Tag Archives: transporting readers in time and place

Transported – with Sue Ingalls Finan

26 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Transported, writing historical fiction

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Sue Ingalls Finan is the author of The Cards Don’t Lie. She taught American history and literature in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Northern California, and now lives in Sonoma County with her history buff husband Jim. Sue writes for her local newspaper and volunteers at hospitals and libraries with Duffy, her Irish wolfhound therapy dog. Over to you, Sue.

Stephen King once said, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”  Not only can we take books wherever we go (whenever we go), but they can serve as personal portals to times and places no longer accessible. For historical fiction writers, achieving the latter requires a combination of research, inspired invention and a translation of contemporary human emotions, goals, and desires to a bygone time, allowing readers to  vicariously celebrate or commiserate with the characters.

Some time ago I wrote a historical fiction short story (Home Away from Home) about a Prisoners of War camp in Sonoma County, California. This camp held approximately 250 German POW’s from 1944-1946.  I was intrigued by a local museum exhibit, which features photographs, newspaper reports, and paraphernalia such as wood carvings made from prune boxes. A long-time resident also donated a sixteen millimeter film of the prisoners marching from camp to the worksites of orchards and vineyards. The president of the historical museum, who owns the property where the camp was located, also interviewed the descendants of one of the guards, and happily shared the family’s stories.

My key resource was a letter in the museum’s possession written by prisoner Horst Liewald to his wife Elfrida. Luckily my neighbor, who was born in Germany during the war and later relocated to Sonoma County, speaks fluent German and English. My neighbor translated Horst’s letter, which somehow was never mailed. This is how Horst became my character. I concocted a series of fictional letters from him to Elfrida, whom he supposed was still taking care of their family farm in Breslau, Germany. Based on information supplied by the museum, Horst’s letters recounted the day-to-day life in the camp, including sing-alongs, beer and baseball games, and buying Cracker Jacks at the canteen with his pay of eighty cents/day. (It was truly a laid-back camp – no guard towers and guns.)

But I also added what I conjectured to be Horst’s fears and anxieties about Elfrida’s safety: he discovers from the guards that Russians were invading Germany, and he has not heard from his wife for several weeks.  Through these details, the reader cares about the main character’s outcome, and can’t help but wonder: what happens after the prisoners are released? (Spoiler alert: In 1949, Horst and Elfrida emigrated to Sonoma County, sponsored by the owner of the farm where Horst had worked as a POW. Elfrida is still living in Oregon!)

In contrast, my current novel, The Cards Don’t Lie, demanded even more creative speculation. The Battle of New Orleans took place over two hundred years ago, and there is a lack of contemporary records regarding the role of females. We know the citizens of the city bonded; the barriers of race, religion, culture and class fell. The women nursed the wounded in the Ursuline convent as well as in private homes, collected weapons, made bandages, gathered blankets, bed linens, soap, food, and also sewed much-needed clothing for some of the last-arriving volunteers. All of these efforts required coordination and organization. My questions: who were these women? And what might they have had to contend with besides their husbands, brothers, and sons heading into battle?

Through visits to New Orleans, museums, statements of tour guides, and many books, I looked into the lives of the different strata of females of New Orleans, concentrating on the character creations of a free woman of color and a white plantation mistress.

Free women of color in New Orleans in the early 1800s were often involved in placages, or left-handed marriages with wealthy white men. Their mothers, thanks to their own placage benefactors, sponsored grand balls to arrange permanent financial settlements for their daughters. But! What if the placée doesn’t like her mother’s choice? What if the placée is in love with another man? Other questions came to mind: how does the left-handed wife feel about the legal wife? What if the male does not live up to the agreement? What if his white wife objects to his second family? And what happens when the British attack?  (Do read the book!)

Also documented is the high incidence of death when giving birth, and that many children did not live beyond their first birthday. My second character is having difficulties with both. But she is determined to bear a son for her beloved husband and will do anything to fulfill her goal. This typically capable character also hears voices and has out-of-body experiences triggered by traumatic events, including the burial of her first child and the departure of family and friends to a battle that will decide the fate of the city and its citizens.

My research for both the short story and novel transported me to different eras and areas. But no matter when or where I alighted, my characters’ goals and desires are authentically ubiquitous – courage and the concern for loved ones.

Many thanks for giving us your take on being transported in time and place, Sue. The Battle of New Orleans is a unique setting for a novel.

The Cards Don’t Lie by Sue Ingalls Finan

1814: It’s the third year of the United States second War of Independence. The British are on the verge of capturing the strategically important port of New Orleans. In the midst of the Americans’ chaotic preparations for battle, three women play key roles in the defense of the city: Catherine, a free woman of color, voodoo priestess, and noted healer personally summoned by General Andrew Jackson; Marguerite, a pampered Creole plantation mistress prone to out-of-body experiences; and Millie, a plucky, patriotic prostitute inspired by her pirate lover to serve in the most dangerous capacity of all. These three women’s lives and fates become intertwined as they join forces to defend their country.

To be published by She Writes Press in October 2018.

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.

A 1910 Chinese Wedding

05 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Transported, writing historical fiction

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The current work-in-progress is set in Hong Kong with two timelines, one in 2015, the other in 1912. I’ve included a wedding in the historical timeline – not the actual event, but a photo of the Chinese bride and groom, which my protagonist discovers. And what would that have looked like? An important question when you’re writing historical fiction.

Fortunately, Google did not disappoint.

I found several photos – some with very traditional garb, others more western in style. Ultimately, I chose to create a composite based on two photos – taking the bride’s outfit from one and the groom’s from the other. Then making up the rest.

