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As an author of narrative history, I read a lot of history books.

I like writing historical fiction.

I'm not a great fiction reader. I love history. I love history and philosophy.

I love to read history books, which is where I get my ideas. I also read historical romance for pleasure.

Obviously, I love to do both contemporary and historical fiction. When a hint of a story grabs me, I try to go with it to see where it will take me whatever the setting.

History is full of really good stories. That's the main reason I got into this racket: I want to make the argument that history is interesting.

My history writing was based on what I saw in strange, exotic places rather than just reading books.

I love reading about history. Sometimes, I feel I was born in the wrong era. There was more creativity in the air when people were still discovering new worlds.

I often tell people who want to write historical fiction: don't read all that much about the period you're writing about; read things from the period that you're writing about. There's a tendency to stoke up on a lot of biography and a lot of history, and not to actually get back to the original sources.