Learn History Through Fiction: Honoring Immigrants on July 4

On July 4th, read these novels to discover what America has historically meant to immigrants. In A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., Meinhardt Raabe flees Nazi persecution in search of a dignified life https://amzn.to/2LqpAu7. In On the Shore, Shmuel Levinson is willing to fight the Great War for the country that welcomed his family www.vineleavespress.com/on-the-shore-by-ann-s-epstein.html. In Tazia and Gemma, Tazia Gatti seeks a life of greater opportunity for her daughter www.vineleavespress.com/tazia-and-gemma-by-ann-s-epstein.html. Meinhardt’s LIFE, Shmuel’s LIBERTY, and Tazia’s PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. Celebrate their unique lives and our shared ideals. Read more in NOVELS.

Write What You Learn, Not What You Already Know

My counter-argument to “Write what you know” has always been “Get to know what you want to write about.” The inspiration for my fiction often comes from something I learn by chance. Then I research the topic with intention and shape what I’ve learned into a work of fiction, prioritizing the story over the facts. In an e-doc compilation of author’s views on the role of research in writing (Glimmer Train, Close-Up: Research, 2nd edition), I came across the following: “Some people say that you should write what you know, but I am driven to write what I learn” (Abbi Geni, p. 7). Read more comments on this topic by Colum McCann, Duri Justvedt, and Ha Jin in REFLECTIONS.

What I’m Reading: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Female Persuasion (Rating 4): Sympathy for Slowy the Turtle – Having come of age in the women’s movement (I entered college the same year Betty Friedman’s The Feminine Mystique was published), I was eager to read Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion. Alas, my enthusiasm was dampened by the first part of the book. The main character begins as a cipher and never develops. Her progression from a student with an inside voice to a young woman with an outside voice is unconvincing. However, the depth and sensitivity with which Wolitzer portrays the other characters — from the Gloria Steinem stand-in to the less-than-upstanding rich boy supporter of her feminist foundation — makes the book worth reading. Even Slowy the turtle evokes sympathy. Rather than painting a successful big-picture of an evolving social movement, Wolitzer shines in the small enduring portraits of friendship and family.

Learn History Through Fiction: Turn Up The Heat

In the 19th century, inventors mechanized the laundry process with hand-operated washing machines. Most involved turning a handle to move paddles inside a tub that sat on legs with a hand-operated mangle on top. Some used an electrically powered agitator to replace hand rubbing against a washboard. Later, mangles were also electrically powered. Laundry drying, like washing, also became mechanized with spinning perforated tubs that blew heated air rather than water. Read more about toiling in a Chinese laundry 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Las Vegas Doubles

Las Vegas officially became a city in 1905. For a time there were two towns named Las Vegas. The east side (which now includes Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard) was owned by U.S. Senator Williams Andrew Clark while the west (north of modern day Bonanza Road) was owned by J. T. McWilliams. The city of Las Vegas incorporated in 1911 as a part of Clark County. Read more Las Vegas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Lysol as Contraception 100 Years Ago

In the early 1900s, the most popular contraceptive douche was Lysol, formulated with cresol, a compound that caused inflammation, burning, even death. It was nevertheless aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle for maintaining “dainty feminine allure.” By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Read more about the hazards of women’s health care 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Spinning Yarn and Spinning A Yarn

“Spinning” is the title of a short story in progress, about Bartlett Yarns, the last commercially operated spinning mule in the United States. Located in Harmony, Maine, the mill was established in 1821, then burned down and was rebuilt in the early 1920s. Today it is committed to sustainable practices, including the use of organic products to wash, card, spin, and skein wool from local farmers. My story, inspired by an article about the company in one of my fiber art magazines, imagines the lives of three young women working at the mill roughly one hundred years apart: 1821, 1920, and present day. Read more about the mill and spinning mule in BEHIND THE STORY and learn about my other tales in SHORT STORIES.

Learn History Through Fiction: The Advances of Silent Films

My short story “The Mask” is about the heyday of the silent film era (with an unusual twist, i.e., a stage actor with a terrible voice finds salvation in silents, unlike silent actors with bad voices who were later ruined by the talkies.) The early 1910s to late 1920s were an artistically and technically fruitful period, ushering in three point lighting; close-up, long shot, and panning shots; and advances in editing. Color was more prevalent in silent than sound films for decades, usually in the form of tinting (colorization) but also with real color processes such as Kinemacolor & Technicolor. Discover more interesting facts about popular culture and the arts in BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: It Was All Over in 18 Minutes

The 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire spread quickly, 18 minutes from start to finish. Flames were fueled by hundreds of pounds of cotton scraps, tissue paper patterns, and wooden work tables. Smoking was prohibited, but workers hid matches and cigarettes in wicker bins along with leftover material, a likely source of the fire. Smelling smoke, they turned on the hose valves but no water came out. Read about one survivor of the fire in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).