Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Straight from the Source: Jennifer Bohnhoff on Writing Historical Fiction

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is a native New Mexican who grew up in a lot of different places before she returned to the Land of Enchantment. She taught High School and Middle School History and Language Arts before retiring and turning to full time writing. Where Duty Calls and The Worst Enemy, book 1 and 2 of the trilogy Rebels Along the Rio Grande, are set in New Mexico during the Civil War. Book 3, The Famished Country, will come out during the spring of 2024. 

Why is historical fiction important?

Historical fiction brings history to life. When I first began teaching New Mexico history to 7th graders, I got told – a lot – that history was boring. History isn’t boring, but the textbook certainly was! I ended up using the textbook as kind of a spine, then I fleshed out lessons with stories of real people, their dreams and struggles, and the little quirks that made them human. I started getting calls and emails from parents saying that New Mexico history is what my students talked about during dinner and in the car. They were excited about history because they were excited about the people who lived it.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

I almost always begin with a setting, then ask myself ‘what happened here?’ The idea for Code: Elephants on the Moon began when the family took a bicycling vacation through Normandy in the summer of 2005. I’d thought I’d be more interested in the Normans and the early medieval period, but the way the Normans treated Americans – still! —as their liberators impressed me. Many older people wanted to share their wartime experiences, and those stories started me thinking.

How do you conduct your research?

I start with general history books of the period. Books like John Taylor’s Bloody Valverde helped me nail down a timeline and determine what events had to be included in Where Duty Calls, and which could be left out. Then I go to the bibliography in the back and find sources that are closer to the actual event. John P. Wilson’s When the Texans Came: Missing Records from the Civil War in the Southwest is a compilation 282 letters, intelligence dispatches and eyewitness accounts.  Horn and Wallace’s Union Army Operations in the Southwest includes all the first-hand official reports written by Union soldiers. Don E. Elbert’s Rebels on the Rio Grande is an edited version of the journals and drawings of a Confederate Volunteer named A. B. Peticolas. Other, older memoirs and books written by veterans were harder to find, but the patient librarians at the Special Collections Library helped me find them either in the archives or through interlibrary loan. And where there were no books, those librarians helped with newspaper searches that revealed articles both from the period and written long after by the men who remembered the events. For instance, John Norvell and Frederick Wade both rode into New Mexico with Sibley’s Confederate forces. Both survived and became newspapermen. Their reminiscences in the paper included a lot of funny or sobering stories that became tidbits in my novels.

Do you have a specific system for collecting data?

Index cards! I am old school, and I have hundreds of cards to sort and shuffle as I find what fits into the timeline. I have one card for each book with all the publication details, then dozens and dozens of cards that have the initials of the book and a page number at the top, and then the quote or information below it. 

What is your favorite thing about research?

Finding real stories that are vivid and amusing that I can give to my characters.  While my secondary characters are almost always real people, I’ve found it almost impossible to find one single person who experienced everything I’d like to write about, so I create a primary character and then give him or her the stories from real people. Just about everything that happened to Sarah McCoombs, the protagonist of The Bent Reed, my novel set in Gettysburg, actually happened to someone. I took events from four or five diaries and journals, plus some newspaper accounts and gave them all to Sarah, and I plunked her house right between Sherfy’s Peach Orchard and Devil’s Den so that she could be in the middle of the action. 

What’s your least favorite thing about research?

I hate it when I find contradictory stories! William Marshal, for instance, was the last man wounded during the Battle of Apache Canyon, which is part of The Worst Enemy. The official casualty list just says he died. One memoir says he was shot in the gut with a rifle. Another says it was a pistol wound, to the head. Both were eyewitnesses, but their accounts, written years after the event, are so different that one of them, and maybe both must have forgotten! I had to choose one version to include in my book, and I am sure that someone is going to tell me I chose wrong.

What comment from a reader makes you happiest?

I am absolutely over the moon when I hear someone say that they learned a lot reading my book. Very few people seem to know that there were Civil War battles in New Mexico. When they are inspired to go to Glorieta or Fort Craig and see where my stories took place, I am thrilled. 

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Filed Under: authors, books and reading, historical fiction, the writing life

Straight from the Source: Salma Hussain on Writing Historical Fiction

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SALMA HUSSAIN grew up in the U.A.E. to parents from Pakistan, and immigrated to Canada when she was thirteen years old. She has a B.A. (Hon.) in English Literature with a concentration in creative writing from the University of Calgary, a law degree from the University of Calgary, and a Masters in Law from McGill University. She writes prose and poetry for both adults and children. Her work has appeared in various Canadian literary magazines, including filling Station, Fiddlehead, The Humber Literary Review, and in the anthology, Homebound: Muslim Women Poetry Collection. She lives in Toronto.

