Beem Weeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "roaring-twenties"
Research Your Story
You've finished writing your book, allowed an editor to comb through it, even invited a few trustworthy colleagues to proofread the manuscript. Everything checks out. You send it to the publisher. It's only after it's been published, made available through Amazon, and been reviewed by a site or two, that you suddenly realize the world didn't have laptops back in 1969!
Sounds silly, right? Everybody knows laptops are a recent creation. But what about other inventions, simple items we take for granted, like car radios? Here's the thing: I read a great novel from a really good writer several years ago. The story took place in 1928. The main characters spent a lot of time tooling around those dusty roads in various automobiles of that particular era, listening to the radio, singing along to the songs of the day. Then it happened. A month or so later, while watching a documentary on the History Channel, I found the truth of the matter. Automobiles didn't begin to have radios until 1932.
Hmmm! I hadn't known that while reading the book. It really stands out now. The point of this posting is all about researching a subject, an era, or a person before you set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Nothing can kill a great story quicker than inaccuracy.
Younger authors today, those who are 20 or 25 years of age, can't comprehend that not-too-long-ago time when the internet was merely a nerd's ideal dream. The olden days saw pay phones on every corner, in most parking lots, and any other place the public might congregate. Why pay phones? Because cell phones didn't exist!
Imagine a 20-year-old author setting his/her story in, say, 1977. Not that long ago, really. The plot concerns the woman who found Elvis slumped on the throne. She tries to wake the king, gets no reaction; what does she do? She reaches into her pocket, snatches hold on her smart phone, snaps a picture, uploads it to her YouTube account, texts a message to the local paparazzi, and then finally calls 911. Sounds like a fine story--to a 20-year-old who failed to research the era. Most people will know that smart phones didn't exist in 1977. Neither did YouTube. 911 began it's life back then, but wasn't in every community at that time. Some cities had seven digit numbers for police, fire, ambulance.
When preparing to write my novel, Jazz Baby, a historical fiction piece set in 1925, I took a great deal of time researching the 1920s, Mississippi, New Orleans, Jim Crow racial relations, speakeasies, automobiles, the laws of prohibition, and many other relevant issues of the day. My protagonist, Emily Ann, is 13 years old in the Roaring Twenties--which is quite different from being 13 years old in, say, 2013. In 1925, a girl could be married off. College wouldn't likely have been an option. Careers for girls just didn't exist.
The world has changed a great deal over the past 88 years. Understanding what came before is key to writing a good, solid story. If I put Nike running shoes on the girl's feet, had her dreaming of owning a shiny Corvette, and tucked an iPod into her hip pocket, most readers would dump the book in the trash can after--or even before--the end of the first chapter. Why? Because if there are glaring inaccuracies afoot, it kills even the most entertaining of stories.
And even little things like lingo can detract from your novel. Emily Ann wouldn't greet a friend with, "'Sup, fool? Yo, peep this: Dog says Micky D's running a two-for-one on Big Macs. Wanna go get our grub on?" It's an awful lot of work to research such matters. But time and effort will be rewarded. Serious readers appreciate a solid read. Don't scrimp when it comes to getting the scene and the story right.
Sounds silly, right? Everybody knows laptops are a recent creation. But what about other inventions, simple items we take for granted, like car radios? Here's the thing: I read a great novel from a really good writer several years ago. The story took place in 1928. The main characters spent a lot of time tooling around those dusty roads in various automobiles of that particular era, listening to the radio, singing along to the songs of the day. Then it happened. A month or so later, while watching a documentary on the History Channel, I found the truth of the matter. Automobiles didn't begin to have radios until 1932.
Hmmm! I hadn't known that while reading the book. It really stands out now. The point of this posting is all about researching a subject, an era, or a person before you set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Nothing can kill a great story quicker than inaccuracy.
Younger authors today, those who are 20 or 25 years of age, can't comprehend that not-too-long-ago time when the internet was merely a nerd's ideal dream. The olden days saw pay phones on every corner, in most parking lots, and any other place the public might congregate. Why pay phones? Because cell phones didn't exist!
