Stories That Matter: Books by Beth Kanell

Election Fever Can Mean Collecting "History" and Testing Data

2012-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

Vermont Edition radio host Jane Lindholm

From now until November, Americans will hear a lot about politics and government. It's tempting to support candidates who believe the same things we do, or who seem to face life the way we do.

But there's another way to see political speeches: In what they say and do, candidates to lead our country reveal what they believe America's history is, and what should be done about it, in order to shape the future for all Americans. That means, if we want a well-led country, we need to be history evaluators ourselves, in order to notice how good -- or not so good -- each candidate is in sorting out what really happened and what might happen in the years in front of us.

Shawna and Thea begin to sort out historical "facts" in this way in The Secret Room. Their eventual conclusions about the "real" Underground Railroad events in their village of North Upton are very different from where their opinions started. A fun way to evaluate their work might include listing their opinions from when they've first discovered the secret room, the kinds of research they do, and their opinions by the end of the book.

Looking for a real-life application of the same skills? Try listening to the speakers on this Vermont Public Radio broadcast from November 2011: host Jane Lindholm (an anthropologist as well as journalist), history professor Ray Zirblis, and me, your author of The Secret Room. Jot down what opinions are expressed by each speaker, and the evidence each one offers to back up those opinions. Then work slowly through the listener comments and questions posted on the radio station website, in response to the show. What opinions can you determine among the listeners? How are they responding to what they've heard?

Let me know what you find. And if you are trying this in a classroom or group, at any age, I'd love to know how it works out and where it leads you next.

[PS - If you're teaching with The Secret Room -- or any other YA historical fiction -- you might want to joint the teacher collaboration at http://www.facebook.com/groups/198457003547529. You're invited!]

And the Mountain Is Connected to the Valley ...

2012-01-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

Pygmy shrew.

Yesterday the odd markings of a tiny shrew crisscrossed the backyard. The smallest of mammals, a shrew looks like a mouse that never had a neck, with an added layer of fur. In snowy terrain, shrews travel underneath the snow, along the frozen ground. So how do you see their tracks? It's wild -- you see instead the lines of collapses at the snow surface, where the snow sinks down into the tiny tunnels beneath. Love it.

Also in the backyard is a set of deer tracks leading directly to the wall of the house and back. Turns out the deer spotted the green grass revealed under the outside vent of the clothes dryer. I bet that was a tasty snack.

Although my heart and books are always in Vermont, this snowy, windy ridgeline (this morning's wind is literally roaring) is also connected to the roads that go "elsewhere," including the roads of the Internet. Today they connect to Little Willow, whose website is a mountain-size resource room for readers. I especially like her list of books that deal with "tough topics for teens." And today I'm honored to be her guest for an interview about writing and about secret rooms. Thank you, Little Willow. It's wonderful to "be here."

The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow

2012-01-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

This photo is from a tiny cemetery just up the road from where I live; the stones in it mark deaths that took place about two hundred years ago, but -- they also mark lives. They stand for people who chose to farm and raise children on a high ridge of land where they could look west toward an amazing landscape of rolling mountains. And at that time, most of them probably had no idea what lay beyond those mountains. One of the markers here (the left-hand one; click on it to make it larger) is for Mrs. Submit Adams -- whose heritage, according to local writer Alan Boye, probably included Abenaki (Native American) family members. She may have been the earliest part-European to live on this ridgeline.

I think that the more we learn about the people who've gone ahead of us, the more courage we can summon. We see how they lived with the darkness of winter nights, and the darkness of their souls sometimes. And for many of them, we see how they pulled themselves together. They witnessed wide skies of brilliant stars, or big-bellied glowing full moons; they woke again in the morning to the winter calls of chickadees (tiny birds that refuse to leave here in winter), the sparkle of sunlight on icicles, the bright ring of harness bells on horses. They left us their names, and sometimes their stories.

When a good novel follows a character's path through darkness, it shows where the light is also rising. It calls us to take the next right choice, take another step forward, sing something out loud for the friends following us through the woods. It was Carl Jung who said, "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow." But for the stories I want to research and tell, the saying may sometimes go the opposite way: "The darker the shadow, the brighter the light."

History Mysteries for Delray Beach, Florida

2011-12-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

courtesy of Jeremy.Wilburn

I'm warming up to a revision of one manuscript and three other novels I plan to write -- two of them with first chapters already written.

Meanwhile, though, I recently offered to find "history mystery" possibilities for a classroom teacher in Delray Beach, Florida (if you're a teacher and would like to know more about history mysteries, please do check our teacher Facebook site -- ask to join and I'll "click" you into it: http://www.facebook.com/groups/198457003547529). And here's some of what I came up with:

History mysteries for Delray Beach -- Wow, I am so excited about this town's history! There could be at least a dozen fascinating plots woven from what I've seen already. (1) For instance, until 1845, the area's residents were Africans, Seminole Native Americans, and Black Seminoles -- can you imagine a journey into history by looking for evidence of each group? What were the similarities, differences, conflicts? If there are no records of that time, what does that mean in terms of how we value our history? (2) There are military maps of the peninsula of Florida dating from the 1850s and the Seminole Wars. There's a haulover (a portage location for boats), "Orange Grover Haulover." I would love to learn more about the Seminole Wars and set a mystery at this haulover. Who could leave messages there? What would they say? (3) A haven for the shipwrecked called the Orange Grove House of Refuge #3 was built in 1876 by the U.S. Lifesaving Service. The first refuge-keeper (like a lighthouse keeper, for you Yankees reading along) was Hannibal D. Pierce. If a story were called "Meeting Hannibal," what would happen to the young person narrating the story? There must have been pirates and navy heroes and clever craftsmen among the people living at the refuge! (4) When Henry Flagler was building railroads to connect all of Florida (1885), he bought a lot of land in the Delray Beach area. Many workers on the railroad were African Americans. Imagine their experience of the Civil War and the hopes and dreams they brought to the area when they came to work on the railroad. I am now picturing eighth-grade-age kids who make choices based on their parents' tales of war and railroad -- what arrives hidden among the railroad cars? Who slips in and out of town, bringing messages? The story is growing! (5) The Intercoastal Waterway dates to 1890 in Delray Beach -- can you trace how it's been used for recreation? For commerce? For smuggling? (6) The first school in town (the town was Linton then) in 1894 was established by African-Americans and was a "pioneer school" probably built with palm fronds. I "hear" a mystery that involves someone who wants to be in the school but can't, and who has a pet, and isn't afraid of snakes or palm bugs ... (7) Why did Adolf Hofman come to town in 1895 and what kind of farming did he set up in Delray Beach? I bet his family had a hard time during World War II -- can you explain why? There could be a mystery of messages, heroism, and danger. (8) Who was Mary Cohen and how did she become a midwife? In 1896, I would have wanted to know her! Does her last name mean she had some connections to Jewish heritage? What resources did she have? Picture a mystery about two babies born on the same day, and how she copes with it, and how the families get tangled and maybe give back something in terms of helping save "Auntie" Cohen from danger! (9) I want to know more about the Yamamoto agriculture colony, with all Japanese men at first (brought by Henry Flagler), then wives, children, a school ... what happened to the people from this 1904 group, when World War II arrived? I am picturing a mystery that involves a friendship among three kids of various ancestry, trying to figure out how to make things better for the ones who are Japanese.

See why I think this could be the perfect place for history mysteries?? In case you need more info, there's a brand new book of photos of Delray Beach history, too, and here's an article about a time capsule -- don't you get the urge to make a time capsule with your class? http://www.palmbeachpost.com/community-post/delray-beach-historical-society-archivist-finds-long-forgotten-1973156.html

The Underground Railroad in Vermont: The Real One

2011-12-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to the Barnet Junior Historical Society, with mentor Sherry Tolle, who invited me to join the group of grade 2 to grade 6 students at the Barnet (VT) School library today. From the girls up front to the boys at the back table, everyone had opinions and information to offer about what the Underground Railroad was, and whether there could be hiding places in local houses that had a connection with the movement to make sure fugitives from slavery were able to reach freedom, safely.

Mr. David Warden, a leader in the Barnet Historical Society, was also on hand and gave some details about older houses in town, especially the Goodwillie House, where a double wall in the cellar has sometimes been assumed to be a hiding place from the Underground Railroad movement.

We talked about what the UGRR really was (no train tracks; not underneath the ground), why it was so important, and why the hiding places in Vermont -- especially in this area, the Northeast Kingdom -- probably weren't for hiding people. Probably the most important part of the reasons was the absence of slave hunters in Vermont. Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory, edited by David W. Blight, says this:

Probably the most important factor in making Vermont a safe haven for runaways was simply its geography. The sheer physical distance from the slave South to Vermont was just too great to make capture economically feasible. Historians John Hope Franklin and Loren Schewininger have shown that the cost to the slave catcher could exceed the value of the fugitive if the search extended too far or too long. (p. 256)

That led to a discussion of how "stories" about slave hunters started in Vermont anyway, and why people want to believe in an Underground Railroad version that's closer to being a "story" than to being "history." One of the students compared this to the long-held "official" view that the earth was flat, even though sailors all knew it was round, because of what they saw every day at sea. Good comparison!

For teachers, librarians, and historical groups looking for a good handout for elementary-grade students, check this offering from the National Park Service, free for downloading and printing: http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/education/index.htm -- and click on "Junior Ranger Booklet."

Thanks again, Mrs. Tolle, for mentoring such a lively club and inviting me to meet with your students!

Secret Rooms and Chimneys

2011-12-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

photo courtesy of timmurtagh

The discussion that Jane Lindholm hosted on Vermont Public Radio last month, with historian and professor Ray Zirblis and me, covered a lot of aspects of Vermont's Underground Railroad and some of the passions and confusions around whether and where people may have hidden during the years before the Civil War, in Vermont. (Short summary: Mostly, they didn't need to -- because Vermont stood for personal liberty.) One point made a couple of times is that Vermont contractors often know about hiding places in old houses, because they find them during reconstruction and repairs. Here's a great comment from contractor and designer Sam Clark, of Sam Clark Design:

I have one bit of information on secret rooms around chimneys.

A lot of old farmhouses had those huge central chimneys, which could easily be 8x8 feet. But they became obsolete with the invention of modern wood stoves in the 19th c, or even gas or oil heat. So, two ideas: the framers had a certain way of framing houses, which allowed for these big chimneys, which they didn't vary when technology changed.

Also, sometimes these old chimneys were torn down, and rebuilt as simple brick flues, without changing the walls around them much. We're working on a house in Maine where you can see the remnants of the big chimney, but there is a secret room around the "modern" 16x24 chimney.

Thanks, Sam, for this information!

Focusing on "Real History," with Good Stories

2011-12-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

At Bear Pond Books, Montpelier

One of the author/librarian discussion lists that I read daily has recently focused on well-tested historical fiction: that is, the kind where the history involved is "true." I wish the word had been "honest" instead, because history -- unlike the impression many of us get in elementary school -- doesn't ever come in just one "right" version. It comes with many points of view, many experiences.

Just as an example, consider the building of the great railroads that crossed the United States in the 1800s, including the Canadian Pacific Railway. I've been doing some research the CPR lately, because a student in a nearby town just pulled together nearly a hundred letters exchanged by her family members in the 1870s, and two of the letter authors worked on the railroad -- one on its construction, the other (it appears) as a low-level manager for a bit. And in one of those "coincidences" that happen a lot to writers, my husband and I enjoyed dinner last night with another couple, who brought up a place I'd never before heard of: Revelstoke, British Columbia. Our friend is going there to ski, and mentioned that the Canada government is promoting the little city as a destination for tourists and athletes. It's halfway between Vancouver (which is on the west coast of Canada) and Calgary, Alberta (another major Canadian city). And within half an hour of starting to explore the city's history, I realized it's had a constant relationship with the CPR. Now that it's a "destination" for play as well as work, the connection with the railroad is more important again!

But what is the "history" of the CPR -- and of Revelstoke? Is it the experience of railroad workers, many of them immigrants laboring for less money than appropriate, dying of overwork and disease and homesickness? Is it the exhilaration of explorers and entrepreneurs, of investors -- back then, and now -- eager to see commerce develop from their efforts? Is it the flushed happiness of a skier, exploring a massive mountain cloaked with shimmering snow? And where are the echoes of people who knew the landscapes crossed by the railroad, long before metals were worked in North America?

Good historical fiction gives us room to choose a few of those strands and pair them with stories of the hearts and minds of characters. And although we call those characters fictional -- the least "real" of all the strands being woven into the tapestry of a novel -- they too have meaning. I know they reflect me, as well as the people I've come to know and appreciate. When the effort of writing results in truly good stories, they also become a real experience for the reader.

It's been rewarding to travel around northern Vermont and New Hampshire with The Secret Room. I try to spend at least as much time listening as talking, at author events. And I've heard stories of other lives that involve secret rooms, whether their history is known or not. We all have so many questions about our past, and about our homes. Sharing the stories and questions of our lives helps make us rich with spirit, and I believe it gives us better grounding from which to climb.

You Could Win a Free Copy of THE SECRET ROOM ... Or Reserve One to Purchase at a Vermont Author Event!

2011-10-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Visit this Minnesota mom's wonderful blog Hanging Off the Wire and try for a free copy of The Secret Room today. Do spend some time reading HayleyK's posts ... she's got a lot of good insight.

And then, to make sure you're going to have enough copies (one for you, one for your mom, one for your best friend at the holidays), please do mark your calendar for one of these upcoming events featuring the book:

* Sunday Nov. 6 at 1 pm at The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, VT, where kids and young adults come first (but there are great books for their "drivers" too!).

