In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, my guest on BookNotes this month is the historical novelist and preservationist Sharon Virts, whose six-part saga Fields of Honor, set during the first half of the 1800s, is grounded in historical fact.
Transcript
Judith: In celebration of America's 250th anniversary, my guest on Book Notes this month is historical novelist and preservationist Sharon Virts. She is in the process of writing a six-book series called Fields of Honor. Book number two, Bargains of Fate, is out now, and it's such a pleasure to have Sharon on the line. Welcome to Book Notes.
Sharon Virts: Thank you for having me today, Judith.
Judith: I don't think that we can really talk about the book without talking about Selma, because that's obviously been seminal in how you have been inspired to write this series. So can you just give me an idea of your love affair with this old home?
Sharon Virts: Well, it started when I first saw it. It was dilapidated, falling apart, and ridden with vandals, vines, and varmints, and it just spoke to me. It had such rich history. It was built originally by a grandnephew of George Mason IV, who was the father of our Bill of Rights in the United States. I just had to have it; I thought it needed me as much as I needed it.
So I convinced my husband to purchase it together, and as we uncovered the walls from all the filth and destruction during the renovation, we uncovered these wonderful stories of the people who lived there. It has been the inspiration of this particular series and of all my novels to date.
Judith: The question when one is writing historical fiction is: to what extent do you imagine the characters from the reality and fact of their having lived?
Sharon Virts: Well, what I tend to do is first uncover the story. There has to be an overarching plot—where we start and where we end. As I get into the characters, I love to research who they were. I look at ancestry records, their writings, the people they surrounded themselves with, birth order—all those kinds of factors.
I look at the story and the role that they played in it. It really comes down to staying true to the spirit of the story and to the spirit as I believe they lived. For example, a man who was orphaned at the age of ten is going to have a different perspective than a man who had both parents living into his adulthood. When you uncover those old wounds and scars, you begin to piece together their reactions and behaviors based on their actual circumstances of life before they even appear on the page.
Judith: I've been speaking to Sharon Virts, and her website is called The Art of Living History. Full details about the mansion of Selma, the reality of these characters, and her six-book series, Fields of Honor, are to be found there. Sharon, thank you so much for this extraordinary saga that you are uncovering.
Sharon Virts: Thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciated talking to you and to your listeners.