Imagine a 20-year-old author setting his/her story in, say, 1977. Not that long ago, really. The plot concerns the woman who found Elvis slumped on the throne. She tries to wake the king, gets no reaction; what does she do? She reaches into her pocket, snatches hold on her smart phone, snaps a picture, uploads it to her YouTube account, texts a message to the local paparazzi, and then finally calls 911. Sounds like a fine story--to a 20-year-old who failed to research the era. Most people will know that smart phones didn't exist in 1977. Neither did YouTube. 911 began it's life back then, but wasn't in every community at that time. Some cities had seven digit numbers for police, fire, ambulance.
When preparing to write my novel, Jazz Baby, a historical fiction piece set in 1925, I took a great deal of time researching the 1920s, Mississippi, New Orleans, Jim Crow racial relations, speakeasies, automobiles, the laws of prohibition, and many other relevant issues of the day. My protagonist, Emily Ann, is 13 years old in the Roaring Twenties--which is quite different from being 13 years old in, say, 2013. In 1925, a girl could be married off. College wouldn't likely have been an option. Careers for girls just didn't exist.
The world has changed a great deal over the past 88 years. Understanding what came before is key to writing a good, solid story. If I put Nike running shoes on the girl's feet, had her dreaming of owning a shiny Corvette, and tucked an iPod into her hip pocket, most readers would dump the book in the trash can after--or even before--the end of the first chapter. Why? Because if there are glaring inaccuracies afoot, it kills even the most entertaining of stories.
And even little things like lingo can detract from your novel. Emily Ann wouldn't greet a friend with, "'Sup, fool? Yo, peep this: Dog says Micky D's running a two-for-one on Big Macs. Wanna go get our grub on?" It's an awful lot of work to research such matters. But time and effort will be rewarded. Serious readers appreciate a solid read. Don't scrimp when it comes to getting the scene and the story right.
A Novel Called Jazz Baby
Emily Ann "Baby" Teegarten is a young girl with big dreams. She has the sort of voice that convicts sinners simply through song. But Baby has bigger aspirations than singing spirituals to that Mississippi congregation on Sunday mornings during the summer of 1925. The girl yearns to sing jazz in the clubs way up in New York City. Her father is her biggest supporter, standing behind the girl every step of the way--until he passes away suddenly. Her mother, accused in the father's demise, follows him to the grave shortly thereafter.
So what's a poor white-trash orphan girl supposed to do to answer the call of her dreams? Her strict, Bible-believing Aunt Francine has ideas of her own for this tiny girl with the big voice. She brokers a marriage between Emily and Jobie Pritchett, the preacher's son.
Emily Ann is a composite of several girls I've known over the years. There is a psychological element to this character that comes from reality, as harsh and dark as that might seem to some readers. She demanded to be written into existence. I could hear her voice, with that Mississippi lilt, calling out to me from the ether, arguing that it's her time, so pick up that pen, author man, and get to writing.
What Jazz Baby is meant to be is a trip into the year 1925; a shared summer with one young girl trying to find her way in life, in the world of her day. I spent untold hours in researching the era and that region of the country, and human behavior in general. The thing about human behavior is, it doesn't change, no matter the era in which we live. Stories from that era, told to me by my own grandfather, seem to suggest that the young people from the 1920s sought out the same things young people from the 2010s search after.
These weren't asexual, sober, boring people back then. Not at all. The stories I heard, either directly or through eavesdropping, told tales of young and vibrant lives, of men and women on the prowl for good times, cheap booze, and dirty sex. Not at all different from today. (Google "vintage porn" and see how many nudie pics from the 1920s pop up.) The thing is, today we see our grandparents (mine are long dead) as old people who spend a lot of time in church, doing good and Godly things. But they were young once. Young, and quite different from who they are today. Humans grow older, we mature, we change. It's part of the life experience.
I found it interesting that opium was a popular recreational drug in use during that era. Marijuana grew wild in parts of the country, going unmolested by the local authorities, many of whom would consider it silly to dedicate time, money, and effort in trying to eradicate a weed. The young people of the 1920s, the partiers, were the very ones partaking of these forbidden fruits.
One reviewer referred to the characters in Jazz Baby as "Blue Velvet-type characters." I like that comparison, though that movie never once crossed my mind as I wrote the book. These are indeed a collection of strange and bizarre types. I've always loved stories that break from the normal novel template. Good, quirky characters are a blast to create. The idea for the character called "Pig" came from a documentary film on 1920s movie star Fatty Arbuckle. He'd watched his career ruined through a sexual scandal that had no basis in truth. But in Jazz Baby, this character truly is scandalous. He really has those "unnatural" appetites.