* Monday Nov. 7 at 7 pm at the church in West Barnet, VT, for the meeting of the West Barnet Women's Fellowship.

* Friday Nov. 25 (yes, the day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday") at 11 am at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, with an armful of other wonderful Vermont authors.

See you soon!

What's Ahead: The Writing Project List

2011-10-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

F.D. Reeve and I completed the first draft of "Opal of the Mountains" last week; I'm working on the second draft now. That's the promised "novel in iambic pentameter" -- or, more to the point, it's a novel all in dialogue. It opens in a vegetable garden, and climbs steadily upward, including up some cliffs. More on this, later.

I've got two photos that I want to share, for their roles in possible novels coming up. The first, nicely labeled from its original newspaper use, is an old "tavern" in Hardwick, Vermont. These town or village meetingplaces were some of the largest houses around, and there are still many on what look like back roads today but were once the centers of life in "hamlets" (small villages) formed from working families living close together. The inn that features in The Secret Room is related to this tavern as a structure, but with more emphasis on overnight rooms for travelers. From the size of the pictured tavern here, I'd guess there were rooms for rent in the Hazen Road Warner Tavern, too.

Because inns and taverns were places for local people to keep up with each other's lives, and also to meet travelers -- either distant relatives, or intriguing strangers -- this tavern is going to appear in one of my stories soon. There are two classic premises to begin an adventure: "A stranger comes to town," and "Someone leaves on a journey." A tavern or inn is the perfect place for both.

The second photo was sent by Harman Clark and shows the Vail Mansion, which stood on what
is now the Lyndon State College campus. Many who stayed there recall it as haunted. No doubt, it will appear in a story of "haunting" that's bubbling up for me to tell.

My list here at the desk also includes revisions next month on my 1850 novel, The Long Shadow; crafting a first draft of a middle-grades book I've called in my mind "the captive fortuneteller"; and a collection of poems. If only I didn't have to make supper and do laundry and finish digging the carrots from the garden, too!

Looking Into Claire Benedict's Heart: Deepening the Story

2011-10-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Cold Midnight tells the story of Claire Benedict and Ben Riley, teens in 1921 -- their night-time escapades in the town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and the moments when they see evidence that may tie to a murder of a local businessman, as well as to the "firebug" who's tormenting the local fire department with false alarms and worse.

I finished the first draft in December of 2010, sent it out to my trusty agent and an insightful editor in January, and received their comments and suggestions in early summer. Since then, I've wrestled with how to change the arc of the book to incorporate these wise notions of what it needs in revision.

Revision? Yes, in my experience, revision is the stage when a "promising" story becomes a really good one. And it requires investigating the heart of the main character of the book, asking questions within the "author heart" about why the person is and does the things in the novel. As the answers become clear, so does the path toward the deeper, better story.

And this week, I've reworked Claire's relationship with her dad -- because underneath all the plot twists and discoveries, that's where the pain of the book resides, and where the real satisfaction can happen, if Claire makes choices that come from both courage and love.

Like Peanut Butter and Jelly!

2011-10-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of redjar.

I had a great time visiting Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, earlier this month; chatting with readers about The Secret Room was fun and interesting, and a highlight of the visit was reconnecting in person with Jeanette Sessions, the store's "young adult" enthusiast, who often posts on Northshire's book blog. Here's the intro Jeanette prepared for the event; she cut it short because she knew almost everyone who came to the event (yay, community bookselling!), and I wanted to share it all. I love the peanut butter and jelly comment! Thanks, Jeanette -- you're terrific.

Hello and welcome to the Northshire Bookstore. My name is Jeanette. I meet Beth Kanell about three years ago when she came to the bookstore for a reading of her first novel, Darkness Under the Water: a thought-provoking and unique story covering some of Vermont’s unknown history, set in the 1920s. Kanell opens the eyes of her readers with magical text and a perspective as honest as she is. Here we see Molly, her Abenaki family, and the struggles they face.
Now, I have the pleasure of introducing you to her latest work, The Secret Room. We find ourselves in modern-day Vermont. Shawna and Thea are as different as peanut butter and jelly: but go together just as nicely! Shawna is a local farm girl. Thea, a “flatlander” whose family has just purchased a home that used to be an inn. When the two are teamed up for a math homework project to measure Thea’s house…the numbers do not add up! The outside numbers say the inside numbers should be bigger!
This mystery leads to them finding a secret room in the house's basement. But the fun does not end here! The facts lead everyone to believe that this room could have been part of the Underground Railroad! The girls learn not only about the history of the inn and Vermont, but Shawna learns about her own personal history and what friendship really means.

Before I hand over the stage to our guest (who will not only speak about her novel, but has a few goodies for you as well), I want to thank you for coming and please do not forget to purchase a book and have Ms. Kanell sign it for you after the event. Not only will you experience this alluring and captivating novel yourself, but you will help us bring more great authors to the bookstore. Now please join me in welcoming a great author and my friend, Beth Kanell.

How to Get Writing -- and Keep It Going

2011-10-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm headed to a local high school today, to listen to readers of THE SECRET ROOM and to coach them -- teens and adults alike -- on how to get and keep a novel rolling. Here's the outline I'm working from:

The Writer’s Workshop: How The Secret Room Was Written,

and How to Start Exploring Your Own Stories

Beth’s Braid Method:

A section of history that is changing in a controversial way (justice!!).
A situation in Vermont that won’t resolve easily.
A character who starts “speaking” to me.

Other Braids:

A wish. 1. A stranger. 1. A journey ahead.
A problem. 2. A discovery. 2. A values collision.
A friendship. 3. A life change. 3. A sacrifice worth making.

A Toolbox

(a) Situations, places, newspaper articles, letters, poems, special words.

(b) Sensory triggers: candles, leaves, flowers, feathers, music, bells, tea, chocolate.

A Place to Dream and Draw

Notebooks: Adding color, size, organization.

Wall boards: brown paper, “white boards,” doors.

Computers: Files of images, words, outlines, messages. Sort and label!!

Keeping on Track

Goals and timelines.

Friends and mentors.

Rewards versus incentives.

Feeding the Curiosity Cat.

Writer’s Block, Revision, and Other Flashlight Moments

Picture the reader: What change or conviction or amazement or horror do you picture in your reader? How can you evoke this, more effectively? Often this kind of revision calls for structure changes: pacing through paragraph and sentence length, word choices, point of view. Try rewriting one paragraph in a different voice – “I” instead of “she” or vice versa. Past instead of present, or vice versa. Short sentences or long one … experiment, make smoke.

Cut to the heart of things: Ask, “What is this story ABOUT? How can it be more intensely about that?” This might call for “poetic revision” or for cutting away “the trimmings.” Circle the best parts, mark the compelling areas. Try using only the best parts.

“Hansel and Gretel”: What matters in this story? Why is each part in place? What parts are missing?

Have fun!! Read aloud. Picture a Haiku. Look for “growth buds.” Form a tree. Draw a landscape. Add color to your page. Change the music in your room or your mind. Visualize a flame. Fear and faith. Make a distance between “you” and your character. Close the distance between you and your character. Be a rude child – point fingers, ask why.

Friendship Bracelet: A Poem

2011-09-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

Photo by eef-ink (thank you!)

This is the season of the
friendship bracelet.
You've seen them: twisted threads
knotted by a girl at summer camp.
Or the plain red ones that mean
something meditative. Mine is
crafted from four strands: black, white,
purple, gold. And made by Caroline.
I like to watch her working, her dark eyes sparkling,
her fingers deft -- who taught her this?
A friend in the back seat on the long road
to skating camp? A girl sharing her snack
behind the horse barn? She measured
my wrist, insisted that I choose my own colors.
An hour later, she asked for my arm.
She tied a careful double knot. "If it wears out,"
she told me, "I can make you another."

(Beth Kanell, 2011)

[How to make a friendship bracelet: one link here.]

A Book and Its Cover

2011-09-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos taken by Harman Clark at the wonderful book launch party that greeted The Secret Room on Sept. 9 at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. I especially like the one that shows local student Maggie, with the cover for which she was photographed in the spooky basement of the publisher's house in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, months ago. (On the back of the book, Maggie is joined by her friend Katherine.)

Making the party especially exciting were 35 middle school students from the St. Johnsbury School, invited and chaperoned by librarian Beth Mallon and her team of volunteers. Mrs. Mallon, you rock! Thanks, all of you students and readers whoo hiked to the Athenaeum to join the fun (and solve some codes!).

"Story" and "History"

2011-09-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

2010 photo courtesy of origamidon (thank you!)

It's been grand in the past two weeks to see The Secret Room reaching readers, with its lively adventure story of two Vermont eight-graders, Shawna Lee and Thea Warwick, who stumble into the controversial and rapidly changing landscape of Northern New England's Underground Railroad in the midst of a math project for school. The hiding place that they discover, as well as the secrets of their village and the strengths of their friendship, are in your hands. Thanks for the wonderful welcome to the book!

I promised that today I'd mention how to find out whether the "hiding place" in your own home or neighborhood is linked to the Underground Railroad. Here are two directions to try:

1. If you are IN VERMONT, your best resource is Rokeby Museum, which you can visit while the gentle weather lasts. Director Jane Williamson and her knowledgeable staff will welcome you to the evidence that history provides there. If you can't go in person, check out this report from the director, an essay on Rokeby's website.

Also available at Rokeby are copies of "Friends of Freedom." This 99-page spiral-bound report was issued by the State of Vermont in 1996. It's a history detective's treasure, because the investigators involved tracked down the evidence for 174 people and places around the state that thought they had ties to this most exciting history adventure: the effort before the Civil War to make sure that black Americans leaving the slaveholding South could find freedom and safety, whether in other parts of the United States or in Canada. Check the lists in this report to find out whether your location, like Rokeby, is well supported as "really truly" part of the Underground Railroad effort. And brace for the possibility that, like the cave at Hildene (a Lincoln family home in Manchester, Vermont), connections may be more based in oral tradition and wishful thinking, without real evidence.

2. If you live OUTSIDE VERMONT, check this site provided by the Smithsonian Institution, providing good facts and exposing a lot of myths. For instance:

The reality of the Underground Railroad was much less romantic. Escaping enslaved individuals often had no help or guidance from anyone throughout the majority of their journey. While it is a common belief that white Northerners were going into the South and bringing slaves from the farms and plantations into the North, the truth is that most enslaved individuals left on their own. When the enslaved did have assistance, the aid they received varied from being given a place to rest in barns and sheds to being provided with a small amount of food and sent on to the next location. Those seeking freedom would have had to place a good amount of trust in the people who were assisting them, for at any moment their safety could be compromised, leading to recapture.
It is also a common misconception that all people working to assist escaping individuals were white Northerners. The fact is that the majority of the conductors on the Underground Railroad in the South were Black, often still enslaved themselves.
You can also check with the National Parks Service, which answers questions on specific sites and also invites you to share information you might have. Here's the website for help from this group.

More comments and questions? Leave a comment here on the blog. I'll get back to you, time permitting!

A Universe of Books at The Galaxy Bookshop

2011-09-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hold on, let me catch my breath -- it's been a whirlwind of wonderful events with readers, librarians, teachers, students, bookshop staff ... actually all of those are readers! ... all over the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and in gracious Littleton, New Hampshire. Tuesday evening's visit to The Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VT, capped the delights, with an Underground Railroad game created by owner Linda Ramsdell, and the presence of a little angel of a bookseller, baby Ivy, keeping her mom Sandy company.

Handouts included secret codes (solved right away by Adrienne, who should receive her historic postcard from the author -- me -- in tomorrow's mail) and a researcher's "code sheet" of 19th-century abbreviations for names and accounts, often found in record books. Four historians added extra details from the audience, too!

My one regret was not being able to slip away into the children's book room, where I always find good books to bring home. But I'll be back, to browse!

What a wonderful evening; thank you, Linda and Sandy and guests. One of the bookstore cats came out to say goodbye.

Jem the cat, at The Galaxy

Tomorrow: How you can check whether your favorite "hiding place" or 1850s activist in Vermont was involved in helping fugitives on the road north to freedom. What's the difference between "story" and "history"? Huge. Shawna and Thea in The Secret Room are after the truth. You can be, too.

It's Finally Time -- THE SECRET ROOM Debuts This Week!!

2011-09-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's why I've been a little quiet online lately, with a LOT to do to get ready. The brand new novel is coming out at the end of this week. It's THE SECRET ROOM, a Vermont adventure set in a fictionalized version of North Danville. Here's the scoop:

Shawna and Thea are working together on a math project for their eighth-grade class. But the numbers don't add up, and they make a startling discovery: a secret room in the basement of Thea's house, an old Vermont inn. The code on the walls makes the girls and everyone in town wonder why there was a secret room. Was it part of the Underground Railroad, or perhaps something less, well, heroic? Discovering the truth is harder than they would have thought, especially when the truth is not what some people want to hear.

The first review for the book came from New England novelist Howard Frank Mosher, whose books Disappearances, Where the Rivers Flow North, and A Stranger in the Kingdom are much-appreciated classics on our shelves. Mr. Mosher wrote:

American history, friendship, family ties, nature, community. These are some of the themes that Beth Kanell explores in this beautifully written and ever-so-timely novel. The Secret Room is at once a superb, young-adult suspense story, and one of the best, and most realistic, literary mystery novels I've ever read. At its heart are two wonderful young friends and not-so-amateur detectives, Thea and Shawna. What they learn about themselves, their community, and their state and country, past and present, will astonish and delight you. The Secret Room is a masterwork in which every sentence is lovingly crafted and written straight from the heart.

