THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS: One Year Later

May 7th marks the one year anniversary of the release of THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS. I’m so proud of this book. I’m proud of the research I did to tell as authentic story as possible even though I was writing outside of my lane in many ways. I’m proud of the story. I’m proud of myself for confronting a hard chapter after taking the easy way out. I’m proud of writing another book. With MAN UP being released at the beginning of the covid lockdowns, in a way, this was my first “real” release with book launches, in person events, meeting readers, and doing school visits. Here’s what I learned this year:

• I LOVE school visits. I don’t care that out of an auditorium of kids, maybe fifteen really care what I have to say. The student telling me to sign her notebook of ideas is all I need. I love talking in front of people and I’m pretty good at it. Thank you to the teachers and staff that confirmed this. I did about ten school visits this year. My goal is to do 20 next year.

• School visits are a necessary part of an author’s income. When MAN UP was published, I didn’t know that authors make a few quarters (if that) for every book sold. School visits pay (most of the time) and their necessary if you want writing to be a meaningful part of your income.

• School visits and in person events are a wonderful way to connect with people. A high school librarian recommended me to a middle school and I got to be part of their Writers Week. I met an English teacher who is also an aspiring writer and she plans on coming to the SCBWI meetings I run with my pal, Nicole.

• I need a tab on my website for school visits, my experience (being a former teacher lets people know I have experience talking to young people), and testimonials from schools I’ve visited.

• Selling any number of books at an event is success. Of course, I’d like to sell dozens and dozens but two is better than none!

• Word of mouth is IMPORTANT and NECESSARY.

• Don’t be afraid to make the first move. Many of the school visits I booked were because I contacted a teacher or librarian and said I’d love to visit their school. Let’s be real: no one is knocking on down my door and my phone is not ringing off the hook. I’ve been ghosted many times but I’m not going to get any events if I don’t try.

• I’m now in the position to help other authors! I’ve passed friends’ names along to schools so they can connect with them for an event. I’m not very important in the literary world but I know some people!

• Twitter is still a toilet but I still love it. My engagement is down since what’s his name took over but I continue reap the benefits from the connections I made there. Case in point, here’s the link to a “best of” list a contact made. Thanks, Lillah!
https://shepherd.com/best-books/what-it-was-like-to-come-of-age-in-the-60s-and-90s

• I need to write another book. A sequel to THE WAR ON ALL FRONTS? Another historical fiction novel that I can’t seem to find a break through with? We’ll see!

The Symbolism is Great and All, but Why are We Reading This?

I read every book assigned in high school because that’s just the type of student I was. They weren’t bad books, but I also didn’t think they were good. I didn’t really enjoy reading them. The worst was The Grapes of Wrath. It was so long and that poor family. Everything sucked for them at the beginning, in the middle, and in the end…it still sucked. At least they didn’t run over that little turtle getting out of town. And yes, I understood the symbolism of the turtle.

The novels were great if I needed to find an example of an alliteration or a metaphor but that’s not why I read a book. Interestingly enough, the first book I enjoyed reading in high school and made me think to myself: this is good, this is why we read books, is overflowing with amazing examples of imagery, characterization, symbolism, and all those other terms English teachers love. I had to read The Things They Carried for an independent novel project in a creative writing class. It wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t any choice. I wanted to read What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or Girl, Interrupted. But, when your amazing creative writing teacher asks the class if anyone would volunteer to read the book few wanted to, you raise your hand.

I am not a Vietnam War historian, aficionado, or anything like that but I recognized I was reading something special. So special, that the book has stayed with me ever since that day and I can trace the inspiration for The War on All Fronts to reading The Things They Carried back in high school.

The lemon tree, the necklace of tongues, Norman Bowker in his car, Linda from little Timmy’s class, and all the things those soldiers carried literally and figuratively are still fresh after all these years. Looking back, Great Expectations wasn’t terrible. And I didn’t hate reading The Great Gatsby. But, those books didn’t stay with me. My books will probably never be part of a high school curriculum but that was never a goal anyway. To write a book that stays with someone years after reading it, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Sorry, Shakespeare.

Historical Fiction aka Before Social Media

“And I said, ‘Who the f**k uses, a pay phone?”
The Arkells “Leather Jacket”

In response to the question posed in my favorite Arkells song: ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED BEFORE THE TIME OF CELL PHONES!

One thing freeing about writing historical fiction is there is no concern about how to incorporate social media and cell phones into a book. I’ve read contemporary novels where I feel cell phone usage overtakes the novel and while it might be true that teens are glued to their phones, it’s just not that interesting to read sometimes, especially if it is a pages long texting conversations. (Do teens even text anymore? I heard it’s all messenger or FaceTime.) There also several books I’ve read that alluded to social media by using versions the author made up and it rings false to me. That said, there are books written several years ago that did choose to use the names of real social media sites and those sites are either not very popular anymore or not used by teens very much. It’s hard to keep up and even harder to figure out how to use social media effectively in a book (at least for me). In historical fiction, no such problems exist! In my next book, The War on All Fronts, a college freshman has to wait to use the community pay phone in his dorm. Imagine the conflict if he can’t find a dime or someone is using the phone! In order to communicate with his secret boyfriend overseas, he has to write letters. Yes, writing historical fiction has its challenges. There is so much you have to get right! Alas, social media and all the problems that come with it is not something you have to worry about.

YouTube: Beyond Cat Videos

I would love to ask a historical fiction writer what researching was like before the internet. For my latest book, The War on All Fronts, I made many a trip to the library, conducted interviews, and became good friends with the people at the University of Wisconsin Madison Archives. But Google was my go to when it came to figuring out what day of the week Christmas was on in 1967 or finding out when the Slurpee was invented. YouTube became my best pal when it came to primary sources.

When reading about personal accounts about enduring boot camp in the 1960’s didn’t give me the details I needed, YouTube came to my rescue with a video made during that time that was over a half hour of drills and life on base. When I found out the Walter Cronkite gave a report about the Tet Offensive in January, 1968 that changed many a perspective about the war, YouTube had footage of the broadcast. It also had clips from a PBS special in which Vietnam veterans discussed PTSD, protesters in Grant Park at the 1968 Democratic National Convention recounted their experience, and of course, songs of the sixties.

It’s still a great place to go for music videos, movie clips, and cat videos but YouTube can be a goldmine of information for the historical fiction writer too. Those poor people who conducted research so long ago had no videos of people tripping to distract them, though. I bet they got a ton of work done.