Weaving Historic Tales

Look through the Reader’s Encyclopedia, and you’ll find an entry for the Forsyte Saga--John Galsworthy’s rarely read novels about a London businessman and his kin--but none for “Forever Amber.”

As female readers of a certain age are acutely aware, Kathleen Winsor’s 1944 bestseller is a sort of Scarlett O’Hara does Restoration England. Winsor put an irresistible imaginary schemer in the real court of flamboyant King Charles II, and readers couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

Like “Gone With the Wind,” “Amber” is a particularly delicious example of historical fiction, a genre that sells like crazy but doesn’t necessarily command respect.

With its rich mix of actual events and imagined protagonists, historical fiction is the favorite form of Meredith Allard of Canoga Park.

A seventh-grade English teacher at Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School in Northridge, 31-year-old Allard is also the author of a novel set during the American Civil War titled “My Brother’s Battle.”

Like many of today’s writers, Allard wearied of pitching her book to conventional publishers and opted to self-publish it, which she did last year: “I decided to take my career into my own hands,” she says.

She used Xlibris, an electronic publishing company that helps would-be authors turn manuscripts into books. And having once used the Internet to realize a dream, Allard recently did it again. She started an electronic journal devoted to historical fiction called the Copperfield Review.

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Allard tumbled for historical novels as a child. “I read ‘Roots’ when I was in elementary school and that just opened my mind, first of all, to how wonderful fiction could be and to history.”

Allard was sufficiently interested in unembroidered history to consider getting a second master’s in it (she already had a master’s in English from Cal State Northridge). But she backed off after taking a history class at Northridge.

“I got a paper back from the professor saying, essentially, ‘Just the facts,’ ” Allard recalls.

She wanted to get beyond the facts, to the meaning and resonance of events, and she wanted to tell a story. Historical fiction was the answer.

Born in Nyack, N.Y., Allard has never lived in the South and had no special interest in the Civil War until the early 1990s when she saw Ken Burns’ PBS series on the subject.

Before that, she says, “I knew the basics that all Americans know--that the Union won and the Confederates lost.”

In the course of six years of research, she fleshed out her understanding of the conflict that almost split the nation in two by reading voraciously. She read histories, watched movies set during the period and immersed herself in its sounds, listening to spirituals and other contemporary music.

As a writer of historical fiction, Allard can let her imagination soar, but she knows her readers expect a high degree of accuracy. Unlike readers of alternative history, which asks what would have happened if, say, the Confederates had won, historical fiction buffs have been known to fact check.

As Marcy Elias Rothman, a Studio City writer who has published a series of Regency romances, explains: “You can do what you want with your love story and your basic plot, but your book has to be fairly accurate because these readers are very into this historical period [between 1811 and 1820, in England]. Many of these people are amateur historians, and they’ll catch you up.”

As to the Copperfield Review, Allard had wanted to start a literary magazine in graduate school but was put off by the cost. She decided to create an electronic journal after taking “Creating an e-zine,” a course at the Learning Tree in Chatsworth. One valuable piece of advice from the instructor--devote your e-zine magazine to a niche that is not currently being filled.

“Historical fiction is so well-loved,” says Allard, who is teaching a course on writing it at Learning Tree this semester. “If you look at the bestseller lists, there are always two or three historical novels there. And Oprah’s picks are often historical novels.”

Allard tried to create the site--https://www.copperfieldreview.com--herself but couldn’t get the polished look she wanted. So she hired a Web designer. After investing less than $400, she launched the site in September.

The journal’s title comes from Charles Dickens’ autobiographical “David Copperfield,” his favorite of his books. Allard admires the humor of Dickens’ work, his genius for creating characters and his passion for social justice. Perhaps as an hommage to Dickens, she has begun writing a new novel (her third) set in Victorian London.

The Copperfield Review publishes historical fiction and essays, reviews and other nonfiction relating to the subject. Allard hopes the site will eventually become a home for historical fiction that agents, publishers, writers and readers of the genre reflexively turn to.

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So far, traffic has been light, but Allard hopes to build it by adding a chat room and by publishing interviews and other material relating to the field’s stars. Her first coup: an interview with Jeff Shaara, author of “The Last Full Measure,” “Gods and Generals” and most recently, “Gone for Soldiers.”

“I’m a fan and I took a chance and e-mailed him,” she says.

Right now, Allard is thrilled to be helping other new writers get started by publishing them online. As to her ultimate editorial goal, it’s what it’s always been: She’d love to start a journal of historical fiction published the old-fashioned way--on paper.

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Spotlight appears every Friday. Patricia Ward Biederman can be reached at valley.news@latimes.com.