Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 SHOW NOTES:

In today’s episode, I talk about some of the dramatic events of The Great War (World War I) and the making of Book 5 in the American Family Portrait series, The Allies.

• While preparing this podcast episode, it became clear to me that The Allies is one of my favorite books and time periods. I’ve already used it twice in other episodes on this website. You can find them by clicking the following links:

FROM MY LIBRARY AUDIO: An eyewitness account of a London zeppelin raid

VIDEO PODCAST: The Incredible Power of Historical Fiction (if you haven’t watched this one yet, you should!) 

• Historical fiction novels about World War I are not as popular as other time periods. The most popular time period for American history novels is the Civil War, with World War II second most popular. 
• For those who enjoy reading historical biographies, I would highly recommend William Manchester’s excellent trilogy on Winston Churchill, The Last Lion. Volume II describes the time period covering World War I.
• In The Allies, I follow three dramatic historical threads: the emergence of aviation, espionage, and heroic women in the war.
• The aviation story begins in (of all places) Colombus, New Mexico and proceeds to France and the legendary Lafayette Escadrille, an elite American air squadron.
• The espionage story includes the night the Black Tom Factory in New Jersey exploded as a result of German sabotage. The explosion was so great, it damaged the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and was heard as far away as Philadelphia. It was the 9/11 of the era.
• One of the most dramatic story lines in The Allies follows the adventures of American nurse ambulance drivers during the war who were led and inspired by the legendary Edith Cavell. I’ll devote the next podcast to Ms. Cavell and her heroic nurses.

CLICK HERE to start reading the American Family Portrait series in minutes!

Other episodes in this series: 

VIDEO

1. Why I Write Christian Historical Fiction
2. The Incredible Power of Historical Fiction
3. The Making of The Puritans
4. The Making of The Colonists
5. The Making of The Patriots
6. The Making of The Adversaries

AUDIO

1. Sports on Sundays: Keeping the Sabbath in the Days of The Puritans
2. My 13-year Odyssey to Getting Published
3. John Winthrop: The Forgotten Founding Father
4. A Middle-Aged Male Author Attempts to Write Poetry From a Teenage Character
5. 300-year-old Bible stolen
6. The Incredible Patience Wright
7. The Making of Behold
8. The Making of The Pioneers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

SHOW NOTES:

In our look back at the American Family Portrait series, we’ve made it to Book 3 in the series, The Patriots. And in this episode, I describe how, while mining historical research about the Revolutionary War, I struck character gold. I discovered Patience Wright, America’s first sculptress of notoriety.

• In the front of most novels is a disclaimer that the story is a work of fiction and that all names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination.
• Still, it’s well-known, that some fictional characters are based on living persons. Tom Sawyer, Aunt Polly, and Becky Thatcher were based on persons Mark Twain knew while growing up.
• In all of my novels, I have an Afterword in the back of the book where I describe what is fictional and what is historical, providing resources my readers can use to research the history for themselves.
• In The Patriots, my character, Abigail Matteson was inspired by the historical Patience Wright.
• As a young girl, Patience molded figures out of clay and bread, coloring them with pigments from herbs, and flowers, and tree sap.
• Patience moved to Philadelphia, got married, and had five children. And when her husband died, she had to support her family on her own. She turned to her modeling talent.
• Together with her sister and eldest daughter, Patience exhibited her work in Philadelphia, London, and Paris to great success.
• Several amusing anecdotes of visitors to her house mistaking wax models for real people were the inspiration behind several of my scenes in The Patriots, including a dramatic escape scene.

 CLICK HERE to start reading the American Family Portrait series in minutes!

 Other episodes in this series: 

VIDEO

1. Why I Write Christian Historical Fiction
2. The Incredible Power of Historical Fiction
3. The Making of The Puritans
4. The Making of The Colonists
5. The Making of The Patriots

AUDIO

1. Sports on Sundays: Keeping the Sabbath in the Days of The Puritans
2. My 13-year Odyssey to Getting Published
3. John Winthrop: The Forgotten Founding Father
4. A Middle-Aged Male Author Attempts to Write Poetry From a Teenage Character
5. The Stolen 300-year-old Bible

Jack’s Next Post
VIDEO: The Making of The Adversaries

 An American Family Portrait

Audio Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Show Notes

In this series of podcast episodes, I take a look at the Inspirational History of real-life persons and events who lived during the time in which my featured novel was historically set. Today’s hero: John Winthrop, Puritan leader.

• What makes John Winthrop a hero? A hero makes sacrifices for a great cause.
• Born in wealth, John Winthrop sacrificed to finance an expedition of 11 ships to the New World.
• With his wife pregnant at the time of sailing, John Winthrop made personal sacrifices to lead the Puritans to the New World.
• When the colonists were ready to turn back to England, with a speech Winthrop inspired them to build a “city upon a hill” that all men could look up to for inspiration.
• The government and court documents of those early settlers is replete with references to Scripture, indicating their belief that they were beginning a new nation based on faith in God.

 CLICK HERE to start reading An American Family Portrait in minutes!

Jack’s Next Post
THE COLONISTS: Book 2 in the American Family Portrait series