“How do you give the past a human voice without betraying it or making your reader furiously impatient? Too much period flavor, and you slow up the story. ‘Nay, damsel, be not afeared,’ may be authentic, but it will make your reader giggle. If you give way to an outbreak of ‘prithee’ and ‘perchance,’ then perchance your reader will hurl the book across the room.”