Sunday, April 7, 2024
Back to the Research by Eileen O'Finlan
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Historical Research by Eileen O'Finlan
Have you ever wondered why it seems that a lot of time elapses between books from authors of historical fiction? It can feel like a long frustrating wait, especially when authors of many other genres seem to pump out books at lightning speed. There are several variables that determine how much time it takes to write a book such as the speed at which any given author writes, the amount of outlining (or lack thereof) done ahead of time, and the number and depth of revisions to name a few. But for most authors of historical fiction, the preliminary research can easily take just as long as the actual writing of the book. Sometimes, longer. This is not to say that authors of other genres don't do any research. They do. But historical research seems to be naturally more in-depth.
I usually take anywhere from six months to a year for research before I even begin to write. Once I start writing, I will still stop several times for more research because something invariably comes up that I didn't realize I was going to need to know about before I started.
So what does that initial research look like? Maybe I'm a bit old school, but I still favor using books for research so that's where I start. Right now I'm in the research phase for the next Irish book (so those of you who are fans of Kelegeen and Erin's Children, there will be a third and, most likely, a fourth book with these characters). The next book will be set during the American Civil War. Even though the setting is Worcester, Massachusetts, some characters will go to fight in the war and at least one of them will be a POV (point of view) character. So part of my research is on the Civil War in general then narrow in to focus on the regiments that were sent from Worcester and the battles in which they took part.
I will also need to know about everyday life in the 1860s including foodways, how holidays were celebrated (Christmas was finally becoming a "thing" in New England by then), fashion, etc. I'll need to know what was happening in Worcester during that time which I will learn about from reading the City's annual reports for that decade. Women were becoming more independent so some of my non-Irish female characters may take up employment. I will need to know where they might have worked and what that was like for them.
The books being used for research for my next Irish novel (yes, all of them!)
While what I plan to write determines what I will need to research, my research also informs what I will write. As I do the research, I often come across something very interesting and decide I want it in my story. Then I may need to learn even more about it. The research and the writing are co-dependent in this way. There are a lot of rabbit holes one can go down while researching. Fortunately, most of them lead to something that can be used, if not in the current manuscript, then in a future one.
I do not stop at books, though. I will also include websites, trips to museums (I foresee several to the Worcester Historical Musuem), chats with Tom Kelleher, my dear friend and favorite historian, and whatever else presents itself as needed.
Like most authors of historical fiction, I strive to create books that are as historically accurate as possible while also being stories in which my readers can totally immerse themselves. And that, dear readers, takes time.
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Research is Fun and Games by Helen Henderson
Windmaster by Helen Henderson Click the cover for purchase information. |
Long before my first published novel or byline in a magazine, history held a special fascination. Now I admit while there is a convenience to the Internet, it comes with challenges. One is validating the accuracy of the information. Another is the time sink. One fact leads to another of even more interest. Open another site while you're there and that single click becomes two or three or four and more hours lost.
Then there is the information itself. Is the source knowledgeable? Is the information from the era or written many years later? When teaching seminars on research techniques I also recommend noting whether the material is primary material that is newly available such as a recent transcription making it available on the internet or is the information simply a rehash of a rehash. Diaries written as events happen provide a unique insight into the world and perceptions of the time.
Since I admit a fondness for books, you might think libraries are a favorite research site. And while I have spent hours (actually days) at the New York City Public Library, the Alexander Library of Rutgers University, and the Library of Congress, my favorite means of gathering information for settings or characters is in-person. Over the years I've ridden on horseback with a saddle, bareback, or with a blanket. Summers were passed with target practice with bow and arrow, rifle,and hatchet. No, I am not one of those firing the cannon. My firearm experience is with more contemporary weapons, not those that use black powder.
I have donned period garb and mingled with Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactors to immerse myself in those times. To help stay in tune with the events, a wicker basket concealed my notebook and contemporary camera. For a different perspective I've participated in archaeological digs at Revolutionary War battlefields and a Civil War Training Ground.
