of her Series. Susan is also the host of I Have Something to Say LIVE, and soon to be Managing Editor of her newest project: I Have Something To Say Press. Her new radio show: Italian Austinite will go on the air through Blogtalk radio at the end of October.

Innocent War

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Category Archives: Historical Fiction

Creating a Local Historical Book: Fiction and Non-Fiction Genres

Donna Winters – Writing Regional Historical Romances

Susan Violante – Writing Your Book with Oral History Techniques