And as you can tell, this is an author who quickly recognizes work "straight from the heart" because that's what he does in his own novels. Thank you again, Howard!

If you're a Goodreads fan, you can find teacher Tim Averill's appraisal of the book online there; if you like Amazon, you'll see what MamaBear wrote.

Best of all, find an independent and order the book there. Or, in New England, come to one of the celebrations that begin this week:

New North Danville Adventure Story!

THE SECRET ROOM

by Beth Kanell

Meet the author:

Fri. 9/9, Open Party, St. J. Athenaeum, 4 p.m.

Sat. 9/10, Cobleigh Library, Lyndonville, 11 a.m. (sponsored by Green Mountain Books)

Sat. 9/10, Boxcar & Caboose, St. J., 2 p.m.

Mon. 9/12, Danville Inn, Danville, 9:30 a.m., with coffee and donuts provided by Steve Cobb, who appears in the book!

Sat. 9/17, Davies Memorial Library, Waterford, 10 a.m.

Sat. 9/17, Littleton (N.H.) Library, 2 p.m.

Tues. 9/20, Galaxy Books, Hardwick, 7 p.m.

Books can also be ordered at www.thesecretroombook.com

from the publisher, Voyage/Brigantine, St. Johnsbury, VT

Autumn in the Air! Research on the Desk ...

2011-08-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

After a sweaty day yesterday, and a warm bright start to the morning today, the wind has shifted and it's now a sweater day. The robins nesting under my window finally persuaded their second brood to fly last week. I suspect the small-ish ones still pecking their way across the backyard are the newly grown flyers, feeding up before heading south next month.

Life's been wildly busy. Three more writers in my "circle" are celebrating plans for Voyage -- the Brigantine Media fiction imprint that's published The Secret Room -- to publish their books next year. It's exciting to see fiction taking off for press owners Neil and Janis.

Meanwhile, we're just 18 days from the launch party for The Secret Room (at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum on Friday Sept. 9, at 4 p.m. -- come if you can!), and lots of other events are lining up. The Amazon page for the book is "live" and I've started a discussion there; there's a review button, too, for those of you with advance copies. So far, the page has some small frustrations, including how long Amazon claims it would take for a copy of the book to ship. Neil will try to straighten that out, but meanwhile, if timing matters, please take advantage of the "Buy the Book" button in the right-hand top corner of this page, and Neil and Janis's team will get your copy right out to you, directly from the publishing house.

More busy-ness: F.D. (my collaborator on this summer's novel) and I are probably in the last stretch of the first draft of Opal of the Mountains. And I'm using some careful study of other authors' choices around character depiction, to polish Cold Midnight (that's the novel set in 1921).

Most important of all, I've found online the journal of an African American man who lived in Vermont in the 1700s, and whose experience of "freedom" here was mixed, to say the least. It's an important baseline for The Secret Room and other books that deal with the Underground Railroad in Vermont, because it sheds a vivid light on the declaration heard so often here, "Vermont was against slavery from the start. In fact, Vermont's state Constitution even banned slavery."

Well, yeah -- it did. But you know about fine print, right? Vermont's fine print was, "no adult slavery." Look at what that meant for Boyrereau Brinch when he settled down in Vermont with his wife and had children ... http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brinch/brinch.html -- oh, my aching heart. There's a lot of injustice in the world, even in the places we think are most fair and free.

Three Moons of Summer

2011-08-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Photo taken in Finland by rosipaw -- thank you for letting this photo be reused!

Last month, for a poetry reading north of here, I wrote a poem in the voice of Thea, Shawna's best friend in The Secret Room. The poem "takes place" in the summer after the year described in the book; it will be part of how the sequel opens up. (Yes, that's the real writing life -- The Secret Room will finally be available for purchase on 9-10-11, and if the sequel's going to come out appropriately, it has to get written this fall!) I'm sharing the poem today because it fits into some discussion we're having on the Facebook teacher group for the book, but it's a bit too long to place in a Facebook post (smile!). Here it is:

The Three Moons of Summer

There are more than three, of course: one for tonight,

its faint sorrow hanging over the cornfield,

one for the next night, slim and pale,

as though throwing up dinner made her into

a waxed princess, faint but glowing. Thea knows

there are more than three moons in summer.

Summer lasts almost forever.

Across the road, close enough to hear

if she yelled from her window, her best friend sleeps.

It’s so unfair. Shouldn’t your best friend know

when you’re crying? With wet eyes, the moon doubles.

Great. Now there are two moons in one night.

And the stars blur, and Thea’s chest aches,

her nose is dripping from crying.

What can you do when nobody comes

to hold you when you cry? Thea blows her nose.

Wipes her eyes. Counts, the way her friend says

some people count their blessings.

One moon for June, the strawberry moon,

when school ended. The moon tide pulled

the peepfrogs into song, pulled summer into place.

One moon for hope and swimming in the lake.

The second moon is July: round and golden,

heavy, thick, like something you eat for dessert

that lingers in your stomach all night. Thea sits straight

at the windowsill, pinches her arm, silver with moonlight,

pinches the places he didn’t kiss. Another tear

leaks down her cheek. Ignore it.

One more moon, the one for August. Corn on the cob,

and clothes for school. Everyone comes back

from their vacations. So will that boy. Dry now,

Thea takes a long breath. Decision settles

light as moonshadow in her hands. She’ll tell.

She’ll tell her best friend what happened.

But only when the night is dark, when rain-clouds cover

the way-too-beautiful stars and moons of summer.

Beth Kanell

2011

Fiction and History in the Classroom

2011-08-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

An unusual view of Stamford, New York.

While I'm revising The Long Shadow and Cold Midnight, and writing a first draft of another book, I'm also counting down the days until THE SECRET ROOM is released, on 9-10-11 (I love that date! perfect for number lovers everywhere).

Because Shawna and Thea explore a mystery with roots in their town's history, the publisher (Janis and Neil at Voyage) and I have been corresponding with teachers about using this book in the classroom.

Here's a Middle Grades suggestion from Candice Gockel in Stamford, NY, a 5th/6th grade teacher: "I see this novel as a great jumping off point for a local history project. I think my students would be swept up in the excitement of possibly uncovering local mysteries, as well as providing great hands-on research and learning opportunities for my students."

I took a quick look and found a history of Stamford -- whose early settlers had ties to Stamford, Connecticut. There are some intriguing gaps in the history I found: enlistment for the Civil War, but what was happening in town during the Underground Railroad years? Why was the first newspaper founded in 1851? I can imagine a mystery taking place that relied on who was publishing the paper and what his motives were! And another that takes into account the villages of the town, the differences between them, the way families settled. Plus, because the town is in the Catskills, there must be stories of the tourists and summer residents, including some from various ethnic groups that could be surprising. Wow!

If you're looking for possible "local mysteries" for your class to investigate, let me know where you are and I'll suggest some possible "mysteries in history" for your students. Same offer for book groups -- tell me where you are, and I'll "investigate" and report!

Beyond the Myths, Beyond the Assumptions

2011-07-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

When I wrote The Secret Room (it will be released on Sept. 9, 2011 -- hurrah!) and its sister volume, The Long Shadow, I was following a trail marked out by scholar and museum director Jane Williamson at Rokeby. Ms. Williamson uses real letters and diaries to show that the Underground Railroad in Vermont was very different from the myths of heroes, victims, and rescues that commonly occur to people when you say the words "Underground Railroad." Vermont's history and its independence created a Green Mountains world where black people -- often called Africans -- formed communities early in America. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, another dedicated researcher, gives us a vivid picture of Africans as Vermont immigrants and settlers in the 1700s, in her book Mr. and Mrs. Prince.

Fergus Bordewich's book Bound for Canaan gives a broad-brush picture of American's Underground Railroad years, the lead-up to the Civil War. But it's the details that Williamson, Gerzina, and others bring forward that shows us the reality of, say, 1750 or 1850 in Vermont.

One reason this is so important is that "myths" continue to flourish. I often hear people around me describe Vermont as a "white-bread place," a place where people have "always" been white-skinned, of Protestant faith, and of English and Scottish heritage. But that's about as far from the truth as possible. Still, it gets woven into the eyes and ears with which people meet this landscape and its heritage.

For instance, the photos here show an "open house" at the 100-year-old barn labeled "Locust Grove Farm" that took place yesterday. We say that "the camera doesn't lie" and it is easy to assume the people at the farm are of that "New England" image from the myth. Actually, many of them are relatives of people who built the barn (one great-great-grandson and his wife and son were there), or settled the farm -- Charles Johnston Wark, born in 1866, with both his father and mother born in Ireland, and his wife Lizzie Ellen Owen -- or those who worked it most recently, the Patenaude family, whose ancestors came from Quebec (Patenaude may be a later-day version of Patenotre). Neighbors include many of Native American descent, especially among those whose roots are French Canadian. And through this town passed people from Syria, Russia, and China -- and by this, I mean "passed through" in the 1800s. Some stayed, like Sam Wah, born in northern China, whose stone in a nearby cemetery marks his death at age 75, in 1921.

By all means, let's celebrate summer in New England. The real New England -- with all its diversity of heritage and thought. We can only be richer for seeking and valuing the truth.

An Endless Summer ...

2011-07-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

One reason that I write novels called "young adult" -- novels in the voice and view of someone around thirteen to sixteen years old -- is the magic of that time for me. Summers were endless, a long stretch of time until the next schoolday. From the throngs of peepfrogs chanting in the damp hollows, to the flurry of nearly identical robins rising up from the lawn, to the nights sparkling with uncountable stars, summer wrapped me in amazement. And there were "people things" in summer that delighted me: savoring the movement from "new girl" to "here I am again" at a summer camp; taking the bus into a city with a girlfriend, to walk the bustling sidewalks, explore museums, discover startling green parks and waterfalls tucked between tall buildings; riding with my family (even when they didn't understand me!) to the distant lake with its swimming beach and old rowboat with the creaky oars.

Endless.

Today, summer is three moons long. I try to pay attention to each of them. The golden luminous full moon last night, rising above the crest of the hill, stopped my breath for a moment.

In The Secret Room the story unfolds through Shawna's eyes. But in this start of a poem, it nestles in the words and thoughts of Shawna's best friend Thea, also in eighth grade:

THREE MOONS OF SUMMER
There are more than three, of course: one for tonight,
its faint sorrow hanging over the cornfield,
one for the next night, slim and pale
as though throwing up dinner made her into
a waxed princess, faintly glowing. Thea knows
there are more than three moons. Especially now.
Summer lasts almost forever.

Across the road, close enough to hear
if she yelled from her window, her best friend sleeps.
It’s so unfair.

Want to hear more? I'll be reading the finished poem tomorrow in Brownington, Vermont, as part of the "Kingdom Perspectives" poetry gathering at the Congregational Church, sponsored by the Old Stone House Museum and the Orleans County Historical Society.

Classroom Use of THE SECRET ROOM

2011-06-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been so quiet lately; the garden of ideas has been so active that I've been weeding, trimming, even harvesting, but not talking much! Here's a sample of what I've been up to, as requested by VOYAGE, the imprint publishing The Secret Room this September:

As a kid who "hated" history and nonfiction, but who woke up to the excitements of "detection" in history thanks to a gifted Advanced Placement high school teacher, I've envisioned all of my YA novels as potential classroom tools to engage students in the flow of history and in critical thinking, through their hunger for narrative. Here are some of the threads for classroom learning woven into The Secret Room.

HISTORY DETECTIVE WORK

What is the history problem that Shawna and Thea investigate? Why does it interest them?

What are the tools they use to probe what really happened in their town during the Underground Railroad years? Are some tools better than others?

How can you find out what the Underground Railroad looked like and what it meant to the Civil War?

How can you find out what the Underground Railroad was like where you live now?

Many "history" moments focus on important people, like a President or a hero. The Underground Railroad was different: It depended on the courage and planning of many ordinary people. What evidence is there for this in The Secret Room? Do you think it could be harder to find out what "ordinary people" did a hundred and fifty years ago, than finding out what a President did? How could you find out more?

MATH IS FUN

Not everybody thinks math is fun, but Shawna and Thea do! Why is it fun for them?

Here are some of the math ideas that Shawna and Thea explore: measuring rooms and recording their perimeters; finding out areas and adding them; looking for multiples of numbers like 2, 6, and 12; what prime numbers are; creating scale drawings; creating timelines; exploring how the ages and birth years in a family fit together; and squaring numbers. Can you find each of these in the book? What would they look like if they were imagined in your own life, or your best friend's life?

ISSUES AROUND THE CIVIL WAR

Shawna and Thea discover that people in different parts of the country react in different ways to "current events" in politics and to their history. Some of the issues that led to the Civil War included enslavement of people who were captured in other places, like African countries; expecting people who look different (skin color) to be and act differently; whether the states of America needed to handle things the same way; and how people's beliefs about human dignity and faith affect their decisions to take a stand and help others.

FAMILIES ARE DIFFERENT -- AND MAYBE THAT'S GOOD!

Families differ in terms of what they think is most important in life; how they show love to each other; how they get enough money to support each other; and what they think kids should do and be. List the differences between Shawna's family and Thea's family, and add columns for your family and your best friend's family.

How do Shawna and Thea find ways to feel OK about being different from each other? How do they choose to be more similar to each other?

Who is Shawna's real mother? Why? Who loves Shawna? How can you tell?

