Just in time for Valentine’s Day, your favorite authors are hosting a Valentine’s Blog Hop.
All authors will reveal their favorite historical mushy anecdote along with a giveaway or two on each page. All pages will have links to the other pages.
The Valentine’s Blog Hop is February 10-16, 2013.
Be sure to stop by and get mushy.
At present, there are 22 authors participating, so hop on through and win some prizes, and maybe learn a thing or two about love and romance in the process.
Dear Historical Fiction Writer: How Much Is True?
That is the question historical fiction writers are most often asked. It takes a huge amount of time researching the characters and documents for a historical fiction novel. The obvious items are names, dates, and places, but the not-so-obvious are social questions. What was going on in the world at the time? What about the town? The family? Fashion? Industrial? Politics? Agriculture? Relationships? Economic status? These specifics are very time consuming. There are too many questions to speak of generally, so let’s narrow it down a single person and see if we can make sense out of the documents of one person’s life.
In the historical fiction novel I am currently working on, “An Orphan’s Heart,” we know the following about Ellen Rodgers. She was born in 1853 in Mississippi. In 1860, the census shows her living with her parents and four siblings in Mississippi. Her parents died within a month of each other in 1862. Ellen was nine. The 1870 census shows her living with her aunt Elizabeth Rodgers Graham in Alabama. The 1880 census shows her back in Mississippi, living with her two sisters. There is no 1890 census because it was burned in a fire, but I did find a relative who sent me a copy of Ellen’s 1890 obituary. Ellen died at the age of 37 in Texas.
There are a few social ideas we can deduce about the above facts:
1) Children at that time in history would usually be left in the custody of the eldest male family member. Ellen’s parents died in the middle of the Civil War. Since Ellen ended up with her aunt, we can assume any male who would have taken custody, if there was one, was probably off fighting in the war.
2) Travel to Alabama and back to Mississippi would have probably been by wagon. Her locations were 110 miles apart. Ox-pulled wagons traveled 10-15 miles per day, making the trip 7-10 days. Horses moved faster, perhaps 6-8 days. Indians were not too apt to steal horses in the area like they were out West, and there was a river to travel along to have a fresh water supply, so it they had them, they probably used horses.
3) The most logical way to get to Texas in the 1880s would have been by train. Travelling the route from Meridian, MS to Mobile, AL, to New Orleans, LA, to Houston, TX, and then up to Runnels County would have been probable through a combination of three lines; The Mobile and Ohio RR, the Louisiana Western RR, and the Houston and Texas Central RR, and would have taken about five days. It would have involved changing trains, staying over in towns, layovers for supper, and sleeper cars.
There are more than a few personal questions:
How did Ellen end up in Alabama in 1870? Why did she go back to Mississippi? Why and when did she go to Texas? Why did she die so young?
Those answers lie in other members of the family.
Probate documents show Ellen was indeed in the custody of her uncle Hays Rodgers. He returned home at the end of the war in 1865. About 1866/67, he moved his family to Alabama. His sister, Elizabeth, was already living there. That’s how Ellen ended up in Alabama. She arrived at about age 13 or 14 and was 17 in the 1870 census. But why did she go back to Mississippi?
That answer lies in Aunt Elizabeth’s records. Elizabeth died in 1875. There is it. Ellen has now lost another adult she probably considered a mother. Sometime before 1880, she went back to Mississippi. Perhaps her uncle escorted her, perhaps she traveled alone.
Also, back in 1866/67, her two brothers went on a wagon train to Runnels County, TX with their maternal uncles. That is Ellen’s connection to Texas. But, when did she go and why? And, how did she die there at the young age of 37?
The answer to that lies in Mr. Sam Meek and Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Bell County, TX.
Ellen’s brother was married to Sam’s sister. When Ellen went out there, either to visit or to live, she naturally met Sam. They were married in 1885 (making her arrival there about 1884ish). Ellen and Sam had twin boys who were stillborn in 1887. They had a daughter in 1888. And they had a second daughter on August 5, 1890. Ellen died eight days later on August 13, 1890. Since there were no medicines to fight off infection in those days, she more than likely died of complications or infection following childbirth. Sadly, the baby died a couple months later in October. They are all buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Now, we can weave together the life of this young woman. Here’s where the “fiction” part comes in. What kind of personality would you give Ellen? Would she be strong? Shy? Bold? Reserved? As the author, it would be your choice. How about her aunt Elizabeth? What kind of house did they live in? How about her relationship with Sam? You can examine his family and come to your own conclusion about what kind of man he was. You can look at the historical time, locations, house styles, economy, but the final call is yours. Who stood vigil at Ellen’s death bed? What happened to the surviving daughter? That question requires more research. Would you research further or would you end the story with Ellen’s death? Is there a moral to the story, something to be learned, a reason for her short life?
