Lost in History

I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks because most of my time has been spent trying to remember events of the past forty-five years. In 2019, Community Presbyterian Church of San Juan Capistrano will celebrate its 100^th birthday. I was asked to help put together a book to chronicle the events of the church during its lifetime. No small task!

When we let people know we were doing this project, supporting material appeared from closets and file cabinets and shelves. Those who knew where items were stored in the church unearthed them. And several people began to research and amass data from the internet and the historical societies of San Juan and Dana Point.

Original church building

Then began the process of sorting through all the material and deciding what to include and what to leave out. (Much of the historical material was about the cities of San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point but wasn’t directly related to the church.)

Then, several of us began to compose the articles. As they were completed, I received them. We also began to post pictures on the church group on Facebook and invited others to do the same. We asked the members of the group to identify the people shown in the photos.

We have contacted those who participated in the events for their input, memories, and corrections.

If everything had been left as originally received, the book would end up at over 1000 pages! So, ruthless editing has been required. This will still be a large volume (or two, maybe).

Since we were present from 1972, I have many first-hand memories of events from this point to the present. We have also gone through our own photo albums (probably at least three dozen) to find photos. We have also gone through at least another three dozen of the church’s. Each dig through the archives uncovers another event we need to write about.

Fortunately, the unofficial historian of San Juan (she has written several books about the city) is not only a descendent of one of the founding families, she was also a member of the church for many years. She is beta reading the oldest material—the historical stuff—to validate the facts. (Sometimes these are in conflict. Local legends clash with the recorded data.)

We keep receiving more photos. Although they are delightful to see, many are too old and faded to use. Others are too far away or blurred to identify anyone. Still others are interesting but don’t really tell the story we are trying to convey. We have had to limit ourselves to not more than two photos per article—a difficult task!

Each photo we decide to use has to be adjusted in PhotoShop. Since they will appear fairly small, I need to crop them to show only the critical parts. Then I have to make sure they are at least 300 dpi. Photos can’t be dragged and dropped into the text, so they have to be inserted in a specific spot.

All the articles have to be formatted for publication, and the styles have to be consistent from article to article so we can combine them in the final manuscript.

I have probably spent forty and sixty hours a week for the past couple of months on this project, and there is still quite a bit to do.

We have targeted the end of the summer for receipt of all the material and responses. Then I’ll combine everything into one cohesive book. Once all the final material is combined, I will start at the beginning and do a complete edit of the entire manuscript—including more deletions.

We hope to have the book ready for publication by the beginning of next year. Our intention is to have it available for Kindle and in print on Amazon. We also expect to have copies available at the church. This will be an expensive book to produce and purchase because many of the photos are in color, but it will be a valued keepsake for those who shared in the experiences.

So, if you don’t hear from me for the next couple of months, you know what I’ll be doing!

The church today in its new location (as of 1968)

Historical Accuracy

I am currently working with a first-time author who is writing a historical novel about a time and subject about which I know very little. This, in fact, is why I was excited to edit her story. I enjoy learning new things.

However, a very short way into the book, some red flags arose. She had her character traveling on a railroad traveling north to south just prior to the Civil War. I looked up the name of the line she had used and discovered it didn’t exist—ever.

\When I questioned her about it, she said, “I just used literary license and made it up.”

Uh no.

Readers of historical fiction—especially those who read about the particular time in which she is writing, would have her head for such an invention. Readers are passionate about accuracy when it comes to their favorite periods and locations, and authors must research everything they write.

I have been known to close a book and throw it away (or remove it from my Kindle library) for blatant inaccuracies. I know devotees to particular eras do the same. Even when writing contemporary fiction, research is still important.

The more reality you include in your fiction, the more believable it becomes. So, where can you use literary license, and where should you strive for absolute accuracy? Larry wrote a blog for me a few years ago where he describes it better than I could. The following is from his blog.

WRITING A REAL LOCATION

In our second mystery, Murder in Paradise, our protagonist, Agapé Jones, retired NYPD detective, was supposed to drive from Honolulu to Hale’iwa. While doing research on Oahu, I drove the same route, noticed the outrigger canoes parked along the Ala Wai Canal, and shopped at the Foodland in Hale’iwa. Then Agapé did the same things in the book. We know our readers will never forgive us if we mess up their town. And if our hero drives the wrong way on a one-way street, we’ll never hear the end of it. [One reader, who had lived on Oahu, said he knew exactly where he was every minute—a testament to the value of the research.]

While I write a story in a real place, I surround myself with photos, clippings, and maps of the area I intend to write about. Anything to keep me grounded in reality.

Sometimes a picture will inspire a scene. In Murder in Paradise, I had the grandmother character tell the story of growing up as a child on the North Shore and visiting the Hale’iwa Hotel, a beautiful Victorian-style inn featuring a two-story lanai and luxurious dining room. Opened in 1898, the building was torn down in 1952. As inspiration, I purchased several early photos of the old hotel from North Shore Photo Hawaii and hung them on the wall over my computer. The pictures themselves never appeared in the book, but my descriptions became more accurate because I could visualize being there. Hopefully, I passed my vision on to the reader.

WRITING A FICTIONAL LOCATION

Lorna and four friends created the fictitious town of Aspen Grove, Colorado, as the location for their romance anthologies, Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love, The Art of Love, An Aspen Grove Christmas, and …And a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe. This allowed the authors to invent shops, restaurants, churches, B&Bs, etc. to fit their novellas. They placed Aspen Grove in the mountains west of Denver on the road leading to the ski resorts. Even though it is fictitious, it needed to have the real look and character of the area. Aspen Grove became a composite of several real towns.

Walk down the main street of Idaho Springs and you expect to see Daisy’s Diner and the Book Nook. Wander along the lakefront in Georgetown to find Drew’s log cabin, and on through town a stone building houses the Presbyterian Church. Several readers have remarked they would love to visit Aspen Grove. So would we. [But we have come close in these two small Colorado towns. Idaho Springs is shown below.]

WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION

Not only do the locations need to be correct, but also the specific time period. The events, language, customs, clothing, and props must all fit the era.

In historical fiction, it is even more important to do accurate research. Our historical novel, The Memory Keeper, concerns life at the San Juan Capistrano Mission between 1820 and 1890 as seen through the eyes of a Juaneño Indian.

For inspiration, an original etching by Rob Shaw, published in 1890 by H L Everett, showing the mission grounds, hangs over my computer and did so during the writing of the book.

Our bibliography ran eleven pages. We also enlisted the aid of the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, mission docents, the local San Juan historian, and a Juaneño native storyteller as beta readers for historical information. We weren’t satisfied until they were satisfied with the accuracy of our details.

That said, I have to remind myself. Never let the facts get in the way of the story. Too many details can turn a good story into a boring history lesson. In the end, the research should support and enhance, but not overwhelm. We must choose which facts to include, leave out, and make up. If we’ve done our job, our readers will become so involved with the plot and compelling characters, the facts will blend in. They’ll never know how much research went into it. But we will.