I feel a little sorry for Going Home, Again. Any effort to market or push or distribute is definitely on hold until December. Any book-related time I can work into my schedule goes into Wild Blue for now. Of course that also means the in-progress books are on hold. Mount Hope and Handsome Prince Stephen will get some love after November, too. Nothing is getting dropped, just moved to a less prominent spot on the to-do list for now.
So how about a bit of love for my new baby, Wild Blue? It's the story of a little family, and I am already loving these characters. Joy is a farm girl who finds herself in what passes for a city in Delaware. Henry is the Army guy she falls crazy in love with. Hazel, Henry's aunt, who becomes something of a second mother to Joy. Pete, Henry's Army buddy - they meet in France and fight together in Sicily. June and Bea, two sweet little girls who become the center of a few folks' worlds and the point around which they pivot.
There are elements in Wild Blue of family folklore, my family and Wayne's. The girls' names are a direct nod to our grandmothers, who lived through some of what I will include in the book. To thank them, I am giving their names to the girls. While there may be bits of their stories here and there, this is definitely a work of fiction. The bits I am going to use are ones that could apply to anyone - I happen to know some of them because people love to talk. :)
Of course, I didn't live through that time period I have to research. And there is so much to sift through. I am planning to take some time this weekend to sort of map out what I need to learn and divide things up over the rest of this month. Otherwise, I will probably jump around so much that I'll not get to everything! Here's a sample of what I need to learn about:
- Life on a farm during the Depression
- Clothing in the early 40's - men's, women's, babies, uniforms
- Transportation on Delmarva in the early 40's - how would someone get from Dover to Salisbury if they didn't own a car?
- Entertainment during the time period - what books did people read? What movies did they watch? What was a date like? What did they listen to on the radio? (this might be the easiest part because I'm totally in love with Big Band and Lucille Ball)
- Army MOS's in World War II
- How someone could go from the Corps of Engineers to the Army Air Corps
- Life in a replenishment depot
- The Battle of Sicily
- Running a store in the 40's - I am thinking a 5 and 10 cent store would suit (This one might be pretty easy too - there was one in the town where I grew up that my mom told me was very much like the ones she had gone to with her mother as a child, and I definitely remember that!)
- Knitting in the 40's - what sort of yarn would be available, what kinds of things would my characters make
- Food - what would they eat, especially during rationing? I'm hoping to find some personal accounts on this one. I have a feeling that rationing wasn't all that hard on most people because the memory of the Great Depression was still really fresh.
I'm sure there's more that I haven't even considered!
I'm starting with the Army parts. I may even write that first, even though it doesn't fit at the beginning of the book. I'd like to get it all researched and get the relevant parts - Henry and Pete meeting at the depot and the battle - taken care of early on. Then I can focus on life at home, which is the major bulk of the book.
Thoughts? Comments? Well-wishes? I am open to anything!
