Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing

fore·shad·ow

fôrˈSHadō

verb

gerund or present participle: foreshadowing

be a warning or indication of (a future event).

I watched the The Game of Thrones television series based on George R. R. Martin's Songs of Fire and Ice for the second time and noticed the saga was peppered with foreshadowing.  Throughout the series subtle phrases gave the viewer a glimpse into the coming events.  For example, several times early in the saga the ill-fated character Catelyn alluded to never seeing her children again, and another occured following the marriage of Rob Stack to Jayne Westerling when one of Rob's bannermen prophesied, "Your marriage cost us the war."

Catelyn Stark

These instances could have been spoilers, but were hinted at with such care as to not give away the plot or pull the reader from the scene.  I used foreshadowing in my novels and strove to limit the amount of information each presented.

The Storm

Since Akulina's death was the focal point of all of my novels, it was mentioned in all three.  Most, if not all, my foreshadowing came from Akulina's visions.  Her reputation as a seer provided a seamless way to present future events.  In my first novel, Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, soon after Massey leaves for America, Akulina tells her father of a vision very similar to that of Catlyn Stark. 

* * *

Akulina continued to stare off at the distant horizon, watching something hidden from her father's eyes.  "No.  Not exactly a vision," she explained in a tone devoid of emotion.  “I feel it more than I see it.  Even now when I look to the sky I can feel it and almost make it out.  It’s like a black cloud that fills the entire sky just beneath the horizon.  But it’s much more than a cloud.  It’s much more than a storm.  It’s blackness.  A blackness darker than the darkness in potato cellar beneath the izbah.  A blackness.”

 
Akulina looked at the ground before her.  "I have a feeling--a very strong feeling that I will never see my Massey again.  I can't explain it, Papa.  I just know it."

* * *

Akulina's Vision

Akulina tried to explain away her vision as a natural reaction to life in early twentieth century Russia.  After all, she later tells her father, if one waits long enough something bad will happen.

The Onion Field 

My second novel, Banners: For God, Tsar, and Russia, began with foreshadowing.  Shortly before the outbreak of the Great War, Akulina collapsed while harvesting the onion field.  When questioned why she cried out the Russian word for skulls, she admitted the bulbs appeared as the skulls of people she knew.  She then added, “The last skull I saw, was mine.”

Akulina's vision

Making Cheese

I kept the skull image in the final novel, Slogans: Our Children, Our Future. This time I used the scene where Akulina was making cheese.  As she stirred the mixture, cheese globules began to form and morphed into the shape of skulls.  (I must like the skull image since I employed it twice.)  Again, Akulina recognized the features as those deceased.  This time they called out to her.

* * *

In turn, Master Gleb, Ultia Yauhoraka, Simon Petr and Kochek the Cobbler broke to the surface and sank.  Finally, as one, the skulls churned to the top, stared at her from empty sockets and cried out through lipless mouths.  “Akulina Boriskova, soon you will join us.”  The onion field had returned and once more Akulina crumpled.

* * * 

Looking back at my use of foreshadowing, I don't think they were very subtle.  They may have taken the reader out of the flow and bludgeoned him with images, but Akulina's death merited strong ones.  While foreshadowing is obviously important with writing a saga, use them sparingly and treat them with care. Reread your favorite novel and watch for well constructed examples.

Writing a Death Scene - Part 2

The Gulag

Any historic novel set in Russia during the twentieth century will invariably include at least one scenario situated in her forced labor camps.  Since no family was spared the snares of what Andre Solzhenitsyn called the Gulag Archipelago, I sentenced my character, Boris Koscik to five years hard labor, or what his daughter labeled death.  Rather than try to describe the horrors of prison life, I choose to write only snippets of Boris'confinement.  For a detailed picture of camp life, I left it up to narratives found in the works of talented writers such as Solzhenitsyn's One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich and  Varlan Shalamov's  Kolyma Tales.

Boris

In Slogans: Our Children, Our Future, I wrote of Boris's death from his point of view.  Left to die from cholera in a sealed barrack, Boris remained in character and continued his defiance against the Party to the end.  As he drifted in and out of delirium, he shouted challenges and insults to the guards posted safely outside. 

* * *

“Come inside you sniveling curs.  What?  Are you afraid to die?”  Boris' attempt at a challenge resulted in little more than a dry rattle.  “Come and see how real men face death.”  There would be no doctor, no cure.  He was a zhuk and zhuk were replaceable.  He strained his ears and heard nothing.  The old priest no longer chanted prayers forgiving his jailers and the young anarchist ceased to blaspheme.  In the gulag, death respected neither age nor belief.

* * *

Gulag Prisoners

As Boris slipped away, in his mind he heard a song.  It was the same tune his daughter, Akulina had requested on her wedding day.  The song, "Little Bells" evoked a longing to return to the comforts of home after a hard day or a hard life.

