What Writing a Novel Taught Me About Breast Cancer

Sometimes I feel too much attention is given to breast cancer over other deadly cancers.

Then while researching the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of breast cancer for Call of the Siren, I came upon this paper from 2000: Breast Cancer in the 20th Century: Quest for the Ideal Therapy.

As I scanned the research looking for particular information, I read this. The statistic for 1990 was sobering to say the least:

"Medical history will record that breast cancer was one of the most significant health threats facing women in the 20th century. 

"In the 1990s alone, more American women died of the disease than all the U.S. lives lost in war from the Civil War to Vietnam. 

"It has been (conservatively) estimated that 1,000,000 women died of breast cancer in this country between 1950 and 1990 (21). 

"From 1930 to 1990 there was NO improvement in cure rates; however, in the mid-1990s a clear trend towards better survival was noted."

To read the entire study, visit https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117557/

Down the Research Rabbit Hole

Research is often a necessary component when one writes novels that are not set in the present or recent past.

The fun, educational, and, quite frankly, time-suck problem with that research is that I get pulled into one rabbit hole after another, with trails that go bounding away into areas that have little (or nothing) to do with the novel.

Furthermore, it can take an immense amount of research just to find the information I need simply to make one paragraph (or even one sentence) factually accuate.

But, I think (and hope), such research does add to the storehouse of my general knowlesge, keeps the reader firmly set into the novel's world and, maybe, makes me a tinge smarter too.

Here are some of the topics I researched during my last week-long retreat for the second book in the BryonySeries Limbo series, Call of the Siren:

* How boats look bobbing on a lake in a torrential storm

* Photos of a late nineteenth century newsroom and press room

* New cars in 1914 and their cost when new

* Types of beer produced and sold in Michigan in 1914 and what type of bottle caps were used

* The history of carryout

* The history of motels

* The history of fast food

* Lodgings for travelers at the turn of the twentieth century

* How unmarried couples could legallyl travel together in 1914

* Various floorplans for saltboxes

* World War I

* The Spanish Flu

* Suffragism

* Tourism in the early twentiesh century

* Value of the dollar in the 1920s

* Cost of opening a small restaurant in the 1920s

* Prenatal care and childbirth in 1935

* Early twentieth century breast cancer treatment

* Wakes/funerals in the early twentieth century in the United States

Five Facts From History the BryonySeries Taught Me, Part Two

In the first post of this kind, I'd mentioned how part of the fun of writing novels with a historical basis is, well, learning the history behind them.

Here are five more facts about history I didn't know before I wrote the BryonySeries prequel, Before The Blood.

1) I learned A LOT about one of the most brutal wars in human history, a war of which I had almost no knowledge before the research.

And that war is the 30 Years War.

2) A variation of vichyssoise can be made with two other ingredients - and now I want to try this version.

The ingredients are almonds and grapes.

3) I learned the lyrics more cowboy songs I ever knew existed - and two lines to one from the Civil War won't leave my head.

The lines are:

 I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill

And over the moor that's sedgy

Such lonely thoughts my heart do fill

Since parting with my Betsy

And I discovered the music to many of them on YouTube.

4) I can name a number of restaurants that no longer exist in Chicago - and tell you what they served.

Here's one: Henrici's.

5) I had never heard of cordgrass - but now I know what it is and where it grows - and why (even though the "why" didn't make it into the story).

You can see a photo here.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

Five Facts From History the BryonySeries Taught Me, Part One

Part of the fun of writing novels with a historical basis is, well, learning the history behind them.

Unfortunately, the research involved can also greatly lengthen the time it takes to write said novels.

For one, the research must get done. What did people of French descent eat on Christmas Eve in the late nineteenth century (I know this answer to this one!).

Also, it's simply too easy to get lost in the enjoyment of the research itself, which leads to another click of the mouse to this site and to another one over here.

Here are five (for now) facts about history I didn't know before I wrote the BryonySeries prequel, Before The Blood.


1) Ellis Island was not the first immigration center.

It was Castle Garden, now known as the Castle Clinton National Monument. The site was originally a fort, then a theater (where P.T. Barnum once brought Jenny Lind to sing), the immigration center, and an aquarium.


2) Old St. Patrick's Cathedral (not the "new" one) has an interesting tourist attraction.

Catacombs.


3) A company still around today started the pension system.

American Express, followed by railroad companies, such as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.


4) New York was home to two interesting industries.

"Rogue" slaughterhouses was one of them. The other you probably already know: opium.


5) A certain "cocktail" was used both as a stimulant and a poison, depending on the amounts. In fact, it used to be a favorite of Olympic athletes.

Strychnine and brandy.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

Shorten Your Research: Ask An "Expert"

Is your novel stuck because you need time to research a particular topic, era, item, etc.?

Shorten the info-gathering time by asking a friend, colleague, acquaintance, or even posting your request on social media.

For instance:

About half of Ed Calkins' dialogue in the BryonySeries came from Ed Calkins himself: bits of conversation I noted or actual question and answer interviews with the sole purpose of developing his character, adding to the plot, and making his dialogue sound like Ed. I mean, who better to consult regarding a certain character than the real character himself?

The police questioning of the girls in Bryony following Kimberly's disappearance came from interviewing a relative who liked police dramas.

When I couldn't drum up a basic plot for the first book in my Cornell Dyer series, I asked my younger sons to do it, as they had grown up reading similiar books.

I can't envision battle scenes, especially battle scenes from another era, but I need them for chapter two in Kellen's Story. So I asked a friend, who wrote a great fight scene in his novel-in-progress, to do it for me. I left that part blank in the novel until he could get to it and kept moving.

My writer's block for the last chapter in Kellen's section of Before the Blood became unblocked when I realized the reason for the blocking (My mind couldn't invent a sci-fi-ish 19th century-ish medical machine), stopped looking online for ideas, and simply asked Timothy to invent one. It took ten minutes while driving to church last Sunday, with Timothy talking off the top of his head and me taking notes. And thus ended weeks of frustration.

Sometimes, a book or the internet is the best place to get the data you need. At other times, one need look nno further than the guy playing video games in the next room.

It can be that simple.