Part V Boys of Wartime -- Discovering America's Past through Historical Fiction

Dear Readers,

Please welcome my dear friend, Laurie Calkhoven. She's a veteran in the industry, so you won't want to miss this inside look at how her historical fiction series was born, her background research, her writing process, and much more!
Laurie has generously donated two autographed books that will be featured in the next several posts. As always, simply leave a comment for a chance to win, and random.org will pick the winner!We LOVE hearing from you!

Author Laurie Calkhoven

Bio: Laurie Calkhoven has always loved reading and writing (arithmetic is another story). She’s especially interested in the intersection between big moments in American history and the lives of ordinary people. That’s how the Boys of Wartime series was born. She is also the author of middle grade biographies and other nonfiction books for kids along with contemporary novels in American Girl’s new Innerstar University series.

She watched too many That Girl reruns as a child and decided she HAD to live in New York City. She made a beeline for Manhattan right out of college and has lived there ever since. She doesn’t have nearly as many madcap adventures as That Girl, but she has a nice life.
 Read more about Laurie and purchase her books here:  http://www.amazon.com/Laurie-Calkhoven/e/B001H6EU2U/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1299696322

Laurie Calkhoven  shares about her Research:

I love doing research. I love the twists and turns it can take. I love putting on my detective hat to find a particularly hard-to-find nugget of information. And I love that collections of facts can fire up my imagination to the point where I’m creating characters and worlds for them to live in.

I approach the research for each of my historical novels pretty much the same way, so I’ll discuss Will at the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 as an example. I began with broad historical overviews, books and documentaries, about the entire war.

I decided to focus in on the Battle of Gettysburg for a couple of reasons. It was a pivotal battle that changed the course of the war. It was also fought in the streets and homes of Gettysburg’s citizens. I knew that I could put a 12-year-old boy in the middle of the action without being too unrealistic.

Of course, there are a huge number of books and articles written about the battle, and I think I read them all. One of my favorite things to do is go the library to get specific books and prowl around on the shelves nearby. There are always surprises that jump out – books I didn’t know existed but have exactly the information I’m looking for. I also prowl through the bibliographies of those books, looking for more.

Of course those books tell me what historians have to say about the battle, but ultimately I’m interested in the people. I want as many primary sources – first hand accounts – as I can get my hands on. The people of Gettysburg knew that something world-changing had happened in their town, and many of them put their thoughts down on paper. I was able to find copies of many of them in the excellent New York Public Library, and the rest were on file at the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg. These diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, and memoirs told me not just what happened, but how people spoke, what they wore, and how they lived before and after the soldiers came.

Ultimately, the most valuable research I did was in Gettysburg itself. Many of the buildings are not only still standing, but still sporting their bullet holes. Walking the streets Will would have walked, picking out his house and his church, and following his route throughout the battle was invaluable. He came to life for me there, and I hope I was able to bring him to life for the reader too.

Thanks for joining Laurie and me for this first of a three-part post about Laurie's historical fiction series, Boys of Wartime.  In the interview next week, Laurie will talk about other books in the series, Daniel at the Siege of Boston 1776, as well as the project she is currently working on, and her writing process!

Stop by often to leave comments for additional chances to win one of the autographed books!  The link again for Laurie's books: http://www.amazon.com/Laurie-Calkhoven/e/B001H6EU2U/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1299696322