Even Emily Ann has a bit of the quirky in her. She's fearless, reckless, and foolish, the way she traipses around the streets of New Orleans, running through the red-light district once known as Storyville, where she considers an invitation to allow her virginity to be auctioned to the highest bidder in a Storyville whorehouse. She's a fan of bootleg whiskey, opium, and cigarettes, and she hasn't a care in the world. Sexuality awakens in the girl, has her pondering the things that can take place between a boy and a girl--or between two girls. Is she bi-sexual? Labels mean nothing to Emily. And neither does race, as she spends much of her time in the company of "colored" jazz musicians, sharing intimacy with a certain piano player.
But the streets are quite dangerous for a young girl of Emily's size and age. Not everyone she meets has her best interests at heart. This is where that reckless side could cost her more than she's able afford. Dark characters have their own ideas for this girl, how best to profit from her talents--even her father's best friend proffers his own schemes.
It took me upwards near ten years to complete this novel, with all the rewrites, the research, and a two-year abandonment. It is available at Amazon http://www.tinyurl.com/bbj4my7 as a paperback or an ebook for Kindle, and at Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jazz-... for Nook.
You can even have a free read of chapter one at http://freshinkgroup.com/books/jazzbaby
So give it a read and let me know what you think. For those who'd like to review it, drop me a message and I'll gladly email a free PDF.
So what's a poor white-trash orphan girl supposed to do to answer the call of her dreams? Her strict, Bible-believing Aunt Francine has ideas of her own for this tiny girl with the big voice. She brokers a marriage between Emily and Jobie Pritchett, the preacher's son.
Emily Ann is a composite of several girls I've known over the years. There is a psychological element to this character that comes from reality, as harsh and dark as that might seem to some readers. She demanded to be written into existence. I could hear her voice, with that Mississippi lilt, calling out to me from the ether, arguing that it's her time, so pick up that pen, author man, and get to writing.
What Jazz Baby is meant to be is a trip into the year 1925; a shared summer with one young girl trying to find her way in life, in the world of her day. I spent untold hours in researching the era and that region of the country, and human behavior in general. The thing about human behavior is, it doesn't change, no matter the era in which we live. Stories from that era, told to me by my own grandfather, seem to suggest that the young people from the 1920s sought out the same things young people from the 2010s search after.
These weren't asexual, sober, boring people back then. Not at all. The stories I heard, either directly or through eavesdropping, told tales of young and vibrant lives, of men and women on the prowl for good times, cheap booze, and dirty sex. Not at all different from today. (Google "vintage porn" and see how many nudie pics from the 1920s pop up.) The thing is, today we see our grandparents (mine are long dead) as old people who spend a lot of time in church, doing good and Godly things. But they were young once. Young, and quite different from who they are today. Humans grow older, we mature, we change. It's part of the life experience.
I found it interesting that opium was a popular recreational drug in use during that era. Marijuana grew wild in parts of the country, going unmolested by the local authorities, many of whom would consider it silly to dedicate time, money, and effort in trying to eradicate a weed. The young people of the 1920s, the partiers, were the very ones partaking of these forbidden fruits.
One reviewer referred to the characters in Jazz Baby as "Blue Velvet-type characters." I like that comparison, though that movie never once crossed my mind as I wrote the book. These are indeed a collection of strange and bizarre types. I've always loved stories that break from the normal novel template. Good, quirky characters are a blast to create. The idea for the character called "Pig" came from a documentary film on 1920s movie star Fatty Arbuckle. He'd watched his career ruined through a sexual scandal that had no basis in truth. But in Jazz Baby, this character truly is scandalous. He really has those "unnatural" appetites.
Even Emily Ann has a bit of the quirky in her. She's fearless, reckless, and foolish, the way she traipses around the streets of New Orleans, running through the red-light district once known as Storyville, where she considers an invitation to allow her virginity to be auctioned to the highest bidder in a Storyville whorehouse. She's a fan of bootleg whiskey, opium, and cigarettes, and she hasn't a care in the world. Sexuality awakens in the girl, has her pondering the things that can take place between a boy and a girl--or between two girls. Is she bi-sexual? Labels mean nothing to Emily. And neither does race, as she spends much of her time in the company of "colored" jazz musicians, sharing intimacy with a certain piano player.
