Choosing a Rock

[madrobins]

I've been thinking a lot lately about using history or historical figures in fiction. As I argue today at the Book View Café blog, I believe a writer has to take a stand in the story (and therefore in her own mind) about the people they're writing about. Shakespeare's Richard III is a helluva villain but doe not, I believe, reflect the realio-trulio Richard III. In the Sarah Tolerance books I write rather sympathetically about the Prince of Wales--I have felt for years that he was set up by fate, culture, and his father to fail as a king, which he kind of did. History is written by the people who win, or own the presses, or have the power or the loudest voice. A writer doesn't have to take the dominant historical story for gospel--but she does have to figure out what story she's telling, and why.

At least, that's my rock, and I'm standin' on it. What's your rock?