BEING FRIENDS TAKES WORK

(I don't have time to write this part today, but ... you know where this is going!)

FOOD IS SOMETHING WE ALL ENJOY -- AND IN DIFFERENT WAYS

What decisions have Shawna and Thea made, before they met, about food? What habits do they have about food? How can you tell what their favorite foods are? Do Shawna and Thea talk about food? Do their ideas and actions change in terms of what and how they eat during the story?

PROJECTS and CLASSROOM EXERCISES

(This will have to wait for another day for me to start the list, but there are a LOT that spring out of what Shawna and Thea do.)

Research Never Ends -- Thank Goodness, Because It's Fascinating!

2011-05-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's the invitation that's taking me across the state on Sunday:

Opening Day – The War Before the War
Sunday, May 22, 2 pm
We begin our commemoration of the Civil War 150th anniversary with a talk by Museum Director Jane Williamson on the abolitionist movement. Americans argued bitterly about slavery for 30 years before the union broke and war began. She will share abolitionist treasures from the collection.

Find out more about Vermont's best documented Underground Railroad site at http://www.rokeby.org. I'm looking forward to learning more about the time, the people, and the artifacts that Rokeby and its director present.

You might ask: Why go to learn more when the book's already written? (See www.thesecretroombook.com for details.) Answer: Partly, I am always hungry to know more. Second, it's vital to keep adding historically verified details to the picture of a time period. Third, aren't you curious about the Robinson family members of Rokeby -- how they managed their roles during the Underground Railroad years, what they believed as a result of being part of the Society of Friends (the Quakers), who stayed with them when and why? For sure, I am!

Hope to see you there.

Cover Design: Graphic Artist Jacob Grant

2011-05-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Secret Room will release on September 10, with lots of events on and around that date. Publishers Janis Raye and Neil Raphel of VOYAGE (an imprint of Brigantine) are clearly enjoying planning the fun (even if it is hard work sometimes!). Janis is an amazing organizer, and Neil keeps the focus.

Adrienne Raphel is the editor for VOYAGE, and she's top-notch -- clear-eyed, demanding, and creative. She's now working with the next two books of fiction coming out this year under this new imprint: one by Vermont teacher and author Jenny Land, and the other by nationally known (but living in Vermont) poet and novelist F. D. Reeve.

And the other person in the publishing office is Jacob Grant, a graphic designer who's also co-author of a series of fantasy novels. Recently Jake raced to the rescue of a young local author bringing her first book rapidly to publication: Caleigh Cross. I'm putting the cover for her book here, along with the cover for mine. Clearly they're very different -- but what similarities can you find?

History Detectives: Sorting the Evidence

2011-04-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

The Rev. Joshua Young

Finding a bloody handkerchief next to a murder victim is very different from finding one in the rest room of a travel stop, where someone might have paused to deal with a bloody nose.

In the same way, evidence in the files of Underground Railroad history has to be checked against its surroundings, and against other nearby evidence. A perfect example comes from mentions of the Rev. Joshua Young, who became a minister at the Unitarian church in Burlington, Vermont, in 1852. Noted for his anti-slavery views, he is quoted as having said that "every sea-port was a station" for the Underground Railroad in New England -- a phrase that may reflect some of his experience before coming to Burlington, when he served on the coast, in Boston (ordained there in 1849; the New York Times mentioned this date in Young's 1904 obituary). In Vermont, he had a "troubled ministry, and the controversy over his views on slavery compelled him to resign," says the current history of Burlington's Unitarian Universalist church. But before he did so, he became famous in 1859 as the minister who presided over the funeral of African American rebel John Brown, after Brown was hanged for leading a raid at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. No wonder people connected him then, and connect him still, with abolitionist groups and the Underground Railroad! He also left behind letters that include his wife's involvement and that of several other Burlington activists.

How often, while in Burlington, Vermont, did this minister shelter fugitives? Recorded numbers of African Americans passing through the area are relatively small. The most quoted source for Vermont Underground Railroad statistics, the work of Joseph Poland and Wilbur Siebert, has been largely discredited. And Jane Williamson, director of Rokeby, Vermont's Underground Railroad museum and former home of the Robinson family, suggests that the politics of Burlington at the time -- heavily dominated by South-favoring "Democrats" (the political parties were different then!) -- would have made the town a less likely area for active assistance to fugitives.

One letter quoted by the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, written by a Rhode Island Quaker, Elizabeth Buffum Chace, includes her recollections as she looked back in the year 1891, and she mentioned the Rev. Young as being part of the "Vermont road" for fugitives.

How old was she when she wrote that letter? Could she be thinking of one particular fugitive, rather than a pattern of fugitives? What evidence is there for others working with the minister, such as Salmon P. Wires or Prof. Geo. W. Benedict, also of Burlington?

A good challenge for history detectives: Find out everything possible about Mrs. Chace and about Burlington in the 1850s and weigh the evidence, as Shawna and Thea do for "North Upton" in the book The Secret Room. Do the same for your own town -- I'm especially interested in hearing about any place where Quakers were known to live in the 1800s. Let me know what you find out, would you please?

On the Road Again: Fun in Flood Season, and Schools Are on My Mind

2011-03-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

One of my best adventures for March was a visit two weeks ago to Hawthorne, New Jersey, during flood season. My sister-in-law Cheryl warned me bluntly, "There are roads closed everywhere, but I have no idea which ones. You'll have to find your way."

Luckily, the roads I needed to arrive at Hawthorne's Well Read Bookstore (seen above) were relatively dry, and aside from two or three traffic jams, the routes functioned as planned. Good thing, because I was eager to meet the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey -- a lively group of about twenty people on March 12, gathered for a panel on "Diversity in Fiction." Flood season also turned out to be flu season, and I was the lone author for the three-woman panel. But that turned out to be lots of fun, as I rattled off some of the Vermont stories (some scandalous!) behind The Darkness Under the Water and merged into a great discussion with people like Todd, Aurelia, Remilter, Beverly, and Gene, about what the risks are in crafting fiction that extends into the secrets and guarded truths of history.

That may sound a bit too focused on the past for a group dedicated to visions of the future -- but we all recognized that the futures we're crafting depend on how we understand what's already happened. I loved every minute of it, and even aired a page and a half of a novel of "speculative fiction" (placed about 15 years forward from now) that I've started writing, Bear-Shadow. Thanks, SFSNNJ and Well Read hosts, for a grand time.

I came home after the rapid road trip and collapsed into two weeks of bronchitis, so it's good to be breathing-without-coughing at last; this week included a couple of visits to St. Johnsbury (Vermont) Academy to talk about revision and to learn from translators Alexander O. Smith and Elye Alexander, who brought The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino into English (as they have for many a video game and RPG).

Coming in April: Catching up with readers at the Lisbon (NH) Regional School. And lining up summer conversations about The Darkness Under the Water and autumn ones (Sept./Oct. in Vermont; Nov. in NJ) for The Secret Room. There's a Skype author visit in the future for Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, VT, too.

More about that, later!

Details, Details ... It's all in the details!

2011-03-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm excited that my 2010 writing project, a murder mystery called Cold Midnight, is being read by a few people who might choose to escort it into print. The writing process may be long ... but the publishing process is often even longer!

Cold Midnight takes place in 1921, a year of exciting developments like fast cars and short skirts. In Vermont, change often arrives a bit later, but there's no question that downtown St. Johnsbury hosted the local equivalent of the speakeasy, as well as flappers, barnstormers, and ... whatever else of national culture could arrive on the train.

Working out the "back story" to the novel involved me in a lot of details I hadn't considered before. For instance, I know what a 1921 kitchen looked like -- some are still more or less intact here! -- but had no clue about bathrooms. Not every novel involves a bathroom, but at one point in Cold Midnight, the second most important character in the book, Ben Riley, needs to clean up, in order to keep his mother from worrying about why he's been out at night. He lives in the grandest house in town, but he's the son of the cook/housekeeper. Would he use the fancy facilities that the owners enjoyed? I thought probably not ... but although "outhouses" (outdoor bathrooms) still existed around here then, I also though the mansion owner would provide something a bit better for the "help." Here are the two images of bathrooms that I worked with, one fancy, one plain.

Oh, you might ask, who's the most important character in the book? That would be Claire -- Claire Benedict. She's got her reasons for being out at night, too. Heaven help her, if her mother ever knew.

Hmm: Not June, but September, Instead ...

2011-02-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I don't want to be my own publisher is that there are so many complications that require dedicated attention -- and I'd rather put that attention into my writing! Neil Raphel and Janis Reye, the publishing team in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, bringing The Secret Room into pages, took a hard look at the schedule right after announcing the book publication date for June, and said: "Nope, it will have to be September." So that's the new date, and I appreciate their hard work very much! Anyone wanting to review the book before then, though, will have an opportunity to do so through "Voyage" (the imprint); details later on that.

Meanwhile ... here we go! Have I mentioned that September is my favorite month?

On Our Way! Draft Cover ... and June Publication ...

2011-02-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

"When I Find My Real Parents, Then I'm Going to ..."

2011-01-27T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've heard that lots of people imagine at some point that they've been adopted, or kidnapped, or some other reason that could end up meaning that their "real parents" aren't the ones who are raising them, scolding them, feeding them, loving them. A classic twist is that the vanished parents are rich, or royal, and all that good stuff will arrive as soon as the mystery is solved.

In The Secret Room (that's my 2011 book coming out from Voyage in June), there's no reason to suspect such a situation in Shawna Lee's life. Sure, her dad died when she was little, but her mother married a nice guy and Shawna likes him. Until the moment her new neighbor, Thea Warwick, works on a math problem with her, Shawna hasn't expected mysteries in her life at all.

Neither did two people that I've known very closely as adults, who accidentally found out that the families they'd been living in weren't who and what they seemed. Truth can be stranger than fiction -- or it can be the inspiration for a novel.

Don't ask me how the Underground Railroad got tied up in all this. I only know that the puzzle pieces in front of me included a "hiding place" in an old house in the town where I used to live.

And that's how a story begins.

The Long Line of Research

2011-01-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Last week I read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Grippingly told and heavily supported by research, the book explores the final trip of a Nantucket whaling ship -- struck in the Pacific Ocean by a belligerent whale, so that the crew had to try to survive literally months on the ocean in small, leaking boats, starving. I could hardly put it down.

And that's a tiny fragment of the research that will go into a novel that I probably won't start writing until 2013 or so! The main character will be a young woman unexpectedly widowed in Provincetown, while pregnant with her second child; her husband was a sailor on a whaleboat. She was my five-greats grandmother, and I have her portrait. I imagine her life, and it becomes part of a story.

Much closer to home, and sooner to be written, is a novel that involves a string of downtown fires in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. I've drafted a chapter in order to have a starting place -- and I know that the person looking at the fires is named Addie. She's scrambling to keep up with what the local newspaper expects from her. "Anyone" can take photos of fires today, but digging into the stories behind them takes courage and persistence. Addie's a good candidate for that! Too bad that one result of her digging is the appearance of ... well, it looks like a ghost to her. The book title is THE FIRE CURSE and I'm hoping to get it rolling in February.

At the same time, I'm outlining two others: BEAR-SHADOW (I am learning a lot about weather, and just got a great book on crystals to help with this one), and OPHELIA OF THE NORTH (don't ask, I can't talk about this one much yet; the characters are talking in my other ear and it confuses the conversation!).

So that's how the research strands continue: I'm still filing materials that fill in the gaps behind The Darkness Under the Water (published by Candlewick in 2008) and polishing the text of The Secret Room, which should be available in late summer this year. But meanwhile, everything else has to stay rolling, with information, images, and more. By the way, the photo here is of a recent downtown fire in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, about five miles from here -- Dave and I were able to see the light of the fire in the sky that night.

Home. Really.

2010-12-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

It's a magical day. Neil Raphel and Janis Raye of Brigantine Media agreed today to publish my YA adventure, THE HUNGRY PLACE. The contract is signed.

But way more important than the contract is this: We three sat at Neil and Janis's table and for the first time in the life of this book, I heard someone other than me and my thoughts say, "Shawna is so cool, and here's what I want to know about Thea."

After living for two years with Shawna and Thea and their families and neighbors in my life, only my life, it's like opening a door into a room where you've never been, and finding that the person on the other side of the door knows -- knows really, really well -- your sister or your brother or your best friend. You're home, in a new place, and the smile in front of you touches your heart.

Photo here: Old North Church in winter, not far from where Shawna and Thea "live" in North Danville, Vermont. With luck and hard work, you'll all get to "meet" these feisty teens in 2011. Watch for news, as Neil and Janis and editor Adrienne and I move "the girls" toward publication. Hurrah!

To Every Thing There Is a Season ...

2010-12-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

After completing COLD MIDNIGHT last month, I'm taking a break for poetry, walks in the woods, and of course family and friends during the holidays. In January, I'll start writing THE FIRE CURSE -- and meanwhile I've pinned lots of related material onto my work walls.

Temperatures are plunging, now that we have snow on the ground. Here's a related poem from my collection Mud Season at the Castle.

Ten-Below-Zero Morning

Even inside the windows, the frost
glares back at me in the early morning --
this is the try-your-souls cold weather
striking the house with stiffness that groans
like a car engine far too depressed
to spark into life.

God's gift to the morning must be coffee.
Clutching a steaming mug, blowing
my breath on the frosted window, I clear
a space -- a hole to look through
and eye the thermometer's short red line
squatting at ten below zero.
My knees ache in sympathy.
Oh coffee, warm me and wake me slowly
spread heat in my belly, let courage
rise to my eyes.

