If you wish to learn more about the Delaware tribe, these are the books I used when I was doing research: 

1. The Delaware Indians. A History.  C.A. Weslager

2. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Paul A. W. Wallace

3. Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania. Dr. George P. Donehoo

4. Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape. M.R. Harrington

5. Teedyuscung 1700-1763. King of the Delawares. Anthony F.C. Wallace

6. Two-Spirit People. Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Edited by Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang. 

7.  William Penn's Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians.

These are the books I read to create Blair, his family, and his world. 

1. The People With No Name, by Patrick Griffin
2. Modern Ireland, 100-1971, by R.F. Foster
3. Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan, by Kerby Miller, Arnold Schrier, Bruce Boling and David Noyle
4. Presbyterians; Their History and Beliefs, by Walter Lingle and John Kuykendall
5. Presbyterianism in Lisburn from the Seventeenth Century, by W.I. Craig
6. The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania, by Wayland Dunaway
7. Ulster to America; The Scots-Irish Migration Experience, 1680-1830, edited by Warren Hofstra
8. Early Belfast; The origins and growth of an Ulster town to 1750, by Raymond Gillespie
9. Born Fighting; How the Scots-Irish shaped America, by Jim Web
10. The Shaping of Presbyterian Belief and Practice; 1770-1840, by Andrew Holmes
11. A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift
12. A Scot's Dialect Dictionary, comprising the words in use from the latter part of the seventeenth century to the present day, by William Grant
13. Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave, by Margaret Bennett 
14. The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim, by James Fenton
15. The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women, by John Knox
16. Flax to Fabric; The Story of Irish Linen, by Education Office Collette Brownlee of the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum

Yes, I really did read all these books. 

1) Reproduction of Birch’s Celebrated Historical Views of Philadelphia
 
2) Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia
By Karin Wulf
 
3) The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker 
By Elizabeth Drinker
 
4) The “Lower Sort”: Philadelphia’s Laboring People, 1750-1800
By Billy G. Smith
 
5) Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment
By Kevin Kenny
 
6) Flow: The Life and Times of the Schuylkill River
By Beth Kephart
 
7) Troubled Experiment: Crime and Justice in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800
By Jack D. Marietta
 
8) Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840
By Gary B. Nash
 
9) Valley of Opportunity: Economic Culture along the Upper Susquehanna, 1700-1800
By Peter C. Mancall
 
10) M. de Garsault’s 1767 Art of the Shoemaker
I’m including this book because—although not specifically about Philadelphia or Pennsylvania—one of my lead characters is bought by a shoemaker. 
 
11) The Years of the Life of Samuel Lane, 1718-1806
Samuel Lane was a shoemaker who lived in New Hampshire. 
By Gerald E. Brown

I read all these books as research for Freedom Dues. 


1) The Fortunate Transport, or the secret history of the life and adventures of the celebrated Polly Haycock, alias Mrs. B----, the lady of the gold watch. FREE ON GOOGLE BOOKS
By a Creole

2) Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children in Colonial Records [Maryland and Virginia] 
By Richard Hayes Phillips

3) The Sufferings of William Green, Being a Sorrowful Account, of His Seven Years Transportation, Wherein is Set Forth the Various Hardships He Underwent 
By William Green

4) Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 convicts to Colonial America 
By Anthony Vaver

5) Emigrants in Chains. A Social History of the Forced Emigration to the Americas of Felons, Destitute Children, Political and Religious Non-Conformists
By Peter Wilsom Coldham

6) Harlots, Hussies and Poor Unfortunate Women: Crime, Transportation, and the Servitude of Female Convicts, 1718-1783
By Edith M. Ziegler

These are the non-fiction books I read while researching my novel.

1. White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America (Jordan and Walsh)
2. To Serve Well and Faithfully: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800 (Salinger)
3. The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an Indentured Servant (Moraley)
4. White Servitude in Pennsylvania (Herrick)
5. Colonial Families of Maryland: Bound and Determined to Succeed (Barnes)
6. White Servitude in Maryland, 1634-1820 (McCormac) FREE ON GOOGLE BOOKS
7. Birthright: The True Story That Inspired Kidnapped (Ekirch)
8. Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America (Whitehead & Buttner)

I'd like to share a few do's and don'ts of writing historical fiction, things I wish I'd known when I began, and mistakes to avoid. First of all, if I did it, it's very likely you can too. You would not believe the absolute, pathetic mess my first drafts were. It requires a lot of time and effort, but it's fun! 

