Researching the 1700’s by Beth White

For me, the earliest days of our American history would seem difficult to research. Fortunately, that didn't stop author Beth White from finding the resources she needed to write her novels. Today, she shares some ideas for those resources. -- Sandy

Beth: First, let me get something off my chest. Research is messy. Research is frustrating. Research can take over your life.

But for most readers, a big part of the enjoyment of a historical novel is learning about an alien time period—which means the author has a responsibility to make that landscape as authentic as possible. So research we must.

I usually start with museums, historical landmarks, and reenactments— whose associated preservation societies can be extremely helpful—within traveling distance. For example, while writing the first draft of The Pelican Bride, I drove up to French and Indian Days at Fort Toulouse in Wetumpka, Alabama, just a couple hours drive north of Mobile. While poking around, I took videos and pictures that were invaluable in developing my setting and characters.

One of the most productive results from that day was a conversation with a French soldier who turned out to be a member of my church! We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, and Jeff has shared pictures and videos from other reenactments he’s participated in, as well as connecting me with other knowledgeable historians.

Period maps can be found on the internet now, but often those images are reduced to such a small size for web purposes that they become pixilated when enlarged. Local genealogical libraries offer more useful documents, and state libraries have large collections of maps that they will loan or copy for a small fee.

Many primary sources like journals, letters, and essays are available for free in Google books and in the Kindle store, and Writers Digest offers a wonderful series of “Everyday Life in the…” books. Of course all kinds of legitimate sources of information are as close as your favorite search engine, but the most reputable are related to history museums. One of my favorites for the 1700’s is the Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, site. The pages for children contain lots of pictures and rich descriptions of people’s daily lives—as well as some really fun interactive elements. I got lost for a couple of hours one afternoon, clicking around on the “dress a character” page.

For each of my novels, I buy one solid nonfiction history devoted to the time period and setting. I select an accredited author who documents primary sources and still composes a readable narrative. For Pelican Bride I chose Professor Jay Higginbotham’s Old Mobile: Fort Louis de Louisiane 1702-1711. For Creole Princess it was Thomas E. Chávez’s Spain and the Independence of the United States. For Magnolia Duchess (next year’s release), it was Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte at the Battle of New Orleans by the inimitable Winston Groom. All three of those books are now dog-eared, highlighted, coffee-stained, and sticky-note-filled. As I read, I make an Excel timeline, because keeping track of related historical events and people by date facilitates plotting and story construction.

Oh, and one more thing before I go. Research is one of my favorite things in the whole world. If you have questions or comments, feel free to chime in on the conversation.

