Index
Discover more from Long Ago & Far Away
It’s been nearly five months since I launched this newsletter. I thought it a good time to build an index for what I’ve written thus far, giving newer readers easy access to the editions they missed along the way. And since most of these articles are “evergreen”, not dependent on the lightning-flash moves of current events, you can always comment on the ones that have gone before.
I’ve categorized them so you can check out the topics most interesting to you. Some are listed twice due to overlapping subjects.
My first post was called “Introduce Yourself” and I’d still love to hear from you if you are willing to tell me and the other readers about your interests in historical fiction or any other thing that you want us to know.
I will pin The Index to the top of the online site for easy reference for those who visit Substack directly and will update it from time to time. I may even expand the listing descriptions, but for now, I want to make it available.
The Index:
Prizes and Historical Fiction News:
2023 Walter Scott Prize For Historical Fiction: Here I drill down the list to those that are set outside of the US or UK, noting those most Long Ago & Far Away.
The 2023 International Booker Prize: This prize honors novels translated into English. I note those set far enough in the past to be considered historical fiction.
Historical Fiction on the 2023 Booker Long List: I love to see historical fiction getting high literary recognition. This year’s list had only three. And one was a close call—set in 1979! (Way too close for comfort!)
Historical Fiction Round-Up: In this article, I list six books I’ve noted as especially interesting to me and which have landed on my To Be Read pile, either as physical tomes or digital files. A wish list for my reading time.
Articles recording my observations of these texts:
The Gift of Rain—Tan Twan Eng
The Garden of Evening Mists—Tan Twan Eng
The Night Tiger—Yangsze Choo
The Ghost Bride—Yangsze Choo
Historical Fiction in Malaysia
Samarkand and The Rock of Tanios—Amin Maalouf
Tea & Opium: Sea of Poppies—Amitav Ghosh; For All the Tea in China—Sarah Rose (non-fiction)
Water for Elephants/West with Giraffes—Sara Gruen and Lynda Rutledge, respectively
When Trees Fall—Dale Mahfood
Of Wind & Wolves—J.M. Elliot
Historical Fiction Set in Certain Areas:
Historical Fiction in Malaysia
Memoir:
Hooked on History I—How I came to love history.
Hooked on History II—How I came to writing historical fiction
Water for Elephants/West with Giraffes—My response to these books in the context of caregiving
Creepy Houses—A silly seasonal memory
Work in Progress—Excerpts from my seventh-century novel:
WIP—Mariam and Hassan in the Agora
Miscellaneous:
Introduce Yourself!—A place to get to know you.
A Moment of Truth—Realizing that I can’t do everything
Sci-Friday Special Edition—Cats are Aliens—A silly response to a challenge by another Substack writer. (This one was not sent out to my email list but you might find it amusing)
Confessions and Cookbooks—Diversions from my To Be Read pile.
Index
Great idea. Headed to Introduce myself now!