Authenticity in World Building
by morgan on Jan.09, 2010, under Naomi Novik
Naomi, you say, “they set up the steampunky universe and vaguely-bruiser Holmes well both in the trailers and in the opening — the whole thing had a brush of fantasy.”
I started thinking about your own work and how you integrate the familiar (Britain, China, etc.) with the fantastic to create something new. What do you find to be the biggest advantage of using historical places over ones entirely fictional?
Also, if you choose to use a historical location, do you feel compelled to achieve a level of authenticity? Is that one of your bigger challenges when writing?
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