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A Writer of History

~ by M.K Tod

A Writer of History

Tag Archives: Jem – A Girl of London by Delaney Green

From English teacher to author

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by M.K. Tod in Author Entrepreneur, second career authors, writing historical fiction, Writing Process

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

a writing career, Author Delaney Green, careers authors have before becoming full-time writers, finding a second career as an author, Jem - A Girl of London by Delaney Green, the appeal of writing as a career, why do authors write historical fiction, writing as a career, writing historical fiction

Deb Peterson has been a Facebook friend for quite some time and has been on the blog before as Delaney Green (more about that in a moment). She is the author of the Jem books, about a girl with Second Sight who grows up in the years between the Seven Years’ War and the American War of Independence. Today she shares her path to becoming an author.

You asked why I write under a pseudonym.

I write under a pseudonym because, first, my given name is rather common, and I wanted it to be easier for readers to Google me. Second, I wanted a division between my public and private life, especially on social media, so I could keep writerly stuff on my writer sites and personal stuff on my personal site. Last—and how’s this for hubris?—I assumed I’d be so well known one day that crazy fans would seek me out, and I didn’t want to have to move to a secluded house in the country away from my current neighbors and a neighborhood I enjoy, especially after spending 20 years rehabbing my house until it’s just the way I like it.

What sort of career did you have before becoming a writer?

I’ve had a lot of jobs—newspaper reporter, copy editor, professional actress, Broadway theater concessions manager, adjunct professor, farm laborer—but my career for 25 years was high school English teacher. That job was a privilege. It was a marathon. I didn’t much care for all the grading I had to do (one year of work at home for every year I spent at school, and I’m not even kidding—I did the math), but you do what you have to do so kids learn. Teaching was excellent training for what I do now:

  • You have to be disciplined enough to do your work consistently and well, because you face people every single day who need you to be there for them with your A game.
  • As a teacher, you have to know where you’re going and plan, just as you do with a novel.
  • You have to figure out multiple ways to get a student from point A to point B, as a writer must do with both plot and character development.
  • Teachers have to be able to explain why they’re doing what they’re doing in the classroom to parents, principals, peers, and students—again, an aid to crafting plot.
  • A teacher experiences humans in triumph and in crisis, another aid to character development.
  • On top of that, I taught literature: Dante’s Inferno, The Iliad and The Odyssey, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, Shakespeare—it was a 25-year deep dive into classic literature. Invaluable.

Was there a triggering event that prompted you to begin writing?

Before I knew how to read and write, I was drawing pictures, and every picture had a story. As soon as I learned to read, I read every book on the shelf. I never thought a regular person like me could/would be allowed to write an actual story, but I wrote and illustrated one anyway in grade four. I had a poem published in a national magazine in grade seven. I wrote a ton in high school and started a creative writing magazine. I didn’t really have a triggering event. I have always invented stories. But I will say that I simply could not write when I was a single mom teaching full time, rehabbing our house, and directing the theater program at my school. I had to sleep in my spare time!

Do you now write full time or part time?

Normally, I get up every morning and write for four or five hours, so that’s only 30-ish hours a week—not really full time. I also coach writers at a local college about eight hours a week. And I still sub in the local schools once in a while because I still need a kid fix now and again. Right now, I have been waiting five months for my editor in London to finish editing my latest novel in the Jem series (Jem, a Foreigner in Philadelphia), so I have been working on a mystery novel, a novel about trolls, and on short stories. I’m delighted to report that I just had two stories accepted for publication, one by Black Dandy (New Zealand) and one by New Myths.com. A third story made the long list in an inaugural competition sponsored by The Woolf of Switzerland—I’ll hear about that one in early February.

What parts of the writing career do you enjoy the most/the least?

In the last two years before I retired, I got up two hours before work to write—but I always had to quit and get ready for school. Now, it’s an immense joy to be able to get up and go straight to my desk with a cup of coffee and work without having to stop. Honestly, I don’t dislike anything: I love the research, I love crafting a story, and I love editing. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I do.

What parts of your former career do you miss/not miss?

