Author's Journal

Getting To Know Your Subject

You’ve studied books and microfilm on your main character and his/her environs. You are beginning to know your subject fairly well, probably well beyond the average student of your general subject. It’s time to introduce yourself to some specialists, mostly academics. You should get to know the librarians and professors in your subject area. What else do you need to know? Make a list of what other specialists might be able to offer you. If you’ve already contacted some of these people to request information, tell them you plan to visit and give the dates. Ask if they might be available to meet you.

If a trip to your story site is what you have in mind – and it’s definitely advisable – keep a notebook and take photos to record who you meet, what you see, and what you learn. When you return, send thank yous to the people who helped you.

When you get home, begin at once to plot and draw up characterizations – if you haven’t already done so. Write descriptions of the way things look now and how they would have looked to someone in the time period you’ve chosen. Differentiate between your characters how various scenes you’ve envisioned in your story would have appeared to each one.

Get clear in your mind what point of view you intend to use. Will you be speaking from the pov of the main character or from a variation on a 3rd person pov? Test this if possible in several scenes you envision and work on that angle for a while. If you’ve found a book that you think can serve in some way as a model, read it at least twice studying the pov and the method the author used to break up the chapters.

Headquarters of the Mowry Mine

The Mowry Mine, Originally the Patagonia Mine 

 In 1860 Sylvester Mowry purchased the Patagonia Mine and renamed it the Mowry Mine. 

Author's Journal

Narrative Non-Fiction: Research Resources

Nearly every state university publishes an historical review magazine. This was my first resource after the books I found on my subject. Once you’ve read five or six books on your subject you should have begun to see many of the topics you’ll need to explore. Naturally, you’ll keep a notebook of these topics. Many of you will know how to store files of these topics on the computer. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how important organization is to the creation of a saleable book.

The first level of research in the historical library is among such books as the Encyclopedia of American Biography and Who’s Who in American Biography, etc. Your librarian can guide you through such resources. Next, there are drawers of cards which lead you to the microfilm stacks. My main character was not a top tier politician and entrepreneur, but the microfilm found his name and profile in at least 30 books of important people. A Secretary of War for two years rates a fairly high status. Copy your microfilm sources and seek them out. Most of the men prior to the 19th century wrote their own short bios which were used in these encyclopedias of historical figures. Microfilm readers and printers are available in these libraries. Printing copies can be expensive. If you can establish trust, you may be able to take the microfilm reels to a local county library and copy them there for less than half the expense. That’s what I did to copy old newspapers.

You are now ready to explore your topic or main character or model for your main character on both a national and state level.

FORT SUMNER

On October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the creation of Fort Sumner. General James Henry Carleton initially justified the fort as offering protection to settlers in the Pecos River valley from the Mescalero Apaches, Kiowa, and Comanche

Author's Journal ...

Narrative Non-Fiction


A book devoted to an historical subject must be authentic, otherwise it won’t get published. If you publish it yourself, it won’t be read by many people. In order to be authentic, you must employ facts. When it’s historical fiction you don’t have to cite facts, but you must incorporate them subtly into your story. Fiction emphasizes character and your central character is usually “created” to carry out some theme of the story. His or her moral dilemma is the basis of the story. Narrative nonfiction has to cite facts and is a bit trickier medium. An excellent example of narrative nonfiction is The Greater Journey by David McCullough. It takes up a number of American people’s stories which occur in the eighteen thirties and forties in Paris. Notable Americans went to Paris to be educated in the arts and in advanced medicine.

I can only advise writers to approach research in the manner I did. You will be able to understand research in American history. I began with my state’s historical library which is frequented by many people who choose to research their own family’s roots in the state where they live. A state’s history library will have an interlibrary loan department which shares documents with other state history libraries throughout the U. S. When you need a certain book, microfilm, or document it can be ordered through this department.

Did you know Sylvester Mowry is the founder of Mowry, Arizona?

Mowry attended West Point in 1848 until graduating in 1852 as a lieutenant. Well educated, he spoke Latin and later became the author of the 1863 book The geography and resources of Arizona and Sonora. After West Point, Mowry went west and explored with the army for the Pacific Railroad.

Story Board For Yankee Gold

 

Showing My friend, Chun-Mei My Story Board I worked with for some months.

Author's Journal ...

My Love of Historical Fiction

Most of the readers of YANKEE GOLD likely enjoy historical fiction. I’ll begin this discussion by telling you something about my experience with that genre. I’m not sure whether I began to love the genre through a book I read or whether the subject of Stephen Elkins caused me to read historical fiction.

Somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10 my father and I walked a street below the campus of Davis & Elkins College and my father pointed to the two lovely homes on the hill above. He told me that Stephen Elkins had a young career in the west, in New Mexico. He became a politician there and was elected Congressman. My dad didn’t know why Elkins had stayed in the east and married a woman whose father was a West Virginia senator. I told Dad that since no one in our new little town of Elkins knew anything about Elkins’ early career, I sensed a scandal. I wasn’t wrong.

As a child I read a great deal. I was an only child and we had no relatives in West Virginia where we moved from Pittsburgh when I was eight. I read the usual fare for my era: Heidi, the Nancy Drew series, and Little Women. Somehow, I was introduced to All This and Heaven Too by Rachel Field. I was spellbound and hell bent on getting more. That’s how my reading and writing career began. I loved the era of Rachel Field’s ancestors and the stories surrounding the laying of America’s transatlantic cable. Her writing set off my fascination with American history