The Story Behind the Story: A World Turned Upside Down

On May 19, 1780, during America's War for Independence, New England experienced what has become known as the Dark Day. The sky turned dark by noon and stayed that way until the stars returned around midnight. What had caused the darkness? Theories ran rampant. Some said it was divine punishment. Others said it was an eclipse. No one knew for sure.  Finally, in 2008, the mystery was solved. Historians and scientists determined that the darkness had been caused by smoke from a massive wildfire in southern Ontario, Canada.

I ran across the story of the Dark Day in 2008, when I saw an article about the mystery being solved. I knew then I wanted to write a story set on that day.

Six years later, I got around to writing it. I found the surname Fayreweather on a list of Mayflower passengers. (Could a name be more perfect for a story?) Through further research, I learned what a butter churn sounds like, how farm animals behave at night, that the nicknames "Ma" and "Pa" didn't come into common use until the 1800s, and how the sky changed color as it grew darker on that Dark Day. I remembered the story of Korach from the Torah portion I read at my Bat Mitzvah. The New Testament references I had to look up.

Prudence came to life quickly: a young girl whose nature was at odds with her family's and society's expectations of her. While she never told me what happened to her after this Dark Day, I'm fairly certain she grew up and joined the women's rights movement. It wouldn't surprise me if she signed the Seneca Falls Declaration. The seeds of that future are, I hope, clearly planted in this day-in-the-life story.

The title of the story comes from an account of the British surrender after the Battle of Yorktown. The surrender marked the end of the fighting in the War for Independence. During the surrender ceremony, the British military band played a song called "The World Turned Upside Down." To the British, the American Revolution had turned the world upside down. Years earlier, on May 19, 1780, the Dark Day did the same thing for the people of New England.

Click here to read "A World Turned Upside Down."

The Story Behind the Story: A Friend in Need

NYC Midnight strikes again! This month's story, "A Friend in Need," comes from my first round assignment in NYC Midnight's 2014 Flash Fiction Challenge. For the second year in a row, my first round prompt was to write a romance. (I think it's a conspiracy.) This one had to be set in an emergency room and involve a mop.

I struggled mightily to get out a draft. Even as I typed, I knew what I was writing was crap. But I submitted it anyway. Then I brought the story to my writer's group, told them I hated it, and asked for ways to fix it.

The group--and the NYC Midnight judges--pointed out that the sensory details I had included were all visual, all about color. All that color distracted from the narrative. I needed to add other senses into the narrative, especially sound and smell, for balance and realism.

The group also pointed out errors in E.R. procedure and policy in that first draft, such as Anna's memory test Anna and Jake being allowed to accompany Anna into the exam room. In my revisions, I fixed the memory test but still allowed Jake to accompany Anna, even though that wouldn't be permitted in a real hospital. Call it artistic license.

I made other changes, too, based on their feedback and the feedback from the judges. It's not the best story I've ever written, but it's much improved now compared to that first draft.

Click here to read "A Friend in Need."

The Story Behind the Story: The Envelope

Back in the spring and summer of 2012, I was working on a massive U.S. history project as part of my day job. As I edited a series of lessons about American involvement in Vietnam, I found myself wondering what it might have been like to receive a draft notice. What would it have been like for a young man who had already lost an older brother to the war?

The more I researched, the clearer the story became. I scoured the Internet and found images of the Orders to Report for Physical Examination and Orders to Report for Induction. Being so used to digitally generated form letters, I was struck by the uneven typewriting on the notices. I had to put that detail in the story. After all, it's those kind of details that bring to life the history in historical fiction.

During the story's planning stages, I thought maybe Quincy would fail his physical examination. By the time I started drafting, though, I knew with absolute certainly that Quincy would pass, forcing him to wrestle with his options. Ultimately, he would decide to dodge the draft, catching a bus to Canada instead of reporting for induction as ordered. But my characters, I have found, often have minds of their own and Quincy was no different. He caught a bus, alright---just not the one I had planned.

I took a draft of the story to my then-writer's group, one of whom is a Vietnam veteran. I admit to being a little nervous about his reading the story. I'd read parts of his memoir about his service in Vietnam, and I wanted very much to do justice to the Vietnam experience. To this day, I cannot recall with any clarity what feedback the other members of the group gave me, but I do remember Dan's. He told me his experience had been similar to Quincy's; he too had kept his draft notice secret from his family. I still cherish his words, because they validated my interpretation of events. I had gotten my story right. Thank you, Dan! (On a side note, someday Dan will publish his memoir. I, for one, can't wait to read it in its entirety.)

Click here to read "The Envelope."

The Story Behind the Story: A Seat at the Bar

God bless NYC Midnight. This story, too, is a product of their Flash Fiction Challenge. It was the second round of their 2013 FFC, and I was assigned a ghost story in a hotel bar with sunglasses.

I'd written most of a story set in the early 1900s when it occurred to me to check the year sunglasses were invented. Turns out, they're a product of the 1920s--1929, to be exact. Oops. Draft 1 scrapped.

On to Draft 2.

I tried using third person narration. I tried a more traditional structure. But this story insisted on being something different. The story didn't flow until I transcribed the bartender's monologue word for word.

The nontraditional format had mixed results. The feedback from the NYC Midnight judges was largely negative, but they award the story more points than my other flash fiction entries. Go figure.

After the competition, I workshopped the story in my writer's group and tweaked it here and there to fix some inconsistencies. The result is the story you see now, over on Fiction First.

Happy Halloween!

To read "A Seat at the Bar" click here.