* * *

Death's fishy odor grew thicker than the sodden blanket Boris huddled beneath for warmth.  As he struggled for life, blackness slowly descended over him heralded by a song.  The singer’s voice was strong and steady and floated from everywhere and yet nowhere.  It sang a slow mournful tune whose lyrics spoke of yearning for times long gone. 

“The sound of the bell echoes in the field.

The coachman is silent and road

Stretches far into the horizon.”

* * *

In keeping with Akulina's extraordinary perception,  she felt her father slip away "as softly as a moonbeam through a window."  In the last paragraph of the camp scene I jumped to a future in which the remains of the camp victims were compared to that of a mammoth consumed by the prisoners in an earlier chapter.

* * *

Unlike the death of the mammoth ten millennia ago, Pravda did not mention the thirty-two prisoners at Solovki Sub-Camp Number Seven who perished from cholera.  Several generations would pass before the victims' bones and those of thousands of others scattered throughout the forest would be exhumed and given a proper burial.

* * *

Burial site outside a labor camp

Illness and Starvation

Along with the labor camps, death from starvation and sickness was rampant in the early years of the Soviet Union.  Unlike Boris' fictitious death in the Gulag, Akulina's death on a badly managed famine train was true.

Akulina

Akulina's life and death contained all the material of legend.  It was a story of suffering and sacrifice; a mother who died so her sons may live.  Her final moments spanned all three of my novels.  In the first two it occurred as haunting premonitions, a black emptiness void of all light.  In Slogans, I finally described her death.  As the transport train chugged through the Russian wasteland on its way to Poland, Akulina weakened by starvation succumbed to pneumonia.  I choose using two opposing points of view. 

In the first narrative Akulina slipped into a dream state where she met her mother Maria, who showed her a room piled with food and drink.  Akulina viewed a wonderful world that was in stark contrast to her actual surroundings.

* * *

Akulina sat at the table and gazed about the room.  She viewed clear windows with lace curtains, a floor that glimmered like a moonlit pond, and furniture grander than Old Rosina's.  Never had she been in a place so elegant.

 

“Would you like a cup of chi, dear?” her mother asked.  “Come, drink.  It will warm you.”

* *  *

Reality - Transport Train to Poland

The second point of view was that of her youngest son, Vanya.  Vanya slept next his mother for warmth and sensed his mother's distress.  I played the two views against each other, one showing a peaceful death, the other the actual.

* * *

Vanya put his arms around his mother and felt her body shiver.  How small she is.  I can feel her bones.  Should I call Teta?  Vanya remained silent until the spasms lessened and the breathing softened.  “Please, Mati.  Be better,” he whispered before he again drifted to sleep.

* * *

Akulina allowed her mother to lead her into the beyond.  It wasn't until others had read this passage that I recognized the significance of Maria's last words.  I don't know where the inspiration for "there is no when" came from, but it seemed to fit.

Into the Light

* * *

“Where are you taking me?” Akulina asked.  “I can't leave my boys.  And what about Massey?”

“You did well with them, Akulina Boriskova.  Their father will see they grow to become fine young men.  You need not worry.”

“And Papa?”

“He awaits.”

“When will I see him?”

“ Oh, Lena.  Where we're going there is no when.  Only now.”

* * *

Poor little Vanya realized his mother was gone and did all in his power to help her.

* * *

Vanya awoke with a jolt and adjusted his blanket to block the night air.  Again he rolled closer to his mother for comfort, but as soon as their bodies touched he knew.  In a desperate attempt, Vanya pulled his mother closer, wrapped her in his arms and tried to bring her back.

* * *

Koscik family memorial - Hutava, Belarus

American Relief Agency

Mention the name Herbert Hoover and Americans conjure up images of Depression Era breadlines.  But a decade before, Hoover was the champion who saved Europe from starvation.  As the head of the American Relief Agency, he oversaw the distribution of American provisions to millions starving from the result of war, revolution and famine. Among them may have been my family.

President Herbert Hoover

Hoover's workers, known as Hoover's Boys, were idealistic young men who fought hunger with the same zeal they had shown the Great War. My research into Russia during the period of the 1921 famine, turned up an excellent book on the subject by Bertrand M. Patenaude, The Big Show in Bololand.

A definitive account of American aid to Russia's during the 1921 famine

While Patenaude's sweeping account of American aid is inspiring, his vivid accounts of the famine and the accompanying photographs of its victims are not for the faint of heart.  It is difficult to imagine the suffering people must endure.  I choose to incorporate the exploits of the ARA in my novel, Slogans: Our Children, Our Future on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the United States, Massey reads a newspaper article describing the amount of food that can be sent to their families in Russia, and recuits his friends for the cause.

