Learn History Through Fiction: There’ll Always Be an England

British WWI naval expressions described everything from eating to dying. Some of my favorites: Bully (canned, boiled, and pickled beef); Maconochie (a ration of beef, potatoes, beans, onions, and carrots in gravy); Pozzy (ration-issue jam); Chat (body louse); Napo (used up, worn out); Go phut (stop working); Last Post (Taps); and Go west (die). Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

 

What I’m Reading: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

My Amazon review of Manhattan Beach (Rated 5): A Timeless Dive Into the Past – Jennifer Egan takes us deep into the world of the divers who serviced Navy ships in WW 2, and just as deep into the machinations of both lowlifes and high rollers. The novel glories in the details of underwater work, and the equally complex rules that govern families. Pursuing her unlikely dream to become a female diver, Anna Kerrigan is a compelling character of determination rather than self-conscious feminism or independence. Likewise, Jennifer Egan is a writer who has conscientiously revived a little-known part of history in a meticulous and flowing narrative.

Learn History Through Fiction: Melting Pot or Simmering Stew?

In the early 1900s, the Lower East Side’s 10th ward was a geographic, ethnic, and religious melting pot—some would say a simmering and “aromatic” stew. Russian and Eastern European Jews lived together with German, Polish, Irish, and Italian Catholics. There was also a thriving Chinatown. Read more about the Lower East Side and the people who lived and worked there at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: The First Newberry Medal for Children’s Literature

The first Newberry Medal for children’s literature was awarded to Hendrik Van Loon for The Story of Mankind on June 22, 1922. Read more about the literature, films, and music of this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Products Created 100 Years Ago

Many products still known today were invented in the early 1900s-1920s. For example: Nestle Permanent Hair Wave (1905) Pyrex cookware (1915); Hydrox (1908) and Oreo (1912) cookies; Peter Pan Smooth Peanut Butter (1928); and Brillo (1913) and S.O.S. (1917) which stands for Save Our Saucepans and was named by the inventor’s wife. Also, the first issue of Reader’s Digest was published on February 05, 1922. Read about other products from this era in BEHIND THE STORY and learn more about popular culture before and after WWI in On the Shore (NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: ID Tags a Cog in the Machinery of War

The first military ID tags were in issued 1906. Soldier got two tags, one to wear on their body, the other for the troop or ship record-keeper. Serial numbers were added to the tags in 1918, during WWI, due to the high casualty rates and the gruesome mutilation of bodies by the increasingly sophisticated machinery of warfare. Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

 

The Madison Review to Publish Golo’s Transport

I’m delighted to share the news that The Madison Review will publish my short story “Golo’s Transport” in the Spring 2018 issue (see SHORT STORIES). Here’s the story’s log line: In “Golo’s Transport,” an angry old man confronts the trauma of his parents sending him away on the Kindertransport from Germany to England on the eve of WW II. Soon after I finished the story, humanitarians suggested a “kindertransport” for children of Syrian refugees, adding to the manuscript’s timeliness. Here’s the website of The Madison Review if you’d like to see what else they publish: https://www.themadisonrevw.com/.

“The Five Percent Rule” Online at The Artist Unleashed

My craft essay “The Five Percent Rule: How Much Background Detail is Essential for Authenticity in Historical Fiction?” is now online at The Artist Unleashed website http://www.theartistunleashed.com/ If you’re curious about the other 95%, the interesting details that get left out, see BEHIND THE STORY.

Shout-Out to Vine Leaves Press

Vine Leaves Press (VLP) is an independent publishing house based in Australia, with an international staff and roster of authors, that offers something of value for every literate reader. Writers and readers depend on small presses like VLP to promote and disseminate the work of authors whose voices might otherwise not be heard. Under the leadership of the multi-talented Jessica Bell (writer, musician, artist), VLP publishes memoir, creative nonfiction, literary essay collections, novels, short story collections, poetry, vignette collections, and writing reference books. Please check out their website http://www.vineleavespress.com/ to find something for yourself and all the appreciative readers in your life.

What I’m Reading: What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories by Laura Shapiro

My Amazon review of What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (Rated 3): Too Meager to Satisfy the Reader’s Appetite – With careful scholarship, Laura Shapiro portrays the kitchens and tables of six women across a variety of times, places, and social classes. The collection is mixed. My favorites were the Edwardian cook, Rosa Lewis, whom I’d never heard of before, and Eleanor Roosevelt, a long-time idol of mine, in which I was disabused of long-held myths about her indifference to good food. Shapiro sticks close to the data, which unfortunately, sometimes makes for a spare and unimaginative meal.