Dear Reader
I just wanted to let you all know how happy I was to be asked to contribute to the Dear Canada series and how much I enjoyed writing Winter of Peril. As a child, I loved historical fiction — not because it "taught" me anything but because it allowed me to immerse myself in some long ago world. The Dear Canada concept seems to me to be perfect in this way. The stories have to include so much of daily living, but it is the characters who are important — the joys and sorrows, adventures, hopes, dreams of this one child in that one time.
And life for children truly was different "way back when." Sophie Loveridge, my character, for instance, comes from an age when the children of the rich were waited upon while the children of those who were poorer were seen often as "another pair of hands." When Sophie is drawn into that other, less-privileged, life she finds herself with tremendous responsibilities unknown to the children of our particular era.
Writing historical fiction, of course, involves research. For me, as the author, the scariest part of that was recognizing that — try as I might — there were questions I would not even know enough to ask. For example, I came upon the fact that in the early eighteenth century England was still using the Julian calendar and thus had a dating system that was unlike that used in many other parts of Europe, simply by chance. So what else did I miss?
And what else is it almost impossible to find out? Who writes the records? Perhaps you would like to think about how I had to choose a character who was at least fairly well off financially. If she had not been, she would not have been able to keep a journal at all, for she would not have been able to read or write. Inevitably, there are tremendous gaps when it comes to knowing how certain sectors of society felt.
For the author, research and imagination have to go together. There is no other way. Nor would I have it otherwise. I loved creating Sophie and living with her in that cove in Newfoundland all those months. I hope you will love being with her too.
Here's to reading! Here's to history!
With all good wishes,
- Jan Andrews
