I’ve been writing stories since I could write (which was before I started school). The earliest work I remember (that my parents saved anyhow) was a horrid poem entitled “Silly Mouse.” It didn’t even rhyme. However, as I matured, my writing (I like to think) improved.

When we were in grade school, my sister and I found a nifty new game in one of those Scholastic-type school magazines. It was called “Plot Luck” and the goal was to write a crazy story as you moved your token along the pathway to the finish line. It provided word prompts at various points, which you had to incorporate into your story. My sister and I used to compete to see who could come up with the silliest story, then see if our parents would laugh at it. We cut the pages out of the magazine and mounted the game on a piece of cardboard so it would last longer. We played for hours at a time, exercising our imaginations and creating tale after tale. I wish I still had that old game, just for nostalgia purposes, but it fell apart long ago.

When I was in middle and high school, I kept up my reading and writing, even getting a short poem published in the local newspaper for a contest. Unfortunately, I was convinced by well-meaning adults that writers didn’t make a good living and encouraged to make a career in the other area in which I excelled: science. I have to say that the paychecks have been satisfactory, but there are times I wonder what my career would have been like if I’d taken the leap and tried to become a full-time writer back in the beginning (or maybe took the writing more seriously and tried harder to get published).

It wasn’t until the mid-90s that I began seriously sending out short stories to magazines and getting paid for my work. I even got a couple of stories compiled into two “Best Of” anthologies, which was heartening. Then I found out about NaNoWriMo, where you sign up to write 50,000 words in 30 days. My best friend dared me to do it, and I dug out an old fan-fiction piece I’d done, changed the names and a bit of the scenario, and had a go at it. I ended up with a finished novel. It’s been through a few revisions, but it’s ready to be published if I can just find a publisher who doesn’t think “caper” stories are dead. Like I said, I should have started publishing sooner, like back when those were more popular.

I now have three historical novels written, along with a (now out-of-print) anthology of short stories that sold tolerably well. One of my alter-egos has five e-books at a small press and the other alter-ego is editing our first science-fiction novel. I’ve published several of my short stories in magazines and anthologies. I’m hoping to attract the attention of a sci-fi agent at sometime soon. And, as with Disney, it all started with a mouse.

HERE’S a great reference for anyone writing about historic California – A La California: A Sketch of the Golden State, by Col. Albert S. Evans

 

HERE is a link to a page of timelines, for those of you who write historical fiction — or who just like history!

Spent the day in the San Francisco library researching old newspapers. There’s something satisfying about reading an old newspaper — even if it’s not from the 1800’s. Some of the material is dated, of course. You may not recognize the famous-at-the-moment names in the articles, and the products advertised might be obsolete, but you can see that folks back then lived a lot like we do today. They worried about the same sorts of things. They enjoyed the same sorts of recreation and entertainment. They traveled, voted, lost and found or bought and sold items … newspapers bring the past to life for us in a way that history books can’t.

The really old papers, such as the ones I was reading, are like a little time-machine. Even without photographs, you can see drawings of what people were wearing or buying. You know what they paid for that ferry ride or train trip. You know which play they saw at the local theater. Newspapers are better than almost any other resource when you’re after historical facts and flavor.

If you can manage it, make a trip to the library and read through the old papers (or microfilm) yourself. It’s worth a day of reading. Your characters will become more alive as they move about the town, taking in a debate or play, paying for a taxicab with the actual fees, or even just looking at the local advertisements and dreaming about something they’d buy if they had the money.

What is your favorite historical resource?