The lecture by Geraldine Brooks was an amazingly funny lecture, something I definitely didn’t expect. She opened my eyes to the world of historical fiction, and just how difficult, yet engaging, writing such a novel is. By explaining the extensive amount of research she puts into each person before writing the novel, she really “gets”to know someone – it must be strange as well to get to know somebody so well, even though they are deceased. Again, putting yourself in that person’s shoes must be even more strange, even though you now know them in a more intimate way than most people do. Trying to think in a way that a real-life person would have is such a daunting, challenging, yet exciting task – her lecture opened my eyes to just how exciting writing historical fiction must be.