The HEA Cafe

It’s 2009.

Stop and think about that for a moment–the year is 2009.  I was born in the middle of the 20th century.  I’m living in the future I used to read about in science fiction, though that does raise the question, “If it’s 2009, where’s my flying car?”

Regardless, it is an amazing time to be alive.  I recall attending a SF convention some years back where there was a panel called “What we didn’t predict”.  One of the items I remember from that discussion was personal computers.  Despite Star Trek’s tricorders, there was almost no writing in science fiction about portable personal computers.  Now we live in an age where my son carries a smaller than pocket-size computer that makes phone calls–the iPhone.

I think this is one reason I enjoy writing historicals.  I’m not a Luddite, far from it.  I enjoy waking up in the morning, popping in contact lenses that correct my vision, turning on a tap confident I’ll get clean and hot water, and turning on a machine that allows me near instant communication with people around the world at an affordable cost.

But when I’m writing a historical, I know I’ll enjoy the research, partly because it helps me appreciate the time in which I live.  One of the books I’m using for my new WIP is called Medical Firsts by Robert E. Adler, and I found this passage on the germ theory of disease:

“Germs cause disease. This simple idea is so much a part of our thinking that it seems as self-evident as gravity…the humdrum basics of medicine–…a quick swipe with an alcohol-soaked wad of cotton before an injection–can seem more like rituals than the lifesaving offspring of a profound concept.”

He’s right. There’s so much we do now that we take for granted, it’s good to refresh our memories as to why these “rituals” are important and why they made such a difference in our world.

At the same time, I don’t want to fall into the trap in my historicals of giving my characters knowledge before their time.  If my surgeon hero bleeds a patient, it’s because he’s practicing state-of-the-art medicine–for his time.  I get annoyed with writers who feel compelled to insert anachronistic information into their historicals because they believe no true hero would bleed an injured man or treat syphilis with mercury.Cover via Amazon

I have little doubt that 100 years from now readers will be looking at the 20th century and saying, “Can you believe it?  They used to treat tumors with poison chemicals, cut them out with knives and burn them with radiation!  How could they have been so benighted?”

I enjoy the research involved in historicals because it’s not only educational for me in crafting my characters and scenes, it reminds me of how much I have now, and what a fortunate person I am.  And if you don’t believe you’re fortunate as well, pause for a moment the next time you go to flush your toilet, and think about what that action would have involved in 1809–both the action of obtaining water in the first place, and disposing of waste afterwards.

I’m glad it’s 2009.  But I still want a flying car.