June is the perfect time to tidy up your historical fiction novel and submit it to one of our contests. In previous years all of our Historical Fiction was judged under the Chaucer awards. But we had so many entries in 2015 that we had to divide it into two novel competitions. There are too many different categories of Historical Fiction all deserving of their own contest, creating nearly  impossible decisions for the judges. So, we have divided the Chaucer contest in two by a date some might consider arbitrary—1750, and named the categories the Chaucer Awards (pre-1750) and the Goethe Awards (post 1750). What is so special about 1750? 1750 is considered by many historians to be a pivotal date in the history of humankind--in both Western and Eastern history. There are several movements that shaped this new era. Prior to 1750, monarchy was the prevailing form of government. "Citizenry" (as opposed to being a "subject") was a radical new concept that was taking root due to the British Colonies in America revolting against the British monarchy. The concept that individuals were not just "subjects" of a monarchy, but humans with inalienable rights spread like wildfire throughout Europe leading, to the French Revolution.  The 1750s brought about a completely new way of thinking about governance. With this came the concept of the right to own private property rather than being "entrusted" with it by royalty and subjected to the whims of the monarch granting the property. Secondly, [...]