I like the way this bride’s dress seems to combine Asian and Western styles.

And I thought the groom’s formal attire in this photo would suit my concept for the male character in my story. Both photos came from Pinterest boards.

Here’s an early draft of the brief description included in the manuscript. No doubt it will change 🙂

Patricia looked at the couple standing in front of a folding screen on which a scene of birds and blossoms and distant hills had been painted. Her great-grandmother wore a white dress with a multi-tiered skirt that blended Western and Chinese styling, and a circlet of what looked like pearls in her hair. She sat stiffly upright in a chair next to Li Tao-Kai. Patricia thought he looked handsome in his long cutaway jacket and formal attire, one hand resting on the back of the chair, the other holding a top hat and white gloves.

Research – about an hour. Words = 95. Historical fiction takes a lot of time!

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.

Transported in Time and Place by Harald Johnson

31 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Guest Posts, Historical Fiction, Transported, Writing Process

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Harald Johnson brings us his take on transporting readers in time and place. In his novels Harald builds the world of 1609 and the early days of what we now know as New York City. He’s lived in Paris and speaks fluent French, worked in Hollywood as an art director, and published magazines. Harald also launched and ran a marketing communications agency in LA. Quite the career!

Transported in Time and Place – by Harald Johnson

The final motivation for writing and publishing NEW YORK 1609 came in the mail from my mother. It was an old family photo album; the kind with the black pages, white ink captions, and those little black-and-white photos with the scalloped edges. For some reason, I had placed it next to a binder of my old swimming accolades, and it now struck me: When I had swum around the island of Manhattan in 1983 as part of a swim race, I was swimming over the exact spot where my family had arrived (with me as a child) on a ship from Germany in 1953 to start a new life. And this was also the very same location Henry Hudson encountered in 1609 when he arrived with his Dutch-Anglo crew seeking a new water passage to the Orient. The parallels were just too hard to ignore.

Photo: Arriving in NYC in 1953. That’s me in traditional lederhosen and knee socks with my Mom and Dad. My mother’s written description reads (translated): “Now we’ve done it, and in a few moments, we’ll step for the first time on American ground.”

I had already decided that I wanted to write a historical fiction novel in the style of James Michener or Ken Follett (two of my favorite HF authors), and had played around with different concepts, including one involving New York City, a place I had visited many times over the years. But nothing really clicked until I made the connection between my own history and that of the city itself. It seemed we were solidly tied together. It was time I took action on this idea.

The first thing I did was to locate and read the historical novels about NYC that already existed. And oddly enough, I could only find three that covered this early- to mid-17th-century time period. And none of them started at the beginning, which in my mind is clearly 1609 with Hudson. So I was determined to be the first.

After reading all the nonfiction history books about NYC I could find, my last step was to make another trip to The Big Apple to meet with history experts and to basically verify the research I had already done from a distance (and from my memory). This trip also included finalizing the licensing of the amazing image you see on the cover of the book. It’s a computer simulation of what Manhattan would have looked like on September 12, 1609—the day Henry Hudson and his crew sailed to it.

And most importantly, this final visit would help me get one last “look and feel” for my setting. My characters would be living and spending their time in and around the rivers, sounds, and straits that are such an important part of what New York is, so I had to re-experience that for myself, both on land and water (I didn’t swim this time!). I wanted to watch the sun as it arced through the sky, listen to the gulls wheeling overhead, touch the gnarled bark of an oak tree, smell the rotting of seaweed, and, yes, taste the water’s brininess (NYC is situated in a tidal estuary). In other words, I wanted my readers to really feel like they had been transported, in both time and place.

Here’s a small excerpt from the novel to give a sense of place and of the time period:

“Hudson spent each morning tasting the water for its saltiness. He used an empty bottle partially filled with small stones for weight, which he tied to a long rope and flung over the side. The presence of salt far up the river suggested he wasn’t sailing on a river at all but, rather, on a fjord or strait, which to him could only mean one thing: this channel connected to a saltwater sea. The South Sea. The Orient. So far, there was a fine taste of salt in his mouth in the mornings.”

PHOTO: Here I am on Governors Island judging the distance across to Lower Manhattan in bow shots. It’s five, and it’s in the book!

For me, there is nothing better than standing in an important historical location and imagining what it was like before. Sometimes long before. In my case, I would travel to New York City again and again, and on each trip, I’d stop and stare at the waters encircling Manhattan. And think back to the day I was treading water at the island’s tip, waiting for the ebbing tide to change, and looking up to wonder: What was this place like at the beginning? I mean, what was it REALLY like? And how did things get to be the way they are today? Imagining the answers to those questions helped inspire me to write the story told in—and transport readers to—NEW YORK 1609.

PHOTO: Standing at the tip of Lower Manhattan, this is the view—minus the Statue of Liberty above my right arm—the native Manahate band would have had as a strange ship carrying strange beings sailed into New York Harbor in September of 1609.

(photo: Jay Tanen)

NEW YORK 1609 by Harald Johnson

When a Native American (Lenape) boy joins Henry Hudson’s expedition up the river that now bears his name, the fearless and visionary–and misunderstood–Dancing Fish doesn’t realize his entire world and way of life are in peril. Enthralled at first by these strangers, he begins to discover their dark and dangerous side, touching off a decades-long struggle against determined explorers, aggressive traders, land-hungry settlers, and ruthless officials. If his own people are to survive, the boy-turned-man must use his wits, build alliances, and draw on unique skills to block the rising tide of the white “salt people.”

Many thanks, Harald. I can vouch for the authenticity Harald brings to this novel and I’m sure readers will be delighted to experience that long ago time.

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.