The city was celebrating the completion of the Prescott & Arizona Central railroad line. On New Year's Day, 1887, my protagonists stumble into Prescott and find a gala marching up Cortez Street. For Retribution Rails, I relied heavily on newspaper archives. From photographs and journals to maps and letters, these resources are incredibly valuable because they are a true snapshot of the time. Many archive collections are now available online, and local libraries often have resources to offer in person. While researching my western novels Vengeance Roadand Retribution Rails,I relied on a variety of source material, which I've outlined for you below: Not only will your world not be convincing if you fail, it will also be wrong. And you need to get it right! It’s historical fiction, after all. You may not be inventing the world from the ground up, but tracking down all these answers can be tedious and time consuming. Oh wait, did I say this was easy? I’m sorry. What was the climate like? Size of cities? Buildings? How did people travel from point A to point B? What did they wear? Where did food and goods come from? What about social norms? What was accepted, done for fun, done for work? And on and on. To write your historical novel convincingly, you simply need to unearth these answers. Instead of spending ages building your world and establishing your rules, history holds all the answers. The key difference is much of the work has been done for you. You may only associate the term "world building" with writing science fiction or fantasy, but it is just as important when writing historical fiction.
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