Bitter arctic weather with wind:
long johns and turtleneck, sweater and corduroys
thick fuzzy socks and fleece-lined boots.
I wrap myself in simple comforts
gaze at the bright blue sunstruck sky
and try to hold breath and heat and life
inside my woolly garments.

These days when the sun is low and lukewarm
these days when the wind steals the fire's delight
are days when I call you to hear your voice
for heat in my heart and a sort of leap
like coffee waking the courage
into my eyes.

Streetcars in Boston, 1921

2010-11-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've finished writing Cold Midnight and the manuscript, which half a dozen generous readers absorbed chapter by chapter over the past year, is now in the hands of my agent -- the first person to read the book from start to finish all at once.

One of my chapter-at-a-time readers e-mailed me earlier today, asking about a moment when Claire Benedict, one of the two teens featured in the novel, is barefoot in winter in 1921. The consequences for Claire's feet are extreme, but ... well, the end of the book gives some idea of how her recovery may be going. If you've ever walked in snow in bare feet, you have an idea of what's at stake! I have a bit of experience in this -- my sons and I had to walk one-third of a mile in our socks in a snow-covered landscape in the middle of the night once, at twenty-three degrees below zero. Later that week, the skin on our feet peeled from the frostbite.

Shown here is a photo that I was glad to find online, as it gave me some confirmation of what the streetcars in Boston in 1921 could have been like. This photo is from another city, but the year is right, and it's a clearer shot than the ones I found that were from "Beantown." Every detail matters ...

And just in case you wonder what it feels like to have finished the book: Actually, it feels very quiet inside. Neither Claire nor Ben is pushing me to tell what happens next in their story. For the moment, at least, I can hear only my own voice in my thoughts.

You know, it's a little bit too quiet. I might have to start the next book later this week.

Prohibition: A Vermont Tradition

2010-10-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Locations listed on this handbill surround my writing territory today.

"Prohibition," short for "prohibition of alcohol," is often thought of as the time period when the U.S. federal government, through a Constitutional amendment, banned booze. Here's the actual text of the 18th Amendment:

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Both crime and social ills flowerd in spite of, or even because of, this well-meant piece of social legislation. The hopes of decades of Americans, especially women who experienced the ills of drunkenness at home, were crushed by the side-effects of this law. It stayed in place from 1920 to 1933, when it was repealed, and this 13-year segment is the time period we call Prohibition.

But there were many places in the United States that got serious about banning "intoxicating liquors" both before and after that time. A collection at the Bailey-Howe Library at the University of Vermont highlights Vermont's experience with such legislation: From 1850 to 1902, the state created its own Green Mountain "prohibition" years. (See details here; the exhibit took place in 2009, but the materials are still available.)

This is a great challenge for both an investigator of history and a novelist. After all, if the federal banning of alcohol use encouraged organized crime and also the Jazz Age, what did the state version encourage?

Autumn Adventure from Texas Librarian Analine Johnson

2010-09-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

Remember the video trailer for The Darkness Under the Water, crafted by Texas librarian Analine Johnson? (It's in the righthand column here on the blog.) Analine wrote today with a Big Announcement! I'll let her tell you in her own words:

Hi Beth, I Have great news to share with you. I don't know if you follow the School Library Journal but they are holding their very first 'Book Trailee Awards'. I'm so excited to share with you that my trailer for The Darkness Under the Water has been nominated for the category: adult created for secondary. I need your vote! So please spread the word. Voting started today and will end on October 22nd. Winners will be announced that evening at School Library Journal Leadership Summit on the Future of Reading in Chicago, IL.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/887006-312/school_library_journal_trailee_awards.html.csp

Analine Johnson
Librarian
Rodolfo Centeno Elementary
Laredo, Texas

I hope you'll vote for the trailer, and spread the word. Who knows? We are one of only 24 trailers selected for the finals!!

American Library Association "Banned Books Week" and Laurie Halse Anderson's SPEAK

2010-09-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Eleven years after publication, Laurie Halse Anderson's YA novel SPEAK is under attack again -- but this time, defenders of the book and the right to read freely are speaking up more clearly than ever, thanks to social media like Twitter and Facebook.

To read the ALA explanation of "Banned Books Week," Sept. 25-Oct. 2, click here.

For School Library Journal's interview with author Anderson, click here.

And here's the synopsis from the back of SPEAK, where the protagonist has been raped -- a far cry from what its critics are labeling "pornography":

Melinda Sordino busted and end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t know hate her from a distance. It’s no use explaining to her parents; they’ve never known what her life is really like. The safest place for Melinda to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she admitted it and let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have no choice. Melinda would have to speak the truth.

Perspective: Now Is Not Then

2010-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

The photograph here of an "elderly Chinese man with queue" (as it is described on a California website that doesn't identify the photographer or source) got me thinking in a different way about the (very real) basement laundry space owned by Sam Wah in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, from 1886 to 1921. Mr. Wah's murder, officially unsolved, is one of the centers for the background history of my book in progress, Cold Midnight. Knowing his shop was in a basement -- and knowing the damp fierce chill of most downtown basement spaces here in Vermont today -- originally gave me the sense that his shop location reflected both bias against strangers, and cheap rent available for unwanted shop space.

But at the start of last summer, I toured Boston's Chinatown, courtesy of the Chinese Historical Society of New England, and saw the many businesses that utilized cellar spaces. In fact, there seemed to be a loose arrangement of industrial-type businesses (like a print shop) in the basements, grocery stores and restaurants in first-floor rooms (slightly higher up than sidewalk level), and meeting spaces and residences above those.

Reflecting on this photo reminds me: Don't assume that a basement space meant the same thing to a Chinese immigrant in 1886 that it means to a downtown merchant today.

That's a crucial attitude to keep fresh during historical research and while writing: Now is not the same as then. And that's why the original material -- in this case especially, the writings in the local paper about Mr. Wah and his business, as well as the narratives that today's Chinatown residents share -- are so important.

Always Learning: Language and Power

2010-08-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

I now have copies of almost all the news articles that related to the death of Sam Wa at age 75 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The 1921 murder of this aging downtown businessman was not officially solved, in spite of a detective being hired. And it's the center catastrophe of the (fictional) mystery I'm writing, Cold Midnight.

Research never stops, not during the writing process, and not even afterward. One strand I've been exploring is the meaning and use of the word "Chinaman" in 1921. From 2010, it's easy to ignore the term, assuming it had the same kind of descriptive value as "Irishman" or "Englishman." But in fact, it was a slur, an offensive word. Used for all Asians at the time, it made clear the American ignorance of people who lived at or came from "the other side of the world." Every dictionary notes that the term was (and is) "offensive." And the Urban Dictionary gives a modern description of this, as the offense of the term endures:

A term used to define a person of chinese descent. Depending on the situation of where the word is used, it can be offensive to a man of Chinese Origin espeacially if hes not Chinese but of Asian descent. Doesnt seem racist but it is The term China Man was coined by the racist ignorant white man.
Hes a China Man!
HEy China Man pick that up for me!
Hey CHina Man go back to China!
Hey China Man I didnt know you grew up in the U.S.

So when we read the articles and editorials in the local paper, the Caledonian-Record, about how the community should respond to the murder of Sam Wa, we need "1921 ears" to understand the sermons that the local ministers offered, when they said on the Sunday after the murder that Sam Wa's death should NOT be treated as a case of "he was only a Chinaman."

They weren't saying Sam Wa was just a poor Chinese immigrant; they were weighing a label that held the power of the oldtime label "nigger," a way to distinguish a person who never be allowed to rise to full humanity in the eyes of the culture of that moment.

For another angle on the image of Chinese in America in the 1920s and 1930s, take a look at the Jill Lepore write-up of Yunte Huang's new book, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with History, which just appeared in The New Yorker online.

Research Via Postcards

2010-07-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

I was excited to purchase a hand-drawn tinted postcard last week that showed the YMCA Building in St. Johnsbury (Vermont) -- a building I've never seen, because it was destroyed by fire. When I first started paying attention to downtown fires, I thought the downtowns full of brick structures were safe. After all, you can't light a brick very well, can you?

But it turns out that brick buildings burn most often from the inside. After all, they are lined with wooden structures, which in turn are lined with wood and plaster walls. Many of the "stone" structures have the same susceptibility to fire. In the mystery I'm now writing, Cold Midnight, there's a cathedral-like church in town called Notre Dame des Victoires; in the 1900s, that was where the French-Canadian Catholics attended Mass ("Irish" and other "English-speaking" Catholics went to St. Aloysius). Notre Dame des Victoires was set on fire by an altarboy who placed a burning candle inside the wooden wall structure.

The color photo postcard here is taken at the top of Eastern Avenue, and I think the ornate architecture of the YMCA building shows over to the right; the building in the center of the card is the one where a lot of the action in Cold Midnight takes place -- on the roof!

This first black-and-white postcard is the Avenue House, which became the New Avenue House when rebuilt after a fire -- it was the closest hotel to the railroad depot. And now it's called Depot Square Apartments instead.

Last but not least, I was pleased to find today a postcard image of the Woman's Club home on Cherry Street. The St. Johnsbury Woman's Club was the group that invited "Mrs. General Custer" -- that is, Elizabeth (Libbie) Clift Bacon Custer -- to speak in town. A separate research project on the town's habit of inviting exciting speakers (1871-1901 in this case) can be found at http://stjathenaeum-hall.blogspot.com with many more photos from various sources.

Family Stories, Family Stones

2010-07-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've just reached the first crisis point in the YA history/mystery that I'm writing, Cold Midnight; it's about ten pages earlier than I figure it would happen (I was aiming for page 100, but the characters pushed the plot to erupt at page 87). Well, that's how it goes. Considering that subsequent revisions are likely to add a page here and there, the final version is still likely to see that crisis come around page 100! Feeling the braiding of the families involved in the tale, with the suspense that the teens are handling, seems like a good framework for this crime-and-adventure novel.

With cooler, less humid weather and a great breeze, I wrapped up the writing session around 4:30 this afternoon and took off on a bike ride to a tiny family cemetery on a local farm. Last week the farming family told me I was welcome to visit "The Hill Cemetery." It's named for the family whose lives are marked on the stones in the neatly mowed enclosure. There are some other names as well -- including a Bugbee, a name still common around here. I expected some Civil War veterans -- but not this Revolutionary War soldier, Moses Wright, whose place is marked with honors in both old and new styles. Can't see myself writing a novel set in Vermont's 1770s (especially this far north), but it never hurts to let the images sink in and whisper for a while.

Tomorrow I've got two Big Chapters scheduled. A good night's sleep and a protein-packed breakfast are in the plans. But no encore bike ride just yet -- the chain snapped today. Repairs!

Looking for a Guest Speaker for This Fall?

2010-07-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've just inked in evenings with two local Vermont historical societies in October and I am excited, knowing that these will lead to great discussions of the history behind The Darkness Under the Water. I still have plenty of dates open for community groups and schools. And since I can see the end of the second draft of Cold Midnight coming by the end of this summer, I'm going to be charged up and eager to hit the road -- not only to talk about the books, but also to learn some of your local history, too.

Teens in your life? Ask me about special programs for schools and youth groups, as well as book and reading clubs.

The Long Road of Research

2010-06-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

The photo here is part of the remains of the Ely Copper Mine in central Vermont. I took the back roads home today from the Vermont History Expo, in order to find the site and catch a couple of photos. This adds to information that I already have from a scientific researcher for the site. Look hard and you may spot the remains of a laid dry-stone wall at the rear -- I think perhaps from a rail bed. I stayed on the road to snap the photos, as walking on the land is banned.

And it all is part of the long, slow accumulation of detail for a book that I'll probably start in 2012 -- working title "Crowd Control" but that's just for the file folder. I already know it involves a haunting, and the long consequences of injustice. Will it be for young adults, or older readers? I won't know until the characters start speaking to me.

But for the moment, I'd rather they only whisper. COLD MIDNIGHT and THE FIRE CURSE are occupying about all of the writing brain that I've got!

Just for the fun of it, here's a photo from the History Expo, where I met with readers and history buffs at noon. The Expo takes place every second year and is well worth attending! In the photo are members of the Vermont Civil War Hemlocks (Civil War re-enactors).

Summer in Vermont!

2010-06-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

It's cool and rainy today (sweater weather for the evening!), but here's a photo taken on the deck yesterday morning, settling in to re-read Blood of the Wicked, a definitely dark crime novel from Brazilian author Leighton Gage. I also dipped into a Denise Mina (Glasgow) crime novel last night -- but fear not, this evening (if and when I finish writing and editing!), I'm planning to enjoy reviewing a new and very gentle Vermont novel by Laura Stevenson. Take a peek tomorrow morning if you like, at my mysteries (and sometimes poetry) review blog, kingdombks.blogspot.com.

Chinatown, Boston: Today and 1921

2010-06-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

How can I walk back through time to discover Boston's Chinatown in 1921?

One way is through the Chinese Historical Society of New England, which graciously allowed me to join a group tour earlier this month in order to hear about the district and how it has changed, along with the memories of CHSNE members and details from their studying and collecting. Thank you, Caroline, Nancy, and more.

Most important details learned in terms of 1921: no New Year's parade or festivities outside the home at that time, and VERY few women, due to the harsh conditions set by the (US) Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which by 1921 had widened into the Asian Exclusion Act.

History Sleuthing

2010-06-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

When I'm working on an action novel or mystery set in another time period -- like THE LONG SHADOW, set in 1850 during the Underground Railroad in Vermont -- I'm in full detective mode. I carry a small pocket notebook, file cards, pens, camera, and sometimes even a magnifying glass. And I hit the road for almost as many hours as I'm at the desk.

