What was 16th century Spain like?

Let me be upfront: Sins of the Father took a LOT of research.

Luckily for me, I majored in History in college, and my focus was on colonial Latin America which (spoiler alert) involves a lot of research about Spain. So I did have a lot of prior knowledge to work with.

But what about specifics? What would an upper class woman eat? What would a lower class man wear? It doesn’t matter to me as a reader if every minor detail is correct, because I understand the idea of artistic liberty. Sometimes an author wants to drive a plot point so they fudge some of the details.

No big.

One of my biggest pet peeves, however, is when important details are wrong or items not skewed for the plot are wrong. So before writing this book, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on the details that would lend Sins of the Father an air of authenticity.

For example, Andrea drinks coffee in the book, not tea. Coffee came to Europe in the 16th century, while tea did not arrive in Europe until the 17th century. She also drinks chocolate, which was originally a drink reserved for the elite indigenous population in Latin America, and arrived in Spain in about 1502.

At the end of the day, common themes will always remain regardless of time period. Characters struggle, succeed, love, and hate. Relationships and emotion are the core of a book, the setting’s accuracy just makes it better.

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