It's Stream of Consciousness Day

by the totally distracted author, Suzanne Morgan Williams

It's my turn on the blog, and perhaps because the whole house is torn apart so painters can work, I'm having a heck of a time focusing on one topic. So I declare this Middle Grade Historical Writer Stream of Consciousness Day. I'm sure you've heard of it. Here goes.

• I have a historical manuscript that I'm waiting to hear back on. I believe I'll jinx my work by speaking too soon, so more on that later - if anything comes of a year and a half of work and a lot of hopes and prayers.
• The painters are nice guys doing a really detailed job of redoing the interior of our home. Most of it is staying exactly the same color. We just needed it freshened up. I decided to change the color of two rooms. That seems fun and gives the whole place a different feel. It doesn't seem all that different from revising a manuscript. You keep the structure and polish up everything. A few sections definitely need to change. Now if you decide to re-write a manuscript, that's like tearing the roof off or adding a second story. The result may be better but it probably won't be recognizable.
• How do I know when I've found the right story? It fascinates me. I can't stop researching. When I tell people about it I get excited, and if I've hit the right note, they do too. If I have the right story, I'm tenacious and bull dog like. I want to give it life and that usually requires revisions and maybe a re-writing or two.
• And here's the thing about choosing to write about heroes and leaders that we know about, stories we learned in school - we already know them. A new topic may not seem important, because we don't know what would be interesting about it, or we might not feel comfortable with the subject. This is how the same history gets told again and again. Readers expect certain themes. Our job as writers is to find important stories that haven't been told, or to tell familiar ones in a fresh way. Both are satisfying and both can add to our understanding of history and our cultural capital.
• Our historical understanding will only be improved by adding more stories, particularly about those people who've been omitted from traditional histories. And, like painting, be it house painting or fine art, the details tell it best. Focus. Sorry about mine, but gee, it's Stream of Consciousness Day.

LeeAnn Wilmot on the Creation of Empathy and Safe Spaces in Historical Fiction

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells Scout that

“If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Atticus is articulating the concept of empathy; the ability to feel another‘s feelings, and understand from their point of view. 

Historic fiction provides a little distance; there is no current or personal issue, and the reader is allowed to imagine feelings, without any personal threat.  Though removed in time and space, Zane in Zane and the Hurricane is someone with whom middle grade readers can identify.  Zane is 12; his life is not unlike our reader’s lives.  His journey through hurricane Katrina sweeps him from his usual life into experiences of joy, loss, sorrow, fear, and bravery.  He meets the grandmother he didn’t know existed and finds that he’s not at all sure that he likes her. He encounters dangerous events and people.

Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team,
 NASA/GSFC - http://visibleearth.nasa.gov
/view_rec.php?id=7938

Many of our children have or will encounter dangerous people and events, and a great many of them will not.  And, maybe more of them fear dangerous people and events which they imagine will come someday. The hurricane setting, oddly, provides some safety when it comes to considering how to respond to danger, real or imagined. Zane recognizes danger and is appropriately fearful, but he also learns to seek safety and guidance. Zane isn’t really heroic--that might remove the opportunity for genuine empathy--but he is honest and caring and helpful, even when he’s scared.

 

Zane encountered realities in his life that many of us might prefer to hide from our children: parents in rehab, parents in jail, caretakers and friends who are not wholesome and protective.  Zane and the Hurricane does not emphasize these aspects of life, but they are mentioned, and contribute to the movement of the story.  Despite these factors Zane (usually) makes good choices; these are just aspects of his life and not a consuming focus. His mistakes in judgement are mentioned casually with the same lack of emphasis as the mention of dead bodies floating in the water; life moves forward. Difficulties and mistakes are absorbed into forward progression. There is no lingering, no berating.

The reader can identify with Zane partly because it’s “just a story,” about something which happened long ago.  Even though these parts of life may be very different for the reader, the reader can also sense that these children are not so very different, and we share feelings across time and space.  I would probably be frightened; I might chase my dog in the storm even though I knew not to. I might make mistakes, but I too will recover from them and manage my situation despite danger and adversity.

When children read about challenging events, hurricanes and wars, it’s common to ask, “How would you feel if……..?” Feelings are not so much evoked in non-fiction exercises. Non-fiction presents the reader with facts and details which can be compartmentalized, perhaps necessarily so. As an adult, even I was overwhelmed by the facts of Hurricane Katrina--all those people on rooftops! Early on, for me,  real people became just dots on rooftops. I just could not think about this. But, fictionalized characters offer a face and words to both free and limit our imaginations, and so I was able to journey with just one person, Zane, to see and feel the event through his eyes. I was able to experience both compassion and empathy--which I avoided when reading or seeing the news--when I looked through Zane’s eyes. I believe that this one brave, frightened, disobedient, and courageous child may create safe space for our middle school readers to feel all those feelings, too.

LeeAnn Wilmot is a youth librarian with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library. When she is not at the library, she can be found hanging out with her three Rottweilers, and reading, of course.

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Sara K Joiner: Horror Historicals

Are you more likely to see a ghost in October?

photo by Sara K Joiner

October is the time of year when we want to be scared. The weather turns cooler, the trees begin losing their leaves, and we want to sit around a fire (either indoors or out) and give ourselves nightmares with tales of ghosts and devils, murder and mayhem.

Sit back. Relax. And enjoy some of these frightening treats that are all set in the past.

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
Orphaned Irish siblings travel to England and find work as servants in a creepy house. An enormous tree is growing into the house, and the family the siblings work for seems to be growing paler and weaker with each passing day. Will the siblings be able to save their employers from the evil creeping into the house? Or will they only have time to save themselves?

The Shadows That Rush Past: A Collection of Frightening Inuit Folktales by Rachel A. Qitsualik, illustrated by Emily Fiegenschuh and Larry MacDougall
Four stories passed down through generations of Inuit storytellers describe a horrible child-stealing ogress, a monster that is half man and half grizzly bear, an ice-covered polar bear that is ten times the size of a normal bear, and a creature who surprises unsuspecting people by tickling them to death. The illustrations can be horrific and heroic as men and women, children and adults are depicted fighting monsters and suffering their fates.

Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale by Virginia Hamilton, illustrated by Barry Moser
A boy and his uncle become victims of Wee Winnie, a witch who hangs her skin on a hook by the door and flies around on people. Only the boy's grandmother can save them, but how do you trick a witch, especially one as gruesome as Wee Winnie? The illustrations are wood engravings which up the creep factor even more and will haunt readers.

Forbidden by Eve Bunting
A teenage orphan girl is sent to live with an aunt and uncle she has never met on the stormy coast of Scotland. She finds herself surrounded by people, including her relatives, who are threatening and mysterious. Suspicious and determined to learn the truth about her new home, she finds answers that are more horrifying than anything she could have imagined.

Sara K Joiner is the author of After the Ashes. She is also a public librarian.