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Tag: Thursday Things

Thursday Things: Smallpox, Vikings, and the medieval Arab world #ArabHeritageMonth

thursday thingsI’m currently working on a series (almost done with book 2! Yay!) that’s basically fairy tales with Vikings. While it’s a historical fantasy, I’m doing my best to make everything plausible based on historical context.

The first book, Captive and the Cursed, is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. But because I’m trying to make these stories realistic, the beast’s curse is basically a noncontagious form of smallpox rather than something magical.

In the second book, Sleeping Shaman, the main characters travel to the country of Aghlabid (modern-day Tunisia) because the dad of one of the guys is a scholar at the university there and they hope he can help with the cure. The dad knew the Viking king and owes him a favor.

I initially made this all up, but as I researched, I found out some pretty cool things.

First, there really was an Arabic scholar who traveled up to see the Vikings. In 921, Ahmad ibn Fadlan traveled from Baghdad to Bulgaria, and he documented everything he observed. My guy would’ve traveled to Britain in about 900. Not exactly the same thing, but it’s still pretty damn close and fits with my story.

Second, the Arabic empire was renowned for its scholars, who excelled in medicine, among other things. The first person to really study smallpox and write a medical book about it was Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, who lived in Persia in 854-932. So, it’s very plausible that the Tunisian university library could have a copy of this guy’s book for my characters to find (I know that Iran isn’t an Arabic country, but this guy also did a lot in Baghdad so I’m including him).

Finally, the Vikings raided along Spain, past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean, possibly even to Italy, in 860. I write about this expedition in a prequel short story, “The Brave Little Thrall.”

Here’s a song about that raid, and about Vikings in general.

I love historical fiction, especially when it’s about periods I know very little about (Morgan Llewellyn is awesome for this), so I’m really excited to be bringing actual historical events, people, and locations into these books, even if I do fictionalize everything. And it’s been really fun researching the medieval Arab world, because they were out kicking ass with science and literature and culture while Europe was not.

Also, last month I was in Detroit and went to the Arab American National Museum. It was very informative, and I’ve definitely incorporated a lot of what I learned there into these books. If you’re ever in Detroit, make sure you stop by.

If you read or write historical fiction, what’s your favorite period? Do you like when authors put in lots of details like this, or do you prefer a more generically-set story?

Thursday Things: Life on the western high plains

thursday thingsI love to travel, and one of my favorite places is western North America. Stretching from Alberta and the western Dakotas to the eastern edge of the Rockies, the sweeping plains and buttes are, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. I lived in Bismarck, North Dakota, for a year, and while the eastern half of the state is in the Midwest, the western half has a different feel to it. You’ve left behind the corn and soy fields and the gently rolling hills, trading them for dry grass and scrub and herds of grazing cattle. There’s no line to mark the Midwest from the West, but you’ll know it when you see it.

Glacier National Park

near Glacier National Park, Montana

In the summer of 2017, my dad, son, and I vacationed in that direction. We drove west from Illinois, across Nebraska to Denver, then up to Portland and Seattle, Banff, back down to Glacier National Park, then Winnipeg (my favorite Canadian city) before returning home. 4500 miles in two weeks, camping the whole way? Yes, please!

Summer 2017 map

Even though it seems there are houses and towns everywhere you look, there’s still a sense of wilderness and isolation. Maybe it’s the big open sky, so different somehow from even the Midwest’s prairies. The wide open spaces, the dryness of the landscape. I don’t know.

Glacier National Park

near Glacier National Park, Montana

I used this isolation in my latest short story, “Empty,” which is set in southern Idaho (not on the eastern edge of the Rockies, I know, but it has similar landscape). It’s part of my short story collection After All, a bunch of stories about the apocalypse and its aftermath. This story is about Jess, a rancher, and her new hired hand, Clive, who’s more than he seems. When disaster strikes, they learn to set aside their mutual distrust and work together in order to survive.

Yellowstone

Near Yellowstone National Park, Montana

I imagine the story taking place on a homestead like the ones above: a small house, a dirt road leading to a small town, and no one close enough to save you when the end times come.

You can get this story tomorrow if you support me on Patreon; at the lowest level, Flash Fiction, which is just $1/month, you’ll get access to a new short story every month. If you’re not a supporter, you’ll be able to read “Empty” when the collection comes out, hopefully some time late this year.

If you’ve traveled in the US and Canada, where are your favorite spots? Any thoughts on Montana and the West?