I miss the kids. As I said, I still sub now and again because kids are refreshing—and I fall right back into “I truly see and appreciate you” mode when I’m with them. Kids know if you really care about them or not. I do care. I always will.

I do not miss the incredible amounts of time I spent grading papers. I do not miss interacting with difficult parents who apparently birthed little gods and goddesses rather than human children. I do not miss being demonized in the press and the resultant political crippling of my profession.

Do you have any regrets?

I regret not getting up at 4 a.m. years earlier.

What advice would you offer other second career writers?

My advice is simple: START. Just start. Don’t spend weeks or months looking for the perfect pen, perfect office chair, perfect time of day, perfect routine, perfect time of life. Don’t say, “I’ll start tomorrow” because you may not get tomorrow. If you want to write, write NOW. I wonder what I might have produced if I had developed those hundreds of story ideas I had over the years that I jotted down on bits of paper I subsequently lost. Or the stories I made up for my son on the fly at bedtime; one year, I made up a 24-chapter story about an elf whose adventures led up to Christmas Day. Oh, how I wish I’d written down that story! What other marvelous stories never got written, and never will get written, because I didn’t put them down on paper? Please, dear reader, pick up one of your slips of paper and WRITE THAT STORY TODAY.

Many thanks, Deb. Wish I had the exposure to classics that you’ve had – although I doubt I could have handled a group of high school students! Wishing you success with your next Jem novel.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

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Inside Historical Fiction with Delaney Green

06 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by M.K. Tod in Connecting Readers & Writers, Historical Fiction, Inside Historical Fiction, Researching historical fiction, writing historical fiction

≈ 1 Comment

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Author Delaney Green, differentiating historical and contemporary fiction, Jem - A Girl of London by Delaney Green, researching historical fiction, unique aspects of historical fiction, writing historical fiction

Jem - A Girl of London by Delaney GreenDelaney Green has been a reporter, a copy editor, and a professional actress to name some of her pursuits. She has also taught English and now writes historical fiction of a speculative nature. Today Delaney has dropped by to talk about the unique aspects of historical fiction.

What are the ‘magic ingredients’ that make historical fiction unforgettable/irresistible? And in your opinion, what do the best historical fiction writers do to ‘get it right’?

Historical fiction that places the reader INTO the time period by including the five senses, an accurate historical viewpoint from each character, and tantalizing historical tidbits you mightn’t find on Google make HiFi work for me. My mom taught history, and she was always springing stuff on her students. For example, she might tell them on a given day what people used to blow their noses with. Her junior high school students particularly enjoyed learning about gnarly medical history. (Side note: we lived in a tiny town, and so my mom was my eighth grade history teacher. My biggest problem with this was figuring out what to call her in class.)

Are historical novels inherently different from contemporary novels, and if so, in what ways?

In some ways, historical and contemporary novels are not different. Both usually require research. But I do think a writer has a greater obligation with historical fiction to get his or her facts right, since a historical writer is, in essence, a teacher, and teachers are supposed to be the experts in their chosen field. Readers are busy. They aren’t inclined to verify the facts in a book. So a writer is honor-bound to be honest. You can’t fudge history—especially since your book may be the only exposure a reader has to a given time period. That’s not to say something couldn’t happen in the past that the writer has no reference to cite in support of that event, but whatever the writer inserts should be plausible for the period.

What aspects about the past do you specifically try to highlight in your novel(s)?

My main character, Jem Connolly, is interested in medicine, which in the eighteenth century was heaving itself into the modern world. Back then, some physicians still practiced using Galen-based theories of the four humors; others had studied in Edinburgh and had read the works of physicians and scientists on the Continent and were more aware of the actual workings of the human body. Another thing I have to be aware of is logistics: how long communication might take, how long a journey might take, and so on. In these days of instant communication across thousands of miles, it’s quite a mental adjustment to know a letter might take months to cross the ocean. For example, letters written back and forth by American amateur botanist John Bartram and English gardener Peter Collinson often crossed mid-ocean, and the gentlemen often were peeved with one another for not writing back soon enough.

In writing historical fiction, what research and techniques do you use to ensure that conflict, plot, setting, dialogue, and characters are true to the time period?

