Ten Reasons to Write Historical Fiction Set in Medieval Times

1. If your hero is riddled with angst, it'll be because someone is trying to overthrow him, not because he is having a mid-life crisis.

2. There is seldom a need to have one character say to another, "I'll be there for you," "I'm conflicted," or, "You're just not meeting my needs." (Unless, of course, the need is for a male heir.)

3. Your heroine can be slightly plump yet not obsessed about losing weight.

4. The heroine, if she works at all, need not work in the publishing industry.

5. War, revolution, disease, infant mortality, and childbed fever allow you to kill off your characters with mad abandon when they start to get on your nerves.

6. You can buy all sorts of books in your field of interest and tell your spouse that they are for research purposes.

7. Your heroine can wear just plain shoes, not Jimmy Choos.

8. You will not have to write 400 pages about a woman who is juggling her family and her career.

9. If you get facts wrong, you can shrug off your critics on the ground that all fact is the biased distortion of (a) male chroniclers, (b) academic historians, (c) the victors, (d) the Church, (e) all or any combination of the above.

10. No man looks bad in shining armor.