My bout with fall fever took me to the mountains of SC in search of some fall color. We visited Table Rock, Pickens and surrounding areas. The Sumac and Sweet Gum were beginning to turn. I don't think it cured me, in fact it may have advanced my illness.

I have Fall Fever!

Photos from NC mountains 2010.

Research Trip

I have just returned from a trip to central Virginia to visit battlegrounds where my characters fought. These sites where so many were wounded and died; and where history was made are just places. I'm not sure what I expected, but normal places was not it! Spotsylvania is just a valley where it would be easy to move a lot of men and equipment through; Bennet's Place at Appomatox was just a house in a small town; and Rappahanock Bridge is just a river where a pontoon bridge once stood.

Don't get me wrong, to visit these places where my characters faced death was rewarding. I can now picture what they were seeing and was able to stand right where they stood. My descriptions of place and situation will be much easier.

But somehow I thought there would be more to a place that is so important to the history of our nation; a perment glow to the place, patriotic music in the background, voices of those long gone wafting in the air. But these were real places, real men, real circumstances; and real death and destruction.

Computer Crash

It is amazing to me how dependant I have become on my computer. When it crashed last week, I was completely lost! Of course, I had no recent backups of my research, writing or photography. Without those a part of my life was missing. I felt unstable, paniced and ungrounded until I knew my data was safe.

Just to think I grew up without computers, everything was written or typed by hand. File cabinets were our storage systems, pictures were kept in albums and you never knew what to do with the negatives, and research was page after page of notes. Life can be altered tremendously in such a short time.

So I'm thinking about what other inventions changed the world so drasticly. The automobile, or course; airconditioning because it isolated us from our neighbors and the world around us; television, what a horrible and noble influence it has on us. What yet unthought of discovery or invention will be the next world changing thing?

Life During the Civil War

I'm reading journals about life in the south during the Civil War. Did you know that more soldiers died of disease than battle wounds?  One of the men I researched died of measles before ever seeing the battlefield; one was taken prisoner after the end of the war, marched to Ohio and died in a prison camp of diarreah. The final soldier saw action in many of the major battles of the war only to return home with consumption (TB) and he wasted away for several years before dying.

Life at home was not much better with food shortages, no men for the heavy labor and the threat of Yankee troops.  What a life changing event this war was for everyone.

Character Development

Since the story I'm telling is based on fact I must do research to develop the personalities of my characters. Their lives will affect how they react and what they do. So I'm doing research into life in Salisbury during the Civil War, consumption, measles, battles, the bread riot, New York in the 1770's, the gangs of NY and many other consuming topics. I'm getting to know my characters more and more through the things they experienced.

Setting the stage

I've been searching for clues as to how the scenes for the story had looked back in 1875. I've visited as many of the sites as possible and taken pictures. Here are a few of my background shots. They are the China Grove Train Depot, house where William Meismer and Sarah may have lived, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, the site of the dam and mill creek owned by the Heilig's, and Sarah Heilig's home.