Hooking into a significant small event in your past is a way to open your heart and connect with your readers. I came across this sentence in a wonderful post by Fae Rowen in the blog Writers in the Storm. As I think about my upcoming book, I wondered how my summers past fit into…
I have to stop doing this. Every time I turn around, I’m saying goodbye to Maureen. Again. This time, she was minding her own business, saving the world she lived in, the world of Sharpsburg at the time of the Civil War. And this time, for a change, I didn’t want to disturb her. This…
I have realized her purposeful stride is a symbol of the strong girl she is.
Change The World By Being Yourself! How’d Amy Poehler know that’s exactly what Maureen was going to do in my book, DIVIDED LOYALTIES? It’s a great sentiment no matter what you’re doing or who you are, isn’t it? ❤️ Thanks, Amy SaveSave
I almost got tripped up by tomatoes. When I was creating the world of DIVIDED LOYALTIES, I thought I considered everything. I went through antique photos of clothes and uniforms. I drove through the countryside near Sharpsburg so I knew what Maureen saw as she marched from home to hospital and back. I read an article (thanks…
I’ve done all the work to build settings that show how I think the countryside around Antietam Creek looked in 1862. I researched the Battle of Antietam, battlefield nurses and medicine (only enough; I’m squeamish). I’ve considered the clothes people wore then, the foods they ate, the names of the roads and churches and when…
Megan didn’t care whether the storm raged for the rest of the night. Let the thunder roll through the valley. Let the lightning crash through the orchards. Let the rain force Antietam Creek to overflow its banks. None of it compared to the ire in her heart. “How can you be so stubborn?” she asked her…
Doors were left ajar. Porch chairs were tipped over. Shutters were pulled tightly across shop windows. There were bullet holes in Johnson’s store and an artillery shell had left a crater next to Delaney’s tavern. The pale yellow steeple at St. Paul’s was pockmarked and cracked. A few Confederate soldiers, exhausted and dirty, lounged on…
I looked at this photo all the time as I was writing scenes about my Civil War novel, Divided Loyalties. Although the battle took place in late summer, the hospitals around the Antietam battlefields were open through a long, cold winter. Imagine trying to heal mind, heart and body inside a big barn. Imagine the…
Mary K. Tilghman, writer 