Rainy Thursday

Typical fall like weather. Instead of writing in the morning, I immediately went out and finished raising up my iris bed. I know, I know, but I do love irises, too. I finished the long Faneuil Hall speech scene I was working on. I’m moving back to Lincoln now. He and Speed are talking about the fallout from the murder. In some papers it was called ‘the shot heard around the world.’ It was extremely important to the country and the world at that time. It was the first time an American died for freedom of the press.

Lincoln begins thinking of giving his own speech on the subject. It will be his first public speech. He is at this time a state representative and a lawyer in the firm of John Stuart. Lovejoy’s brothers are beginning a memoir about his death and the events leading up to it. This Memoir was a major resource for me in writing the book. Henry Tanner wrote another good account of the book. With historical fiction, I like to try to make the reader feel as though he is there. I also like to put the history into a mystery format because mysteries are exciting and a fun way to look at history which can be dry.

I have imagined lots of conversations for this book that may or may not actually have taken place. Sometimes, like with the Faneuil Hall speech, much of what was said in reality is in the book. The year 1837 makes all of these original sources in public domain. Using the exact or close to exact speeches or letters gives the story more of an authentic mood. It can be tricky to decide how much to include and when to change the exact language because it is archaic. Words, like forsooth. Almost nobody says that today and it throws the reader off. So I changed it to ‘indeed’.

Ok more next week.