Writing historicals

I would classify my books as fantasy/romance, but my stories usually take place in a historical setting. Historical settings are a challenge for me because I can learn from textbooks, but it takes more than that to get the atmosphere right. To help me understand a historical setting, I will read fiction by authors who write in the time period I am trying to re-create. In a way, this is more helpful to me than reading a textbook. I use both methods to get the historical setting as realistic as possible.

Ancient time periods (like in my books) are tricky because there isn't much information to learn from. This is where a vivid imagination comes in handy. I also weigh what I know against what I don't know and find a middle ground by filling in the blanks with the obvious. By doing some detective work and putting myself in their place, I come up with the historical setting. One thing I have learned from studying ancient civilizations: people haven't changed much throughout history, just the technology. By taking away the clutter of machines, televisions and computers, I think about what people did back then. They were in tune with the earth's cycles and they were superstitious about the unknown. Some of these civilizations were very advanced for their time. And sadly, most of these civilizations were destroyed by disease, nature's wrath or warfare with another nation. The wheel keeps turning.