What do they say about real estate—“Location, location, location.” For a writer of historical fiction, alter that to “Research, research, research.” Spend your plenteous earnings (ha) on books. The internet is great for a quick look-up, but you won’t find everything you need to know there. I am very bad at keeping track of how much I spend on period books, to my accountant’s dismay, but I very much like to have IN HAND a book that I can layer in sticky notes. Besides, books often include juicy bits that an internet site will leave out. I recently visited Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia, and my wonderful guide through the gardens recommended a book of Bartram’s letters I’d already purchased. Which brings up another point: if at all possible, a writer should visit the place in which his or her story takes place. At Bartram’s Garden, I learned that the greenhouse Bartram had built on his property was, in truth, very much smaller and darker in real life than what I imagined. His house, too, was smaller and more cramped than I expected it to be, and it was much closer to the  Schuylkill River than I’d thought. The gardens were wilder. That kind of thing matters.

What aspects do you feel need to be included when you are building a past world for your readers?

Readers want to be transported.  Humans know where they are by taking in information through their five senses. Therefore, I try to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell past places by finding out what there was to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. In addition, when I am including an actual person from the past, I want to find out what kind of person he or she was. I want to get the person’s temperament right. In the case of Benjamin Franklin, for example, I read a couple of biographies and tried to fit some of the things he actually said into my fictional situations. In the case of Jem, a Novice in Philadelphia, which I’m working on now, I have a trickier situation: one of my main characters is Deborah Franklin, Ben’s wife, who stayed at home whilst Ben politicked (and frolicked) in London for years and years. We don’t know much about her other than that she missed her husband terribly and ran his business while he was gone and was a terrible speller. So I had to make up her temperament from the tiny tidbits I could unearth about her.

Do you see any particular trends in HF?

There appears to be an interest in writing first-person accounts, although Diana Gabaldon (and others) do insert third-person perspectives into first-person stories. First-person has advantages and disadvantages, of course, as I well know. But as far as time period is concerned, I think writers immerse themselves in a time that fascinates them, so I don’t see any trends regarding specific time periods. Same goes for readers: some like steampunk, some like togas.

Please tell us a little about your latest novel.

Jem, a Fugitive from London, continues the story of Jem that began in Jem, a Girl of London. In the second book, Jem has to leave Doctor Abernathy in London and journey to a remote farmstead in Cornwall to learn how to control her Second Sight, which has become a big problem—in fact, Jem’s life may be forfeit if she can’t learn to manage her power on her own. Jem’s tutor is the grandmother of the herbalist, Margery Jamison. Jem has to adjust to life on a farm, to Margery’s unusual grandmother, to the isolation of the moor, to awareness of her own personal foibles. It’s a coming-of-age story, really. You and your readers may remember your own first realization that you were not self-sufficient—that you needed other people and that you might NOT be able to triumph in every situation unless you relinquished your pride and developed your talents and bolstered your weaknesses. That is the focus of Jem#2. Jem finds out, too, that Patch is still hunting for her and that he may be in possession of his own brand of magic. I also am working on Jem#3, wherein Jem sails to America. But that’s down the road—or should I say across the water?

Many thanks for adding to the discussion of inside historical fiction, Delaney. 

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction and blogs about all aspects of the genre at A Writer of History. Her latest novel, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE is set in WWI France and is available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. Her debut novel, UNRAVELLED: Two wars. Two affairs. One marriage. is also available from these retailers.

Mary can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

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Historical Fiction Blogs

  • Burton Book Review
  • English Historical Fiction Authors
  • Historical Novel Society
  • Historical Tapestry
  • History With a Twist
  • Passages to the Past
  • Passages to the Past
  • Reading the Past
  • The History Girls

History Blogs

  • BBC – WW2 People's War
  • Canada At War
  • Edwardian Promenade
  • First World War

Other Blogs & Sites for Book Lovers

  • Dizzy C's Little Book Blog
  • Midwest Book Review
  • Words and Peace

Writing Craft & Industry

  • Jane Friedman: Writing, Reading, and Publishing in the Digital Age
  • The Book Designer
  • The Shatzkin Files
  • This Itch Called Writing

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