Sweating the small stuff

As one who has written fifteen novels that blend both fact and fiction, I know firsthand the importance of getting it right. Writing about time travel, after all, requires more than describing the means of travel. It requires accurately depicting the past. It requires meeting the standards of quality historical fiction.

The challenges are often daunting, particularly when writing about the recent past, as I have done on multiple occasions. When writing about places and times that are in the living memory of many readers, you have to make an extra effort to get even the little things right.

When I wrote my first novel, The Mine, a story set mostly in Seattle in 1941, a few older readers gently reminded me that chocolate-chip cookies were more commonly called "Toll House cookies" and that aluminum foil was generally called "tin foil," even after aluminum replaced tin as its primary component. Since that time, I have done what I could to ensure the historical accuracy of my books, which have spanned eras ranging from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Like many writers of historical fiction, I favor primary sources, such as newspapers, documents, letters, photographs, and oral histories. I generally find eyewitness accounts of events and eras, produced by those who lived through them, to be more compelling than even the best research compiled decades – or even a few years – after the fact.

Even so, I don't limit myself. When preparing to write about times I did not experience, I will often sample the movies, music, and literature of the day. I find it easier to describe Americans of the 1950s and early 1960s, for example, if I immerse myself in the very things that drove them to theaters, concert halls, and libraries.

On some occasions, I look closer to home. When writing The Journey, set in 1979 and 1980, and Camp Lake, my newest book, set in 1983, I relied mostly on memories of — and mementos from — my senior year of high school and my experience at a summer camp in Maine.

No matter where I turn for answers, however, I follow advice that has been around for decades. When writing historical fiction, even in the context of time travel, pay attention to details. Note the nuances and the particulars. Sweat the small stuff.

A review, guest post, and more

Camp Lake makes its first big media splash this morning at the Reading Cafe. The Canadian blog, which has reviewed all but one of my fifteen novels, takes on my latest today. Many thanks to Sandy and Barb at the site for running the review, a guest post, and a giveaway of the entire Carson Chronicles series. Readers can find all three here.

Saying goodbye to a series

I admit I miss the characters already. Even though the proverbial ink has not yet dried on the Carson Chronicles series, I miss the fictional family I have lived with for more than two and a half years.

With the release of Camp Lake, the fifth and final book, I say so long to the seven original members of the Carson clan and their significant others. I close the door on a memorable time-travel series.

Like River Rising, The Memory Tree, Indian Paintbrush, and Caitlin's Song, Camp Lake embraces a place and a time — in this case, Maine in 1983.

Though the novel begins and ends in the Carsons' home state of Arizona, it finds a home in the Pine Tree State.

Nineteen-year-old Cody, the youngest of the three sons, takes center stage in this one.

Along with Caitlin, his brainy twin sister, and Dennis Sawyer, his talented and thoughtful friend, he travels to prestigious Camp Washington, where his missing middle-aged parents met as college students and where jobs, romance, and danger await.

For Cody, a nature counselor, the summer in New England is an opportunity to develop a friendship with a beautiful colleague, a young woman with a tragic secret. For Caitlin and Dennis, it is a chance to grow as a couple and test the boundaries of sacrifice.

For the five siblings, the summer is the next stop on a journey that started in 2017; continued in 1889, 1918, 1944, and 1962; and ends in the era of big hair, space shuttles, and MTV. For all of the Carsons, parents and children, it is a last chance to reunite as a family.

Filled with humor, adventure, and suspense, Camp Lake answers the questions and ties the loose ends of a tumultuous family saga. The novel, my fifteenth overall, goes on sale today at Amazon.com.