Thursday Things: Dyrhólaey #AtoZChallenge

A to Z challenge 2018 DI went to Iceland over spring break, and let me tell you – four days is NOT enough time there. We spent a day in Reykjavik, a day doing the Golden Circle circuit tour, a day driving along the southern coast, and a morning horseback riding around the volcanic fields before flying out.

I was especially excited to explore the southern coast. We didn’t get a chance to go to the Sólheimasandur plane crash site – it was cold and drizzly, and we didn’t have enough time in our schedule to walk a mile or two each way to the site – but we did get to some other famous places, like several beautiful waterfalls.

Dyrhólaey

We also made it to Dyrhólaey, which is a park overlooking the black sand beaches that show up in Icelandic metal videos, especially Sólstafir’s “Miðaftann.” And I’m pretty sure some clips from their video for “Fjara” were shot around here too.

My short story, “The Beach,” was partially inspired by Solstafir’s “Fjara” (which is Icelandic for beach, by the way). Even though I’d only seen videos and pictures of the area before I wrote the story, I envision it being set here. I imagine Pría, the main character, standing on this beach watching her true love’s funeral barge float out to sea, then walking along it later as she’s about to give birth to their son.

I’m not a fangirl by any stretch, but there was something amazing about standing in the spot where some of my favorite songs’ videos were made, where my story took place too. It’s a feeling that makes me want to go back to Iceland, this time for several weeks, and just wander the countryside. Who knows what kind of stories I’ll come up with?

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About “The Beach:”

When Pría’s true love is killed before they can marry,
she must decide how to stay true to his memory while moving on with her life.

Available to read for free on Medium,
and it’ll also be included in my upcoming short story collection, Unkept Women

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Thursday Things is a weekly-ish feature highlighting little known facts, ideas, and stories behind my stories. Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know!

 

Thursday Things: teaching ain’t always butterflies and rainbows

thursday thingsI taught high school English for two years and a high school job and life skills class for another year. I also did a year long school social work internship in an elementary school and an alternative junior high/high school. And in the next few weeks, I’ll be (hopefully!) starting a job as a counselor at a residential facility for adjudicated teens (ie, court-ordered). So, I know a thing or two about being in the classroom.

There’s all kinds of stuff out there, from books to movies, about feel good, inspirational stories in the classroom. Michelle Pfeiffer inspired poor gangsta kids to care! Jaime Escalante (who actually is one of my heroes) taught poor gangsta kids calculus! Sister Whoopie Goldberg inspired poor gangsta kids to love life through singing!

Yeah, teachers and faculty do teach and inspire kids every day. Lots of our kids are success stories, like a student in my remedial reading class who went on to college. But for every kid that succeeds, there’s a line behind him of kids who either don’t succeed (but don’t fail), or who do fail. And a lot of times, teachers don’t even know it because that kid we’ve been trying to help leaves our lives, leaving us to worry and wonder what happened.

And that’s what inspired my short story “Slipping Through the Cracks,” which is in my short story collection Us, Together and also over on Medium.

It’s about a boy I had in my high school class, R, who told me one day that he didn’t know the alphabet. So I worked with him and he made great progress – and then he left. That was twelve years ago, and I sometimes wonder what happened to him. Did he find another teacher to help him continue to learn to read? Did he drop out of school to work in the fields with his family? Did he get deported back to Mexico?

I’ll never know, and as much as I might have wanted to give Alejandro in the story a happy ending, it wouldn’t be fair to R.

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cover

About Us, Together:

Six stories about the problems teenagers face, from relationships and unplanned pregnancy, to absent parents and poverty, loosely based on stories and students E.D. Martin encountered while teaching at-risk kids.

“The stories are easy to read, well-crafted, and deal with human issues in a sensitive way.”

Available for $.99 at Amazon or free through Kindle Unlimited

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Thursday Things is a weekly-ish feature highlighting little known facts, ideas, and stories behind my stories. Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know!

Thursday Things: Keep on rocking in the free world

thursday thingsI’m not sure if it’s genetic, but I definitely inherited my dad’s wanderlust (he’s currently on a roadtrip to L.A. with an old friend, and I just got back from a random trip to Detroit solely taken to eat hummus and buy used books) and love of music.

As a kid, I remember him cranking his stereo whenever he was home, as well as dragging me and my younger brother to music festivals, like my hometown’s annual Blues Fest. And now I’ve become his concert buddy, accompanying him to a local music venue every couple months to see blues-rock artists that come through.

Sometimes we get people I’ve actually heard of, like Samantha Fish, Will Hoge, and Leon Russell. And most of the time it’s artists I’ve never heard of, but still enjoy.

