Novels in Categories 1 and 2 often bring parallel journeys together thematically Conklin’s work explores what it means to repair a wrong. Here, dual narratives follow a slave on a Virginia tobacco plantation in 1852 and a modern-day lawyer handling a reparations lawsuit claiming that the slave girl-not her mistress-painted the artworks in a prominent collection. Rather, they “become linked” through an object, a place, or an inciting event, such as with The House Girl (William Morrow, 2013) by Tara Conklin. My second category is labelled “Object links two unrelated characters.” While there are still different main characters in dual storylines, the characters are not related. Both narratives need elements of mystery to keep readers asking questions.” Object links two unrelated characters One narrative must do more than merely prop up the other. Though one storyline may have higher stakes, each narrative should stand alone with plot arcs and character arcs. To craft a dual period novel, says Cleeton, “A lot of shifting around of sections is needed to flesh out the tension points and the parallels-such as having the black moments come closely together. The story alternates between Marisol’s mission (and her unearthing of family secrets) in Cuba, and the late 1950s when her grandmother fled Castro’s reign. Cuban-American Marisol Ferrera wants to fulfill her grandmother’s dying wish to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. In Category 1, then, dual storylines each feature different main characters, but the historical narrative often informs the modern-day character’s situation in a meaningful way.Ĭhanel Cleeton’s new release, Next Year in Havana (Berkley, February 2018), is another example. Readers may recall Anne Fortier’s Juliet (Ballantine, 2010), where a woman receives her late mother’s key to a safety-deposit box in Italy and soon discovers that her family’s origins reach back to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers. An object compels the contemporary character to learn what happened in the past. We can call the first category “Object connects characters across time.” Here, two characters are related in some way but are separated by time. Let’s look at the challenges authors face in writing dual storylines-and how they bring to readers a better understanding of today’s world. This dual timeline approach lets readers see the parallels-and the differences-between the present and the past.” 1 As an avid reader of multi-period novels, I’ve observed that they typically fall into one of three categories. In Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre, HNR’s own Sarah Johnson discusses how “multi-period novels shift between contemporary and historical subplots.

If I Wake by Nikki Moyes