So, there you have it. How much is true? All of it…and none of it. Was she strong? Shy? Bold? No one will ever know. Does she have an interesting story? Yes. Is it worth giving her a personality to tell her story? Yes.
Is there anyone who can arrange more hours in the day for me? I’ll pay you! No, I don’t need a “Survival Guide for Busy Folks” or a new pocket organizer. I am the Queen of Organization! I need more hours. Maybe a 28-hour day would help. 32 would be better.
My to-do list is trailing off my desk like Santa’s gift list in December.
I’m usually good under pressure. As a matter of fact, deadlines feed my soul. I admit, most of my deadlines are self-imposed, but that’s how I get things done. And I get a whole lot of things done – I think. I may have too many irons in the fire right now because I’ve apparently added a few new hats to my job closet.
1) I am a full-time musician. I work late nights and don’t sleep well because I keep changing my bedtime hours throughout the week. Sometime I crawl in bed at 8:00 p.m., and sometimes I don’t go to bed until 4:00 a.m. That job also requires daytime hours for rehearsal and scheduling. I would like an extra two hours added to the music portion of my day.
2) I write. Books. Not just any books – historical fiction books. Anyone who has ever written anything of length knows how insanely time consuming it is. Now add to that hours and hours of research to make sure the historical part of the story is legitimate. I admit I go off on tangents. I’ll hunt for information on a website, click on every link, and look up to find it’s three hours later. I love web surfing. I also have a bad habit of getting side-tracked on Ancestry.com and FindAGrave.com when I simply go there to check a wedding date or a death date. Rewrites, editing, proofreading, formatting, designing covers? Three more hours a day would help.
3) I am my own publisher/publicist/agent/video trailer producer/audio book narrator/etc. I don’t even know how much time is spent doing that stuff. It’s a ridiculous amount. I don’t mind doing it, I just need about four more hours a day.
4) Blogging? Ugh. I’m a slacker. It’s true. No amount of time will fix that.
5) Wife and mother? Ha. Yeah, that cooking thing? Not so much. And you can do your own laundry. Do mine while you’re at it. And somebody pick up some milk.
Ok, rant over. I have to go brush my dog now. Poor little guy.
Someone asked me how I came to write a historical fiction book, what sparked my interest in the main character? I had been working on my book for eight months, so I kind of lost track of how it all started. At the same time, I was also asked to do a talk/reading/book-signing in February, and I spoke with my husband about the important points of my impending talk.
He said, “You should let them know how it all started. Why did you write it?”
So, I put my thinking cap on and tried to remember…
She was just a name in my family tree. Mary Ann Rodgers. My third great grandmother. I discovered that she lost her husband, Rice Carpenter, in the Civil War in 1862. How sad to lose the one you love, but hey, it’s war, people die. After he died, she remarried in 1864. I looked at the 1870 census and found she was married to William Jolly and was living with his children, her children, and three children they had together. It was a house-full! But at least their three children were proof they must have liked each other, right? That’s good. I was interested where William came from, so I traced him back and looked at his 1860 census. In 1860, he was living with his wife Harriet, their four children, and a woman named Nancy Carpenter who was 69 years of age.
Nancy Carpenter? The only Nancy Carpenter I know is Rice’s mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Rice. Why was Mary Ann’s mother-in-law living with her future husband?? Were they neighbors? Was she their cleaning lady? I clicked on Nancy Carpenter and saw her relationship to the “head of house” was listed as “mother-in-law.” She was William’s mother-in-law? What?? She was Harriet’s mother?
So, I went back and looked at Rice’s family, and sure enough, his sister Harriet was married to William. Rice died 31 Dec 1862 and Harriet died a month later on 30 Jan 1863. Their spouses, Mary Ann and William, brother-in-law/sister-in-law, married in 1864. Well of course they did. They had known each other for many years, hadn’t they?
The more I looked at the Rodgers and Carpenter families, the more I was amazed by the sheer number of family members they lost to war and typhoid. At the time of my research, I remember counting SEVENTEEN, but I’m sure there were many more I missed. I couldn’t wrap my head around that kind of heartache and quickly became impressed with Mary Ann’s strength. How would you react if you lost two or three family members this year? You would probably need Prozac. How would you respond if you lost a dozen? I wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed. Seventeen in one year? I can’t even fathom that.
