HeyJaredHistory Through Fiction with Colin Mustful
Colin Mustful, author and founder of History Through Fiction, shares honest insights on writing, editing, and publishing historical fiction.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 18
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
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- Aug 14, 2026
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The Scenes You’ll Never Use Are How You Get to Know Your Characters (opens the original)
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While I was drafting my novel Reclaiming Mni Sota in graduate school, one of my instructors told me that I didn’t know my characters.I was surprised by that. I was also a little frustrated. I had created these people. I had given them names, families, histories, desires, and problems. How was it possible that I didn’t know them?My instructor asked me to stop moving forward with the draft and move backward instead. She wanted me to write scenes from my characters’ backgrounds. The scenes did not
Office Hours with Colin Mustful and Melissa Makarewicz (opens the original)
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In this edition of Office Hours, Colin Mustful and Melissa Makarewicz talk about a temptation nearly every writer recognizes: the search for a shortcut. Social media promises faster drafts, bigger audiences, and perfect systems, but lasting progress rarely comes that way. Instead, they make the case for showing up consistently, using focused time well, and building a writing life brick by brick—even when progress feels slower than you want.From there, the conversation turns to why the long road
Behind the Publisher’s Desk (opens the original)
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In this episode of Behind the Publisher’s Desk, Colin Mustful begins with a question raised by his recent Substack post, What Is Historical Fiction? Drawing on Ariel Lawhon’s argument that historical fiction is not a genre but a setting, Colin invites listeners to think about how we define historical fiction—and what those definitions mean for the stories we write, publish, and read.Colin then turns to the growing operation behind History Through Fiction and HTF Publishing. As the
What is Historical Fiction? (opens the original)
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(Although I normally publish a paid post on the second Wednesday of the month, I wanted to hop on this argument while it was still fresh in people’s minds)At a recent event promoting her new book, The Pirate Queen, Ariel Lawhon suggested that historical fiction is not a genre; it is only a setting. She also made this argument in more detail on Substack in her article, Unpopular Opinion: Historical Fiction Is Not a Genre.The remark sp
Marketing That Works: Promoting Your Book Without Breaking the Bank (Workshop Replay) (opens the original)
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Book marketing can consume enormous amounts of time and money—and still fail to bring your book to the readers who will care about it. I know because I have spent money on advertising that went nowhere, pursued audiences that were too broad, and learned that visibility is not the same as connection.In this workshop, Melissa Makarewicz and I talk about a… Read more
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