1. The stuff won’t ever get dated. It’s already dated — it’s history!
2. A ready-made colorful, rich setting, ready to use. (Okay, so I am making it sound too easy. Research is hard work!)
3. The fun you can have with the language, some expressions that had been used, slang, etc.
4. I love tracing how a time and a place can affect people, and yet how, we humans are basically the same creatures, no matter when or where we come from.
5. Some editors/agents are wary of historical fiction, because supposedly “it just doesn’t sell.” (Fortunately for me not everyone feels this way, of course! 🙂 ) At one writers’ conference, one editor said point-blank, “don’t send me any historical fiction.” I jotted her name down, thinking, “all-righty then, I won’t.” Then, hesitating, she added, “Or if you are going to send me historical fiction it has to be really, really good.”
Well. I love the fact that some editors are a little scared of the genre. I’d hate to be riding on the coattails of a hot hot hot trend, writing a story everyone else is writing in the hopes of becoming another fill-in-the-blank!!! 🙂
Plus, a little confession. A part of me really loves it when someone with authority says, “Oh, this stuff won’t sell.” If someone ever said that about my manuscript — not shrouded in compliments, but just came out and said it in the brutal, direct way editors used to speak and write, I think I’d actually be a little honored.
Because that would put me in the company of George Orwell and Stephen King! 🙂 🙂 🙂
As of now, I’m in the company of Marcus Zusack, M.T. Anderson, Laurie Halse Andersen, Karen Cushman, Jennifer Donnelly, Philippa Gregory, Kathryn Stockett, and many many others who write historical fiction.
And what great company that is 🙂
Katiaesque 
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