Straight from the Source: Linda Joan Smith on Writing Historical Fiction

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

For The Peach Thief, what came first for me was a place—an earl’s walled kitchen garden in Lancashire, England—and then a time: 1850. There was a reason for that—I had purchased an antique garden book that once belonged to a gardener who lived and worked in Lancashire in the 1850s. After reading the book itself—which was an advanced instruction book on walled kitchen gardening—I knew I wanted to set a story in just such an amazing place. There’s no doubt that I was influenced in this choice by my own childhood love of The Secret Garden; I wanted to introduce a new generation of readers to the magic of walled gardens.

I think most of my story ideas start that way, with a place or event that I find myself so fascinated by that I want to spend a lot of time there, learning everything I can. Even now, there’s more I’d like to learn about the setting of The Peach Thief.

How do you conduct your research? 

A great deal of my research is done by reading books or articles by experts in the subject matter, along with books and other source materials that are contemporary with the time period of the story. Memoirs and diaries are of particular help in transporting me back in time; they give me a sense of both the people of the era as well as what they experienced firsthand. I also find it helpful to read novels published in the past that illuminate the place and time period, if possible. Along with Jane Austen, whose books are set earlier in the 19^th century, I read a lot of Dickens during the writing of The Peach Thief; he includes so many wonderful details that are no longer part of our contemporary experience, and yet the people he writes about are so very much like people today. I am a big fan of David Copperfield, and tried to pay homage to two favorite characters in that story while writing mine. I also read parts of several Elizabeth Gaskell novels and re-read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, which were helpful for their northern settings. Finally, I used experts as well as ordinary people with particular expertise to review parts or all of the book and suggest edits and corrections in places I where I had gotten things wrong.

Do you have a specific system for collecting data? 

I wish I could say I have a brilliant system! Mine is improving, but not yet ideal. A lot of the reading I do is for general background knowledge, and for that I scribble notes on yellow legal pads, then review those notes as I write. Now that I write and revise primarily in Scrivener, I am trying to take advantage of the program’s features to link specific facts directly to their sources early on. When I am at final draft stage, I include informal footnotes in one story file, so that as questions arise from my publisher during the editing process I can more easily answer them. I also keep a list of archaic or dialect-specific words, with usage sources noted. There are definitely times that I have to re-research items, and for that, I find the advanced search function on Google Books a help, particularly for relocating facts in obscure periodicals. I aspire to find more efficient and effective methods!

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

In writing the very first draft of The Peach Thief, I didn’t research long enough. As a result, the initial chapters, and my vision of the world I was trying to bring to life, had to undergo serious surgery as my research progressed. The first chapters of the published story don’t resemble the originals at all! So, I learned that ideally, a writer needs to have a general base knowledge of the factual historic world before beginning to write. However, there are times when the opportunity to write is upon you and the enthusiasm for the story high and you must plunge ahead, knowing that you may not get things right the first time out. That’s what revision is for, after all. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about writing over time it is that stories are infinitely malleable. It still seems like magic to me, the power a writer has to shape and change a story!

How does your research continue once you begin writing?

Some research continues to the very end of the writing and editing process. It must, because during revision things change, and new language or elements may be needed that have to be researched. As text is cut, important nuances can shift and more research is required to make sure I’ve still got things right. In addition, final checks of manuscripts by expert readers, copy editors, or proof readers may raise questions—tough questions—that require research to shed ample light. And for me, research continues; my interest in the historical world of The Peach Thief hasn’t waned just because the book is done.

What is your favorite thing about research?

I love broadening my understanding of the past and the people who experienced it, people who are so similar to you and me today, with their own worries, pressures, ambitions, hopes, joys, and sorrows. And research can get you un-mired when you’re stuck. I think it was Calkins Creek Books editor Carolyn P. Yoder who suggested that if you’re stuck in your writing, you need to do more research, and largely I’ve found that to be true. When my imagination fails me, the fruits of research—discovering real things that actually happened or existed—can provide inspiration for a fresh and exciting direction in which to take a scene or a story. It’s a great excuse to take a deep dive down research rabbit holes, which I think most writers of historical fiction love to do. 

What’s your least favorite thing about research?

Keeping track of it in a way that is easy to access while drafting and fact-checking a story.

What’s your favorite thing about writing historical fiction?

I’ve often felt I was born in the wrong time, so writing historical fiction is a way of living a different life—in a different era—through my characters, and of helping young readers to do the same. Together we can imagine what people in earlier times may have experienced without having to endure the attendant hardships they survived. Reading and writing about the past is the only current way we have to travel through time, and I’m thrilled to be able to do that whenever I sit down to write, or to read other historical fiction.

What are some obstacles writing historical fiction brings?

Anachronisms are a continual challenge; I was determined to weed these out of The Peach Thief. The same was true for ridding the book of Americanisms, given the story’s English setting. Both were a challenge; fingers crossed there are none left! I often used the Google n-gram viewer to track word usage through the appropriate decades, and make sure that a particular word was in use in 1850. I was able to find many sources for words using the n-gram viewer that predated the earliest cited entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, which I also used to research certain words. However, it was vital to read the actual source material that contained a particular word of interest, as many usages have changed since the 1850s. 

What sorts of decisions have you had to make about “muddy” historical figures or events, in order for your book to work?

I wanted to have the historical figure of Prince Albert come to visit the garden in The Peach Thief in March of 1851. That year, he did visit Knowsley, the historic country estate where the fictional garden is set, and no doubt visited the kitchen garden, but he didn’t do so until October, when he and Queen Victoria passed through Lancashire on their way back to London from Balmoral. I altered the timing and circumstances of his visit to suit the story.

Why is historical fiction important? 

As a kid, reading historical fiction was a way for me to experience life in a completely different time and place, and to effortlessly accrue understanding about people and events that in school seemed dry and boring. I think it’s the same for many young readers today. The best historical fiction isn’t just about dates, or battles, or even famous figures, but about people just like the readers themselves—or completely different from them—who were faced with circumstances and challenges that today’s kids can hardly imagine. These books give readers an appreciation for what other people have experienced and overcome throughout time, how much has changed (or hasn’t), as well as an enhanced appreciation for the life and freedoms we now enjoy. Perhaps most importantly, those stories can ignite a life-long interest in history—an intense curiosity about the past—that can greatly expand a kid’s understanding of the world and their place in it. And—fingers crossed—they get to read a compelling, can’t-put-it-down story while they do all of that!

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Linda Joan Smith is the author of The Peach Thief, an upper middle-grade historical novel from Candlewick Press (March 2025). She loves to time travel via the magic of books, and writes about the past for today’s young readers so that they can do the same. A food fanatic, gardener, aspiring artist, library supporter, parent, partner, and archivist at heart, Linda formerly worked as editor of Country Home magazine, freelanced for other national publications, and wrote garden books from her home on California’s central coast. She now dreams of making a difference to kids and teens, one story at a time.