History Through Fiction: The Podcast – Season 2 is Coming Soon!

After a fantastic first season, History Through Fiction is proud to announce that season 2 kicks off on Monday, September 13! Hosted by founder and editor Colin Mustful, season 2 includes eleven episodes released weekly. Each episode features a historical novelist who will be talking about the craft of weaving elements of history and fiction to create engaging and enlightening stories. Notable interviews include New York Times bestselling author Sarah Penner and author of the bestselling novel Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan. The podcast also features an interview with History Through Fiction’s own author, Ron Blumenfeld whose historical mystery novel, The King’s Anatomist, comes out October 12.

September 13, 2021 – Sarah Penner

Sarah Penner worked in Finance before she began writing seriously in 2015, after attending a moving lecture given by Elizabeth Gilbert. Soon after her talk, she enrolled in my first online creative writing class and she hasn't looked back since. Penner is an avid traveler whose favorite destinations include London, Thailand, Ireland, Germany, Belize, and Grand Cayman. In early 2021, after thirteen years in corporate America, she left my day job and is thrilled to call her a full-time writer. Now, she is the New York Times bestselling author of the historical fiction and magical realism novel The Lost Apothecary.

September 20, 2021 – Stephanie Landsem

Stephanie Landsem writes historical fiction for women, about women. Her newest novel, In A Far-Off Land, is a story of murder, romance, and mercy set in the glamorous era of 1930s Hollywood. She is also the author of The Living Water Series, which are biblically authentic stories of women transformed by encounters with Jesus. Landsem makes her home in Minnesota but she loves to travel. When not writing historical fiction, she enjoys gardening, cooking, volunteering at church, and dreaming about her next adventure.

September 27, 2021 – Christopher D. Stanley

Christopher D. Stanley is a professor at St. Bonaventure University who studies the social and religious history of the Greco-Roman world, with special attention to early Christianity and Judaism. He has written or edited six books and dozens of professional articles on the subject and presents papers regularly at conferences around the world. The trilogy A Slave’s Story, which grew out of his historical research on first-century Asia Minor, is his first work of fiction. He is currently working on an academic book that explores healing practices in the Greco-Roman world, a subject that plays a vital role in this series.

October 4, 2021 – Sadeqa Johnson

Sadeqa Johnson is a former public relations manager who spent several years working with well-known authors such as JK Rowling, Bebe Moore Campbell, Amy Tan and Bishop TD Jakes before becoming an author herself. She is the award-winning author of four novels. Her accolades include being the recipient of the National Book Club Award, the Phillis Wheatley Award and the USA Best Book Award for best fiction. Her novel Yellow Wife was named one of the most anticipated historical novels of 2021 by O Magazine. She is a Kimbilo Fellow and a Tall Poppy Writer. She also teaches fiction writing for the MFA program at Drexel University.Originally from Philadelphia, she currently lives near Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and three children.

October 11, 2021 – Ron Blumenfeld

Ron Blumenfeld is a retired pediatrician and health care executive. Ron grew up in the Bronx, New York and studied at City College of New York before receiving his Medical Degree from the State University of New York. After completing his pediatrics residency at the University of Arizona, he and his family settled in Connecticut, but Tucson remains their second home. Upon retirement, he became a columnist for his town’s newspaper, a pleasure he surrendered to concentrate on his debut novel, The King’s Anatomist.

October 18, 2021 – Mally Becker

Mally Becker is a former publicist and freelance magazine writer. She also worked as an attorney for more than 20 years and, later, as an advocate for children in foster care. Becker thought she'd be clearing trails when she volunteered at the Morristown National Historical Park but found herself instead sifting through the Park's archival collection of letters. That's where she found a copy of an indictment for the Revolutionary War-era crime of traveling from New Jersey to New York City "without permission or passport." That document became the spark for The Turncoat's Widow, her debut novel.

October 25, 2021 – Lindsey Fera

A born and bred New Englander, Lindsey Fera hails from the North Shore of Boston. Fera she forged her love for writing with her intrigue for colonial America by writing her debut novel, Muskets and Minuets, which was a 2019 semi-finalist for the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. She is a member of the Topsfield Historical Society and the Historical Novel Society. When she's not attending historical reenactments or spouting off facts about Boston, she's nursing patients back to health in the ICU.

November 1, 2021 – Mark Sullivan

Mark Sullivan is the acclaimed author of eighteen novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling Private series, which he writes with James Patterson. Mark has received numerous awards for his writing, including the WHSmith Fresh Talent Award, and his works have been named a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Hamilton College with a BA in English before working as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. Upon his return to the United States, he earned a graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and began a career in investigative journalism. An avid skier and adventurer, he lives with his wife in Bozeman, Montana, where he remains grateful for the miracle of every moment.

November 8, 2021 – Julieta Almeida Rodrigues

Julieta Almeida Rodrigues is a writer, professor, scholar, and interpreter. Eleonora and Joseph: Passion, Tragedy, and Revolution in the Age of Enlightenment is her debut novel. Born and raised in Portugal, Rodrigues earned a PhD at Columbia University, where the renowned Margaret Mead was her dissertation sponsor. Rodrigues is the author of two collections of short fiction, The Rogue and Other Portuguese Stories and On the Way to Red Square. She also published a narrative work about Sintra, Portugal, titled Hora Crepuscular/Drawing Dusk/La Hora Crepuscular. She is a member of numerous literary and scholarly organizations including being a member of the Steering Committee of the Historical Novel Society New York City Chapter. Rodrigues divides her time between Manhattan and Sintra, Portugal.

November 15, 2021 – Amy Belding Brown

Amy Belding Brown graduated from Bates College in the late 1960s and went on to receive her MFA degree in 2002 from Vermont College, where she worked closely with Bret Lott and Victoria Redel. Since then, she’s taught writing at Worcester State University, Fitchburg State University, Granite State College, and the Worcester Institute for Senior Education. A life-long history lover, she has also worked as an educator and historical interpreter at Orchard House Museum in Concord, Massachusetts. It was at that time she began to marry fiction and history.   In 2005, her novel Mr. Emerson's Wife was published by St. Martin's Press. Flight of the Sparrow was published by New American Library in July, 2014.  Her latest novel, Emily’s House, published by Berkley, was released in August, 2021.

November 22, 2021 – Rachel McMillan

Rachel McMillan is the author of the Herringford and Watts mysteries, the Three Quarter Time series of contemporary romances set in opulent Vienna, and the Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries praised for bringing an authentic 1930's Boston world to life while normalizing the fictional conversation surrounding mental illness. She is also the author of Dream, Plan and Go: A Romantic's Guide to Independent Travel and A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide, which explores her love of made-for-TV Christmas movies. Her upcoming historical romances The London Restoration and The Mozart Code (Harper Collins) take readers deep into an atmospheric look of post-war London, Vienna and Prague. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada.