The history major in me...

I was an English major in college...for a while...before changing to history. After exhausting the creative writing portions of the requirements list, I found myself far less interested in English as a major. Reading what some obscure writer wrote in the 1800s, then trying to dissect it with a bunch of bull crap just got old...quickly. I changed my major to history because I liked to research and write - Yep, you guessed it - I am a research geek. Forty page thesis papers actually excite me…research geek, completely a research geek! What can I say- writing about the time frame and culture, as well as the life, of Shakespeare was more interesting to me than the words he penned. I did get my English minor, which was at least, something to show for having to read Chaucer in olde English. :O

I do love history (which might me a duel geek - history and research geek?)! One of the things I wanted to be while growing up (other than a ballerina, singer, teacher, marine biologist, writer, architect and the list goes on) was an archaeologist. Uncovering history in far off, exotic lands was a nice fantasy. The sand up my butt and it grinding in my teeth, though - complete killers of that dream. Still, I could explore history, some of which the greater population is completely clueless about. Being a writer and having those strong English skills did give me an advantage, however. I suppose it is a bragging right, of sorts, to almost always have the highest grade on any given paper. (Please ignore the fact that my red pen could slaughter this blog and all its incorrect grammar and sentence structure. The irony is not lost on me.) I am also competitive...but that is a different topic all together.

So, it only took me two full paragraphs to get to my point.?! The History major in me...
I love to read historical fiction and most everything I write has at least a small dose of the past laced into the lines. I started a historical fiction book that has a few completed chapters and a strong outline (someone else could take all my notes and write it at this point), but the historical accuracy is killing the completion. I despise novels that are so far off the reality of the time frame, that truth is completely discarded to fit a story. Of course, taking liberties with conversations and such are required when working around actual historical people, but not when it comes to culture and era. Much of my book it is set in World War II, in both the Pacific and European fronts, as well as here in the States. I found myself researching more than writing, though. If I am going to have an American Army troupe liberating a German concentration camp, it better be one that the American Army liberated and not British or Russian troupes. Or if a Serbian man serving in the Yugoslavian Royal Army is captured - I need to make sure he is in a POW camp that Yugoslavian Royal Army members were being held and I certainly can't have him fighting in 1944 - they were long defeated and captured by that point. Those are the broad strokes. The details of what foods were being rationed in a specific area of Europe or whether or not French farmers in a written area were moved from their land or allowed to stay - these are all things that I would have to stop and research. I can't have a poor tradesman character sipping on coffee in an area where it would require a lot of money, connections, or black market purchases to actually buy it. Maybe that is just me being too OCD with the details or the complete research geek in me, but it is what slows me down. So, with my desire to create fiction pushing me into procrastination, I have set the actual writing of that one aside, at least until I can pour what I truly want to into that book. Let's just face it - until all my kids can feed themselves without making a colossal mess in the kitchen or setting it on fire, this isn't entirely practical, but I am still researching.  (An aside, a friend took 15 years of research before finally penning and publishing one of her novels. So, I feel a little less self critical of myself as I continue to research for the book, without actually writing it yet.) There are too many characters based on people I know/have known not to give it the effort it deserves.

I knew that the only way around being dragged down with researching details when beginning the novel I am writing now was to set it in an "unknown place" in Europe (albeit, a true history geek will figure out that it would have to be somewhere in Eastern France). Although all the eras are set in the same unnamed location, they touch into the 1500s, 1700s, 1940s, and present. Removing all references to specific countries when it concerned my character's exact whereabouts, freed me from that. Of course, mannerisms and speech of those eras, generally technology, clothing, etc. have been well researched, but the specifics of whether or not bourbon or ale were sold in any exact location in whatever era? Not so much.  So…before it is time to start math class with my kiddos, I will hit publish! Until next time...