Adriano Bulla asked David Hartness:

Hello David, Why did you choose Historical Fiction? And how do you go about researching the historical context before writing a novel? I've always had great respect for HF writers, who have to put so much work in even before starting writing...

David Hartness Hi Adriano,

That is a great question and thanks for asking. Amani's River is based on the Mozambican civil war. In this case, I did a lot of interviews to collect the data. I lived in Mozambique for three years, and therefore I met many people who participated in the civil war and it was through their stories that I created my fictional account about the war. There was also some books that are available which discussed the war, but for the most part, I relied heavily on the people who lived through some of these atrocities. In addition, there are a few articles from newspapers that are posted online which helped find specific dates. In fact I learned about the climax battle through reading a newspaper written the day after the massacre took place.

I think that it would be hard to write a historical fiction novel without first visiting the sites. This helps paint the picture, and visualize what it would have been like. That is perhaps the first step before even starting the research.

I hope that answer helps.

Regards,

David

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