Wearing fatigues and combat boots, I rode a jeep as a journalist embedded with a column of restored World War II military vehicles. The trip started when I reported to the airfield. The guard on duty telephoned "headquarters." A few minutes later, a soldier rode up on a restored WW II bicycle with my "orders." At that point I knew things were going to be interesting as I was told to muster in uniform and report to a jeep in the middle of the column. I was in essence transported to the 1940s.
That was not the only time I felt I was in another era. Now to set the scene. You are standing beneath the wing of a B-17 bomber, surrounded by men and women in uniform. The swing and big band music being broadcast over the loudspeakers stops mid-note. “Pearl Harbor has just been bombed,” echoes over the tarmac. Even after the crowd of thousands realized it was a replay of a broadcast from December 7th, 1941, they remained in attentive silence, many rubbing goose bumps from their arms. As a side note, I had a similar reaction years later when I stood on the boardwalk near where I lived and saw the twin towers shrouded in smoke.
The storyline and setting for one short story came from walking a reenactor camp after the public had left for the day. The eerie notes of "Taps" floating over a fog-filled field that just hours before had the sounds of battle created the impression that an ethereal bugler is summoning the souls of those who died on that hallowed ground centuries before.
To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL
Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination. Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter.
Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky and a feisty who have adopted her as one of their pack.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Thinking Ahead by Eileen O'Finlan
Friday, February 7, 2020
My Own Personal Research Historian by Eileen O'Finlan
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Many Thanks to Worcester Resident, Randy Bloom
Click here for purchase information Click here to visit Eileen O'Finlan's website |
Original gas lighting fixture in the dining room. The extra gas jet (visible at front center) allowed for an attached rubber tube to hang down and connect with a gas lamp in the center of the table. |
Sunday, July 21, 2019
A Greek Adventure and Research by Diane Scott Lewis
Author and Husband, navy base front gate |
Before we left the U. S. I had an epiphany to write a novel set in Greece, ala Mary Stewart. She wrote so many wonderful romantic suspense novels set in Greece, including my favorite The Moon Spinners. My story, A Spark to the Ashes, takes place in 1955. A running away (from whom?) American woman with a small child seeks employment with a burned-out Englishman, to research ancient Greek pottery. She needs shelter yet desires freedom, he dislikes children and had expected a 'male' assistant. He's scarred from his experience in WWII. Both their pasts will haunt them and put their lives in peril.
I scoured the countryside to get my geography correct, now much research on the era remains.
Cape Sounio, Greece
|
Former navy base, Nea Makri, Greece |
Greece has a poor economy, but it's a beautiful country with much to offer. The restaurants in Nea Makri are fantastic, with fresh seafood and views of the gulf that flows into the Aegean Sea. The people are friendly, and most speak enough English to make you comfortable.
But to speak of writing--soon my Revolutionary War novel, Her Vanquished Land, will be available from BWL (September), then I dive into the Greece of 1955. Good thing I love research!
To purchase my novels at Amazon or All Markets: Click HERE
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Anachronism by J. S. Marlo
When I started writing my current novel, a historical/paranormal romantic suspense, I knew I would need to do more research than usual. Don't take me wrong, I love research...I love it too much. Discovering new facts is fascinating, and more often than none, I spend too much time searching details I don't need. Still, I'm trying to avoid the obvious and not-so-obvious "ooops".
My story takes place in 1941 during the war. Rationing wasn't enforced till 1942 in Canada, so I don't need to worry about food stamps. I discovered that less than one on four Canadian own a refrigerator, less than half use an electric or gas stove, and more than a third didn't have running water in their house back then. Needless to say, my heroine doesn't own a dishwasher, and when she injured herself, she didn't have access to antibiotics, but she could spend the night in a motel room for $3, which she didn't have. No credit cards.
All of the above were facts I knew I would need to research, but I didn't expect I would start questioning many of the words and expressions I take for granted. I'm constantly asking myself: Did they use that word in 1941? Did that expression existed back then? You could become very angry in 1941, but nobody went ballistic until decades later.
As a result, writing this story is fun and interesting, but it takes twice as much time than I had anticipated. I'm happy to report I crossed the halfway mark, but it won't be finished by Easter, not unless I lock myself in a hotel room at $150/night, which I can't afford either.
