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A young woman with light brown hair and eyes, wearing a chemise and a brown corset, while tying her blue-gray skirt stares shyly at the artist painting her

Writing: Measuring the Past

Writing post about using clothing measurements to test old theories about a historical character

cplesley

4 days ago4 min read

A woman runs in silhouette in front of a group of old-fashioned town houses, the London skyline dimly visible behind them and a pair of ravens in the sky; cover of Kristen Perrin's How to Cheat Your Own Death

Interview with Kristen Perrin

Interview with dual-timeline historical and contemporary mystery novelist Kristen Perrin, whose latest Castle Knoll mysteries has just come out with Kensington Books

cplesley

May 15 min read

A young woman with long, unbound red-blonde hair and a white complexion, wearing full Tudor royal regalia and holding an orb and scepter; coronation portrait of Elizabeth I

Writing: Those Darned Dates

On managing date sequences while writing historical fiction, with an example from the age of Elizabeth I and the author's own work in progress

cplesley

Apr 244 min read

A woman dressed in an old-fashioned white dress, her face obscured and her hands clasped sits against a dark backdrop streaked with rain; cover of Linda Hamilton's The Fourth Wife

New Books Network Interview: Linda Hamilton

New Books Network interview with historian and historical novelist Linda Hamilton, whose Gothic novel The Fourth Wife recently came out with Kensington Books

cplesley

Apr 172 min read

A puzzled-looking woman with dark brown hair bites her thumb as she reads a notebook

Writing: One Step Forward

Writing, then recognizing and removing, backstory from a forthcoming novel

cplesley

Apr 104 min read

A brown-haired woman in a bright blue 18th-century style dress, seen from the back, holds a basket of ripe fruit and stands in a meadow, facing a city on a hill; cover of Stephanie Dray's and Laura Kamoie's A Founding Mother

Bookshelf, Spring 2026

Novels on my bookshelf in the spring of 2026, by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, Shana Galen, April Howells, Kristen Perrin, Caitlin Shetterly, and Marian Yee

cplesley

Apr 33 min read

A person in medieval armor, visible only as a stylized nose, mouth, and chin is lit against a black backdrop with the words "He fights for honor, she fights for love" in white beneath the figure; cover of Meg Wahlberg's Chivalry in the Shadows

New Books Network Interview: Meg Wahlberg

New Books Network interview with Meg Wahlberg about her debut novel, Chivalry in the Shadows, first in a new series

cplesley

Mar 272 min read

A woman's face tilted back so she's looking at the sky slowly bleeds in blue ink into the jade green background; cover of The Fountain by Casey Scieszka

Interview with Casey Scieszka

Interview with the author Casey Scieszka, whose magical realist novel The Fountain was published by Harper in March 2026

cplesley

Mar 204 min read

Portrait of an Unknown Woman, 1590s, by the artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, once believed to be Elizabeth I

Once a Historian

On using my skills as a historian to inform a standalone novel in progress

cplesley

Mar 125 min read

A man's hand, holding an open book with green leather binding, against a black background; cover of Kevin Ashton's The Story of Stories

Interview with Kevin Ashton

Interview with nonfiction writer Kevin Ashton, whose multi-millennial history of storytelling, then and now, just came out with Harper.

cplesley

Mar 65 min read

Clip art of a computer containing a row of four books in different-colored bindings

Writing Fiction with AI

On questions raised by some authors' decisions to use artificial intelligence (AI) to produce their novels

cplesley

Feb 273 min read

Drawing of old-fashioned sailing ships on a river against a background of wooden houses and a vast, cloudy sky; cover of Sandra Freels, Anneke Jans in the New World

New Books Network Interview: Sandra Freels

New Books Network interview with Sandra Freels, whose debut novel, Anneke Jans in the New World, came out in January 2026 from She Writes Press

cplesley

Feb 202 min read

A young, dark-haired woman in a floor-length crimson gown stands in a garden, looking at a large gray mansion with only a few lighted windows; cover of Janie Chang's The Fourth Princess

Interview with Janie Chang

Author interview with Janie Chang, whose latest historical novel, The Fourth Princess, came out in early February 2026 from William Morrow.

cplesley

Feb 125 min read

A young woman with short, blonde hair, dressed in rose pink, holds a jar of daffodils while another woman pushes a pram in the garden outside; cover of Rhys Bowen's From Cradle to Grave

Historical Mysteries, Part 3

Historical mystery series I love, part 3, featuring novels by Rhys Bowen, Dianne Freeman, Alison Goodman, Darcie Wilde, and P. Srigley

cplesley

Feb 64 min read

A hand holding a green leather-bound book, with a visible white cuff against a black background. The title The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art appears above, and the author's name, Kevin Ashton is written below.

Stories and Storytellers

Thoughts on stories and storytelling inspired by Kevin Ashton's nonfiction book "The Story of Stories," due out in March 2026 from Harper.

cplesley

Jan 303 min read

Against a background of blue-green water and sea plants outlined in gold, a woman in a long-skirted dress and a jacket, hands clasped behind her back, is silhouetted; cover of Linda Wilgus's The Sea Child

New Books Network Interview: Linda Wilgus

New Books Network interview with Linda Wilgus, author of The Sea Child, a historical novel set in early 19th-century Cornwell, just published by Ballantine Books

cplesley

Jan 232 min read

Novel Writing: Trouble with Titles

A writing post on the importance of titles and the difficulty, sometimes, of finding the right one for a particular novel

cplesley

Jan 162 min read

A woman with red, curly hair and brown eyes, dressed in a loose gown, embroidered shoes, and a tall hat with an attached veil, standing next to a deer and seen against a wooded background

Where Historical Fiction Shines

A discussion of historical fiction and its benefits, despite various difficulties caused by the lack of information

cplesley

Jan 93 min read

A woman in Elizabethan dress, including a large ruff and cut off above the nose; cover of Jennifer Ashley's Eloise and the Queen

Bookshelf, Winter 2026

Novels, mostly historical fiction, on my Winter 2026 bookshelf, by Jennifer Ashley, Janie Chang, Sandra Freels, Kaoru Mori, Casey Scieszka, and Linda Wilgus

cplesley

Jan 24 min read

Snow-covered fir trees against a blue sky shading into pink

Annual Roundup, 2025

Annual roundup of what I did in 2025 and hope to accomplish in 2026

cplesley

Dec 26, 20253 min read

C. P. Lesley, Novelist

Writing: Measuring the Past

Interview with Kristen Perrin

Writing: Those Darned Dates

New Books Network Interview: Linda Hamilton

Writing: One Step Forward

Bookshelf, Spring 2026

New Books Network Interview: Meg Wahlberg

Interview with Casey Scieszka

Once a Historian

Interview with Kevin Ashton

Writing Fiction with AI

New Books Network Interview: Sandra Freels

Interview with Janie Chang

Historical Mysteries, Part 3

Stories and Storytellers

New Books Network Interview: Linda Wilgus

Novel Writing: Trouble with Titles

Where Historical Fiction Shines

Bookshelf, Winter 2026

Annual Roundup, 2025