Do's

1. Be obsessed with your story. Otherwise, you'll run out of steam. I was enamored with the subject of indentured servitude, and quite consumed with the early 18th century. I was often sincerely angered at the fact that I couldn't travel back in time. 
2. Devour books on how to write, and books in the genre you want to write in. 
3. Sign up for reputable Creative Writing workshops. I highly recommend UCLA's Extension program. I signed up for other workshops, but they can be inconsistent. Apply for scholarships. I won a whole year of free courses at UCLA. 
4. Use the word-processing program Scrivener. Among other things, it makes moving chapters around extremely easy. I knew that my characters' timelines would be parallel until they met. I began writing Blair's story independently of Mallie's, thinking it would be a piece of cake to intersperse their respective scenes. Big mistake! It was a nightmare to properly arrange their plot lines so that the dates matched. It would've been much more complicated had I been working with a Word doc. 
5. I know it's not easy to take the leap and spend the money, but if at all possible travel to the locations where your story takes place. I read this advice in The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction (James Alexander Thom). I remember staring at the screen on my laptop, looking at flights for Belfast, wondering if I was being a responsible, committed author, or if I was just looking for an excuse to go on a trip. I'm so glad I decided to go. I learned things I never would have otherwise. For example, a tour guide for an historical bar-hopping tour uttered a delightful saying that I included in the first chapter. I walked into a bookstore in Belfast and found a book describing what the city looked like in the 18th century. Seeing black candles in Colonial Williamsburg gave me an idea that is very important to the plot. Travel alone; you're on a mission. Have fun and enjoy yourself. 
6. Research, research, research. Historical societies are wonderful. Google books is a wealth of obscure material. That's where I found The English Remedy, Or, Talbor's Wonderful Secret for Cureing of Agues and Feavers..., which was first published in 1682. I must confess that I found a lot of books through Amazon. Today, I would go first to an independent bookstore. 
7. DO work with professional editors. Don't even think about skipping this. My first UCLA teacher became my first editor. Then I hired someone through NY Book Editors, and then a third editor through Kirkus. Finally, I hired a copy editor. Yes, this has been an extremely expensive hobby. I don't even know if I'll break even. But I couldn't ask for a better Kirkus and BlueInk review. 
8. Do hire a copywriter to write your book blurb and bio. 
9. Do pay for a Kirkus review, but only once your manuscript has been thoroughly polished. I requested mine after three rounds of professional edits and two rounds with my copy editor. Do pay for a BlueInk review. I'm currently waiting for my Publisher's Weekly review. Publisher's Weekly doesn't charge, but they don't review every manuscript they get. Given that I have a great Kirkus review, I'm optimistic this will improve the chances that PW will consider my manuscript. 
10. Create an Instagram account. I regret not doing this years ago. I would have shared hundreds of pictures of all the gorgeous historical places I went to. Imagine the followers you'll potentially have by the time you publish your novel.  
11. Use social media. Trust me, I know all about the dark side of Facebook, but it was a great way to keep my friends and family updated on my project. There were times when I regretted telling them about Freedom Dues so far ahead in time (it took me seven years to publish) but in the end it was a good thing. They were excited to see me reach my goal. 

Don'ts

1. Don't take off full run without an outline. When I began writing I estimated the number of words in the novel Gates of Fire (Steven Pressfield), and that became my goal. That's one very long novel! Somehow, through almost the entirety of my writing process I was oblivious to the fact that agents and publishers demand that a first-time author's manuscript be no longer than 100,000 words. I ended up with 170,000 words. It took me hours of work to make a U-turn and cut back, on top of all the hours researching and writing that went down the tubes. Even though I ended up self-publishing, I think it's still a good idea to keep the manuscript close to 100,000 words. Freedom Dues is 103, 119. 
2. If you have two characters whose stories are parallel for quite some time before they meet, don't write one character's story too far ahead in time before you catch up with the second character's scenes.
3. Don't be afraid to reach out to experts. I wrote to specialists in 18th century music, blacksmiths, a non-fiction author, the director of the Scots Language Centre in Scotland, and the Delaware tribe, just to name a few. Remember them in your Acknowledgments Page. 
4. Don't be afraid to be afraid. When I finished reading From Sea to Shining Sea (James Alexander Thom) I put the book down and burst into tears thinking "how can I ever expect to write something as wonderful as this?" When I was flying back after two heavenly weeks in Northern Ireland I had a minor panic attack thinking "why did I ever get myself into this mess? This is too difficult for me to pull off; I don't have what it takes." When I finally reached THE END, I was bursting with joy. Five minutes later I was crying thinking about all the rewriting that lay ahead. 

You know when was the last time I burst into tears over my book? When I read my Kirkus review. I was so relieved and happy, I collapsed into my boyfriend's arms and sobbed. I so very much want the same for you! I hope something that I say or write helps a little to get you there.