Polly Allen's House-Update

The Allen House in Marshall, where Polly and Lawrence lived and where a good deal of CROWS takes place, has been spiffed up and painted a beautiful blue.  What follows is an up date of a post from 2014. For those of you reading the novel now, seeing the interior may help set the scene.

Mary Allen (who was known as Polly) is one of the five voices in my novel . . . 

Her house  was a familiar sight to me for over forty years . . . long before I thought of writing anything at all.

It's a private residence and the owner was kind enough to let me take pictures of the parlor .

Some of the original wallpaper remains . . .

Front door and stairs . . .

 Dining room

 A pie safe ...

As I wrote the scenes with Polly, it was easy to imagine her moving through this house, to see the sheriff running up the stairs, to hear the glass breaking in the sidelights . . .

I couldn't be sure of what has changed since Polly's time, but I did the best I could with research and let my imagination fill in the gaps

Lost on the Internet in 1861

At last I have gotten a real handle on this story I'm telling. I have been so bogged down in preliminary research -- and there's quite a bit to know about the Civil War in western North Carolina -- that it's been hard to narrow down and focus on the story I want to tell. But my characters are telling me their stories now and leading me where they want me to go so I am doing research as I go. 

 I now know more than I did about bandages (lint) of the era; I know that germ theory was not widely known; I know about scarlet fever and muzzle loaders and how Quakers use thee and thou.

If not for the Internet . . . but I can't even imagine writing a book like this without it -- or a team of research librarians. 

The main points are in the books I have at hand (though they contradict one another more than one could wish.) But the little everyday things that make a story come to life, that make a reader feel he's really there, that's where Mr. Google is so helpful. 

 I went from wondering what sort of bandage would be used to realizing that Polly and her friends might well have a bandage rolling party -- I know I've read about something of the sort in books of the era.

The weather is chilly and mostly gray -- not conducive to pictures but good for writing.  Of which more later.. Just now I have to find out what instrument a doctor would use to extract a ball (from a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver) lodged against a rib . . .

Oh, the places I'll go....

Lost in the 1860s

I spent yesterday wandering the internets looking for images that would help me to hone in on and flesh out the story of the places and people I'm writing about...

I need to know what sort of dresses Pollie, the wife of the Confederate colonel, would have worn . . .

I need to know about scarlet fever in the mid 19th century . . .

Picture from http://www.badobadop.co.uk/

And what little girls looked like back then . . .

And how country women might have dressed . . . there's so much, if I'm to make this story come to life. . .

I'll find out far more than I actually put down on the page. But I have to know it if these characters are going to be real. 

And since most of them are based on real people, I owe it to these folks to come as near to the truth as possible  -- 150 years (give or take) later.

When I emerge from my workroom to fix supper, it's a wrench because my mind is back in 1860 or thereabout. There's a faraway look in my eyes and I'm still wondering about the census of 1860 -- was Isah, listed as a mulatto, a servant or a slave? And why is Judith listed as the head of the household (F) in all but one census and in that one, with the same household members, the head of the household is listed as Judah (M)?

'Tis a puzzlement. . .

FAQ-Research

Q: What kind of research do you do for your books?

A:  Various kinds and a lot more than actually gets written into the book. I like to have a good background of what I'm writing about but I only use enough to make my stories seem plausible.

First, I visit the places I'm writing about. For the most part, everything I write about takes place in my neck of the woods  -- even on our farm. (Why, oh why didn't I think to set my series in some exotic locale? Then travel to said locale could be a tax write-off.)

But my travels are local -- to a tent revival (but not to a snake-handling church,) to the River Art District in Asheville, the casino in Cherokee, a Civil War era house in nearby Marshall, one of the few remaining drover's stands in Fairview, the Vance birthplace for a look at the clothing and house furnishings of times past. . .

For the forthcoming Under the Skin I took a thirty minute drive to Hot Springs and the Mountain Magnolia Inn, as well as the Hot Springs Spa. It really helps me to be in a place and get the feel of it before I write about it.

For Old Wounds and for The Day of Small Things, I spent some time in Cherokee, at the Museum and at a Southeastern tribes dance festival, talking to folks and buying some useful books for research. 

I also occasionally have helpful readers who share pictures and diaries -- like Inez and Odessa's diaries that really gave me a picture of life around here in the Thirties and Forties. 

There are also a number of helpful friends and acquaintances who will answer my questions -- several physicians and psychologists,  a pharmacist, our local dentist (a good friend and the original of Doc Adams in Signs in the Blood and in Old Wounds)  and my friend Kathy, the realtor who inspired Sallie Kate. Mechanics, lawyers, journalists, farm agents, law men -- I've got a little list.


I've found that folks are incredibly generous with their time and expertise when you say the magic words, "I'm working on a book and need to know..."

And there are folks around I can talk to and hear their memories. I have. too, my own memories of the old folks I knew thirty years ago and the things they told me about growing up in the mountains.

Really, most of my thirty-some years here in the mountains amounts to research. I just didn't know at the time that I'd eventually be writing about it.  I've used my experience on jury duty, things I overheard in the laundromat, the time I got a concealed carry permit, and lots more that I'll use eventually.

One thing I do at the beginning of each novel is to visit our county library (and sometimes the much larger library in Asheville) and skim through the newspapers of the time period I'll be writing about. The advertisements, as much as anything, give me a feel for the time, whether it's Little Sylvie's 1901 trip to Ransom where she talks about the things she sees in the store windows, or Red Bird's favorite nail polish or her trip to the S and S Cafeteria with Luther in the Thirties.

I've also accumulated a nice little library of Appalachian related books and I list the ones that have been most helpful in the acknowledgment pages of each book.  Sometimes just the pictures are enough to give me a feel for the period.

And there's Mr. Google -- almost anything I might want to know is there, including primary sources.

 

Between the world outside my door and the world of the Internet, plus a pretty lively imagination, I can set the scene fairly well. Because I'm not writing history, and since I made Marshall County a fictional place (albeit based on a real one,) I have a little leeway. I'm not aiming for infallible accuracy -- just a reasonable verisimilitude.

 

Research . . . Somebody Has To Do It

I got up early yesterday with research on my mind. A few days ago I was writing a scene where Gloria has fixed beignets for breakfast (the show off!)

It's been a very long time since I've tasted these New Orleans delicacies and I was floundering around for a description. So I did what Gloria did -- bought a box of beignet mix.




It's so easy, even a non-cook like Gloria can shine.

Add water. Stir.

Roll out thin, using lots of flour.

Cut into squares and fry in canola oil.

Dust with powdered sugar; serve with cafe au lait.

I would like to acknowledge my husband's work as research assistant. He selflessly put aside his yogurt and granola to aid in my quest for authenticity in my writing.


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