This is your first middle grade novel. What came first for you: the character? The era? The story idea? How did you proceed from there?

To answer this question, I’d like to share the origin story for this novel – when my daughter was five, she turned to me sleepily at bedtime and asked, “Mama, you were born outside Canada, right? Were you a regular kid just like us?” 

That one question was the spark behind this entire novel. I knew in that moment that I wanted to write a book in a child’s voice to answer my child’s question. It was also quite clear to me that this needed to be an immigration story so there was my plot! I thought a diary structure would give the reader the closest, most immersive experience so all these separate ideas for the book bloomed open at the moment of her question. Throughout the writing, I returned again and again to her question and it became my reason for writing this book. The one piece of advice I always find useful when it comes to working on a project is to know your WHY. WHY are you writing your story? The “HOW” you will do it usually becomes less foggy when you’ve really sat and simmered in your WHY.

How did you conduct your research?

Structurally, I wanted the novel/’diary’ to cover twelve months in the life of this young character, so I began with gathering and collating as much data about those twelve months as I could. Later I built in some comical moments because as readers in the present-day we see those twelve months more intelligently with foresight.

A lot of my research centered around the first Gulf War. The Iraqi military invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. However, the main character, Mona’s first diary entry begins on January 1, 1991, so when readers meet this family they have already been dealing with the news of the Gulf War for a few months. This meant I had to insert context and background about the Gulf War quickly but in a way that would not be overwhelming, nor an “info-dump”! It took a few tries to get it right. I looked up the front pages of newspapers in the Middle East (in English, Arabic and Urdu) and compared and contrasted the headlines. I also listened to news coverage from different TV channels (a lot of this is available on Youtube). A lot of it was very sad. News about any war, anywhere, from any time period, is extremely sad. In contrast, I also looked at popular “fashion” magazines from that time and listened to music from the late 80s to 91. This research countered the sad stuff. I found that in order to escape to the reality and horror of war, people determinedly and resolutely sought out joy in fashion and food and music. I’d definitely encourage gathering information about the music and fashion of a time period to get a deeper appreciation of the mood and atmosphere of an era!

What kinds of different questions did you have of the time period? The more specifics here, the better!

What were the big headlines of that time period? In different newspapers and languages?
What was the body language of newscasters reading the leading stories of the time or “breaking news”? And/or what was the tone behind the stories from radio broadcasters (joy/anxiety, etc.)?
What were the popular songs at the time?
What were the popular daytime soaps? Sitcoms? Movies?
What were the big sporting events? I included a bit about a game with the L.A. Lakers because they were so huge at that time.
What were the popular toys? I also included a scene with a Cabbage Patch doll because they were all the rage at the time and I thought it was an important detail that a kid would notice!
Any interesting weather aberrations?

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

Research is ongoing for me throughout the writing process, so I go back and forth between writing and reading and researching. I also find it very helpful to read other historical fiction novels set during the same time period I’m writing about, and they can be from anywhere in the world!

Why is historical fiction important?

Historical fiction for kids conjures the past in a way that facts and dates are unable to.
Historical fiction novels are stories about ordinary people living during extraordinary times. The differences in what people ate, wore, danced to – these are fascinating details that remind us that even through the chasms of time and place and culture, humanity shares the same basic hopes and fears for love, belonging, and joy.

I love this.

Can you tell us where we can go to find out more about you and your writing?

Please follow me on Twitter and Insta: @salmahwrites. I post updates about my writing life on these platforms, and I also desperately need more followers! (My mom and her friends aren’t enough! :))
I also have a website (designed by the lovely Hazel of @staybookish): www.salmahwrites.com.

What’s one question you wish readers or interviewers would ask about your story?

What is Mona up to today? 🙂 

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Filed Under: authors, books and reading, historical fiction, the writing life

Straight from the Source: Sandra Dallas on Writing Historical Fiction

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New York Times best-selling novelist SANDRA DALLAS, the author of seventeen adult novels, four mid-grade novels, and ten non-fiction books, was dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley, in Vogue. Sandra’s novels with their themes of loyalty, friendship, and human dignity have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and have been optioned for films.

A journalism graduate of the University of Denver, Sandra began her writing career as a reporter with Business Week. A staff member for twenty-five years (and the magazine’s first female bureau chief), she covered the Rocky Mountain region, writing about everything from penny-stock scandals to hard-rock mining, western energy development to contemporary polygamy. Many of her experiences have been incorporated into her novels.

