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 7^th 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. 

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? 🙂