Do you have additional ideas for finding those historical tidbits that make less known eras come alive?

~~~~~

Torn between loyalties to family and flag, one young woman is about to discover that her most important allegiance is to her heart.

It is 1776 and all along the eastern seaboard, the American struggle for independence rages. But in the British-held southern port of Mobile, Alabama, the conflict brewing is much quieter—though no less deadly.

Lyse Lanier may be French in heritage, but she spends most of her time in the company of the ebullient daughter of the British commander of Mobile. When a charming young Spanish merchant docks in town, Lyse is immediately struck by his easy wit and flair for the dramatic. But is he truly who he makes himself out to be? Spies abound, and Spain has yet to choose a side in the American conflict. Is Lyse simply an easy mark for Rafael Gonzalez to exploit? Or are his overtures of love as genuine as Spanish gold?

With spectacular detail that brings the cultural gumbo of the Colonial Gulf Coast alive, Beth White invites you to step into a world of intrigue and espionage from a little-known slice of the American Revolutionary War.

Beth White is the award-winning author of The Pelican Bride. A native Mississippian, she teaches music at an inner-city high school in historic Mobile, Alabama. Her novels have won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award, the RT Book Club Reviewers’ Choice Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award. Learn more at www.bethwhite.net.

“Duplicity, danger, political intrigue, and adventure.”—Booklist on The Pelican Bride

“New France comes alive thanks to intricate detail.”—Publishers Weekly review of The Pelican Bride

“The brutal New World [is] captured with distinct detail in this fast-paced romantic adventure.”—RT Book Reviews on The Pelican Bride

The High-Wire Novelist, Part I by Beth White

Beth White

When I asked Beth White to join us again today on Seriously Write, she gave me so much great information to share that it needed to be two blog posts instead of one. But instead of breaking it up into two weeks (and make you wait to read it), we decided to put the first half of the post here and the second half on her personal blog. So be sure to look for the link, at the end of this post, to read Part II of The High-Wire Novelist.

~ Angie

As I write this, I’m at the end of a long day of teaching music to students in an inner-city high school in Mobile, Alabama. Someday I’m going to write a screenplay based on my adventures over the last six years. Oh, the lives that have intersected mine. The drama confronted, acted upon, and put behind me—or not. The happy tears shed for miracles of God’s provision and endless wonder at the creative gifts bestowed in unlikely place. But the telling of it, the figuring out of what it means, will come much later…maybe when I retire.

For now, any spare moments of the day are spent trying to wrestle six years of research into three historical romance novels—novels which go by the grand title “The Gulf Coast Chronicles.” Yes, my alter-ego is Author Beth White. Most writers, I suppose, have to juggle two jobs and can only dream of the day they’ll make enough money in royalties to quit the day job and write full-time. So I know I’m not alone in feeling this constant pull between doing the day job with excellence—and writing an excellent book. Letting either one slide is not an option.

Sometimes—okay, most of the time, I feel like I’m missing the mark. I’m constantly behind where I want to be in word count. When I do sit down to write, usually in late afternoon or early evening, my brain turns to sluggish jelly. Who are these characters lying limply on the computer screen, and why will they not get up and do something? I read back over what I wrote in the previous session and can’t remember where I was going with that half-finished sentence. Suddenly 18th Century Mobile feels like an alien planet in a faraway solar system. And I don’t do sci-fi.

So how does it get done? I’ve been repeating this process in various incarnations for more than fifteen years. Honestly, it doesn’t get any easier—if anything, my expectations ratchet higher for each successive book. I expect more from my prose-crafting, and I crave finer characters, more complex plot, deeper themes. Probably I should issue a warning here: Orderly Type A personalities will not like my messy methods. But maybe I can help a few writers out there who need reassurance that a busy life is not such a bad thing for a writer to have.

For one thing, aside from occasional physical weariness, I find that accomplishing challenging tasks energizes my spiritual life—which by definition energizes everything. Those of us who walk with Christ should find Jesus infusing everything we do. If the connection is deep, faith-filled, and rooted in scripture, we will hear the Holy Spirit whispering directions as to where to spend time, what’s worth investing our lives in. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t give up any of the commitments on my plate right now—and I’m very reluctant to take on anything else—because I’ve discovered that obedience is the height of joy.

One of the hardest elements of practicing the gift and responsibility of writing for publication is convincing others around one of the worthiness of the endeavor. I’ve discovered that being generous in using the gift in other ways besides writing fiction often wins the respect of friends and loves ones (and bosses and coworkers too!). For example, when some project at work or at church crops up where the gift of words would be useful, I volunteer. I figure, if I’m going to be there anyway, I might as well be doing something I enjoy, right? Of course that can get out of hand, but if people observe your ability to write in what they perceive as a “useful” application, they are more likely to take you seriously when you need to reserve time for the fiction.



