Who doesn’t love a kick-ass heroine? Today, author Hope Tarr joins us to relate some tales of real-life kick-ass historical heroines, some of whom could have served as models for Hope’s heroines. Hope’s delicious book Tempting is now available at a low price for your e-reader. Thanks for joining us, Hope!
Authors writing historical romance today are frequently called to task for sacrificing historical accuracy to modern sensibilities, authenticity to character-building and plot. There’s even a term for it, coined by Jane Litte of Dear Author: the “mistorical”—shorthand for mistaken historical. Starting in 2011, the popular review site uses “mistorical” as a tag to designate “all manner of historically inauthentic and inaccurate books on the blog—a catchall term that can be used for books of any time period or any type of mistaken, misused, mythologized, missing, or otherwise inaccurately portrayed historicism.”
I like the “mistorical” designation. I like it a lot. It also brings up a question. Are historical romance authors who write strong, dare I say ballsy, heroines fudging facts—and writing mistoricals—in the service of pandering to the popular taste?