The challenges I encounter are giving me an even greater appreciation and renewed admiration for my fellow historical writers. I've read three books of the Canadian Historical Brides Series so far--nine more to read--and I bow to the talents of these writers. They researched every aspect of their story, in some instances every single sentence, and created compelling and accurate historical tales. Well done, ladies!!!
JS
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Going Away to Write
Monday, January 29, 2018
Ada Lovelace, a cameo in “Victoria”
Who knows what Ada and Charles might have devised together had she lived-- and had been able to keep the roving interest of her polymath mentor focused on the Analytical Engine? But instead, tragically, and at what loss to science we shall never know, Ada died at 36 of ovarian cancer. Stephen Wolfram, in the article linked below, was sufficiently intrigued to speculate about what might have happened if she's survived as far into the century as her mentor Babbage. What a subject for any writer of alternate history!
Florence Nightingle, nursing pioneer and another of Ada's famous friends, wrote: “They said she could not possibly have lived so long, were it not for the tremendous vitality of the brain, that would not die.”
iQ
The Mathematica site, for Wolfram's revolutionary mathematical "assistant":
See all my historical novels @
https:www.julietwaldron.com
Friday, July 29, 2016
A Schuyler Sketch--French & Indian War to Revolution
Captain Philip Schuyler played an active role in the militia and at what would come to be known as The Battle of Lake George. Here, after the near-disaster of an early morning ambush upon Americans, British, and their Mohawk allies, the tide--in northern New York --turned. In the course of a day’s hard fighting, their combined forces eventually gained a victory.
“They fought in the morning like good boys, at noon like men, and in the afternoon like devils.”
A “Dutch gabled house made of brick from Holland,” it stood a half mile from the Albany stockade, now the intersection of State and Pearl Streets. In those days the place was a common grazing ground, referred to as “the pastures.” A third daughter, Peggy, arrived in September 24, 1758, and the family of five now lived in a few small rooms. Three babies in three years must have kept Catherine busy.
Our French & Indian War--The Seven Year's War to the Europeans--involved every nation on the continent, except the Ottoman Turks. In North America, that conflict had begun to wind down. Philip Schuyler, wanting to settle his accounts with the British army--he'd been a quartermaster, among his other duties--sailed to England to present his case. It was at this time that the building of the Schuyler's grand new home would begin, overseen by the energetic Catherine, for a brief time on a childbearing vacation.
At last it was deemed sufficiently safe to build outside of Albany's city limits, so work on what is today called the "Schuyler Mansion" got underway, as well as the construction of a large farmhouse on family property north and east of Saratoga. As the sea lanes cleared of warships, furniture and window treatments, bed curtains and rugs of both linoleum and fine wool made their way from Europe, traveling up the Hudson.
While in England, Philip Schuyler became fascinated by the many busy canals he observed. When he returned home, he often entertained the local farmers by demonstrating how "water could be made to run uphill." He was an early proponent of the first great engineering--and wealth-creation--project of the next century--the Erie Canal. It was at this time too that he paid passage for skilled laborers to come settle on his lands. One of the first flax mills in the America would be built under Schuyler's fore-sighted direction.
His wife returned to woman's business, first producing a set of short-lived (no doubt premature) twins. Ten other deliveries, including a set of triplets, would follow. The three older girls, now moved into their new home, would grow up with some small sibling continually toddling after them.
Catherine's last child, (also "Catherine,") would be born in 1781, shortly after her eldest, party-girl Angelica--with, of course, the help of her husband, John Barker Church--had already twice made her a grandmother. George and Martha Washington came on a winter visit at the tail end of the Revolution to stand as Catherine's godparents. Daughter #2, Elizabeth, herself not far behind in the generational baby race, gave birth to her and Hamilton's first child, their beloved, ill-fated son Philip, at the Albany house early in January of 1782.
I'm skipping back and forth, I know, but I'd like to end with this story. When, in 1777, during the American Revolution, General Burgoyne attacked Albany, coming down the ancient warpath, Catherine, with a few servants, made a dangerous journey in the face of an invading army to burn the wheat at their Saratoga Farm to keep it from the hungry invaders. This tale is said to be only "a tradition," but, knowing the capable, no-nonsense Mrs. Schuyler, I think I'll chose to believe it.
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