Rummage-y Bits: Eccentric Places to Find Vivid Research Details

When I set out to write or read historical fiction, I am not content with merely hoping the plot (set in a certain era) will show well against the era. I want the era to be smashed into the plot like bananas into the peanut butter of a peanut-butter-banana sandwich. I don't actually know if I like peanut-butter-banana-sandwiches, but the image of smashing historic detail into your characters and scenes as you'd smash a banana into peanut butter (with a fork) was a little too tempting to deny. When have you ever known me to care about conventional associations? But sometimes it can be hard to actually find those historical tid-bits that will mix vividly with your setting. Obviously, one could cruise the back-pages of Google (frightening thought, that) for months and perhaps would finally settle on the Fountain of Youth of historical detail. On the other hand, many of us don't have months to cruise the back-pages of Google. I know I feel let down by modernity when I have to travel to Google's second page. It's like...an abyss. But we are good authors and we know when our details flop. The committed among us refuse to let our work accordion-fold with the half-baked historic flavor. So what's a well-meaning Peanut-Butter-Banana-Sandwich-Seeking author to do? Here are some of my favorite ways to find the Rummage-y Bits that make a setting pop:




1.) Check lyrical music of the era: when I want to know about 1930's pop-culture, what better place could I look for it than in a Broadway show like Anything Goes with lyrics by Cole Porter and, yes, P.G. Wodehouse? This musical happens to have been a contemporary show when it was written (1934), and has a song called "You're the Top" that basically swims with pop-culture references which makes it invaluable for knowing what sorts of things were being talked about in that raggedy, glamazon era:

"You're the top!

You're the Coliseum,

You're the top,

You're the Louvre Museum,

You're a melody

from a symphony by Strauss,

You're a Bendel bonnet,

a Shakespeare's sonnet

You're Mickey Mouse!

You're the Nile,

You're the tower of Pisa,

You're the smile

On the Mona Lisa,

I'm a worthless check,

a total wreck, a flop

but if Baby, I'm the bottom,

You're the top!

2.) Read memoirs: Not particularly memoirs by overly-famous people. I have found some of my favorite details for Anon, Sir, Anon through a a site for Northants who want to post memories of growing up in the 1930's in Northamptonshire. In fact, one of these memoirs is where the incredibly thick Northant fogs came up and gave me a cloaking-spell for the murder scene! Memoirs are different from biographies in that they are more than likely written by normal people of the era, and normal people remember normal things...normal for that time period, that is. And these normalcies can be the key to blowing readers' minds with a bit of historical writing.

3.) Pay attention to fashion: what were people wearing in that day and age? No one likes long, drawn-out descriptions of clothing, but it is true that people in the "old days" didn't dress like us, and a casual mention of a pair of gloves, the train of bustled skirt getting in someone's way, a hat being left on a train seat, or a certain perfume only enhances the reading experience.

4.) Check out newspaper ads: what were people selling? What were they buying? What advertisement jingles were thrusted into the consciousness of your characters? Say, "And what are you wearing, 'Jake from State Farm'?" today and most people will get the reference. Why not search for something in that vein that you could throw into your story-world?

5.) Look at artifacts from the period at a museum, if possible: find an artifact that captures your interest and make it a part of your plot. Perhaps it's a certain pipe on display at a WWII exhibit in one of the DC Smithsonians. Can you make that pipe belong to your MC's father? And if you want to be masochistic about it, can you have someone crush that pipe (on purpose) in your MC's presence later, further rubbing in the fact that his father was a Jew and killed on Kristallnacht? Or maybe you find a striking photo of an artifact buried on the ruins of Pompeii that wants to make its way into your Roman-seasoned fantasy novel. Swing it however you want, but use a tangible object to churn your inspiration. Your descriptions will ring true because they will be true. Some of the easiest writing I ever did was in The Windy Side of Care. Why? Because I had a tangible person on whom I based the character of Alisandra. Her personality was one thing I didn't have to fabricate.

6.) Substitute pop-culture for generalities: when I wrote certain lines in Anon, Sir, Anon, I often stopped a moment and chose a crimson reality as a replacement for the beige generality of which I had originally thought. Example? I mentioned something about Vivi's emotion-choked nerves rivalling a soprano's in pitch (or something. I forget exactly). Instead of leaving it as "a soprano," I did a quick Google search for the top ten famous sopranos in the 1930's and chose one on the list. Thus, "her nerves sang a higher pitch than a soprano," became something like, "her nerves sang a higher pitch than Lotte Schone," and what had been a graham-cracker sentence  tottering against a cardboard house suddenly had the banana smashed in.