Years, numbers, and names from census records are just that – years, numbers, and names – unless you put yourself in their shoes. Then they become tears, children, and heartaches. We all come from those strong women. We are the living proof of their strength. If the boat sank, the story would be over. But it didn’t, and we know that because we are here. We are the survivors. I dug deep down in my heart and soul and decided to tell her story, a story she would be proud of. I wanted her to know that she didn’t go through all of that in vain. I am here. I am her legacy. Her story has been told to make us all stronger. We are the products of strength, fortitude, and integrity, as well as tears, heartache, and pain. We are the children our grandmothers fought so hard for, and I want Mary Ann to be as proud of me as I am of her.
That’s where my book came from.
Let this be a lesson to all authors.
NEVER release a book the first week of January….unless it’s a diet book. Of the top 100 best sellers on Amazon on January 3rd, at least 50-60 of them are diet books. That cracks me up. Hopefully, the skinny-wanna-be’s will fall off the wagon in a few weeks and we can get back to our regularly scheduled program.
Bon Appetite!
Apparently I’m going to put off working on my book for the entire day, and I’m going to procrastinate by writing stuff here.
I’m working on a female character who is downtrodden and beaten, and am not as pleased with her as I was with my last female character who was strong, proud, determined, and driven. What is it that draws us to strong women?
I think of female characters from book and movies and always come up with women who have backbone, substance, grit. I have a hard time remembering any of the wimpy, whiny girls.
Off the top of my head, I love (in no particular order):
Sally Field in Steel Magnolias and Norma Rae
Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider and every other movie she has played in
even Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (LOVE her!)
What is it about these characters that is so intriguing?
Who are your favorite female heroines?
My book is now live on Amazon US, UK, and Italy…Awesome! Kindle is in the works and will be out in a couple weeks.
Click HERE to see the paperback in the US!
I am currently roaming around the country, more like, EATING my way across the country. Lots of pictures and stories coming when I return home next week! 🙂
Hey Hey Hey!!!
My new book, “Okatibbee Creek,” is now available in paperback! The first place you can get it is:
More links will come over the next few days and weeks. Amazon.com and Amazon.uk will be posted within the week. The Kindle version will be out the middle of January. Other online retailers will be available soon.
Or you can get the paperback right now if you click:
Or you can just click:
2012 has been a most interesting year. Since my children were little, my years have been measured by childhood accomplishments: that’s the year he started high school, that’s the year she started piano. There have been family measurements too: that’s the year we went to the Grand Canyon, that’s the year we sold the house, or that’s the year Grandma died.
This year has been different. There have been no measurements. We didn’t move, no one died, there were no graduations, no great happenings, no exciting journeys around the globe.
This year has, however, been filled with humbling personal victories for me.
If you have ever read my blog, you know I’m into genealogy. I’ve been tracing my family for 30 years. I try to be as accurate as I can, but I realize memories are fuzzy, documents are mis-dated, names are misspelled. This is a fact in genealogy research, so I don’t worry myself too much with perfection of details. Example: I have known since childhood that my grandmother was 59 when she died. When I ordered her birth certificate this year, I found that her birth date was not the year we all thought. She was actually 60 when she died and her tombstone is wrong. See? You just can worry yourself with details. It takes nothing away from my love for my grandmother either way.
So, in 2012, I submitted my genealogy paperwork to three different organizations for membership. I didn’t feel one way or the other about the memberships, but when I was accepted into all three, I realized that my research has indeed been correct and now has been validated by others. More than becoming a member of these organizations, I have been patted on the back for my years of research. I am pleased to say that 2012 will be marked as the year I became a member of the United States Daughters of 1812, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Even better than that, the three memberships are under three different lines in my family tree.
I’ve also held a lifelong desire to write my memoirs for my descendants. I always craved more detail about my great grandparent’s lives, and wished they would have left me something. So, since I was very young, I thought I would someday write my memoirs in case my great grandchild felt the same. Sadly, I don’t really have a fabulous and interesting life, so I have very little to write in a memoir. I’ve spent many hours over the decades with pencil and paper in hand and never could find a way to start.
2012 became the year of writing a memoir! Not mine. My third great grandmother’s. I spent most of the year writing her life story and turned it into a book. I am currently holding the very first printed copy of the paperback and look forward to the official release of “Okatibbee Creek” in a week or so. I’ve written stories and music my whole life, but I have never completed a novel before, so I am speechless to be holding this book. The fact that it is a family history, a memoir, the family book I’ve always wanted to write, the family history I’ve always wanted to read, gives me great pleasure and validation – validation of my family history, validation of my dreams, validation that 2012 was a year well spent.
It is bittersweet to say goodbye to 2012. It will be remembered as: that’s the year I was validated.
I’m tickled pink over my new video book trailer for “Okatibbee Creek.”
This was my best blog ever, don’t ya think?
Lori Crane 