By Emily Wright

My journey in historical fiction began in the 3rd grade, when my best friend introduced me to the American Girlseries. For those not familiar with the franchise, American Girl is a collection of books about fictional girls aged 10-11 who live in different eras of history, from the American Revolution to World War II. The stories deal with challenges that even modern girls face: troubles at school, changes within the family, learning how to make the right choices. My friend and I begged our parents to buy us our own American Girl doll. After our success at pleading, we played with our dolls nearly every day together, acting out the books and adding our own plotlines. I became so engrossed in the American Girl series that I began to write my own, making myself and my best friend the main characters. In my series, we lived during the 1800s, having our own adventures, learning valuable lessons along the way.

I then became introduced to the Dear America book series. Like American Girl, these books also told the story of young girls throughout history, but with a twist: each book was written as a first-person diary entry. Once more, the more I read, the more I wanted to write my own stories. I mimicked the style of the Dear America books, but I no longer put myself in the stories. Instead, I began researching various eras of history so that I could create my own characters and put them in an accurate historical setting.

The Royal Diaries series, an offshoot of Dear America, is a collection of fictional diaries told from the first-person perspective of real-life princesses throughout history, such as:  Elizabeth I, Isabel of Castile, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and Anastasia Romanov. These books have a full biography at the end, complete with collections of photographs. After I read each book, I conducted my own research just for fun to quench my curiosity. I still have the books in this series and go back to them often, flipping through pages and rereading them every so often.

History captured my imagination, and I have been reading and writing historical fiction ever since. It is how I learned to conduct my own research, but it also gave me the drive to portray characters in such a way that they feel human. My desire is to show readers that people throughout history have gone through the exact same challenges we face today. We all share a common connection: the human experience. We are them. They are us. What are some books from your childhood that have influenced your taste in books and/or your writing?

Known for her page-turner stories and well-developed characters, Emily Wright is a writer of Christian historical fiction. She is the author of the Trials of the Heart series (Trial of Strength, Trial by Fire, and Trial of Courage) and has also been published in The Copperfield Review and The Tennessee Magazine. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, daughter, and Labrador retriever.