M.K. Tod Explores History, Courage, and Human Resilience Through Powerful Fiction

PHOTO: M.K. Tod, celebrated historical fiction author and founder of A Writer of History, pictured at her Toronto home.

Award-Winning Author Shares Writing Journey, Historical Insights, and Creative Process

M.K. Tod discusses her path from tech consultant to acclaimed historical novelist, the inspiration behind her books, her blog’s impact, and how women’s wartime experiences shape her compelling narratives.

M.K. Tod writes with a rare blend of intellectual precision, emotional depth, and immersive historical detail. Her novels transport readers to the most pivotal moments in history—World War I trenches, the embattled streets of 19th-century Paris, or the shadowy corners of wartime espionage—while always keeping the human experience front and center. Whether through the lens of love, loss, courage, or transformation, her storytelling captures the extraordinary resilience of ordinary people, especially women, whose voices have too often been left out of the historical record.

With six adult novels, including the acclaimed Unravelled, Lies Told in Silence, and Paris In Ruins, Tod has earned a devoted readership that spans continents. Her work is informed by meticulous research and a personal connection to history, rooted in her own family’s past. Beyond her fiction, she has become a cornerstone of the historical fiction community through her award-winning blog A Writer of History, where she continues to champion the genre, foster dialogue, and provide a platform for other writers.

In this exclusive interview with Novelist Post, M.K. Tod shares the inspirations behind her novels, the creative challenges of switching genres, and the profound role that war—and the women who endure it—plays in shaping her stories. It’s a conversation that sheds light not only on her craft but also on her deep commitment to honoring history through fiction.

M.K. Tod is a masterful storyteller who brings history to life with emotional depth, vivid detail, and enduring humanity.

What initially drew you to historical fiction as your preferred genre for storytelling?

I’ve loved reading historical fiction ever since I discovered my mother’s historical romances when I was a young teenager. Each story transported me to another time and place with characters that were both familiar and yet exotic. As for writing historical fiction, that was a total accident. English and History were never my favourite subjects in school. Instead, I earned Math and Computer Science degrees and then worked in technology and consulting for roughly thirty years. But living in Hong Kong as what’s known as the ‘trailing spouse’ changed all that.

My husband was on a three-year expat assignment which required him to travel almost every week to work with fourteen countries in that part of the world. What’s a career woman to do with no job, no local friends, and a family living more than 15 hours away by plane? I decided to keep busy by researching my family history. That decision led to a fascination with WWI and with the fact that my grandfather had endured its horrors. Grandpa was nineteen when he left for France to serve more than four years in the Signal Corps of the Canadian army. Four years of slaughter and rats and exploding bombs and gas attacks. He never spoke of it.

To create a story you need drama, conflict, twists and turns. So, while I used many true parts of my grandparents’ lives to provide the structure and timeline of Unravelled, I embellished them with fictional events. The most prominent fictional events are two love affairs, a role for my grandfather at Camp X, Canada’s espionage training centre, and a fateful trip to England in the months leading up to D-Day.

With Paris In Ruins, what was the most surprising historical detail you uncovered during your research?

Paris In Ruins came about because readers of my second novel, Lies Told In Silence, wanted to know more about a feisty grandmother named Mariele. A quick calculation told me that Mariele would have been twenty in 1870, and voilà, as they say in France, I discovered the Prussian siege of Paris and the Paris Commune. Who knew?

Siege warfare devastates the population caught in the middle of a standoff between rulers, one intent on forcing the other into submission. Research is crucial to creating a believable world for readers—deep, wide-ranging research. At times, it’s the small facts that are most compelling. I read about the two elephants from the zoo who were sacrificed to feed Parisians, about Sarah Bernhardt who turned a theatre into a hospital for wounded soldiers, about Napoleon III’s defeat after fighting the Prussians for less than three weeks. Three weeks!

While the siege was devastating, the actions of those who led the Commune after the Prussians left Paris were shocking. For ten weeks, the Commune carried out acts of murder, assassination, pillage, robbery, blasphemy, and terror, until finally expiring in blood and flames.

“To create a story you need drama, conflict, twists and turns.” — M.K. Tod

What challenges did you face transitioning from historical fiction to writing a contemporary thriller like That Was Then?

That Was Then emerged from a single idea: identical twins, one disappears while the other takes over her life. When asked, my agent told me that this was a ‘must-write story’. What I found challenging was the lack of historical events on which to structure a plot. There were no major battles to guide the narrative, no significant deaths that altered history, no historical figures who made decisions affecting thousands of lives. I had to build the story’s structure from my imagination.

A close friend commented that it must be much easier to write a contemporary novel because I didn’t have to do any research. Wrong! It’s just different research—modern political campaign techniques and technologies, the US election process, the biotech industry, the coastline south of Boston, the life of identical twins, the Christian right-wing movement, psychiatric techniques, and so on.

A third challenge was marketing such a novel. I had built an audience for historical fiction not contemporary fiction. Those who enjoyed my novels thought of me as a historical fiction author. Apparently, Amazon’s algorithms had to be retrained. Will I write another contemporary novel? I don’t know the answer to that question – although the next novel spans more than eighty years making it both historical and contemporary.

“I tend to write about ordinary people caught in extraordinary times.” — M.K. Tod

What role do women’s experiences during war play in shaping your novels?

Many historical fiction authors feature women as leading characters, which is not surprising given that so many women have been written out of history. Kate Quinn, Marie Benedict, and Stephanie Dray come immediately to mind as well as the many authors who have written about female spies or women who risked their lives to save Jews or hide precious art or help British pilots escape capture during WWII.

I tend to write about ordinary people caught in extraordinary times, both women and men who find the courage and resilience to survive, to protect those they love, and to fight against tyranny. Unravelled features a woman who not only looks after home and family but also leads an organization that supports women whose husbands have died overseas. In Lies Told In Silence three generations of women escape Paris for the security of the countryside only to find themselves just a few miles from the trenches separating British and German forces. The two main characters in Paris In Ruins find ways to help their fellow citizens: one nurses wounded soldiers and spies on female leaders of the Commune; the other looks after destitute children.

Inspiration for these characters comes from the research I’ve done and the books I’ve read, both fiction and non-fiction.

“Every post enhances my writing skills as well as the strategies and techniques for tackling historical fiction.” — M.K. Tod

Can you share the significance behind your blog A Writer of History and how it has influenced your writing journey?

A Writer of History began in 2012 with the question: Why do people read historical fiction? Since then, it has evolved into a wide-ranging source of information and insights into the reading and writing of historical fiction with more than 1,200 posts. To my surprise and delight, it has earned several awards. A rebranding in 2022 led to the tagline ‘Welcome to the world of historical fiction’.

As the blog evolved so did my writing. Multiple reader surveys provided me and other authors with insights into readers habits and preferences. Interviews with readers and bloggers built an understanding of the hearts and minds of readers. Blogging about the books I’ve read helps me—and hopefully others—understand what makes a story compelling.

Author guest posts and interviews offer a wealth of information on topics like research techniques and sources, character development, strategies for constructing plots based on historical events, writing tips, and using the arc of history to frame a story. I’ve also written and sourced posts on the business and marketing side of writing. I’m often asked how I find time to blog. If I step back, the answer is that every post enhances my writing skills as well as the strategies and techniques for tackling historical fiction.