Download or read book Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders written by Susanne Alleyn and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is not a book on how to write historical fiction. It is a book on how not to write historical fiction.If you love history and you're hard at work on your first historical novel, but you're wondering if your medieval Irishmen would live on potatoes, if your 17th-century pirate would use a revolver, or if your hero would be able to offer Marie-Antoinette a box of chocolate bonbons . . .(The answer to all these is "Absolutely not!"). . . then Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders is the book for you.Medieval Underpants will guide you through the factual mistakes that writers of historical fiction0́4both beginners and professionals0́4most often make, and show you how to avoid them. From fictional characters crossing streets that wouldn't exist for another sixty (or two thousand) years, to the pitfalls of the Columbian Exchange (when plants and foods native to the Americas first began to appear in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and vice versa), to 1990s slang in the mouths of 1940s characters, Susanne Alleyn exposes the often hilarious, always painful goofs that turn up most frequently in fiction set in the past.Alleyn stresses the hazards to writers of assuming too much about details of life in past centuries, providing numerous examples of mistakes that could easily have been avoided. She also explores commonly-confused topics such as the important difference between the British titles "Lord John Smith" and "John, Lord Smith" and why they're not interchangeable, and provides simple guidelines for getting them right. In a wide assortment of chapters including Food and Plants; Travel; Guns; Money; Hygiene; Dialogue; Attitudes; Research; and, of course, Underpants, she offers tips on how to avoid errors and anachronisms while continually reminding writers of the necessity of meticulous historical research.