Most critical in triggering THE LONG SHADOW was a visit to Rokeby, the best documented Underground Railroad station in Vermont. If you'd like to visit, the site is open in summer, or drop in at the website: http://www.rokeby.org/home.html. At Rokeby are photos, letters, furnishings ... all the reality of life lived fully, more than a hundred and fifty years ago. And Director Jane Williamson's research on what "really happened" in Vermont at that time -- I can say absolutely that this was key to the adventures and view of events that unfold in the novel.

Also important, as any story takes shape, are the details of clothing, food, roadways, forests, wildlife. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife team helped me pin down the presence of wolves in 1850; a friend at the Smithsonian Institution provided resources for the "how" of 19th-century dishwashing, which I needed to know about in order to get enough detail into some family scenes. And I used early photos and drawings of the village of North Danville, Vermont, found mostly in a graduate thesis by Gerald LaMothe.

It takes more than a village to research a book properly!

This week I'm excited about visiting Chinatown in Boston, for a tense scene in the novel now unfolding at my computer: COLD MIDNIGHT. I need to know what Chinatown looked like, felt like, smelled like, in 1921. I'll fill you in on some of the discoveries next week.

Summer Afternoon

2010-05-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Photo: Our strawberry bed, last week of May. In the middle, an apple tree -- produced by grafting, during a Ken Parr workshop at the Fairbanks Museum.

Mixed Motives: American Eugenics and Women's Campaigns

2010-05-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Discussions with Vermont librarians about the Vermont Eugenics Project -- the bitter historical reality underlying The Darkness Under the Water -- often come, with sorrow, to Vermont author Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Author of Understood Betsy and many other well-loved children's books, Fisher also wrote abundantly for adults. She campaigned for sensible future plans for her adopted home state (like many another "flatlander" turned Vermont taxpayer). In the early 1900s she saw the potential for tourism as a major revenue source for Vermont and urged a program of preparation, including tidying the landscape. Her thinking led her to approve of a Vermont peopled by camera-ready Yankee farmers, making do, polishing kitchens, and speaking in similar dialects. And her influence in the political and social world of her day contributed to the mood in which Vermont legislators finally passed a law that allowed invasive surgery of women who "shouldn't have more children." The point was, to clean up the people -- that's what eugenics means.

With hindsight, we can see what a terrible law this was. And we can see the errors in thinking that led to it. But at the time, many "good people" were clueless about the evil that it authorized.

Today's Boston Globe includes a review of the book America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation by Elaine Tyler May. Reviewer Kate Tuttle points to the book's discussion of Margaret Sanger. Sanger campaigned for teaching "sex education" and for making birth control available to women. She saw it as a way to free women from repeated unplanned pregnancies, with all the serious health effects and limits of life choices that came with those. But like Fisher, Sanger also saw birth control as something to be imposed on the poor, the uneducated, and in a wider vision, on people she saw as undesirable. Although she didn't have a direct role in what happened in Vermont, she worked hard to make sure eugenics laws were discussed and passed in many states. Thirty-one states eventually had some version of eugenics laws.

As I think about these women who worked so hard for social change -- and who also helped make possible laws that are now seen clearly as unjust, creating terror and pain -- I think also about the power of women and their capacity to keep trying. Clearly, we all need to listen to each other, and keep widening our own vision and understanding. Let's resolve to do our best to test our ideas not just among our friends, but out in the wide world of difference. The Internet makes this possible in ways that couldn't have been imagined a hundred years ago.

Photo: Margaret Sanger.

Poem from "Mud Season at the Castle" (by me when I was E. L. Dugger)

2010-05-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Initiation

Across the heat of June hayfields
the clouds rolled up all black and silver
flashing forth ancient tongues
and came the rain:
Gray slaps and sluices sweeping down hillsides
stealing vistas
pounding the earth into puddle holes
and whipping the rutted road.
It was the longest day of summer,
yet the green ridges shivered purple
and the birds hid.
Late afternoon the wind arose
tore off the sky's low sagging veil
and spread blue innocence
from hill to gleaming hill.
To the mountaintop I scrambled
drawing the charged and trembling air
into my secret places.
And the places where my wings might grow
rustled feathery soft inside me.

Historical Research in Progress

2010-04-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what it's like to search out the pieces of the puzzle for a specific historical question? Bob Joly, Shara McCaffery, and I are working on a question about lectures given at a community gathering spot in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in the late 1800s: at "Athenaeum Hall." To see how the digging begins as wide and scattered data, then gradually narrows with confirmation, toward a presentation, take a peek at the workspace blog for "Our Distinguished Guests": http://stjathenaeum-hall.blogspot.com.

Another Reason for Reading Historical Fiction

2010-04-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

"Never again" -- we share the history and literature of the Holocaust with teens as well as adults, knowing that the health and heart of our world depend on learning the lessons of our past. Teens today often work their own way through Holocaust fiction as well as memoirs, seeking insight.

Many New Englanders have now forgotten that in the United States in the early 1900s, the scientific enthusiasms of genetics had branched into eugenics. Social and political movements embraced the possibilities of "improving" Americans through encouraging the "fit" to have babies, and the "unfit" to submit to sterilization. The Darkness Under the Water (Candlewick, Nov. 2008) opens the door to this period through well-researched historical fiction, as 16-year-old Molly Ballou finds her family threatened in 1930 because of her Abenaki (Native American) heritage. Vermont was among 31 states to pass eugenics laws at this time, but may have been the only one in which Native Americans became a deliberate target.

My father's experiences as a Jewish child in Germany and England and his choice to keep his heritage away from his children affected me strongly as I wrote this book. This fall, I'll be speaking about The Darkness Under the Water and other writings of mine, on Saturday October 9 in Marshfield, Mass. I'm very interested in visiting Greater Boston area schools and libraries during the week before and after this date. Would a discussion of this book and its significance fit into your fall schedule? If so, please do contact me about reserving a date for an author visit. I am also available at other dates for online visits through Skype An Author, and am pleased to correspond with book groups and teachers, as well as with students who have school approval to exchange e-mails or letters.

New Book Trailer for THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER

2010-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a learning curve, to create a video and post it on YouTube! I've also entered this in the ForeWord Book Trailer contest; hope you'll take a look, and leave a "like" vote if it pleases you (you can only vote AFTER watching it). Thanks! http://www.youtube.com/group/booktrailercontest -- look for Darkness Under the Water.

Author Get-Togethers via Skype

2010-03-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Like most authors, I spend hours and hours at my desk -- or doing research -- or taking a walk to get the writing muscles loosened up and thinking about getting back to the desk. So when it's time for an author event, it's great to be able to talk with others who care about books and the way that they change our lives.

Sometimes I can be there in person, in a classroom, library, discussion group. But sometimes I've got to stay close to the desk and can't drive or fly to another location. Thank goodness for SKYPE AN AUTHOR. It's a way to connect that I hope you'll consider if you don't live nearby. Take a look at the site: http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/page/Beth+Kanell

Abenaki Recognition in Vermont: Progress

2010-03-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the VCNAA site provided by Mark Mitchell, where you can follow the progress of S.222, the Vermont bill that would give a better form of recognition to the Abenaki of this state: http://vcnaa.com/native/content/view/1326/55

Historical Fiction: Digging for "Truth"

2010-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Often "truth" is not displayed by a photo, no matter how accurate the image may be. The photos shown here -- not so great, because I took it with my cell phone, having forgotten to bring along my camera -- show a bit of the center of the village of Coventry. A casual visitor would assume that the soldiers' monument on the village green lists the Yankees who enlisted to fight for their country or their cause, and indeed, it does. But the faces aren't what are usually shown as Vermont faces in 1850. Four of the names here are brothers in the Mero family. They were native Vermonters, and they all enlisted when the Civil War broke out in 1861. And they were Black.

There were more than 700 "free blacks" in Vermont in 1850. What patterns of life did they witness as spring arrived in that year? What heritage did they treasure? How were they embraced as neighbors in a village where everyone helps each other (because the weather is so much more powerful than any person can handle)?

For me, historical fiction can be a result of excavating the past to discover as much as possible of these accurate truths, then using a threaded needle to carefully darn the gaps. If you've never yet darned a sock -- the process of weaving yarn or thread back and forth across a heel or toe to replace worn-out fabric -- you might not realize this final detail: You have to be careful not to pull too tightly on the threads as you weave them, or you'll tug the edges of the hole too close together and end up with a miserable lump in the sock that keeps you from wearing it after all.

And that's exactly why the writing of historical fiction has to be so careful in how it pictures the truth.

Digging Into Irish History

2010-03-13T05:54:00.000-08:00

St. Patrick's Day is coming in a few days. I've been reading a lot about Ireland, Irish history, and the Irish in America. Since the mystery I'm writing just now (working title COLD MIDNIGHT) is set in 1921 in a nearby Vermont town, friction among Irish and French Catholics plays a role in the plot.

Good background for Vermont Irish has been the relatively new book by Vincent E. Feeney, FINNEGANS, SLATERS, AND STONEPEGGERS: A HISTORY OF THE IRISH IN VERMONT (2009). Feeney begins with the Irish in Vermont in the 1750s, and meticulously tracks community creation, church establishment, church arson, and more.

With this research has come new insight into "the Potato Famine." Soho Crime author James R. Benn talked about his own learning curve on this one while he was writing his newest Billy Boyle (World War I) novel, EVIL FOR EVIL. The nastiest discovery was that the Irish really did have some potatoes and other food during that time -- but the English, basically acting as an occupation force, took the food.

This comes up also in Erin Hart's mysteries -- I've read the first (HAUNTED GROUND) and third (FALSE MERMAID, which just came out). When I'm writing, I wrestle with the history of conflict to develop a better understanding of people's choices, before my characters begin to make their own decisions.

For a little lighter research: I'm always making lists of what people routinely ate and how they cooked it in different time periods. So here's a handy web site for St. Patrick's Day: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodireland.html . Let me know if you're making something special for that day, or just wearing a bit of green to acknowledge the date's significance to so many.

The Darkness Under the Water: Video, Events

2010-03-11T12:35:00.000-08:00

I've got some exciting historical research to share this weekend, so take a peek then or on Monday. It's been a great week so far for research, but not so good for sustained writing!

Meanwhile, I'm thrilled that library media specialist Analine Johnson has just published her video trailer for THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER (historical suspense, set in Vermont in 1930). The trailer is an amazing work of art, from a dedicated reader who knows how to convey emotion with power and beauty. Thank you so much, Analine.

To go with the trailer, and the energy of spring, I'm putting together a spring book tour. It starts on Sunday March 21 at 1 p.m. at the Baldwin Memorial Library in Wells River, VT. I'd like to set up two kinds of events: (1) In person (if you're in Vermont or New Hampshire, contact me by March 31 with a proposed school or library event for this spring, and I only need to get travel funding from you -- no other fee for events that take place before June 10). (2) Video book talks for groups of at least two people anywhere who have read the book: I'll be there for 20 minutes to answer questions and get your take on the book. Here's what I ask readers most often: Do you think the book has the right ending? Why, or why not?

[PS: The trailer link changed on March 14, to Ms. Johnson's book blog -- hurrah! Well worth exploring. She also has her work posted on ReadKiddoRead.ning.com and teachertube.com.]

Looking for Landscapes of Earlier Times

2010-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Around the first of January, I finished a third full revision of the book that occupied me for both research and storytelling over the past two years. Set in 1850 in a very small Vermont village, it's now titled THE LONG SHADOW. I hope it will eventually find a good home with a publisher who will enjoy taking it out into the world.

Writing THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER meant research for every page -- double-checking language, topography, economics, reading old newspaper reports and advertisements, and sometimes writing or phoning or e-mailing people who had shared their stories of the 1930s with me during the past thirty years, to refresh my notes and memories. Eighty years in the past is not all "past" for many Vermont residents. In my small town, we are facing the need to repair and replace many bridges in this decade. They're all wearing out more or less at the same time, because they were mostly replaced at the same time: 1928. The Flood of '27 tore them apart. It stripped riversides, smashed buildings, tore apart landscapes. I'm adding a postcard here to illustrate.

Another gem for this 1930 novel was a set of images recently posted online, from a book that only existed in a few copies: a family history of Upper Waterford, the very real village that would eventually vanish under the water. Here's the link; be sure to look at the final photo of the last building standing before the waters rose to form the massive lakes behind the power dam. It was the church, which was burned in place, rather than being taken down to "re-use" the lumber. (Its bell still hangs and rings today in the Lady Chapel in East Barnet.)

Working back to 1850 for THE LONG SHADOW required at least five times as many "pauses" per page to double-check research as I wrote. My best resource for the shape of the village, since I based this on what is now North Danville, was an impressive master's thesis by Gerard W. Lamothe, called "One Village, Two Centuries, Several Families," issued in two volumes -- one that gives the words and connections of the village residents, and the other simply images. There are postcards, photos, even sketches. What a resource!

But they don't necessarily reflect exactly what the village looked like in 1850, when photography wasn't yet commonplace or easy. For that, I used early Vermont maps and atlases, as well as descriptions in letters, books, and again newspapers.