Part II of the High Wire Novelist, http://www.bethwhite.net

About the Author

Beth White is a native Southerner, born on the Gulf Coast and reared in northwest Mississippi. Besides performing professionally as a singer and flutist, in the last thirteen years she has published (as Elizabeth White) four novellas and ten full-length novels with such publishers as Tyndale House, Zondervan, and Steeple Hill. Beth’s current and most ambitious writing project to date is the culmination of a decade’s research into the cultural, political and religious development of the American Gulf Coast. A lifelong passion for stories which chronicle the innate human drive for romance, faith, and adventure began when she was still a child. The Pelican Bride launches The Gulf Coast Chronicles with the adventures of a ship full of French mail order brides.

Beth and her husband Scott have two married adult children and one grandchild. Beth teaches piano and chorus at an urban high school in Mobile, Alabama, an occupation which will undoubtedly one day become a story thread in a novel.

The Pelican Bride
by Beth White

The Pelican Bride

She’s come to the New World to escape a perilous past. But has it followed her to these far shores?

It is 1704 when Frenchwoman Geneviève Gaillain and her sister board the frigate Pélican bound for the distant Louisiana colony. Both have promised to marry one of the rough men toiling in this strange new world in order to escape suffering in the old. Geneviève knows life won’t be easy, but at least here she can establish a home and family without fear of persecution for her outlawed religious beliefs.

When she falls in love with Tristan Lanier, an expatriate cartographer-turned-farmer whose checkered past is shrouded in mystery, Geneviève realizes that even in this land of liberty one is not guaranteed peace. Trouble is brewing outside the fort between the French colonists and the native people surrounding them. And an even more sinister enemy may lurk within. Could the secret Geneviève harbors mean the undoing of the colony itself?

What I’ve Learned on My Writing Journey by Elizabeth White

You’re in for a treat! It’s Writer’s Journey Wednesday and author Elizabeth (Beth) White is here to share some of her experiences. Enjoy!

What I’ve Learned
on My Writing Journey

My writing journey has been like…well, since it’s fresh on my mind, I’m going to use my first couple of days in Tokyo as a metaphor. No straight lines from point A to point B. Lots of dead ends. Magnificent soaring heights and long treks underground. Pockets of ancient tradition juxtaposed with dizzying speed and modernity. Waiting. More waiting. Trying to communicate when nobody speaks your language. A panoply of the conservative and the outlandish.

I don’t know what I expected after I sold my first novella to Tyndale in 1998. Perhaps I thought I had “arrived.” I was going to follow in Francine Rivers’ footsteps and touch the hearts of millions. Natural assumption, perhaps, but—wrong. My career with Tyndale lasted through four novellas and an aborted three-book contract—which to this day I cannot fully explain, except to say that publishing houses are run by human beings who make the best decisions they can, based on their individual experiences and education, based on other people’s expectations and policies, based on the phases of the moon. Just kidding—education has little to do with it.

So I quickly learned to absorb rejection without falling into depression. It’s a little like buying a subway ticket, scurrying onto the train to grab a strap and hang on, standing among aliens and strangers, missing your stop, getting off where you hadn’t intended, and trying to figure out what to do next. You either enjoy the fresh new sights and sounds and smells, relax and learn something from the experience—from which your future work grows richer and stronger and more confident—or you give up and take a taxi back to the safety of the American embassy. In other words, write only for your own pleasure and forget trying to reach an audience.

I think the point of this little essay is to encourage serious writers to quit whining about unreceptive acquisitions editors, about the misery of the slush pile, about ignorant critique partners and contest judges, about the dizzying changes in publication “rules.” Remember, that’s part of the landscape. Learn what you can from criticism, absorb praise with humility and gratitude, and refuse to give up on your real destination. Listen for the language of the “natives.” Don’t assume everybody else is wrong. Don’t be satisfied with cheap imitations. Expect the unexpected.

Tokyo is one of the most amazing and fulfilling places I’ve ever been—as is the writing journey.




Beth White’s day job is teaching chorus and piano at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama. A native Mississippian and graduate of Mississippi State University, she is a pastor’s wife and mother to two young adult children. Her hobbies include playing flute and pennywhistle and painting, but her real passion is writing romance and romantic suspense with a Southern drawl. Her novel Controlling Interest won American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2009 Book of the Year award, and Crescent City Courtship recently won the RT Book Club Reviewers Choice award. Visit her on the web at http://www.bethwhite.net/.