Local author finds niche for Revolutionary War novels
Christine Blevins was on a trip to Scotland about 10 years ago when she had her first idea for a novel.
"I went home and bought a notebook and started writing - handwriting - the story," Blevins said. "It never got published. It was the first thing I wrote."
Blevins, 52, of Elmhurst, is now an author with two novels published and a deal for two more. Her works, including her most recent novel "The Tory Widow" (Berkley, $15), combine her lifelong interest in history with her more recently found interest in storytelling.
They also hit on a topic not too common in the realm of historical fiction: American history, specifically the Revolutionary War period.
"American history novels are not as in vogue as novels about British or European history these days," said Sarah Johnson, book review editor for Historical Novels Review. "They're presently pretty rare and that enables authors to carve out their own niche if they're writing about the period but it's also a challenge because they're not part of an established trend."
Blevins' topic of choice does not buck all historical fiction trends, however. Johnson said writing about strong female protagonists has been popular in the past few years.
"The Tory Widow" tells the story of a woman who runs a print shop in British-occupied New York City at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Blevins' main characters are fictional, but George Washington, James Rivington and other real people from the pages of history also make appearances.
"The focus isn't so much on the characters - although the characters are important and their stories are important and they're real to me - it's more about the time period," Blevins said. "I really like stories about ordinary people and how they reacted."
Blevins said she uses her fictional characters to bring readers back to events that truly happened, such as the first public reading in New York City of the Declaration of Independence, which occurred July 9, 1776.
Being a printer gives Anne, the main character in "The Tory Widow," a reason to be present at the reading, and lets Blevins describe how rioters broke down a statue of King George and later made pieces of it into musket balls to fire at British soldiers.
"There's all of those kinds of tidbits in the book that are little lost bits of American history that I like to resurrect and put back into our consciousness and make us feel good about our origins," Blevins said.
A graphic designer by trade with a day job in marketing for a construction company, Blevins finds time to write in the evenings. She visits each location she writes about and conducts research at the Elmhurst Public Library.
"When I'm actually dreaming up the characters, I work in longhand still," she said. "It's kind of like design for me, like when I have to design a concept for a brochure or something, I start with pencil and paper. I'm kind of old school."
Blevins, a mother of four, is in the process of writing two sequels to "The Tory Widow" that will follow the same main characters through the rest of the Revolutionary War.
"There are not a lot of fiction books about the American Revolution," Blevins said. "I'm excited to be doing books about American history."