Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 28
March 14, 2013
Boomer Lit vs. YA Lit
It is nice to know that publishers have noticed how many of us Baby Boomers like to read. And here is what I found especially interesting (the boldface is mine):
A group has already been created to discuss Boomer Lit on Goodreads. It has its own Facebook page and Twitter account … [T]he group has been able to quickly do some important work clarifying what exactly Boomer literature is and is not. Among the major early findings:
Boomer lit is not about nostalgia or evoking the past. Any story of “coming of age” set in the 1960s or 1970s properly belongs to YA lit.
Nor does having some characters of Boomer age in a novel enough to qualify the book as Boomer Lit. Instead, it needs to address the transition issues that are central to Boomer’s [sic] lives.
The reason the above boldfaced paragraph held special interest for me is because I’m writing a YA short story — PINKY SWEAR — that is a prequel short story to my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT. PINKY SWEAR takes place in 1964 and is a “coming of age” story.
My business partner Yael K. Miller and I are working on the cover for this Kindle short story, and at the same time we will be creating a new cover for MRS. LIEUTENANT to “go with” the short story cover.
(Full disclosure: I did join the Boomer Lit group on Goodreads, “liked” the Facebook Page, and followed the Twitter account.)
Click here to read the entire Boomer Lit article.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 10, 2013
Employing Unexpected Elements in Fiction
Click here to check out a display of several books in honor of Women’s History Month.
When I woke today I realized it was the first day of Daylight Savings Time here in the U.S. this year. The next thought that popped into my head was the following:
Daylight Savings Time is an excellent example of an unexpected element that can be thrown into a fiction story to cause obstacles for the protagonist.
For example:
The protagonist’s plane leaves at 10 a.m. from Los Angeles. She gets to the airport with plenty of time to spare at 9 a.m. Only — wait for it — DST just started and it is really 10 a.m. and the plane is taking off!
Now what if she absolutely had to be on that plane in order to make an interview for a job that she really needs because her fiance is expecting her to join him in moving to New York.
Sure, she can call to say she missed her plane. But what if the other top candidate did not miss his plane and …
Anyway, you get the picture. And I admit this is not the most exciting scenario (hey, I did just wake up after losing an hour of sleep!).
But the idea of suddenly putting a kink in what is usually a normal routine can lead to some sticky fiction situations. And sticky situations cause conflict, which cause our readers to keep turning the pages of our books.
The premise of my romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY has this kind of unexpected element thrown into the routine life of a woman. Thrown the wrench, so to speak, the protagonist grasps at a chance to prevent the disruption of her life.
And thanks to the unexpected element, the story of CIA FALL GUY is off and running in unexpected directions.
Now click here to read my guest post “Writing Strong Female Characters: The Need for Positive Role Models in Fiction”
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 8, 2013
On the Trail of an Amazon Book Mystery
(And if you do not have a Kindle, get a free Kindle app for other devices at http://budurl.com/freeKindleapp)
No, this blog headline is not the title of my next fiction book. This is a real mystery that I, as well as other authors, are trying to unravel.
You can check out my Miller Mosaic blog post “Bits and Pieces of Changes in Social Media” for the first mention of this issue.
The saga begins a few days ago when I asked a question on an Amazon book publishing group of which I am a member. At the time the response was that I was incorrect about the change I thought I had observed.
Two days later the same person posted a link to a discussion on a Kindleboards forum, and the forum discussion thread confirmed what I had noticed.
Fast forward to a phone conversation I had with an Amazon Author Central representative today — a very nice person who could not answer my questions.
And before that, when I went onto authorcentral.amazon.com to arrange for the phone call, I got this announcement:
Did You Know?Some Author Pages may display features that are unavailable through Author Central, such as a name banner. These features are by invite-only.
First, I have no idea what “name banner” refers to. Second, “by invite-only”? So Amazon is not an equal opportunity book retailer?
I have no answers for the above puzzle, but I will share what I have been able to put together from my own experiences and the comments of others about the changes to Amazon html. (Remember, though, that Amazon continually changes things without warning authors.)
In the past:
When you uploaded a new book to KDP you added a book/product description at that time in the KDP dashboard. Then you went to Author Central and claimed your book. Later you could edit the book/production description in Amazon Central.
And when you used Amazon Central to do this, you could use Amazon html to create attractive orange-colored headlines in the description.
