Go Ahead. Impress Me.

Oh, you should see the list of goodies I’ve dug up from my newly acquired hardback Recollections of Life on the Prison Ship Jersey. It’s amazing! (Note how the nerdiness abounds here.)

No worries though. There will be no hammering of Revolutionary War trivia at you. I will be speaking in general terms alone, so stop nervously glancing at that exit door. There will be time enough for fleeing later.

What has surprised me most in my current fever of researching are the tidbits I find myself jotting down as I read.

Instead of the cold, hard facts about the imprisonment of soldiers in the prison ships in Wallabout Bay, I’ve honed in on the actual words the former prisoner uses to describe his experience.  Such as, what the prisoners would call the ship? What did the guards, both kind and heartless, call the captured soldiers? What terms the imprisoned men used to describe areas of the hellish ship?

The cold, hard facts about how long the Jersey was or how many guns she once held have mattered little to my hungry imagination. (Usually I devour these kinds of facts like M&M’s…. you know, the more the merrier.)

But, apparently, I have actually grown as a writer. I now zero in more on contemporary impressions than numbers and specs.

I’ve finally realized that in writing a historical novel true to the historical characters doesn’t mean a reliance on history.

Hmm. Who knew?

Until tomorrow…

Chloe  

Danger Zone

Well, I’m about a quarter of the way through reading one of my much anticipated research books.

The result?

1.) A shortage of Post-It notes in the southeast United States.

2.) A plethora of ideas that has needed constant swatting down. (My Six Brothers project is already full to overflowing. Extraneous storylines, no matter how juicy, are simply not allowed.)

3.) At least five completely new novels revving their engines in my ears. (Yep. All disallowed “extraneous storylines” from above have stormed here.)

4.) Did I mention the Post-It notes thing?

It’s always dangerous to give me research to do.

I should have known better.

I can only hope Santa’s got an “in” at the Post-It notes factory.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

Giving Mouth

Points of view.

How many is too many?

Please direct your responses to “Chloe Stowe: Frantic Worry Wart.”

Thank you and good day.

*seriously considers ending it there but relents with a sigh*

I’m worried, so please allow me to vent for a blogging moment.

Having never written a novel with more than three points of view, I’m a little freaked at trying to write one with at least six.

Is six ok?

Does it help that it will be the voices of three men and three women? Or does it make it even more confusing?

Am I in over my head? Or can I blame this panicking on the infamous misfiring of my brain cells? (Remember: underlying Chronic Panic Disorder here.)

Or should I just suck it up and go for it? Who gives a rat’s behind how many people are talking as long as the story they’re telling is freaking fantastic… right?

Yeah, well, excuse me while I go tear my hair out.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe, the Soon-To-Be Bald

Folly Embraced

With my hardback edition of Recollections of Life on the Prison Ship Jersey clutched excitedly to my chest, I am ready to meet Thursday with the feverish gusto of a researcher too long from the tomes.

I am a rather silly human being, I know.

Oh well, I am determined to embrace my eccentricities. Perhaps a few of them will even payoff on my first full-body dip into mainstream romance?

The voracious hunger of a “I want to know it ALL!” should give me a leg-up on some of the competition… Right?

If it hasn’t come to your attention yet, I am trying very hard to defend this researching jaunt. I should be writing, but bowing to a little folly in your work shouldn’t be an altogether bad thing. Especially if said-folly could add a bit of colonial-era sparkle to the tale. (Can a 100k novel even be called a tale? Hmm, something to ponder between dusty tomes)

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

Focusing That Viewfinder

Still perched on the stoop awaiting my care package of research goodies, I am happily humming to the news that the Cubs have landed free agent Jon Lester. (This is after a late night happy dance in my bedroom that included fist pumps and fangirl giggles.)

But as I doubt many of you have dropped by to hear the Shakespearian tale of the Chicago Cubs, I will now veer the conversation back toward writing. (Whether this is an improvement or not, I leave to your judgment.)

Crafting a historical novel is one thing, actually writing it is another.

I thought setting up a logical, entertaining chain of events that would buckle and climax at the appropriate times for a 100k novel would be the truly hard part.

Wrong.

Writing it has been the real bear.

Now, as the holidays have arrived and writing schedules have been scattered to the winds, I’ve had time to strategize a little on how to move forward more efficiently with the Six Brothers project.

With all the historical depth and richness available about the years of the American Revolution, I have decided to concentrate the novel’s historical core on the prisoners of war. Accuracy in this department will be key, crucial and demanding. However, by focusing it all in one area, I hope to be able to move more quickly through the actual writing of the novel while still retaining its all-important historical feel.

Let’s be frank. People and their relationships to each other haven’t changed drastically through the years. Love, hate, jealousy, generosity, faith and forgiveness are all the same, just expressed through different methods. I’ve got a ton of experience writing these emotions, so they will flow rather easily from me. The trap I’ve fall into is one of obsessive historical accuracy on all fronts, in all nooks and crannies of the book.

An impossible goal to reach.

At least for me.

So, the bulk of my detailed historical efforts will now lie with the prisoners of war. Hopefully, this strategy will limit this research nut’s OCD tendencies to more manageable levels.

Hopefully.

We’ll see.

And here end today’s rambling lecture.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

Color Me Plaid

In a move that will surely flaunt my most geeky attributes, I ordered 3 books from Amazon yesterday about American Revolution Prisoners of War.

Since I am writing a novel centered around the fallout one family faces when one of their own is captured in battle and imprisoned on the infamous “Jersey,” purchasing such resources is understandable and not entirely “geeky” on its own.

However…

The level of excitement pumping through my veins as I await the books’ arrivals is truly geeky. Nerdy, even. Dare I say, dorky?

Oh yeah, that’s a big yeppers for all three supposedly less than sparkling attributes.

Color me plaid, boys.

However…

I kind of like plaid.

A little geekiness never hurt anybody with half a brain cell in their head, so I can deal.

And being somewhat of a nerd is nearly a prerequisite for writing an historical novel.

The “dork” bit I could do without but I’ve been called far worse in my day.

So, here your blogger sits anxiously awaiting the mail, sporting a grin of simply ridiculous wattage… but pity me not, dear friends. I wear my plaid proudly.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

SIDE NOTE: I’m an old timer who likes her books wearing paper and ink.  

Patience & Bliss

Riding a particularly spectacular wave of happy as my one and only sister has just received some marvelous career news, I truly have no impetus whatsoever to do much of anything.

Basking in another’s bliss is a hobby of mine, it seems.

There will be bliss of my own to find someday. I’m a patient one, so I will wait until it is my time on the professional center stage. Until then, I, my pup and my Six Brothers will plod along, happy in the borrowed sunshine.

Pardon the briefness of this post. Apparently, blogging and basking are not easy companions.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe