Helen Lundström Erwin's Blog, page 4
September 30, 2015
What inspired me
You never know when something will inspire you, it can come from a completely unexpected place.
We had a large locker in our basement and our building decided to double the monthly fee for it. My husband was NOT happy about this and decided that we could do with a locker half the size. So one afternoon he took it upon himself to swap them. He spent all afternoon throwing out unnecessary stuff so that we could fit what was left in a smaller locker.
I was out that day and was on my way home when he calls me and tells me to hurry home and come straight to the basement. He sounded shocked and breathless but he would not tell me what was the matter over the phone.
When I finally get to the basement, he is standing in front of the larger locker with an old book in his hand.
He points to one of the pages, and I see his name and his birth date.
It was a book that a distant cousin of his had written and published in the 60´s that his mother had kept and left with us, but we had never looked at it. It is a genealogy book of sorts that chronicles the life of a distant relative of my husband´s and then in the end it lists all his descendants. My husband´s birth in 1969 was the last entry.
Confused I look as he shows me the first pages with a black and white photo of an old man with a white long beard. The book goes on to describe his life and the church community he belonged to. Then it shows the inventory list of his property that had been auctioned off when he he died.
The list had all all kinds of things, tools, pottery, plows... and people.
Six people.
Men and women and two small children. It listed who bought them and how a six year old boy was sold away alone separated from his mother.
I cannot tell you how shocked I was. It is one thing to know that this happened in the past, but to find out that you have family members. Real family members from the past who owned slaves. It had a profound affect on both of us. This was something that I could never have expected from my husband´s liberal open minded and socially conscious family.
We had a large locker in our basement and our building decided to double the monthly fee for it. My husband was NOT happy about this and decided that we could do with a locker half the size. So one afternoon he took it upon himself to swap them. He spent all afternoon throwing out unnecessary stuff so that we could fit what was left in a smaller locker.
I was out that day and was on my way home when he calls me and tells me to hurry home and come straight to the basement. He sounded shocked and breathless but he would not tell me what was the matter over the phone.
When I finally get to the basement, he is standing in front of the larger locker with an old book in his hand.
He points to one of the pages, and I see his name and his birth date.
It was a book that a distant cousin of his had written and published in the 60´s that his mother had kept and left with us, but we had never looked at it. It is a genealogy book of sorts that chronicles the life of a distant relative of my husband´s and then in the end it lists all his descendants. My husband´s birth in 1969 was the last entry.
Confused I look as he shows me the first pages with a black and white photo of an old man with a white long beard. The book goes on to describe his life and the church community he belonged to. Then it shows the inventory list of his property that had been auctioned off when he he died.
The list had all all kinds of things, tools, pottery, plows... and people.
Six people.
Men and women and two small children. It listed who bought them and how a six year old boy was sold away alone separated from his mother.
I cannot tell you how shocked I was. It is one thing to know that this happened in the past, but to find out that you have family members. Real family members from the past who owned slaves. It had a profound affect on both of us. This was something that I could never have expected from my husband´s liberal open minded and socially conscious family.
September 5, 2015
Tycho Brahe
"The year 1570 the world was stunned and shocked.
Tycho Brahe found a new star that he could see with his naked eye on his way to dinner one evening.
The current thinking was that everything beyond the moon was unchangeable, put there by God.
All scholars knew this; and suddenly there was a new star (a supernova actually but people did not know that then).
What did it mean? Had something terrible happened that made God change the heavens?
Or had the church been wrong all along, maybe everything above the moon was not unchangeable?
Both questions were equally scary."
From Mot Undergången (Towards the Apocalypse) by Erik Petterson and Annika Sande´n.
Tycho Brahe found a new star that he could see with his naked eye on his way to dinner one evening.
The current thinking was that everything beyond the moon was unchangeable, put there by God.
All scholars knew this; and suddenly there was a new star (a supernova actually but people did not know that then).
What did it mean? Had something terrible happened that made God change the heavens?
Or had the church been wrong all along, maybe everything above the moon was not unchangeable?
Both questions were equally scary."
From Mot Undergången (Towards the Apocalypse) by Erik Petterson and Annika Sande´n.
July 16, 2015
Summer Sale
Please check my website for my Summer Sale and get 20% off.
http://helenerwin.com/books/james-jou...
Happy Summer, Happy Reading.
http://helenerwin.com/books/james-jou...
Happy Summer, Happy Reading.
July 15, 2015
Bell Ringers
It is so important to double check every single detail when you write historical fiction.
Just worked on a scene in my new novel, set in 1599. One of my characters walked by a churchyard and I was just about to write that the stones were so old that she could no longer read the engravings because they were overgrown with moss.
Let me double check this I thought, what if they didn´t engrave that early?
Well... this is what I found out. They would not have had very old gravestones. Stone was too expensive, and the older gravestones would be taken down to be used for building materials, often thresholds.
Not only that, the Bell Ringers´ animals were allowed to graze in the churchyards.
Just worked on a scene in my new novel, set in 1599. One of my characters walked by a churchyard and I was just about to write that the stones were so old that she could no longer read the engravings because they were overgrown with moss.
Let me double check this I thought, what if they didn´t engrave that early?
Well... this is what I found out. They would not have had very old gravestones. Stone was too expensive, and the older gravestones would be taken down to be used for building materials, often thresholds.
Not only that, the Bell Ringers´ animals were allowed to graze in the churchyards.
June 26, 2015
Research
I have begun to do research for a new novel.
This one will begin in the 16th Century. I have a lot to learn. It is overwhelming but fun.
What always amazes me during this stage of getting ready for a novel is how willing to help people are.
Librarians and historians are bending over backwards to find information for me. It is truly remarkable.
In the last few days I have several e-mails full of scanned material from 1600 Century texts. Not the originals, I think reading 1600 Century Swedish writing would be more or less impossible.
But I take part of texts that have been rewritten on a typewriter and published in the early 20th Century. A lot easier for me and very interesting.
This one will begin in the 16th Century. I have a lot to learn. It is overwhelming but fun.
What always amazes me during this stage of getting ready for a novel is how willing to help people are.
Librarians and historians are bending over backwards to find information for me. It is truly remarkable.
In the last few days I have several e-mails full of scanned material from 1600 Century texts. Not the originals, I think reading 1600 Century Swedish writing would be more or less impossible.
But I take part of texts that have been rewritten on a typewriter and published in the early 20th Century. A lot easier for me and very interesting.
May 10, 2015
Silly
I was reminded of one of the first books I read in Historical Fiction recently and it me think of of how important research is.
This time it was me as a reader who did not do the research properly.
I read Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isle's.
If you are familiar with this novel you know that this is not a short novel.
I began to read and instantly got involved with the characters and I wanted to have a real authentic reading experience; so I began to read it with a Scottish accent in my head. The whole novel. It was fun and I could hear Mary speak in what I imagined was a good Scottish dialect in my head.
Well...this is embarrassing, but after I was done reading, and I should have figured this out earlier, I learn that Mary Queen who spent her childhood in France spoke with a French accent, not a Scottish one.
This time it was me as a reader who did not do the research properly.
I read Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isle's.
If you are familiar with this novel you know that this is not a short novel.
I began to read and instantly got involved with the characters and I wanted to have a real authentic reading experience; so I began to read it with a Scottish accent in my head. The whole novel. It was fun and I could hear Mary speak in what I imagined was a good Scottish dialect in my head.
Well...this is embarrassing, but after I was done reading, and I should have figured this out earlier, I learn that Mary Queen who spent her childhood in France spoke with a French accent, not a Scottish one.
April 24, 2015
Blog Tour
Don´t forget to visit my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/helenerwinwr...
This past week I have had the honor of being featured on A Bibliophile´s Reverie.
I´m very grateful and honored that James´Journey was featured by such a talented blogger. Justin discussed my novel from many perspectives and analyzed both my novel and the historical time period it was set in.
If you go to my page, you will find links to the blog posts on A Bibliophile´s Reverie.
This past week I have had the honor of being featured on A Bibliophile´s Reverie.
I´m very grateful and honored that James´Journey was featured by such a talented blogger. Justin discussed my novel from many perspectives and analyzed both my novel and the historical time period it was set in.
If you go to my page, you will find links to the blog posts on A Bibliophile´s Reverie.
April 20, 2015
Blog Tour
I´m proud to announce that my novel James´Journey has been chosen to be part of A Bibliophile's Reverie blog tour this week.
You can follow it on my facebook page;
https://www.facebook.com/helenerwinwr...
You can follow it on my facebook page;
https://www.facebook.com/helenerwinwr...
March 14, 2015
Samuel George Morton
This is the man that James talks about in the beginning of James´Journey. It gives you a perspective on what slaveholders and others who supported slavery told themselves to justify owning people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_G...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_G...
February 12, 2015
The Drinking Gourd.
Doing research for my novel I found it very moving that it is possible to hear the songs that people sang at that time.
It is incredible that by a click on our computer we can listen to something that had tremendous meaning 150 years ago.
Imagine singing this song to yourself when you escaped, it is hard to even put yourself in this situation, but I imagine that songs like these helped you. They were like prayers as well as maps.
Here is a nice rendition with images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6N_...
It is incredible that by a click on our computer we can listen to something that had tremendous meaning 150 years ago.
Imagine singing this song to yourself when you escaped, it is hard to even put yourself in this situation, but I imagine that songs like these helped you. They were like prayers as well as maps.
Here is a nice rendition with images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6N_...