Currently:
Recently the Amazon html coding in my Author Central book descriptions has been removed. Other authors have confirmed that no Amazon html can now be added via Amazon Author Central.
Others have commented that changing anything in an Author Central book description will automatically remove the previously existing Amazon html in that description.
(This is what appears to have happened to all my descriptions. I switched a long URL for free Kindle apps to a shorter one, accidentally removing all my Amazon html code in the descriptions.)
But, also, I am not allowed to go back and add Amazon html coding in the KDP book description.
Hold on — there is more:
There appears to be only one time that you can add Amazon html coding to your ebook:
If you do it in the KDP dashboard when you first upload an ebook BEFORE you claim the book on Author Central. I have just done this with a client’s new ebook and the Amazon html code did appear.
But I am not sure whether, if the client wanted to remove the Amazon html, she could or could not do it once she has claimed the book on Author Central.
A big problem with all this confusion is that there are several good ebooks about marketing on Amazon that include large sections on using Amazon html code. Much of this information may now be obsolete.
I have just checked my own book TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK and have found only this reference: “Advanced tip: At this time you can use Amazon html formatting only on the Kindle book description and not on the physical book description.”
This sentence is actually still correct, although where you can use Amazon html formatting, which I do not say, has changed.
In the comments below I welcome information on this complicated topic. We authors need to help each other find our way out of this tangle.
P.S. If all of this has given you a headache, download your free Kindle copy of MRS. LIEUTENANT today and let bygone days before the advent of all this technology calm you!
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 6, 2013
Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT Free on Kindle in Honor of Women’s History Month
(And if you do not have a Kindle, get a free Kindle app for other devices at http://budurl.com/freeKindleapp)
March is Women’s History Month — a very appropriate time to offer my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT for free on Kindle.
The story is inspired by my own experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 right after the Kent State shootings. I experienced friendship with women whom I never would have come in contact with had my husband not gone on active duty at Ft. Knox with the U.S. Army.
This particular time was a very interesting slice of women’s social history, right at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement. But for those of us who were new Mrs. Lieutenants, we had very specific expectations to be met.
Here is a quote from the “Mrs. Lieutenant” booklet we had to follow:
It has been said that when a man acquires a commission, the government has gained not one, but two — the officer and his wife.
Another piece of advice from the same booklet:
If the wife is well informed as to what is expected of her, the probability is greater that the officer will have an easier and more successful career.
MRS. LIEUTENANT was selected as a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist. I hope you will click here to download a copy and enjoy the story.
And after reading MRS. LIEUTENANT, click here to check out two other women’s military fiction novels.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
INSIDE COMBAT RESCUE and Inside the Life of a Mrs. Lieutenant
I watched an amazing episode of National Geographic Television’s documentary TV series INSIDE COMBAT RESCUE. Elite Air Force pararescuemen fly off into harm’s way at a moment’s notice to rescue Coalition forces in Afghanistan.
While watching the episode, I found myself comparing the action to battlefield rescue during the Vietnam War. As my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT describes, the American public watched nightly news footage of wounded and dying men on stretchers being rushed to rescue helicopters under attack.
Then the grim task of triage set in. While perhaps with vastly improved battlefield medicine these wrenching decisions are not needed as much today, here is what one character in MRS. LIEUTENANT says about triage during the Vietnam War:
The medical personnel in Vietnam practice triage — giving priority to those who have the best chance for survival. When an evacuation helicopter sets down at a field hospital, the medics run with their litters. A doctor or a nurse or even an orderly has seconds to make these decisions.
(This does not mean the most critically injured are treated first but instead those who have the best chance of survival.)
In the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, the evacuation scenes from Vietnam writ large are part of the life of a Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 right after the Kent State shootings. Four very different women in the novel struggle to cope with their new roles.
And in the episode of INSIDE COMBAT RESCUE, what came through most clearly was the total chaos that rescue helicopters have to fly into, and how incredible are the paramedic life-saving techniques performed in a bouncing helicopter.
The series is airing on Monday nights here in Southern California. Check your local listings for when you can watch these tremendous acts of heroism.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 4, 2013
7 Shares From a Lovely Blogger
Per the rules (see below for all information), I am going to share 7 things about myself:
Fast typing is a big plus in today’s world:
Who would have guessed so many years ago when I got a B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University that being a fast typist would make a big difference in today’s blogging world? Especially who would have guessed given that at that time I wrote stories on a manual typewriter with the benefit of zero electronics!
