My Time Machine

From the Vault Note: This essay first appeared in a slightly different form on Southern Writers Magazine’s blog, April 2013.

Readers often comment that my stories immerse them fully in the fictional world I’ve created. Achieving that “You Are Here” feeling is a challenge for most authors. Those who write historical fiction wish they had a time machine, a way to experience what the past was like.

33rd Light Redcoats at BrattonsvilleI write crime fiction set during the eighteenth century, in the American War of Independence. I’ve found that time machine.

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Redcoat and Suzanne AdairWhen I started researching this period almost twenty years ago, I quickly realized that if I intended to create believable fiction about people who’d lived more than two hundred years earlier, reading books on the topic and interviewing subject matter experts wouldn’t cut it at helping me capture the period flavor. A desire to experience the everyday challenges my characters would have faced and how their world smelled, tasted, and sounded fueled my interest in becoming a Revolutionary War reenactor.

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Cooking at CamdenMy sons and I spent many weekends camped at historical battlegrounds during reenactment events. We slept in white canvas army tents with no mosquito screens, and we dressed in clothing made of wool and linen. Our menu was limited by what meals we could prepare over a wood fire. Food occasionally got scorched. Most of the time, running water, flush toilets, and heat or air-conditioning were unavailable.

I learned to start a fire from flint and steel. Not until I’d done so did I comprehend the impact of natural variables, such as wind and humidity, on establishing a fire when you don’t even have the convenience of matches. Try starting a fire with flint and steel on a windy, wintry night.

Continentals and Redcoats at Guilford CourthouseI also learned to load and fire a musket with powder only, like reenactors on the battlefield. Nothing I’d read prepared me for the noise, weight, heat, or reload time of the musket. The one time I fired a ball, I saw the way it could have ricocheted off trees and killed someone. How often did that happen in woodland skirmishes hundreds of years ago?

And I learned to move in a petticoat. However no reference book prepared me for how quickly the wind whipped my petticoat into the campfire at one event. Did you know that being burned was one of the top causes of death for women in the eighteenth century?

I’m a woman of the twenty-first century. I take technology for granted. Convenience and accessibility underpin my culture and shape my values and reactions. But during the Revolutionary War, very little was convenient or accessible. Danger and scarcity shaped decisions, especially for the middle and lower classes.

Indian at CamdenWe’re out of touch with the hardships our ancestors endured to stay alive. My challenge is to bridge that gap in my fiction. The lessons I’ve learned from reenacting inform the crafting of my fictional world. Without the experience of having lived history via the time machine of reenacting, I wouldn’t be able to provide such a believable and captivating escape for readers.

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HFeBooks Re-Runs My Time Machine: A HOSTAGE TO HERITAGE, Book Tour Stop 13

Got a hankering to read historical fiction? You’ll find something to hit the spot at the site for Historical Fiction eBooks. Take a look at all they have to offer. And today on their blog, they’re re-running one of my earlier essays.

What sort of historical revelations would you write about if you had a time machine to help you step back in time and sample the sensory impressions of the past? Stop by the HFeBooks blog today to learn about the time machine I discovered. Thanks!

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18th-century Favorite Things: A HOSTAGE TO HERITAGE, Book Tour Stop 9

Why do I spend so much time in the past? I have my reasons—and fortunately I’m not the only woman crime fiction author who indulges in historical settings. Stop by the blog of medieval mystery author Jeri Westerson today to find out some of the things I enjoy about 18th-century America. Thanks!

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My Time Machine: A HOSTAGE TO HERITAGE, Book Tour Stop 8

What sort of historical revelations would you write about if you had a time machine to help you step back in time and sample the sensory impressions of the past? Stop by the Suite T blog today to learn about the time machine I discovered. Thanks!

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Reenacting and Gratitude

Many years ago, encumbered by the point of view of someone dwelling in the twentieth century, I joined a group that depicted a unit of the Thirty-Third Light Company of Foot during living history events in the American South. My desire was to immerse myself in the activities and sensory impressions an eighteenth-century woman living during the Southern theater of the American Revolution would have experienced, so I could more accurately depict the world of Sophie Barton, protagonist in my first book, Paper Woman: A Mystery of the American Revolution.

33rd Light Company of Foot reenactors

Reenacting is an enlightening research tool. It helps me create the world of the Southern theater in my fiction. Reenacting is the ultimate hands-on history. By immersing myself in the military world of the late eighteenth century for entire weekends at a time, I cannot escape brushes with some of the hardships that plagued our ancestors. Sudden downpours and windstorms with no shelter. Sudden freezing rain, even with shelter. Heat indices of 120 degrees. Mosquito swarms without screens. No plumbing. No refrigeration. No electricity. No phone service. You get the idea.

Cooking at a Revolutionary War reenactment

My first reenacting event, I didn’t know to expect primitive conditions. After more events, I settled in with the understanding that at the end of the weekend, I’d be reunited with the technological comforts of my time. That’s when I comprehended how tough, persevering, and remarkable my ancestors must have been—and how fortunate I was to live in a country where I had access to wonders such as running water, electricity, refrigeration, and plumbing.

