Well we are suppose to be getting the mother of all storms today. I got up at 5:04 am to write...made my tea and sat down. Then I heard a "Mom?" It was my youngest and it was 5:30am... So now I have a very chatty Danny on my hands. No amount of "I'm writing" or "Mommy got up early to write" or "."If you don't be quiet I'm going back up to my freezing bedroom to write,"deters him. Wow, he has been quiet for two minutes...
I have a very hard time sleeping past a certain time. Also there is the fact besides wanting to write that I have my daughter's puppy who will need to get up and out... so I get my sleep knowing I will have to get up early. So what better time to write BUT when the house is quiet and I can piece two thoughts edge wise together in a coherent fashion without being interrupted?? All the boys aren't up, fighting or aggravating one another to distraction. So most are still asleep... ahhh. Thank goodness.
Research is a wonderful thing for me. I will be writing and then a thought will come to me. I am actually glad when these stray thoughts come to me. It gives my brain a break from working out scenes and thoughts. Trying to work inside the brain of one of my characters can be exhausting. Multiply that with working inside the brain of someone of the 1940s and how they would talk, think and or express themselves is not the same as we would today. Things were a much slower pace. Just like I am reading a book to Daniel and to any of the other boys who will listen called "The Winged watchman". Takes place in Holland during the 1940s and the occupation. I had read this book to my older children when they were younger and they really enjoyed it. It makes me think of another book of the same time period, actually a few. I can remember one's title but the other one is a blur and escapes me. Maybe a bit of searching will bring the title and author to mind.
I was reading a book yesterday at work at my desk. it's by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, better known as the Yarn Harlot. The books title "Things I learned from knitting whether I wanted to or not".
One quote is "You don't knit because you are patient. You are patient because you knit." A monogamous knitter is a rare thing indeed." Meaning and this is where her name comes into play. You will be knitting happily on a project and then you see this seductive little project that just begs to be knitted... SOooo you pick that project up and then another and another... and there you go. I think all of us knitters have a bit of 'yarn harlot' in us whether we want to admit it or not.
Back to research. I was talking to my 82 year old aunt the other day on the phone. Since she grew up in Camden, was a young teen during WWII I wanted her take on what she remembers. So I mailed her a list of questions and she called me. Like where Marshall Hill was on John Street? Since she grew up on John Street and still lives there. We finally figured out through my memories of my other Aunt and Uncle telling me to run across the road to see if the "Holy Rollers" were rolling down the hill... I would run across the street and my relatives would be heard laughing up a storm... We figured it was Josh Marshall's hill who was another relative. I asked her about going out for ice cream sodas, the movies. Where the hospital was. She told me her father was a Air Raid Warden, who would go up and down John Street with a flash light to make sure all lights were out till the "All Clear Signal" was sounded. How black masking tape was put on car head lights on the top to make them dimmer. I wrote to my mom and she is going to write down her recollections of growing up during the war in NYC.
So there you have it. My thoughts for this snowy morning. Somewhat scrambled but there they are .
