Perhaps you are wondering why, out of all the time periods in which I could have chosen to set a novel, why did I choose the American Revolution? I am going to answer that in two posts, the practical and the passion behind the practical, and I’ll start with the practical.
At the time I started writing this series, I was teaching Esther Forbes’ novel Johnny Tremain. For those of you who don’t know, this was a 1943, (what we would consider today) young adult novel set in Boston and centers around the young apprentice silversmith Johnny Tremain and the two years leading up to the start of the American Revolution. To make the novel more accessible and to bring some life to it, my fellow English teacher, Becca, and I gamified the unit. We decorated the hallway, created coded clues, scavenger hunts, a money system, and to create all of this we were doing a lot of research into various aspects of the early Revolution, especially those people and events in and around Boston. I fell down the Research Rabbit Hole. If you have ever gone down the Research Rabbit Hole, you know how one thing leads to another to another, and suddenly you are listening to three different podcasts on the subject and you own at least a dozen nonfiction books on the subject—not to mention the insane amount websites you have bookmarked and the fact that you know by heart which books on the subject your local library has.
That’s just me? Not everyone gets weirdly obsessive about research topics? Huh.
Anyway, after doing that amount of research, you don’t just waste that knowledge, you put it to use. It was only practical to write a novel set during the American Revolution.
In addition, before I wrote this series, I had been working on another American Revolution duology (which I still hope to someday rework and publish), so I was already familiar with fictionalizing the Revolution, and I had found while in the Research Rabbit Hole that there were so many untold stories to be explored. And the more I researched, the more new-to-me stories and people I discovered.
It was also during this time that the AMC television series TURN: Washington’s Spies aired and Hamilton: An American Musical was spreading like wildfire across the country. I instantly loved both, and suddenly I had not only new music to listen to (the soundtrack for TURN is no Hamilton, but it has some great time-period music) but new Research Rabbit Holes to burrow down as I sought the truth within and behind the fiction. Between my research for school, teaching Johnny Tremain, and two new forms of entertainment, I was immersed in the American Revolution for a good portion of the year. It only follows that anything coming out of my brain creatively would be American Revolution themed.
The other practical reason is that I didn’t have a choice. Maybe other authors work differently, but when a character or an idea comes into my mind, who they are and where they are is already determined; I don’t really have a say in the matter. I knew from the first days working on this story—maybe even the very first day—that Whitley was my main character, she had a twin brother, and they would be joining Benedict Arnold in Canada and more or less stay with him until the end of the war. Then, after reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, I knew I wanted to bring Dr. Joseph Warren to life and that Whit would be his apprentice.
So there you have it, the practical reasons I chose to write a novel set during the American Revolution. My post next month will look at the passion that grew behind the practical in writing the Revolution.
Love this! Having taught Johnny Tremain, yet reading VERY little other fictional/nonfictional books about the period, I am very excited to read your story!
Thanks, Paula! I think there is more adult fiction out there than there is for middle grade and YA on the American Revolution, but still probably not a ton. I am hoping to have a publication date soon!