Genealogy and Historic Fiction

If you want to really find out about your family history, write a book based on it.  No sooner is your novel published, than the mist clears and memories return.  "That's not right.  This is what really happened." is the phrase most often heard.  Relatives and friends who feigned forgetfulness about things that happened long ago, suddenly develop razor sharp recall.  I received a call from a woman in Tennessee who let me know two streets in my story did not intersect and Massey was a great wine maker.  The fact that many crystal clear memories conflicted with newspaper reports, census data, and each other did not seem to matter.  But my book is published, thus making my version fact.

As my research progressed, I was amazed by the wake our lives' leave behind.  Thanks to such genealogy sites as Ancestor, Family Search, Find a Grave, and others, I could piece together Massey's life.  No more did I have just the cold facts: birth, death, marriage and children.  With the additional information I obtained I could actually put flesh on his bones.  Ship records of departures and arrival dates, provided the length of his voyage and probable route.  Census records told me when he first arrived in Rockdale he lived in a small  boarding house with six other men.  Draft records showed he and Sam registered together and neither could sign their name and did so in a building they normally would not visit.  His son's baptismal record provided the names of godparents and what I assume were his and Akulina's best friends and two more characters for the story.

Massey's Draft Registration - 1918

One of the best sources for genealogy information is the local library.  Every county library has a room, or perhaps an entire floor, dedicated to family history.  While the census showed the bare facts of Massey's neighbors, their nationality and employment, it was old phone books and business listing that told me where he might have shopped and enjoyed recreation.  Old street maps outlined long gone trolley and interurban lines and newspaper ads gave the cost of food, clothing and entertainment.

Rockdale In Early Twentieth Century

Naturalization papers brought both Massey and my father to life.  Home Land Security sent me 38 pages of documents and interviews.  I heard my 19 year-old father's hesitant replies to the questions thrown at him by the interviewer, and I imagined Massey fidgeting as his son struggled to come up with the right phrases to stay in America.  No more was Massey the grandfather who died when I was five a shadowy figure.  Through his footprints, I know him better than I people who now surround me.

The Response to Banners

Well, let's just say the response to Banners wasn't what I hoped.  Whereas Ikons' story was based on family dynamics, Banners' was the effect of global warfare on families.  My female fan base was turned off by the novel's plot, which placed my characters in harm's way.  A few admired Kayata's pluck and Akulina's determination in the face of hardship, but they just did not relate to my male characters, Sergei and Igor.  Male readers commented on the rapid pace and the historic references, but men do not form book clubs and host wine and cheese parties.  Another lesson learned.

Banners plot is based on actual events.  In the opening chapters, Russia declares war on Austria-Hungary and the young men of Hutava march off with music and singing.  While the village's band consisted only of a concertina and could not compare to that of Moscow, it was no less heartfelt.

Russian soldiers march of to battle behind a band

Sergei, Massey's father and a retired Russian officer, elects to offer his service to the Tsar and discovers a subordinate from his frontier service.  Here I do a flashback to Sergei's experience as a member of the Tsar's army in the Far East Asia.  I used to following photo to create a story of Sergei's life at a remote desert fortress.  It helped my research that a century later, Russia was fighting the descendants of Sergei's mujahideen.  While I kept bloodshed to a minimum, it still is war.

Russian mounted infantry defend against Khivan marauders.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Massey and other expatriates follow the European war through newspaper and silent movies.  A newsreel of Russia's defeat at Tannenberg sets off a riot in a Joliet cinema and causes nationalities to take sides.  Massey and Sam decide to sit out the war, but are torn by events they have no control over.

Russian prisoners following their defeat at Tannenberg

The villagers of Hutava are evacuated from the what has now become the war zone and transported across the Urals to Unkurda, an Old-Believer village north of Chelyabinsk.  Their route is fraught with peril and Akulina becomes separated while attempting to obtain hot water.

Evacuees awaiting hot water at a rail station

After their arrival in Unkuda, the two cultures seek co-existence, but differences lead to both hostility and humor.  Kataya is smitten by growing patriotism and runs off to join the Tsar's Army and ends up in the Women's Shock Battalion. 

Women's Shock Battalion

After suffering numerous defeats, the Russian army mutinies and Bolshevik forces storm the Tsar's Winter Palace where Kataya is stationed.  Banners ends when Akulina's oldest son, Stefan, finds out about the revolution and asks if the bad storm is over.  Akulina tells him it has just beginning.

While attending a Miami University Writers' Seminar, the main speaker, Jane Friedman, introduced the concept of the book trailer as a sales tool.  I used my expertise in film to produce a trailer for Banners.  Using old movie footage and photos from my novel's time period, I wrote a script, threw together a two minute video and placed it on Youtube.  The results were underwhelming.  I can't really recommend trailers as a source of sales.  But mine didn't cost anything and was fun to create.

Banners Trailer

Publishing Banners: For God, Tasr and Russia

When it came time to publish Banners, I had the same question as I did with Ikons.  Should I go the traditional publishing route and find an agent or self-publish?  I sat myself down and asked, why am I doing this?  What do I hope to gain?  After several one-sided discussions, I finally found my answer. I didn't want money, I wanted immortality.

I grew up in an age of imagination where I spent nights listening to radio shows and creating images of characters and locations in my mind.  My world was filled not only with stories plucked from the airwaves, but also those found in history books.  Bigger than life heroes and villains fought imaginary battles across the expanse of time.  Add to this tales from my uncles returning from the war in Europe and the Pacific and my father's stories of Russia, and my mind was fertile ground for tales of  epic proportions.  I wanted to share these sagas and pass them down to future generations.  My children and their children should know their heritage and the sacrifices of those who made their lives possible.  Thus I decided to write in way to accomplish this goal.

Based on my experience with Ikons, I again chose iUniverse as my publisher.  I did take more time to sculpture Banners than Ikons and hired a retired professional editor to check over my work.  She did an outstanding job, proving I did not have all the necessary knowledge to self self-publish.  While I did have the foresight to farm out my editing, I found another area to make mistakes.

Buoyed by my new found confidence, I designed my own book cover.  All my covers were to have my ancestors' images.  The first reflected Massey and Akulina, who were the major characters, and the second contained Akulina and her sons, Stefan and John.  I knew how to use Photoshop, so what could be the problem?  All I had to do was cut my characters from the family portrait and slap them on various backgrounds.

Cover using the newspaper image background

Cover using refugee background

Cover using battle background

My focus group suggested using the cover with the battle background, but changing the subtitle.  I finally chose For God, Tsar and Russia, believing it conveyed the nature of the story.  iUniverse was more than happy to use it.

Banners back cover

For the back cover I changed my author's photo.  For this one, I went with a picture of me sitting in the cab of a Soviet missile launch system.  This is what I look like.

Me in the cab of one the Russian missile launchers we destroyed

I entered Banners in the Writers' Digest Self-Published Book Contest in 2003.  The book received fours and fives in all categories but cover design, which received a one out of five.  The reviewer remarked that while my prose was almost poetic, my cover looked like, "a Photoshopped picture on a background."  Which it was.  Another lesson learned.