Ten dollars worth of relief

* * *

“It doesn't matter who gets our food,” Massey said and jabbed his finger at the words.  “What matters is, we contribute.  Have you seen the newspapers?  Every week they publish a list of those giving to the ARA.  Schools, churches, unions.  All kinds of groups are raising funds.  Last week the Rockdale school children raised over twelve dollars.  The only ones not listed are Russians.  How can we expect Americans to help feed our families if we don't give something?”

* * *

While some of compatriots suspect the ARA of not really helping Russia, Massey witnessed an incident showing  he was correct.

* * *

Three weeks later, Massey took his break on the mill's loading platform and watched a seemingly endless line of Santa Fe grain hoppers rumble east toward Chicago.  It wasn't until the caboose disappeared into the gathering darkness did he understand what he had witnessed.  There spread across the caboose's railing was a tattered and soot stained banner declaring, “Nebraska Corn for Russia.” 

* * *

On the other side of the Atlantic, American aid reached Akulina and her children.  Thanks to the ARA, the villagers were provided with a glimmer of hope.

Children fed by ARA

* * *

Less than three weeks earlier Stepha was sure he had been saved.  The lady doctor and the strange speaking people gave him milk from a tin cow and dusted him with white powder so he stopped itching.  The watery kasha they ladled out did not taste like that Mati made, but it eased the cramp in his stomach.  The following day they brought white bread and potatoes and allowed him several bites.  After he finished his meager feast Mati said they soon would have soup with noodles and real black bread.  But the soup never came.  Instead, Stepha learned he was going to be dead.

* * *

The ARA may be only a footnote in history, but the organization's drama  is what brings historical fiction to life.

Religion In Historical Fiction Writng

When I began writing my trilogy, I had no idea religion would so heavily influence my characters.  Initially, I tried to stay away from religion, which from the title of my first novel, Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, should have warned me of the futility.  I tried to make organized religion antiseptic by implying the village of Hutava could no longer afford a priest. My fictional village did have a church building, but it was not used as such except for special occasions.  I christened the church Saint Ivan Vladimir, for no special reason I can recall and described it as the standard Russian onion domed church with a fading icon of the name saint. 

Saint Ivan Vladimir in factious Hutava

Religion in Hutava

My main characters, having been raised Christian, rebelled against my attempts to secularize them and adhered to their religion as best they could.  Akulina and Massey followed the dicta of fast and abstinence, observed holy days, and traditional rites, such as the sacraments of baptism, marriage and anointing the sick.  In their family spiritual matters it was the patriarchs, Boris and Serge, who assumed the pastoral role in the priest's abstinence.

How much the Orthodox faith infused their beings was attested to during Massey and Akulina's courtship and wedding.  Their prenuptial traditions, banter and wedding reception antics were based on my recollections of my Eastern European relatives.  My maternal grandparents, John and Cecil Mores, provided some insight into Slavic wedding customs, but it was the reverence and frivolity of their children's ceremonies that I recalled and used as the basis for many scenes.

John and Cecil Mores on Their Wedding Day

There was nothing frivolous about Akulina's faith, however.  I gave her an unshaken belief in an afterlife that sustained her through the travails of her shortened existence.  But it was not just her who relied upon religion when she needed an anchor.

Religion In America

Religion increased in importance when Massey arrived in America.  Tossed into the turbulent waters of the new world, he and the others of the Orthodox community sought refuge in stability provided by their spiritual bond.

Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church - Joliet, Illinois

They founded Saint Nicholas Church which became the both their social and spiritual center.  I remember going to Saint Nicholas when it was housed in the building shown in the above photograph.  My most vivid memories of the church are not of the heavily perfumed ceremonies, but rather the ensuing trip to the Dairy Queen on the next block.  In the mid-40's Joliet was home to the very first Dairy Queen and for a nickle, I got a really large curly ice cream cone.

I based my characters' Russian religion on a mixture of my memories, current and historical religious programs, and imagination.  I'm grateful to the Orthodox church in Joliet for providing me with the history of the faith in Northern Illinois.  I believe I did them justice.

The Old Believers 

To bless with two fingers or three?  That was the question which caused the schism in the Orthodox church and created the Old Believers.  I introduced the Old Believers (Starovyery) in Banners: For God, Tsar and Russia and continued their story in Slogans: Our Children, Our Future.  Their isolated Siberian village of Unkuda, which became home for the refugees from Hutava, was 300 years out of step with the modern age and provided the backdrop for the Russian Civil War.  I didn't know much about the Old Believers, but I live in an area populated by Amish and other Christian sects of that nature.  The Amish became a surrogate for the Old Believers' language, life style and world view.

Old Believers

The differing views of the Orthodox religion provided ample opportunities for friction and misunderstanding between the refugees and the Old Believers.  For dialogue, I used old English words to delineate an Old Believer.  The clashes between the two groups were usually harmless and sometimes even humorous.  But all changed under the Red banner.