But the streets are quite dangerous for a young girl of Emily's size and age. Not everyone she meets has her best interests at heart. This is where that reckless side could cost her more than she's able afford. Dark characters have their own ideas for this girl, how best to profit from her talents--even her father's best friend proffers his own schemes.
It took me upwards near ten years to complete this novel, with all the rewrites, the research, and a two-year abandonment. It is available at Amazon http://www.tinyurl.com/bbj4my7 as a paperback or an ebook for Kindle, and at Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jazz-... for Nook.
You can even have a free read of chapter one at http://freshinkgroup.com/books/jazzbaby
So give it a read and let me know what you think. For those who'd like to review it, drop me a message and I'll gladly email a free PDF.
Jazz Baby Gets a New Cover
Okay, so Jazz Baby has a brand new cover. Why the change? Well, to be honest, I hated the original cover—hated it with a passion. Everything I had hoped it would be fell well short of the original vision I saw for my first novel. I had intended for the image to convey a feel for the era in which the story unfolds. It failed miserably.
There are elements of the original cover that were in line with what I envisioned. Unfortunately, the main image came off as cartoonish and amateurish. This detracted from the story itself. I recall a few readers mentioning that cover as a hurdle they had to overcome when deciding to purchase the book. How many others chose to pass on it?
So here it is, with its brand new cover, spine, and back cover. We also cleaned up the few typos that slipped past the editorial process. It’s a fresh new day for Jazz Baby.
A very special thank you to Fresh Ink Group for creating this amazing new cover.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Baby-Beem-...
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jazz-...
There are elements of the original cover that were in line with what I envisioned. Unfortunately, the main image came off as cartoonish and amateurish. This detracted from the story itself. I recall a few readers mentioning that cover as a hurdle they had to overcome when deciding to purchase the book. How many others chose to pass on it?
So here it is, with its brand new cover, spine, and back cover. We also cleaned up the few typos that slipped past the editorial process. It’s a fresh new day for Jazz Baby.
A very special thank you to Fresh Ink Group for creating this amazing new cover.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Baby-Beem-...
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jazz-...
Jazz Baby Gets a New Trailer!
Introducing the brand new video book trailer for Jazz Baby. This video is produced by Fresh Ink Group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9HyH...
A Peek into the Past
With Jazz: America’s Gift, author Richie Gerber has created a layered and textured look at the incredible history of this uniquely American genre of music. However, Gerber’s book goes beyond the standard investigation. What we learn in this in-depth examination has more to do with the transformation of jazz at the hands of George Gershwin.
Gerber’s book is chock full of historical facts, anecdotes, and once-famous names that have been lost to time. He takes readers on a guided tour of the Gershwin song book, offering insight into influences and meanings behind so many songs that continue to enjoy popularity so many decades after their creation. And then there are the lesser-known tunes; the ones that were written for various films and other projects, only to go unused.
Gerber grew up in Gershwin’s old neighborhood. He understands the lay of the land. It is this personal investment that really opens the door, allowing the rest of us a good look at what many consider to be the prime era of the jazz movement.
The drawings of Jazz Age artist Miguel Covarrubias are featured prominently throughout this book, giving a wonderful visual to many of the stories, setting a mood that really pulls the reader into the era and those long-ago moments.
This book is a must for jazz enthusiasts, music fans, and those who appreciate history.
Gerber’s book is chock full of historical facts, anecdotes, and once-famous names that have been lost to time. He takes readers on a guided tour of the Gershwin song book, offering insight into influences and meanings behind so many songs that continue to enjoy popularity so many decades after their creation. And then there are the lesser-known tunes; the ones that were written for various films and other projects, only to go unused.
Gerber grew up in Gershwin’s old neighborhood. He understands the lay of the land. It is this personal investment that really opens the door, allowing the rest of us a good look at what many consider to be the prime era of the jazz movement.
The drawings of Jazz Age artist Miguel Covarrubias are featured prominently throughout this book, giving a wonderful visual to many of the stories, setting a mood that really pulls the reader into the era and those long-ago moments.
This book is a must for jazz enthusiasts, music fans, and those who appreciate history.