But there is nothing quite so definite as walking the land itself. Of course, we all bring our imaginings to even this physical reality, so it's been good for me to walk with people whose minds and hearts are full of the old days. And when they can't be walking with me, I've used three books in particular for information and perspective:

* Hubka, Thomas C., Big House, Litte House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England. This helps me to envision how structures and living arrangements changed over time.
* Wessels, Tom, Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. Wessels gently pulls apart assumptions to reveal what a stone wall really stood for and how the land around it was used and valued.
* Cronon, William, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Cronon demonstrates how the European views limited what early colonists thought they saw and knew -- and how the land had been valued and interwoven in the lives of Native peoples in ways the invading settlers failed to observe or respect.

A picture is worth a thousand words and more ... and is evidence of a sort. But how I look at an image and what I believe from that image depend on how much I understand beforehand of the people who captured the picture.

So the bottom line is: To understand a landscape of another time, even when there are many pictures of it, requires a continued listening ear toward people and their experiences. We tell each other our stories.

Vermont Legislature Considers Eugenics Apology

2010-02-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Kudos to Vermont legislator Anne Donohue (R-Northfield), author of a resolution that would finally offer an official statement of regret for the actions of the Vermont Eugenics Program in the 1930s.

I was especially glad to read what this article reports on the testimony of Judy Dow, who is urging that the legislative apology be extended to more of the people wounded by this project, under which thousands of Vermonters were targeted as "defective." Although other states created similar projects and passed laws similar to the "voluntary sterilization" law that Vermont passed in 1931, the Green Mountain State saw a particular focus on its Abenaki people as targets of the project and law. Effects of that focus endure, and continue the injustice; recognition through legislative apology is one step toward justice.

Apprenticeships and Indentures

2009-07-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've had my head in the 1840s and 1850s and even 1860s (and back to the 1600s for background) for the past few months; with luck (and if we don't have too many visitors), the first draft of THE LONG SHADOW will be complete next week.

Today I needed to know more about documents of indenture -- can't tell you why, it would give away an important plot twist. To my amazement, I discovered that Vermont not only has apprenticeships, but also still provides "agreement to indenture" forms. Check out the "FAQs" list from the Vermont Department of Labor.

We are not as far away from 1604 as I thought.

Poem

2009-03-20T08:56:00.001-07:00

Someone reminded me today that for people living outside the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, my poems aren't easy to find. Sorry! Here's one to celebrate the season. It's more or less the same time of year that I'm working on for "The Golden Chain," too.

Skunk Fever
(revised from Mud Season at the Castle)

Sun heats the tree trunks, and the dry scent
of their hot bark blesses the air.
The deer come down,
thin and rough-coated,
for the swelling buds along the treeline.
I rarely see them, but
their tracks are always just before me
or just after.
Boots slipping on wet browns and grays
I reach the stream, where green shoots
rise like fever.
I never knew how starved I was
till I plucked a leaf, just to savor
the eager green of
skunk cabbage.

Abenaki in Vermont: A resource from the Vermont Historical Society

2009-03-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the site of the Vermont Historical Society today, looking for resource material, and realized sadly that the "store" on the site isn't selling the updated history kit that the VHS offered in 1998 on Abenaki in Vermont -- but there are still copies available of the Teacher's Guide that went with the kit, titled: Abenaki in Vermont, A History for Students & their Teachers. It's a good outline for a classroom discussion, and costs only $4 plus postage. A bit more costly ($35), but more recent and more detailed, is the video Abenaki of Vermont: A Living Culture, with its emphasis on contemporary life.

Daniel Webster and Historical "Epics"

2009-02-05T08:00:00.001-08:00

I'm wrestling with my second work of historical fiction/mystery, the book with the working title "The Hungry Place" -- a title that's going to change this month, as a new set of opening chapters unfolds. It's taking me back and forth, like a weaver's shuttle, among the details of the 1850s in Vermont. Today I'm studying Daniel Webster and his speeches. I grew up with a mild case of hero worship for Webster, thanks to my mother's happy gathering of family genealogy. She didn't always dig into what people had done and said, but she was just happy that they had a place in history books.

To many northern New Englanders, Webster's 1850 speech urging compromise on the issue of slavery, in order to hold together the Union of states, smacked of moral depravity and betrayal of a God-given imperative: that all people be honored as created by the same Creator, for lives of dignity. Dartmouth College provides a link to the text of this speech.

Webster's last speech, in 1852, is called "The Dignity and Importance of History." Ironic that he would let go of insisting on the dignity of humans, but mark instead the dignity of history! But there's a portion of the speech that does appeal to me, because it seems to apply so well to what I'm struggling to do:

Well written history must always be the result of genius and taste, as well as of research and study. It stands next to epic poetry, among the productions of the human mind. If it requires less of invention than that, it is not behind it in dignity and importance. The province of the epic is the poetical narrative of real or supposed events, and the representation of real, or at least natural, characters; and history, in its noblest examples, is an account of occurrences in which great events are commemorated, and distinguished men appear as agents and actors. Epic poetry and the drama are but narratives, the former partly and the latter wholly, in the form of a dialogue, but their characters and personages are usually, in part at least, the creations of the imagination.

Severe history sometimes assumes the dialogue, or dramatic form, and, without departing from truth, is embellished by supposed colloquies or speeches, as in the productions of that great master, Titus Livius, or that greater master still, Thucydides.

The drawing of characters, consistent with general truth and fidelity, is no violation of historical accuracy; it is only an illustration or an ornament.

Stories Worth Reading: Robert Pike

2009-01-30T18:04:00.000-08:00

At the start of The Darkness Under the Water, the days of log drives down the Connecticut River are ending. They began to wane around 1915, as manufacturing needs changed and railroads and trucks took over where the river once had priority. But the construction of Commerford Dam -- the first on the river to have no sluice gate for logs to pass through -- sealed the era.

To read tales of the logging days from Waterford, Vermont's own Robert Pike, pick up either his SPIKED BOOTS or the companion volume, TALL TREES AND TOUGH MEN. And get some up-to-date perspective on the books and the vanished days of river runs from Pike's daughter, Helen Chantal Pike, at her web site, www.helenpike.com.

History/Fiction: How Historical Fiction Works

2009-01-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Where are the "lines" in a book of historical fiction, so you can tell what's really from history and what's the story crafted by the author? Gosh, it would be nice in some ways to have the sections in different colors of ink on the page, so readers could know for sure!

But that's not what historical fiction does -- and I don't think it should. I think historical fiction lets readers enter into what a fictional person could have experienced during a particular time period in a particular situation. The best historical fiction, like THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth George Speare, or like JIP by Katherine Paterson, or M. T. Anderson's THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION, keeps you reading while also traveling in time and tasting another person's life -- along with its complications, risks, adventures, and often courage and success.

This Saturday, January 10, when I visit Otter Creek Used Books in Middlebury, Vermont, owner Barbara Harding and I will pull out books from the crowded shelves there, to demonstrate how to start the historical research that lies behind each such novel -- and also how to chase down the tiny details that add reality and truth to the story as you write. I'll talk about how this applies to THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER, and maybe to some of the other books in the shop. Hope to see you there!

I'll also visit Northshire Books (Manchester, VT) at 2 p.m. on the same day. We won't have such an unusual program format there -- but Northshire has a stunning selection of books, and if your travels are more likely to take you to Manchester, I'll see you "down south" for sure. Many thanks to both of these shops for making these special times for talking about books, about story, and about why we read!

Using The Darkness Under the Water for a High School Library Club: The Lyceum

2008-12-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

We're talking about The Darkness Under the Water from a lot of viewpoints lately: reading the intense story of Molly Ballou set in Vermont in 1930; investigating the thread of history that the book embraces; looking at eugenics and genocide on the nonfiction side; and how people interact in groups (clubs, schools, libraries) around the story. The library team from St. Johnsbury Academy's Grace Stuart Orcutt Library left the following description as a comment; I'm moving it here so it's easier to see and access. Tomorrow I'll add a description about a classroom use of the book. Beth
***
Lyceum, a reading group at St. Johnsbury Academy, met yesterday with author Beth Kanell for dessert and discussion of The Darkness Under the Water. Lyceum is composed of both student and faculty members. The response from both factions prompted me to share the positive response of this group.
Students comments included, “I loved the book and insisted my Mom read it,” “I am from Tennessee and new to the school and as a reader I enjoy books that share the historical culture of the area, so for me I really enjoyed the book,” “I feel so fortunate to have the author join us for this discussion,” “I enjoyed that you, the author, left pieces of the story to our imagination.”
Faculty comments included, “I read the first half of the book to my students, and then asked them to write down how they thought the story would end, and then they finished the book on their own. I was so impressed with how on target the students were even to guessing the sex of the baby. The students are so taken with the story that they are hosting a lunch next week and have invited Beth to join them.”
“I loved the book. It has been such a joy to discuss the book with the author. I wish that we could have the author with us for all our discussions.” “Growing up French Canadian and Catholic in St. Johnsbury, I experienced many of the same prejudice described in the story. It really connected me to the story with a deeper appreciation of the suffering prejudice can bring.”
During my eight years of hosting the group I would say that The Darkness under the Water comes to the top of our “best reads.” This novel awakens us to the prejudice that surrounds all of us.
As high school librarians we felt the connection the students and faculty had made to Beth’s work. Our students found they could relate, in a proud way, to the neighborhood characters in Beth’s story. This is a superb example of a thought-provoking young adult read.
What this book does best is open the door for discussion. As I listened to student and adult readers share their insights, I began to think, that with this engaging story as the jumping-off point, curious students with the guidance of a teacher could ask questions, research, and draw their own careful conclusions. This could include questions about historical accuracy, cultural and social knowledge, and reflection upon family and personal experiences. As I listened, I heard that students were careful consumers of what they had read. They were able to discern that this story was a not factual depiction in all its nuances. They were judicious in their interpretation of the literary devices, tone of the work, and historical elements. One concept that fascinated them was the idea that Vermont would have had a formal eugenics project in place in the last century. For these diverse students, who have been steeped in an ethic of community, their level of awareness was raised and their consciousness broadened as they thought upon the consequences of such a program. They connected with the local history surrounding the damming of the Connecticut River. They tuned in to the ethical conflicts, debating what would they have done in Molly’s situation. They regarded Gratia’s voice as part of Molly’s growth and development, until she matured and listened to her own heart. This novel gives voice and face to a facet of nearly unknown Vermont history, a history that for many of us was built on a storybook past, of great heroes like Ethan Allen; this book begins to wedge open a crack in that cherished vision of Vermont’s impeccable commitment to freedom and unity.
Jean Fournier, Library Director
Joanne Bertrand, Assistant Librarian
Denyse Daly, Circulation Supervisor

Story, History, and Research

2008-12-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

My own preference with historical fiction and mysteries is to read the story first, enjoying the plot, characters, and conflicts -- and how it all works out. So for THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER, I placed a note about the related "true" history at the back of the book, where you don't have to be distracted by it.

And a lot of people ask me whether the events in the book really happened -- whether the story is "true." Molly Ballou and her family are fictional. I made them up. But I did that from real people and real family histories. And some of the historical points in the book will be easy for you to discover in carefully researched work. The Vermont Eugenics Project, for instance, was a scientific and governmental project that took place over specific years and with specific people (see Nancy Gallagher's meticulous research in BREEDING BETTER VERMONTERS). Similar projects were happening in the early 1900s in many American states, and the best overall book I've found on these is called WAR AGAINST THE WEAK by Edwin Black. The book's subtitle is "Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race." If you know something about World War II, just the phrase "master race" makes you shudder -- it was and is a creepy idea.

But the closer history gets to real people, the harder it is to say what is "true," because real people see things in very different ways. For instance, a Native American telling what happened to her or his family from 1930 to 1980 (and beyond) in the shadow of the eugenics projects would explain things one way; a listener like me will "hear" the words within the context of my own family experience; and a professional historian will put all of it into perspective in terms of larger events and trends in the nation, the society, even the world.

Here's an example of a question that cuts very close to my home: How did the Vermont Eugenics Project -- scientifically conducted across the state in Burlington -- affect people of Abenaki heritage in the Northeast Kingdom, my part of Vermont? That's the bulge of Vermont that follows the river toward the top right in the image above.

Some ways to look for answers that I've tried include asking people of Abenaki heritage who live here now; listening to the grandchildren of "Indians" who came here in the 1920s from the Native American communities in Canada (the border is 60 miles from here); looking at the US Census numbers for Vermont from the decades before, during, and after that time, to see how many people will say they are "American Indian"; and reading the official "town histories" of this region.

Tomorrow, if we still have electricity up on this icy, snowy ridge, I'll also mention something about archaeology and its result in this part of Vermont.

Touring in the Neighborhood

2008-12-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

Today's author event was a discussion with the Lyceum Club at St. Johnsbury Academy. We talked about Molly's choices in The Darkness Under the Water, and about how she handled the stresses and situations in her life. An interesting side discussion formed around the effects of tuberculosis on Molly's mother's health, and how that might also have a role in her distance from her daughter as the book begins.

Two bits of regional history came up in particular in today's discussion. One concerns whether Catholics in this area would have dared to enter a Protestant church and attend a service there in 1930, as Katy O'Connor and her family do near the start of the book. Because two of the discussion participants spoke of their experience growing up as French (French Canadian) Catholics in Vermont, we talked about the way Catholics side-stepped going to Protestant services in the 1950s -- going into the social events "downstairs" in the churches, but not into the worship "upstairs." Some were taught by the priests that to attend a Protestant worship service would be a terrible sin.

But Academy historian Rich Beck confirmed earlier this fall, and so did archivist Joanne Bertrand today, that the active presence and malevolence of the Ku Klux Klan in Vermont in the 1930s pushed some Catholics into attending Protestant churches after all, as a way of keeping a low profile. The KKK targeted both people of color and Catholics in Vermont at that time.

