PLW NOTE: This is a guest post by historical fiction author Lindsey Fera. Thanks, Lindsey!

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People often ask me what got me into writing historical fiction and eventually, reenactment. The answer to each is the same: I always felt I was born in the wrong time.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always said I was born in the wrong year, decade, century. Perhaps this stems from where I grew up and spent 25 years of my life: Topsfield, Massachusetts. Nestled north of Boston amidst rolling, glacial hills, the Ipswich River, and more stone walls than I can count, Topsfield is not only a desirous town to live and raise a family, but it is downright historic.

No, it isn’t famous like Boston or Salem. But it has its charm.

Incorporated in 1650 as farm land for neighboring coastal Ipswich, Topsfield saw a brush with noteworthy events of history in its early days as a town, including the infamous Salem Witch Trials. I think it’s having grown up in the shadow of this event that initially gripped my interest in colonial history—my childhood home stands within walking distance of the location of Sarah Wildes’ home, an accused witch who was hanged during the trials; driving on my way to the mall, I frequently passed the location of Reverend Paris’s house on Centre Street in Danvers; it seems everywhere I went, I was reminded of this area’s contribution to history. And the energy of those events truly reverberates within the area. There’s no escaping it.

And I love it.

The house I was raised in was not historic, but was built on the farm land of the old home next door, which was built in the 1780s. Often, I sat in my yard and stared at the old house next door, pondering who lived there, what they were like, what Topsfield was like, and what their lives were like in the 18th century.

When I learned minutemen from Topsfield responded to the call on April 19th, 1775, and marched the long way to Lexington, I realized Topsfield was more than a sleepy little town on the North Shore: Topsfield was involved in our country’s history in a way that wasn’t taught in school, and this fascinated me.

Often, I took these thoughts with me on walks through the forested backstreets adjacent to my own: Perkins Row and Howlett Street. It was on these walks I conjured lives of those living in this town centuries before me, those who responded to the alarm on April 19th and what they may have been like as people. And the characters for my novel were born (if you’ve read the books, you may recognize the names: Annalisa Howlett and Jack Perkins)!

So yes, I can aptly say Topsfield is my reason for writing historical fiction, and for infusing me with such an intrigue for colonial history. It somehow has become a part of me.

And as I sit here in 2024, amidst editing my third book’s manuscript—the final book of my trilogy—and also joining a second reenactment group, it’s safe to say my intrigue for history is as strong as ever. It’s overwhelming, and also humbling to feel such admiration towards Topsfield, and to witness how much it guided me down this historic path of finding myself while in this modern world.

To my blissful little farming town with a brush of notoriety in 1692: you are the reason my life has nearly come full circle, and for that, I thank you. And to anyone reading this who is inexplicably drawn to history, I say to you with utmost sincerity: follow your heart, and your interests; they will guide you.

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LINDSEY S. FERA is a born and bred New Englander, hailing from the North Shore of Boston. As a member of the Topsfield Historical Society and the Historical Novel Society, she forged her love for writing with her intrigue for colonial America by writing her debut novel, Muskets & Minuets, a planned trilogy. When she’s not attending historical reenactments or spouting off facts about Boston, she’s nursing patients back to health. Muskets & Masquerades is her sophomore novel.

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