Standing Out

 

I’m working on a trilogy that covers the three main ways people traveled to the California gold fields during the middle of the 19^th century. The first two routes (around Cape Horn and across the Isthmus of Panama) haven’t been written about much, at least not for children. However, the third route is from Missouri to California over the plains and through the mountains. This overland route has been almost done to death when you include the stories of pioneers who took the route looking for farm land rather than gold and the similar stories of those heading to Oregon rather than California.

As I’ve said before, I have two main criteria when choosing the setting for a historical novel. The first is that there must be enough personal experience resources so that I can sense the atmosphere (emotional, moral, and physical) of the time and place as well as gathering the dry facts. All three routes to the gold fields meet that condition. But the second criteria is that it must not have been done so much that people are tired of it or think there is nothing to add.

The overland book appears to fail this second criteria because it has been done many times. But if I want a complete series about traveling to the gold fields, I have to include it. So what am I to do?

Notice I said people think there is nothing to add. Although there is nothing new under the sun, there is always a different way to tell it.

Fortunately, I have some ideas about how to do that.

First, most of the children’s books about the California and Oregon trails have protagonists who travel with their family. The children may be orphans before the trip is over, but it starts out as a family adventure. That isn’t the case with my protagonist. Joshua runs away from an abusive stepfather and stows away in a wagon. That isn’t a spoiler because it happens at the very beginning of the story. Then he spends the entire trip looking over his shoulder and worrying that his stepfather or the law will catch him.

Second, most of the stories out there take place in a wagon train. Mine will start that way, but before long two wagons split off, and Joshua goes with them. While it wasn’t unusual for one or two wagons to travel by themselves, few children’s books cover that situation.

At this point, all I have is a short outline. As the story develops, I’m sure I’ll find other ways to make it stand out.

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The drawing at the top of this post is in the public domain because of its age.

Travel Isn't Just for Fun

 

Actually, travel can be just for fun. That’s the purpose behind Roland’s and my international vacations, although they are educational, too. But when I’m researching a book, it is serious work. And I usually get the story idea first and then do the traveling for research. This time it may have worked the other way around.

I just returned from a trip to Pennsylvania for a cousins’ reunion. It was a good time, and we enjoyed each other’s company. But while there, I began to wonder whether it was fodder for a story. The battle itself has been worked to death, but there is less about the civilians who lived in town or on local farms and were caught up in those events. I have ideas for two other books to write first, but Gettysburg is on the list of settings to think about.

The second day of the reunion centered more on the Amish. We drove around an Amish area in the morning and saw several typically Amish sights, including two schools with children out playing. Then in the afternoon we went to a production of David at the Sight and Sound Theater.

I’m not tempted to write an Amish story, however. That was done well by Beverly Lewis and followed by a flood of other authors, some better than others. I don’t see a need to join them.

But I haven’t ruled out Gettysburg.

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The first photo shows a section of the Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama, which is a painting by Paul Phillippoteaux. It was painted in the 1880s to depict Pickett’s charge during the third day of the battle. The second picture is an Amish school during recess (or maybe physical education), taken from the window of the car I was riding in.

Why Couldn't I Write It?

As I mentioned in my last post, I had intended to write a story about a girl living in the Pullman District of Chicago during  the Pullman strike of 1894, but I just couldn’t get the plot to flesh out. So what went wrong?

When writing historical fiction, research information about both facts and experiences is necessary to create a realistic story. I love memoirs, letters, and “as told to” accounts because they give you the color and emotional content that makes history come alive. Facts about the Pullman District and the Pullman strike were both easy to come by, but lived experiences have eluded me.

It isn’t as if I haven’t tried. There are newspaper and magazine articles and a propaganda booklet about all the wonderful amenities provided to residents, but I couldn’t find anything that provided insight into their daily thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Have I given up on the idea? Not entirely. I’ll take the Historic Pullman House Tour in October and continue looking for better resources. But if this story doesn’t want to be written, I’ll just move on to the next one—again.

When the Ideas Flow

My older brother has Parkinson’s Disease, and back in March he fell and ended up in a nursing home with much of his memory gone. At the time, I had three ideas for as yet unwritten middle-grade historicals and was almost ready to start one about a girl living in Chicago’s Pullman District during the 1894 Pullman strike.

As I have written in previous posts, Donald’s situation made me realize that I should work on my memoirs before anything happened to my own memory. So I set the Pullman novel aside for a while.

I’m just about finished with the part of my memoirs that covers my early years, and the latter years are better documented and less likely to be lost to my children if they don’t get written up right away. As a result, I had begun working on the outline for the Pullman book. I had the setting and the basic character arc but was having trouble coming up with the plot. I couldn’t even seem to force it.

The book after that was to be about a girl living and working on the Erie Canal. My anticipated timing had me beginning it sometime this winter, but that isn’t a great time for a research trip to New York, and I had already planned the trip for August.

There was no reason to postpone it, so Roland and I went as planned. We just returned, and the ideas have been flowing like the canal itself. Actually, the canal is rather sluggish, so that may not be a good analogy. But the ideas for the Erie Canal book started flowing even though I wasn’t ready for them yet. By the time I returned I had the story setting, the protagonist’s character arc, most of the important characters, some of the backstory, and a well-developed plot.

It became clear to me that I’m meant to write the Erie Canal book next. If I had a contract for the Pullman book, I would be agonizing about it right now. But because I have the flexibility to pick and choose my projects as circumstances dictate, I can put that one aside until later and work on Muddy Waters first.

I wouldn’t turn down a three-book contract, but sometimes there are advantages to not being sought-after.

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The image at the head of this post shows a painting by Edward Lamson Henry called “Round the Bend” portraying passenger travel along the Erie Canal around 1836. Almost every museum along the canal had a copy. The date the painting was created is unknown, but E.L. Henry died in 1919 and the image is in the public domain.