The second bit was the presence of Mohawk Indians in the region. One discussion participant explained that her French-Canadian origin family had only recently realized one of its members was a Mohawk. That brought up the role of the Mohawk crew that came south from Montreal in the 1950s for the construction of the second large power dam here, Moore Dam. The steel-work supervisor from that time period recently recalled how he'd contacted the union "hall" in Montreal to get extra help, and how exciting it was to watch the crew: One member kept the fire going at ground level (where he could enjoy seeing who came and went all day), and the others worked many feet above him, as much as two stories higher. The fire-working crew member would heat a large metal rivet at the fire, seize it with tongs, and hurl it up into the air; other crew members, above, caught each rivet with a metal funnel-shaped device, and hammered each into the steel structure. To start your own research on Mohawk steelworkers, click here.

I'm posting a photo here from construction of Comerford Dam -- the one that actually was built in 1930. This was taken while the dam was under construction.

The Darkness Under the Water: Now on tour

2008-11-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

It's been great being "on tour" in northeastern Vermont in the past week. From bookstores to a nifty local inn and restaurant to an impromptu college TV news interview, the thread running through all of this has been people who care about good stories, and about Vermont. I've heard some great ideas for future books, too.

In case you're not up on the book itself yet, Molly Ballou's risky adventure in 1930 Vermont, THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER -- well, there's a description, along with discussion questions for classrooms and book groups, and ideas for librarians, at the web site: www.BethKanell.com.

Come say hello in New Jersey, at Saturday's meet-and-greet at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, 1 to 2 pm!

Where's the Water, and What's Underneath?

2008-11-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a map of the Connecticut River as it curls through Waterford today, with the lakes formed by the two Waterford-area dams (connecting Vermont and New Hampshire). Until 1930, there was no lake at all. The Darkness Under the Water tells Molly Ballou's story of the dangers involved in Waterford, Vermont, at that moment.

What Is Historical Fiction, Anyway?

2008-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

A librarian in New Jersey told me this story last week:

She created a "book fair" in her library, with books laid out on tables and the tables labeled with signs for the kinds of books there -- like biographies, mysteries, and historical fiction. At the end of the day, she realized that the students hadn't chose ANY books from the "historical fiction" table.

So the next year, she changed the label to "Action, Adventure, and Drama." Yes indeed, the students captured books from that table after all!

I like it.

Yes, There Are Books Available November 8!

2008-11-07T09:58:00.001-08:00

I'm excited that Boxcar & Caboose, which is hosting the "prepublication" event for The Darkness Under the Water on Saturday November 8 at 3 p.m. (Railroad Street, St. Johnsbury) has special permission from Candlewick Press to release copies of the book at the event. So if you're looking for the very earliest copies this week, now's your chance! See you there.

And that scene in the library...

2008-10-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

[Lower Waterford: the library is the lower building, on the right]
When Molly Ballou goes to the public library in Waterford, Vermont, she's holding on to a bit of stability in her life. Change and threat come close on the heels of that quiet moment in THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER.

So check in at today's Waterford book treasury, the Davies Memorial Library (in the "White Village" just off exit 2 from I-93), on Wednesday November 12 at 7 p.m. We'll have a family-friendly reading event, and celebrate the town, the library, and the brand new book. See you there!

"Meet and Greet" Northern Vermont Authors

2008-08-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite touring with The Darkness Under the Water just yet -- the calendar really starts hopping on the first weekend of October, when I'll be reading from the book at the Brattleboro Literary Festival. But a couple of small appearances are coming up this week anyway:

Friday August 29: St. Johnsbury Academy students and teacher, look for me in the amphitheater presentation from the Lyceum Club. I like meeting the new students, and touching base with the ones I know from last year. (Remember the poetry series in the library?)

Saturday August 30: Scott and Penny Wheeler, an author/publishing team from the very northernmost part of Vermont, have invited authors from the Northeast Kingdom to "meet and greet" from noon to three at the Goodrich Memorial Library on Main Street in Newport.

Speaking of authors from "the Kingdom": I'm not sure whether Howard Frank Mosher is coming to the Aug. 30 gathering. But I'd love to see him, to thank him for his reaction to The Darkness Under the Water:

Full of marvelous people, heart-stopping drama, and horrifying details from a shameful period of American history, Beth Kanell’s The Darkness Under the Water is an absolutely wonderful novel. Just sixteen, Molly Ballou knows what it’s like to lose a beloved sister, a home, and perhaps her very identity. With her unswerving honesty, poet’s eye, and heart of gold, Molly is one of the best and most likable heroines in contemporary fiction. The Darkness Under the Water is a dark and unsettling story, but Molly is up to every challenge. I was rooting for her from the outset, and never once did she disappoint me. I hope that The Darkness Under the Water wins a major prize for young adult fiction. High school and junior high school students will love The Darkness Under the Water. Adults will too. It’s a masterpiece.

What an amazing and generous response, from the author of such classics as Disappearances and Where the Rivers Flow North, as well as his recent delightful adventure On Kingdom Mountain. Thank you, Mr. Mosher!

Stories That Lead to Other Stories -- True Ones!

2008-07-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe fifteen years ago, I discovered a memoir -- almost, a set of tall tales -- of logging on the Connecticut River during the early 1900s. It's called SPIKED BOOTS and was written by Robert Pike. I paid a lot of attention to it, because I was helping plan the land use for the vast former logging lands in northeastern Vermont, and reading the book helped me to connect with the loggers who had been there, as well as the ones who worked in the forest as we headed into the twenty-first century. The stories in SPIKED BOOTS and Robert Pike's other book, TALL TREES, TOUGH MEN, are all about men who spend their winters cutting down timber, and their spring seasons riding with the logs down the surging waters of the thawed-out rivers.

It took some digging, but I found out eventually that there were also women working in the woods that way, from the middle 1800s onward. Their stories didn't get written down very often -- partly because there weren't very many of them, but mostly, I think, because people didn't think it was ladylike for women to do this kind of work! And of course, women who ran logging crews needed to have strong personalities and not be afraid of the physical labor, the rough language, and the day-to-day hardships of managing their crews. In the rare photos I've spotted, they wore skirts, though, so I think it was important to them to be seen as ladylike in that way!

Of course, I couldn't resist telling people about the true-life stories I'd discovered, and soon some local teachers found out that I could "storytell" the history of logging on the Connecticut River. The story begins with the English colonists arriving in New England, being warned not to cut the tallest, straightest pine trees for their own use -- because they were reserved for the ships of the English Royal Navy. In fact, men working for the king took branding irons into the forest to mark those trees as "the King's Pines." Wow! The story ends at the moment Molly Ballou's story begins in THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER: with the construction of massive dams across the river, to generate electrical power -- most importantly, the dam being built in 1930, Comerford Dam. For the first time on this big river, a dam was being built that had no "sluice gate" to let logs pass through. There would be no more wild rides on huge tree trunks whipping past the rocks and around the bends. River logging ended.

A few weeks ago, I explored a cemetery in Waterford where I'd never been before. There in front of me was a huge marker for author Robert Pike -- or Bob, as he was known around here. It's just a few miles from where Molly Ballou and her friend Katy would have watched the log drive in the spring of 1930.

This story really matters, to me, and to the Connecticut River loggers. And for Bob Pike and the many people who still read copies of SPIKED BOOTS, it's been a great part of this area of Vermont.

The Village That Vanished

2008-07-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

I love mysteries -- in books, and in real life. One of the moments that would grow into The Darkness Under the Water happened when I first asked a local historian, "I've driven through Lower Waterford, Vermont. Where is Upper Waterford?"

The historian answered, "Under the water."

Sure enough, two big hydroelectric dams built on the Connecticut River -- one in 1928-1930, the other in the 1950s -- created enormous lakes that swallowed up homes and land in the town of Waterford. The village of Upper Waterford completely vanished behind what is now Moore Dam. Yesterday I went to take photos of where it had been. The first photo, above, is where the road from Lower Waterford used to continue to Upper Waterford. And in the second one, below, can you see the sandy-looking patch across the lake? That's where the road from Upper Waterford used to cross the river and continue into New Hampshire!

The mystery got more intense when I started to look for old-time picture postcards of the vanished village. More on that, later.

And the Reviews Are Coming Soon -- in fact, here's a fabulous advance review to savor!

2008-06-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

How can you decide what to read next? Running your hand along the bookshelf is one way... but another is browsing through other people's words about a book, checking out the reviews. THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER is in the review stage right now: "Advance review copies" (also called ARCs) have gone out to some of the most committed readers and reviewers of Young Adult books in the US (and that includes bookshop owners!). Most of them won't read the book until some cozy summer afternoon or evening, and most reviews won't appear until, say, August or September.

But there's always an exception! And this one is a doozy: One of my favorite "kid-lit" blogs is Seven Impossible Things (remember what the White Queen told Alice about believing six of them before breakfast?!). Jules, a partner on the blog, kindly took a peek at THE DARKNESS UNDER THE ICE early in this process -- and when she finished reading her ARC, here's what she wrote. Absolutely, she made my day, week, month... I hope most readers will feel as good about the book as Jules does:

7). I finished the ARC of poet Beth Kanell’s The Darkness Under the Water, to be released this Fall by Candlewick. I have been reading this story for a looooong time now. In fact, I—ahem—broke one of our rules and read the manuscript of it (though I knew that it had already been lined up to be published, which makes it slightly different from an unpublished manuscript, I think). By the time I was finishing it, the author had sent me a bound ARC of it, which was easier to carry around than 199 pages of paper. Anyway, it’s a beautifully-rendered, haunting, and lyrical coming-of-age story, set in 1930, about a time in Vermont’s history in which the lives of Native Americans were threatened in the name of “improving” the Yankee population (the Vermont Eugenics Project, it is sometimes called). Told through the voice of one Molly Ballou, aged sixteen, whose family is of Abenaki heritage, it’s ultimately a triumphant story of transcending hardship and discrimination, and it’s quite elegantly told. (I’m telling you this now, because a) it really was a kick, but b) I don’t expect to be this articulate about it, come November, when it’ll finally be published. I don’t have the best memory.)

Awesome!

Read for the Fun of It: Teen Read Week, Oct. 12-18, 2008

2008-05-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

[photo by librarian Heidi Dolamore]
Now that Molly Ballou's story, The Darkness Under the Water, is headed for bookstores and libraries this fall, what can I learn about the readers waiting for the book? I went to the Vermont Library Conference this week, and signed up to hear Beth Gallaway -- the Junior Director for NELA (the New England Library Association) and a vital team member of YALSA: the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association. Young (at least, for a person with a master's degree), savvy, and entirely into computer gaming (she brought up World of Warcraft a couple of times, and proved to the audience that gaming builds reading and writing skills!), she told the jam-packed room of librarians and book lovers about Teen Read Week.

This year's theme for Teen Read Week is BOOKS WITH BITE. The subtheme, as always, is "Read for the fun of it." Gallaway filled us with creative examples, excitement, vampires and other bloody notions, and a high-energy race through great ways to promote and enhance a reading event. Then we all brainstormed in smaller groups to come up with titles, activities, and promotion for our own Teen Read Week -- my group's title was "We Want Your Blood!" and tied the reading and reviewing to a blood drive. At least one high school in Vermont (in Manchester) already has student blood drives, which in my opinion makes a terrific way to support a community and help cope with disasters.

Worth knowing about: the YALSA blog, http://blogs.ala.org/yalsa.php -- and YALSA is on MySpace, too.

Even though Molly Ballou's story won't be published until November 12, Teen Read Week this year (Oct. 12-19) will be a great time to add The Darkness Under the Water to a reading plan. And if you live near Brattleboro, Vermont, or Madison, Wisconsin, plan to pick up a special early release copy of the book at the literary festival in Brattleboro (Oct. 3-5) or the Wisconsin Book Festival (Oct, 15-19). More on those later.

Oh, one more quick note: I found a lot of librarians with strong ties to Molly's story. It matters.

Molly Ballou's Story: THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER

2008-05-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's early May, and in Vermont the daffodils nod bright yellow heads and the robins call out in early morning and late afternoon -- in between, they are quiet, protecting their nests and keeping the eggs warm. I'll know when the baby birds emerge, because the parents' behavior changes so much, racing around for food.

In my writing sanctuary, I'm torn between two spring patterns myself: preparing for the launch of Molly Ballou's story, THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER (Candlewick, fall 2008), and writing the story that Shawna Lee is whispering in my ears -- THE HUNGRY PLACE. One book calls me out to talk with people and share the excitement and adventure. The other turns me into a robin trying to cover all the blue eggs with the warmth of my heart, quietly singing a hatching song to myself.

Next week I'll be at the Vermont Library Conference in South Burlington, reading on May 13 and 14 in the author's cove, letting Molly Ballou tell you how it felt for her to be sixteen years old, living in a small Vermont village in 1930, when her Abenaki heritage -- which her parents had carefully turned into "being French Canadian," but which her grandmother still honors -- well, to make a long story short, Molly discovered that being Abenaki could mean being threatened by the Governor and Legislature of Vermont, and especially by the nurses being sent out into the communities to look for families who didn't match the ideal Vermont image.

But I'm getting ahead of the story. After all, when the book opens, what Molly is mostly struggling with is a sort of haunting, by the very snippy voice of her own dead sister, Gratia.

That too is part of what's hidden by the spring waters in Waterford, Vermont.