Historical Fiction nitty gritty
My current job is reading novels and what's called "writing coverage" on them. (Coverage is the entertainment industry equivalent of a book report, wherein people like me read things so that more important people can pretend they read them.) I read 2-3 novels per week, mostly self-published genre novels.
Sara C. has an interesting job, and some good advice on context, details, sources and backgrounds for historical fiction, in answer to the question, "what were the details of everyday life in late 16th century Italy?"