In the United States, we take our twenty-first century standard of living for granted. We forget that comforts such as running water are truly wonders, luxuries to many people in the world, people who start each day by walking several miles, burdened by buckets or jugs, to the nearest source of water (likely not clean). Survival is foremost in the minds of these people when they awaken each day, just as it was for people—patriot, loyalist, and neutral—during the American Revolution.

Thanksgiving turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and friends. When you gather with family and friends to celebrate this holiday, consider the hardships endured by courageous people who lived more than two centuries ago during the time of the American Revolution. Today, people throughout the world endure those same hardships. Remember those people in your thoughts and hearts for a moment. And don’t take for granted your luxuries or your liberty.

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Inside the World of Revolutionary War Reenacting

What do spectators see at the site of a Revolutionary War reenactment? What happens behind the scenes after the public leaves the site for the day? In response to everyone who has expressed interest, this post and future posts will … Continue reading

Walnut Grove Plantation 2006 Living History and Battle Reenactment — and My First Booksigning

Tremendous improvements have been made to Walnut Grove Plantation since my last visit, in 2001. In addition to a new visitors’ center, the site features a pavilion with a fireplace, focus of activities during rainy or chilly weather. At the pavilion last Friday night, 6 October, the Spartanburg County Historical Association held its annual fundraiser for the plantation: live bluegrass music, South Carolina upcountry BBQ with scrumptious hushpuppies and ribs, and an open bar. And if you came dressed in your 18th-century finery, you didn’t pay the $60 admission fee!

During dinner, the Historical Association held a silent auction, the donated items ranging from bags of dog food to ceramics to woodworking. Dressed in my polonaise gown, I quickly homed in on board members to learn how I could donate a copy of Paper Woman to the auction. In no time at all, they had the book set up on one of the auction tables. My pleasure to contribute to such a worthy cause.

Saturday 7 October delivered the type of weather that wool-clad reenactors relish: cloudy but not rainy, and highs in the lower 60s. The tree leaves on site were just beginning to turn color and helped make the grounds lovely. As usual, the crown and patriot encampments were separated, and most of the sutlers and tradesfolk set up for business in the patriot camp. Plenty of things to see there. I was so busy chasing details for my booksigning that I didn’t get to spend much time in that section of camp, but I did spot blacksmithing, soap making, food preservation, surveying, and dressmaking.

Milking a goat at Walnut Grove Plantation

One lady brought her goats and demonstrated how to milk them. She had for sale goats’ milk cheese and shampoo and soap made from goats’ milk.

The historical incident that puts Walnut Grove on the map for the Revolution involves loyalists under “Bloody” Bill Cunningham who barged into the house and killed three patriots. Kate Barry, wife of the owner, slipped away to warn her husband, and he returned in time to spare the house from being torched. But spectators at reenactments want to see battles, so Walnut Grove follows its staging of the three patriots’ killings with a fictitious battle reminiscent of backcountry skirmishes that occurred all the time in the Carolinas. Plenty of musket fire and black powder smoke, colorful uniforms, noise, and “death” on the battlefield. The spectator crowd numbered several hundred, and a good time was had by all.

Signing books at Walnut Grove Plantation

After the battle, the staff at Walnut Grove turned the mike over to me. For the debut of Paper Woman, I read a passage from the book and tied the action found therein with what had happened at Walnut Grove. And then I sold books to total strangers — an amazing feeling! Was I nervous? Not really. I felt very much alive and enjoyed everything about the afternoon. I’m grateful to everyone who purchased books from me and was delighted to connect with each reader at an individual level.

Here’s a Huzzah! for my family for helping with the mechanics of the booksigning. And another Huzzah! for the folks at Walnut Grove — Becky Slayton, Jim Crocker, and Jennifer Furrow — for allowing me the opportunity to debut my novel in such a lovely location.

Next up: the Crystal Coast Book Festival, 20-21 October 2006.

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First Interview

My first media interview, printed in the Sunday 1 October edition of The
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
, can be read online at the following link:

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061001/NEWS/610010327/1028

Ann Patterson, book columnist with the paper, interviewed me. We talk about history, camp followers, battle reenactments, women in the American Revolution, and writing. Thanks to Ann for the interview.

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Reenacting

Thanks to everyone who sent congratulations via email and blog comments.

060927-Hillsborough 2002 Reenactment

I’ve been a reenactor for almost seven years. At living history events such as those listed on the calendar, I portray the wife of a soldier (otherwise known as a "camp follower") in His Majesty’s 33rd Light Company of Foot. Although the term "camp follower" conjures images of a shabbily dressed, poxed prostitute who skulks around the fringe of a military camp, prostitutes made up only a small percentage of camp followers during the Revolutionary War. A camp follower was any non-combatant attending a military group: a soldier’s wife, sibling, child, parent, servant, or slave, for example, or an artisan (blacksmith, wheelwright, etc.), merchant (stationer, green grocer, etc.), trader, or peddler. One reason I reenact is to help educate the public about real history.

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