Some Things Do Change

One of the cool facts about writing historical fiction is how little things have changed since the 1740s I write about. Certainly people haven’t changed.

But sometimes, things do change, which makes it uncomfortable for me at times. In my sequel to A FALSE DAWN, my main character, Louise and her family and friends are facing a freezing winter in the midwest. They need shelter, but they also need the warmth of beaver skins made into capes and coats. If they’re not wearing fur, they’ll die. Well, today, we have alternatives to fur. So nobody needs to wear it.

Things have changed about weapons, too, since the 1740s. Another key to the survival of Louise and her family is ready access to guns, particularly rifles. People arming themselves, and being ready to shoot, was necessary when there were no police or even soldiers around to enforce order. Some people today think that things haven’t changed about owning guns. But a citizen-army, armed and ready to shoot, is the last thing we need today.

It’s fun to make the point, in my novels and lectures, that little has changed about people since the 1740s. As long as I never forget that, in the last two hundred years, some things have had to change. For the good of all of us.