Twisted Cross

In the Classroom

Writing for youth often involves classroom presentations about your books. As I spoke to a group of college students this week, I found myself searching for an example of my method for writing historic fiction. I used a movie reference that, luckily, they could relate to. "What does the novel, Forest Gump, by Winston Groom (1986), and the award-winning movie of the same name (1994), have to do with the way I write historic fiction?" While the critics identified the movie as a romantic comedy, I saw the movie as historic fiction. Afterall, the character's story arch followed the chronology of events in the US, and elsewhere, in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. When I wrote the Mission Bells trilogy, I identified significant events in colonial California, pre statehood, then created characters that interacted with those events. This excerpt from my first book, Twisted Cross, contains such references as the plight of Father Serra and the missions due to the decision made by the King of Spain to withdraw his support of the troops and the padres in the territory. See more of the history and the story in the other books in the series, Golden Secrets and Broken Promises. Visit https://anitaperezferguson.com