Interview with Sarah Johnson/Last Chance for the Treasure Hunt!

Photo from a past Historical Novel Society Conference
Pictured l-r: Sharan Newman, Clyde Linsley, Albert Bell, Louise Hawes, Stephanie Cowell, and Rosemary Poole-Carter, talking about genre vs. literary historical fiction.

I hope you're having fun, and I hope that some of these topics have encouraged you to go back into the archives and read posts and interviews that you may have missed. Once again Deborah and Becky were 100% correct! Great job!

Yesterday's answers, the short version:

*Tricia Goyer, September 13. She's a great teacher.

*Juilene Osborne-McKnight, August 9—I discovered I spelled her name wrong in her interview. My apologies. I was hoping I would have stumped you on this one since this could have been said by a number of us!

*Katie Hart, on June 26—our first day. We have yet to cover this subject, but I have some ideas!

*Stephen Lawhead, September 29. I think we would all like to have said this.

*J.M. Hochstetler, July 8. It's great to have readers identify with a character that you can carry across to another book.

*me again, August 11. It's a passion for me that people not take everything they read on the Internet as gospel.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

Whose novel was named Junior Library Guild selection in 2005?

Which author said, “Today, those of us living in our comfortable homes in the U.S. feel few affects from the war in Iraq or the war on terror and can easily give it no thought at all unless we know someone serving in the military. Which is another reason I wanted to honor the families of our brave servicemen and women.”

INTERVIEW WITH SARAH JOHNSON FROM THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

Thanks, Sarah, for joining us on PASTimes. Tell us who the Historical Novel Society is for?

And thanks for the invitation! The HNS is geared toward any and all
enthusiasts of historical fiction. This includes, but isn't limited to,
authors (published and not), general readers, publishers, agents, and
librarians. With our publications, conferences, discussion list, etc., we
try to offer plenty of content for everyone.

How did you become associated with the society?

Eight years ago, I saw a Usenet post in which Richard Lee, founder/publisher
of the HNS, mentioned the Society. As an avid historical fiction reader, I
was curious to learn more, so I emailed him for details. At the time, both
the Historical Novels Review (HNR) and Solander, the two HNS publications,
were pretty UK-focused, so I saw it as a good way to learn about novels and
authors I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. A couple years later, when
Richard began looking to expand the HNR's coverage to the US, I officially
signed on as American coordinating editor.

Who are some of the better known names among your members?

We do have a fair number of well-known author members, but to answer this
question as comprehensively as possible, I'll point PASTimes readers to our
member websites page at
http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/member-websites.htm. We have about
900 members in all, so this is just a small portion, mainly those with
websites we know about.

About what percentage of members are in the US as compared to the UK? Is the
society focused on one country more than the other?

About 90% of the members are from the US or UK, with a pretty even split
between them. We also have smaller contingents in Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and elsewhere in Europe. The staff at both HNS magazines reflects
the international focus. HNR's editors live in England, Scotland, and the
US, and Solander's editors reside in Canada, the US, England, and Australia. Having members around the world gives us a large "panel of experts" to draw from.

That said (and as you mention in the next question) HNR aims for
comprehensive book review coverage only for the UK and US. At the moment,
we're reviewing more US-published novels than British, simply because the
genre's undergoing a renaissance here.

The society publishes the Historical Novels Review magazine. The magazine's aim is to review every new work of historical fiction published in the US and the UK. How is that achieved?

Each of the nine review editors for the HNR works with a specific group of
publishers. Based on the catalog descriptions, we request review
copies/ARCs of everything relevant. We also keep an eye out for novels from
new publishers. I regularly scan Amazon and Amazon UK, pre-pub review
sources like Kirkus, Publishers Marketplace, blogs, etc., for mentions of
other new or upcoming novels, so that we can try to obtain review copies.
This system has been working pretty well.

Besides a subscription to the Historical Novels Review, what are some benefits to being a member?

I'd be lax if I didn't mention Solander, HNR's sister publication, which comes out twice a year (the HNR is quarterly). While the HNR has book reviews and short interviews/features, Solander includes lengthier profiles, interviews, articles, industry pieces, and short fiction.

I already spoke a bit about HNS's international focus, which to me is a great benefit. The Internet makes it easy to purchase novels from around the world, and personally, if I hear about a book I want to read, I don't care where it was published. We also review many small press and self-published novels (the latter, in our online review annex) that people may not see in stores.

But perhaps the greatest benefit is being part of a wider community with a shared set of interests. I've met a number of wonderful people through the Society, and many have become good friends. I think many of our members can say the same.

This is a great benefit of Internet groups in general. Do you know of any other organizations like yours?

No, not really - there are smaller groups that focus on individual historical novelists, but HNS is the only organization focusing on historical fiction as a whole that I know of.

Tell us a little about the society's upcoming conference in Albany, NY.

I'm very excited about our Albany conference, because our last event was incredibly energizing. It will be held on June 8-10, 2007, and we'll be offering a diverse program. We'll have over 60 speakers and panelists, including our author guests of honor, Diana Gabaldon and Bernard Cornwell. For writerly types, we're bringing in editors and agents who'll be available for appointments. A new feature for 2007 will be our Saturday night historical revue, with novelists as performers. Complete details can be found at the conference website,
http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/albany/conference.htm .

Cindy: The conference registration is now open. I'm still waiting on a couple of things in my schedule to work out, but I'm hoping to be able to go. This conference happens every other year. Anyone else planning on going?
Don't forget to check back tomorrow to find out who won the autographed copy of Francine Rivers's The Prophet. If the winner doesn't contact me, he/she will not get the book. Don't let that happen!!