I’m not musically inclined, nor do I ever want to be on stage performing, so I find it interesting to imagine what it’s like being one of these acts, especially the opening bands, especially when no one’s ever heard of you. And that’s what gave me the inspiration for not only my short story “Not My Thing,” but several other stories about bands and concert goers that I’m about halfway through writing and plan to someday release as a collection.

One of the best compliments I got on “Not My Thing” was from a beta reader who said I nailed the details, from the two free drinks that are included in the contract, to the weird guy who’s a little too close to the stage and a little too involved with the song.

Upcoming stories in this collection include “The Best Night of Herb’s Life,” about an unassuming accountant who stumbles into some action, and “Hunting Johnny Cervantes,” about a washed-up guitar player who’s actually the devil. Stay tuned!

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Not My Thing coverAbout “Not My Thing:”

When The Dancing Freemasons embark on their first major tour, Jeff’s dreams of being a rock star have come true – until he can no longer connect with the music. One night after a show, he meets a woman who might be the one to get the music flowing again, but is the cost worth it?

Available at Amazon

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Thursday Things is a weekly-ish feature highlighting little known facts, ideas, and stories behind my stories. Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know!

Thursday Things: The best book store in North Carolina closed!

thursday thingsOne of the settings in my novel Yours to Keep or Throw Aside is a bookstore, McKay’s, in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. It’s where Andrew and Kasey, the two main characters, meet, and several scenes take place in its attached coffee shop.

While Asheville does have a downtown bookstore, I actually modeled McKay’s after the Books-A-Million I worked at while I was in college – not that the specific details of the store actually matter to the story, other than it has coffee, books, tables, and couches. I don’t think its baristas or employees even have names.

I stole the name from my favorite used bookstore, Edward McKay’s in Raleigh, NC. I probably spent way too much money there (is that even possible at a used bookstore?), but they had a wonderful selection of everything – lots of obscure titles that look great sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read. When I was back in the Triangle in March, I may have spent an hour or two there, browsing the shelves and buying a couple bags of books.

AND NOW THEY’RE CLOSED FOREVER!!!!!

About a week or two ago, without any warning, they announced they’d permanently closed that store (although they still have a couple locations around the state).

Good news, however, in that MY McKay’s – my fictional one in Asheville – is still open, and it’ll even have a brief cameo in the sequel to Yours to Keep or Throw Aside that I’m currently plotting out.

RIP, Edward McKay’s. :(

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YTKTA coverAbout Yours to Keep or Throw Aside:

After her husband’s infidelities are revealed, Kasey Sanford just wants to rediscover who she is. After an abusive childhood and years as a career soldier, Andrew Adams just wants someone to tell him that he’s doing the right thing with his life. When their paths cross, Kasey and Andrew embark on a tumultuous journey that demonstrates just what they’re willing to do to save the ones they love.

ebook and paperback: Amazon

audiobook: Amazon * Audible

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Thursday Things is a weekly-ish feature highlighting little known facts, ideas, and stories behind my stories. Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know!

 

Thursday Things: random facts about the history of mental hospitals

ThursdayThingsMy short story “Tim and Sara” takes place at Kirkbride, a state hospital. Although the story is fictional, the hospital isn’t.

My Kirkbride is based on the state hospital in Fergus Falls, Minnesota (which is also the building on the story’s cover). What makes this building different than other state hospitals is its design and purpose.

Pre-Civil War, people suffering from mental health issues in the US were treated like criminals: locked up in tiny cells, often shackled and abused.

In the 1840s, Dr. Thomas Kirkbride came to the now obvious conclusion that people suffering mental health issues would do better in airy, light-filled buildings with private rooms, so he designed a bunch of state hospitals that tried to respect patient dignity. The Fergus Falls building was one of these.

As the US has moved to community-based, out-patient treatment for people with mental health issues, many Kirkbride buildings have been torn down or sit empty, like the one in Minnesota.

Fergus Falls state hospital

Fergus Falls state hospital in 2013

I used to drive past it on the interstate, and although no one’s there now, it still makes for a cool story.

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Tim and SaraAbout “Tim and Sara:”

The victim of debilitating flashbacks, Tim is content to spend the rest of his life at Kirkbride, a state mental hospital. But his friend and fellow resident Sara is concerned that she has to save her soul before it’s too late, and so she devises a plan to break them out of the hospital. Can Tim help his friend while holding onto what’s left of his sanity?

Available for $.99 at Amazon or free through Kindle Unlimited

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Thursday Things is a weekly-ish feature highlighting little known facts, ideas, and stories behind my stories. Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know!

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