She is a three-time recipient of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Wrangler Award, a four-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur award, and a six-time winner of the Women Writing the West Willa Award.  In addition, she was given the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Historical Fiction and was the recipient of the Eleanor Gehres Award from the Denver Public Library and the Frank Waters Award from the Pikes Peak Library District.

Sandra lives in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado, with her husband, Bob. She is the mother of two daughters, Dana, a lawyer in New Orleans, and Povy, a photographer in Golden, Colorado.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

The setting almost always comes first.  Then the characters, and then I go looking for a plot.  With Where Coyotes Howl (which comes out in April, 2023), I knew I wanted to write about Wyoming, about the vastness and loneliness of the country there.  I had read a small autobiography of a cowboy who lived in Wyoming in the early 20th century and knew I wanted to write about him and how he fell in love.  So Wyoming came first, and he came next.  Then I spent about 10 years searching for my story. With my novel The Last Midwife, I wanted to write about Breckenridge, Colorado, and the gold dredging that took place there in the first half of the 20th century.  The characters followed, and last of all, the plot.

How do you conduct your research?

What I love most about researching is going to the site of my story and soaking up the landscape and atmosphere.  When I wrote The Diary of Mattie Spenser, I drove out to northeastern Colorado to see what it would be like to live on the prairie with one tree in sight.  In fact, I went there more than once, especially when my character was unhappy.  I wanted to capture the vastness and sense of loneliness she felt. I visited Butte, Montana, for my first novel, Buster Midnight’s Café, and felt I was transported back to the 1940s.  I knew that setting as well as my characters. I talk to local people whenever I visit a site.  That was especially true when I wrote Prayers for Sale, which is about goldboat dredging.  I talked to the old men who’d worked the dredges and to the women who worried about the hardships.

I’ve lived most of my life in Colorado and the West and wrote 10 nonfiction books, generally on the state’s history, before I turned to fiction.  So I usually have a good idea of what happened historically in the time period of my book before I begin to write it.  Then I research as I go along.  I try to find books on the subject I’m writing about.  I also spend time in the Western History Dept. of the Denver Public Library, which is a wonderful resource.  I want enough history in my books to give them a sense of authenticity, but I don’t want the history to overwhelm the story.

At what point do you feel comfortable beginning to draft? How does your research continue once you begin writing?

I often start a draft without doing any research.  Because I write about settings I already know about, I have a sense of place and time.  The story is more important than the history.  So I start the story, then research as I go along. With Little Souls, my last book, I read a great deal about the 1918 flu epidemic before I started the book, because I didn’t know much about it.  But I already knew about Denver in 1918. I researched details of the setting as I went along.  For instance, I knew about Denver’s Great White Way, the street illuminated by thousands of light bulbs on the first-run theaters.  But I didn’t know the specific theater the characters visited or what movie they saw—“Tarzan,” as it turned out.  I had to go to the Western History Dept. to find that out.

What’s your favorite thing about writing historical fiction?

I don’t have to deal with cell phones and electronics.  It seems with contemporary books, a crisis is when the character is out of cell phone range.  I love bringing in historical items—food, perfume, cars.  I want my readers—the ones as old as I am—to say, “I remember that.” And I want younger readers to learn the details of the past.

What are some obstacles writing historical fiction brings?

You can’t alter the truth.  I’ve read books in which the authors tell you they changed a date or place to make the reality fit the story.  You can’t do that.  You have to write within the confines of the truth. I’ve had to go back and change details of books because they’re wrong.  I’ve taken out the names of songs and products because they weren’t around in my time period.  I even changed a book title.  The working title of Westering Women was Catalogue Women.  Then I discovered the term wasn’t used until 50 years after my story was set.

Why is historical fiction important?

Historical nonfiction tells us the bones of history.  Historical fiction is the flesh.  We can read the history of the Civil War and find out about the battles and troop movements, but fiction tells us what people experienced, the conflicts with neighbors, the sacrifices, the tragedy and loneliness of death. Fiction tells us how people feel. With the 1918 flu epidemic, the setting of Little Souls,  we learn through history books about the number of deaths, but novels tells us about the fear of the contagion, the horror of seeing someone turn blue, and the terrible sense of loss and of lives unfulfilled.

***

Mark your calendars! A MIRACULOUS reading tomorrow at 11:00am, at Albuquerque’s newest bookstore, Books on the Bosque.

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