Nuts & Bolts: Gregory Frost on Writing Historically Based Fiction
By Tom Joyce
When tackling historically based fiction, how do you split the workload between research and writing time? How do you please both casual readers and history buffs? Author Gregory Frost recently had to face those challenges three times in rapid succession with his time-hopping horror/science fiction Rhymer series. His latest is a “haunted White House” novel titled The Secret House, out this month. For the latest installment of Nuts & Bolts, Gregory shares advice on doing research and mining historical fact for genre fiction.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how the idea for “The Secret House” developed?
A: Sure. A screenwriter friend approached me to see if I might be interested in writing a “haunted White House” novel. He’d been in conversation with two Lionsgate film producers who had the idea that they wanted to see such a novel. Joe, my pal, didn’t want to write the novel, and thought I might. That became a very deep rabbit hole that I dove into. We both immediately dismissed obvious choices, in particular the Lincoln White House. I went off and started looking at pre-Civil War presidencies, seeking a presidency with the right…let’s say, atmosphere. So the preliminary research in this case was to identify a situation out of which a haunted house could manifest.
When I got to John Tyler, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. First, most people don’t know much of anything about the Tyler presidency. A few people I queried came back with “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” and they had next to no notion of what that even referenced. Tyler’s situation was unique: He was the first president to succeed one who’d died in office; he was a “state’s rights” defender at odds with his own party, which disowned him—members wrote hyperbolic “hit” pieces on him that stirred mobs into attacking the White House, forcing Tyler to hire bodyguards, the first iteration of the Secret Service. And the White House itself was a rotting mess at that point, too.
What really cemented the deal was a brief passage in a biography of Tyler that referenced William Still. Still was a conductor on the Philadelphia Underground Railroad who wrote thumbnail biographies of escaped slaves he met as they passed through the city on their way to freedom in Canada. One of the people Still interviewed was James Hambleton Christian, who claimed to have been a house slave in John Tyler’s White House. He claimed also to be the half-brother of Tyler’s infirm wife, Letitia Christian Tyler. Still described Christian as someone who could pass as, perhaps, Italian. And what Christian said was borne out by other research: Congress had withheld the funds for both maintenance and staffing of the White House, and a penurious Tyler had populated the house with his own slaves from Virginia. All of a sudden I had my protagonist, a series of shocking revelations without even tapping into the fantasy element, and my way into the story.
Q: When an idea like that comes along, how much time do you typically allot for historical research before writing? Do you have any advice about thoroughly researching a topic without letting it overwhelm your writing time?
A: I’m not certain there is a “typical” research approach. To me every project is different and requires different research. For instance, the Rhymer trilogy for Baen Books had me researching three different time periods and locales, one for each book: 12th century Scotland, 13th century Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest, and 16th century London, respectively. That’s because I have a sempiternal main character, with each novel taking place in a different time period.
With Shadowbridge, it was reading fairy tales and folk tales from all over the world with the intention of shaping my own tales that felt like what I read but were wholly original. With The Secret House, I had a specific year, a cast of characters, and a specific location, and so it was easy to start writing at the same time that I was researching. Frankly, I was researching aspects of the White House right up until the book was finished.
One of the real historical figures who appears in the book is Charles Dickens and his wife, who did visit Tyler while on his first American tour. Some time before this, I had read a book about Dickens’s obsession with hypnosis and how that obsession shattered his marriage—information that became critical here. This is why writers will say to you, read anything and everything that interests you. You never know what will eventually prove essential.
As for being overwhelmed, it’s easy to get so caught up in the research that it almost becomes an excuse not to start writing. “Oh, I need to know this, and this, and this…” There’s a point in researching where you’ve absorbed enough to see the shape of your story. When that happens, you need to start writing. The research continues as needed, but your story’s roughed out enough to outline or to begin writing, depending upon your method. You can easily be consumed by your research and never get around to writing the thing at all. Don’t let that happen.
Q: How do you strike a balance between historical accuracy and fictional elements?
A: I think I use the historical to blend the fictional. Historical research sort of enfolds or incorporates the fictional elements, so that they don’t stick out. They should feel a part of the time period and the place, as much as you can make them.
Q: How do you typically conduct historical research? Do you have any resources/tactics you could recommend?
A: One thing is to find reliable texts, or (depending on what you’re researching) maps, or diagrams — the layout of a house for instance, or a town. For instance, for information on London under Elizabeth I, Elizabeth’s London, by Liza Picard is the wellspring for almost everything you need to know, including fashion, prices, salaries paid, as well as clear information as to the layout of the city. It’s a book you cannot do without. Chances are, whatever you’re researching, someone else has found it fascinating, too, and maybe written a book or given a lecture on the topic. Second, if it applies, try to visit the place you’re writing about. When I was researching Fitcher’s Brides, I visited the Fingerlakes district, where it’s set. My wife and I stayed in a B&B, which just happened to have a self-published book in their library about the history of the region. It was sheer synchronicity.
Q: Do you have any overall advice for beginning writers who might want to try a historically based novel?
Don’t cut corners. Watch for elements that surprise you. You’ll often find richer and more amazing elements in the research than in anything you might fabricate out of whole cloth. Historical fiction like fantasy or science fiction requires you to characterize the setting, because none of us live there. It’s all going to be new to us.
A: Do you have any projects you’d like HWA members to know about?
Along with The Secret House, and the “Rhymer” books (Rhymer, Rhymer: Hoode, and Rhymer: Hel), which are dark fantasy with a strong helping of horror, I’ve a short story collection, Beyond Here Be Monsters, out from Fairwood Press, a collection that’s mostly horror, often leavened with humor.
Q: Where can people follow you online?
A:
- Website: www.gregoryfrost.com
- Facebook: gregory.frost1
- Blue Sky: @GregFrost.bsky.social
Gregory Frost
Gregory Frost’s latest works all seem to involve historical research. His most recent book is the historical horror novel The Secret House, from Journalstone. His “Rhymer” trilogy, featuring the character of Thomas the Rhymer and currently available from Baen Books, covers a time frame from the 12th to the 16th century. His short story collection, Beyond Here Be Monsters, in print from Fairwood Press, includes stories of the Trojan War and 19th century spiritualism.
He has been a finalist for Best Novel and/or Best Short Story for the World Fantasy, Stoker, Nebula, Hugo, James Tiptree, International Horror Guild and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. He taught the Fiction Writing Workshop at Swarthmore College for eighteen years, has taught at Clarion four times, and is a founding member, with Jonathan Maberry, of the Philadelphia Liars Club.
In conjunction with Book View Café cooperative online he has republished in ebook format the short story collection, The Girlfriends of Dorian Gray & Other Stories (originally from Golden Gryphon ), and the Bronze-age Celtic fantasy novels, Táin and Remscela.
Tom Joyce writes a monthly series called Nuts & Bolts for the Horror Writers Association’s blog, featuring interviews about the craft and business of writing. Please contact Tom at TomJHWA@gmail.com if you have suggestions for future interviews.