However you find your details, commit to finding them. The readership does appreciate it. And if you have any "eccentric" ideas of your own for finding the Rummage-y Bits, please share them in a comment below! I'm always looking for new ways to bring my settings to life.

Sizzle & Spice: Historic Detail To Make a Plot Dance

When you finally decide to write a novel set in another time-period, there is always this shivery little "AGH" feeling that means: I Have To Be Historically Accurate, Heaven Help Us. Fantasy writers run into this only so far as they fear being upbraided by a historian of their fantastical world. Futuristic writers run into this only so far as they fear being upbraided by other futuristic writers who don't like the technology or advancements they made. But historical-fiction writers...ahhhhh. We've got actual-factual historians on our cases.

In writing Fly Away Home, I intentionally didn't deal terribly much with historical events because this was more a story about the characters than the times. In a way, though, it was still very much about the times...opportunities for women were opening up in the 1950's and a glitzy career was quite attractive to a great many young people. On the one hand you've got Callie with a starry sky of dreams and on the other you have Wade Barnett who made his career as a journalist during the war years and is quite level-headed about fame and fortune. So though this isn't a war book or something of that nature, it is quite tied in on every corner to the pop-culture, times, and customs of the 1950's.

How did I go about making sure this was all correct? First of all, I sent the manuscript to my grandmother. Grandmama was born in 1934 and went to finishing school in NYC just about the time of Fly Away Home. This makes her an excellent fact-checker: I have close access to a person who lived in The City during that time-period! Not many writers have that hands-on benefit! Once the manuscript had gone through Grandmama's cautious eye, I went on with other things. I knew I wanted to add more historic detail and things that would make the era "pop" in my readers' heads. But where to fit it in so it doesn't sound awkward? I began to look for places where general detail could be specialized. At the beginning of the story, Callie is dissatisfied with her job and mention is made of the "other kids" getting all the good assignments. But what good assignments? Here was a clear chance to add detail. I did a quick Google search on what was going on for America in July of 1952.

The summer Olympics? Yeah, I could do this

I added that bit and made a few more references to Helsinki. Historic/cultural detail? Check. I looked at old pictures of The City to get a general feel for the place in that era. Cafes, newsstands, City Hall Park...At one point, Callie and Mr. Barnett attend a swanky night-club for an interview with an Italian opera-star. Wanting a real-life club to exploit, I did another search and soon came up with the Stork Club.

Further research on this place revealed tons of details I was able to incorporate into the scenes in the club and beyond. I found a YouTube video of a tour of the club in the early 1950's and was able to see the interior set-up, design, and even the sort of clothing the club-goers wore. (treasure-trove!) You would be surprised at how much inspiration you can get from one source like the Stork Club. Callie wears a "mask" most of the book...in a conversation with one of her colleagues they are discussing a masquerade ball and Mr. Barnett mentions that there is going to be a masquerade at the Stork Club in a couple of weeks. Where did I get that idea? A quick search on Pinterest revealed this old photo from a masquerade at The Stork Club in 1941:

Why not add one in 1952? But without having gone researching for a particular club, I would never have come up with the idea at all. This is what I began to learn while trying for historical accuracy: rather than making my job tougher, it actually released me with a flurry of new ideas and potent details. Later in the book, Mr. Barnett is hosting a yachting party and I knew I wanted some celebrities. I researched the ones whose personal histories I was interested in, and chose those who fit the timeline. The history of Newspaper Row, the Prohibition-era...all this comes into the plot of Fly Away Home in a way that got richer and richer the deeper I looked. These are a few examples of the ways I was able to bring the spice of NYC into my novel; I have to admit...it was pretty fun to research.

I so much admire the writers whose stories center around strictly historical events...it is pretty hard to fudge an actual time-line to better fit your story when you are working with only historical events. These writers deserve respect for the hours and hours of work they put into piecing together a seamless story from the choppy pile of battle-dates history hands them. For Fly Away Home, I decided the story demanded more historic flavor, less historic events--the fictional events themselves are quite enough to keep the story floating without tying it down to a war, a political upheaval, or anything else--but I know a great many authors who deal with the nitty-gritty time periods and for that, I give them great respect.

I think many people put limits on historical fiction. It is a broad, beautiful genre and, as you can see, spans anything from the use of a vibrant setting to the telling of an epic tale. I am proud to have added one more title to the glad, glamorous era of the 1950's.

Today on the Blog Party Tour, I'm over at:

Literary Lane

Scribblings of my Pen and Tappings of my Keyboard

See you there and don't forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win copies of Fly Away Home.