I plan family vacations to include possible ‘future book settings’, ‘historical events’, ‘regional foods’—well, you know where I’m going with this.
Research often required hours spent at the public library using the card catalog. Oh, how the Internet has simplified my life.
However, breathing life into your heroine, and bringing your story to life, are all elements that writers spend hours and hours perfecting.
Sensory details, setting, motivation, and that ‘something’ which is the spark of each and every story is often elusive. Sometimes, just sometimes, the pieces of your fictional universe fall neatly, and unexpectedly, into place.
Today this is what happened to me.
While sorting through my closet, I discovered a treasure of carefully-packed-away-items. Being the eldest daughter, I’ve acquired the family photos, was blessed with the oral histories of grandparents and great-grandmother, and other relatives. I carefully placed the items on my bed. I was fingering a silk scarf of my maternal grandmother’s, noticing blending of colors, threads of silver catching the light when I realized I was holding a moment of her life. A snap-shot of who she was, who she wanted to be—a time before she was my grandmother.
Had she gone shopping with her sister or her mother to purchase this scarf? Or had she ridden the EL, after work to a department store in Chicago? Was she going to a dance? To the theater?
Her parents immigrated from the region of Bohemia in Czechoslovakia (before it became the Czech Republic) and she was the youngest of six children.
I located pieces of her jewelry, the scarf still smelled faintly of her perfume (or was it simply my memory of her fragrance?). I found her beaded evening bag. I recalled a photo taken when she and her sister worked as extras in the motion pictures of the 1920 and 1930s. They stayed with their older brother (musician, Tony Lada of the Louisiana Five) in San Monica, California. I was certain I had it in a box, perhaps already scanned to my computer.
YouTube Louisiana Five
This is how I discover my heroine and my hero. My characters become living, breathing people—step by step; their stories are revealed to me piece by piece.
I may have the start of a synopsis for my next novel in the works. What do you think?
Rudolph Valentino? (Catch his silent movies on YouTube—he was a hottie!)
I also have my great-great-grandmother’s butter churn from the 1800s—but that’s another story.
So, what treasure do you have hiding in your closet?
I'd love to hear your family history story :-). What treasure did you find?
Happy Reading,
Connie Vines
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Finding a piece of our family's past is like visiting them for an instant, isn't it? I've been clearing out "Stuff" but now remember my mother when she gave me her memories. "They're worth a lot of money," she's always say. I never understood. Now I do.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Nora. These are the memories we treasure and share.
DeleteThat is so amazing!! I wish I had anything from the past. My parents divorced when I was in college. My mother swears my dad took all the old pictures. My dad swore my mom took them all. So all those pictures of me and my sisters as babies, kids, teens, are gone. But also the box of pictures of my grandmother as a young girl, the one people always commented I looked just like. All gone! This was over 30 years ago so who knows what actually happened to all that memorabilia. It saddens me every time I think about it. Be thankful you still have so much.
ReplyDeleteDo you have cousins? Because I grew-up in military family, with constant relocations, I knew very few of my relatives outside of my grandparents. I found cousins via ancestory.com and connected with them via Facebook. I now have photos of family members, and a larger oral history to draw upon, too. There are photos which were shared with me from the late 1800s. As well as a photo of my great- grandparents I never knew existed. Don’t give up!
DeleteFinding things from the past is so wonderful. I love that feeling of looking back on to the life of my grandparents and great-grandparents and wondering what they thought, how they felt, etc. I have several things of my grandparents and great-grandparents, but the one I love the most is a deck of cards. My grandmother was very organized, and for some reason, she even kept decks of cards that were incomplete. She then labeled the decks with whatever cards they were missing. I have one of these and it says, "This deck of cards is missing the 9 of clubs". I love her. I miss her so much. Thank you for the post!
ReplyDeleteWow! Wouldn’t you live to know why that deck of cards was so important? Ummm...opening hook to a novel, perhaps?
DeleteConnie, I found my father's diary from WWII. My mother had given it to him. Being the generation that survived THE DEPRESSION, my parents kept everything! Before she died, my mother labeled some of the items -- a dish, a ring, a doll -- and she had me take notes. I recently took pictures of all these family treasures, put them in an album and labeled them for the next generation who will not care about them at all.
ReplyDeleteJan, what a wonderful idea. When you add your memories to the story, the diary will become a greater treasure to future generations.
DeleteI love this!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Liz :-)
DeleteWe have a gold pocket watch left by my husband's grandfather. It is passed from eldest boy to eldest boy...so my grandson (who loves all things mechanical) will really love it. We just have to be sure he doesn't take it apart to see how it works. The art of clockmaking and watch repair is dying out so, this is a treasure. And it still keeps time. What a lovely blog, Connie
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing our story. Perhaps you could also give your grand son a second watch to ‘tinker with’. I’m so glad you enjoyed reading my post.
DeleteGreat post, Connie.i'm afraid my memories of my grandparents are that, just memories. No one from my parent's era was sentimental enouh to hang onto stuff.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone share recipes? I’m glad you have wonderful memories.
DeleteBoth sets of my grandparent's history's are amazing. Paternal grandparents emigrated from Cuba when Castro came into power and my maternal grandparents emigrated from Germany at the end of the war. I've wanted to place their stories into a work of fiction for a long time now. On my list of projects! This was a fantastic post, thank you for sharing 💕
ReplyDeleteWow! Those are great stories to draw upon. I have a fan my father purchased in Cuba ( during his sub deployment) before Castro.
DeleteWhat a different way of bringing characters to life. I love it, Connie!
ReplyDelete