But my parents had insisted I take typing as a teenager two summers in my hometown of Elgin, Illinois, and for this I will always be grateful.
I actually like good grammar and tying to write correctly even in 140-character tweets.
I am a big proponent of learning correct English so that when, as authors, we want to break the rules we can. I was particularly annoyed when I got criticism from an anonymous person who complained about incomplete sentences in my 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT.
Of course I know what a complete sentence is. Those incomplete sentences were part of internal thoughts. After all, most of us do not think in full sentences!
I do not love sending text messages because I cannot type quickly on my phone the way I can on my computer keyboard.
No more need be said about this except do not expect a text message from me.
I do a lot of my writing in my head.
I have to fit my creative writing time into my blogging time, my online marketing time, my life time. Therefore I frequently visualize scenes in my head — or blog posts — so that when I sit down at the computer I have already “written” much of the material.
I read fiction and nonfiction in physical formats and on my Kindle.
I am particularly happy to be reading several books at once, depending on my mood, and going back and forth between a physical book and my Kindle. Full confession: I am getting more books out of the library these days as my book shelves have absolutely no more room. My Kindle, on the other hand, has plenty of room available!
I do not write negative reviews on Amazon.
If a book is not good and I have been asked to review it, I will contact the author instead and give my feedback privately. Sometimes I suggest a copyeditor so that the terrific information is not dragged down by numerous errors.
I enjoy revising.
Thanks to the ease of computers (remember those manual typewriters!) I actually enjoy revising — seeing how much smoother I can make my writing at the touch of my fingers. On the other hand, I am not a perfectionist who never lets go of her writing. One needs a balanced perspective of when editing is needed and when editing is completed!
There they are — seven “shares” from me. Now look at the rules below for posts from future lovely bloggers.
Thank the person who gave you the honor.
Add the Lovely Blogger Award image to the post.
Share seven things about yourself.
Pass the award onto seven nominees.
Include this set of rules.
Inform your nominees.
Now here are the nominees I’ll be contacting. Click on their names to get to their blogs:
Bonnie B. Latino
Joel Friedlander
Do visit the blogs of the above writers. And I hope you have enjoyed this entry in the Lovely Blogger project.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 3, 2013
WSJ Front Page Photo Headline: Berlin Wall Still Divides Germans
Underneath the photo of an art-filled wall segment in front of which protesters and police stood, the caption read: “SAVE THE WALL: Protesters scuffled with police Friday to spare a 25-meter stretch of the Berlin Wall from removal in a construction project.”
(This blog post photo of a segment of the Berlin Wall is actually in Los Angeles, across from the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.)
The Berlin Wall has interested me since my husband and I were stationed in Munich, Germany, from September 1970 to May 1972.
He was a U.S. Army officer with the 18th Military Intelligence Battalion and I eventually got a security clearance and a civilian job with the 66th Military Intelligence Group. Because of this, we were under certain security restrictions.
For one, we had to fly to West Berlin rather than take the duty train from Frankfurt so that we could not be pulled off the train by the East Germans and interrogated. In West Berlin we were not allowed to visit East Berlin.
We stood on the viewing stand at Checkpoint Charlie and looked over towards East Berlin. We also visited the small Checkpoint Charlie museum that described the heartbreaking attempts that had been made by East Germans to escape to freedom.
According to the Journal article, the protesters wanted to prevent construction workers from removing one of the remaining stretches of the Wall. It was to be moved “to build a road to a new luxury condominium being constructed on the banks of the Spree River.”
What I found most interesting is that apparently this section is one of Berlin’s most popular tourist attractions. “It was recently restored at a cost of more than [$2.6] million to the city.” (One does wonder why Berlin city officials would first restore it and then demolish it.)
After the Wall came down in 1989, my husband Mitch wrote a screenplay, THE WIDOW SPRINGER, which I later joined in writing with him. The story deals with what happens when people overnight go from being on the “correct” side to the “incorrect” side of a repressive regime.
The screenplay of THE WIDOW SPRINGER has been optioned twice but still not produced. Currently it is available to be read via the site of The Black List.
In addition, the fall of the Wall in 1989 is the incident that brings about the events a few years later in 1997 that occur in my romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY. This story also involves the theme of betrayal. Click here to see CIA FALL GUY on Amazon.
I have one other personal connection to the fall of the Wall, which actually occurred on November 9 of 1989. On November 9 of 1970 I had sat in my Army-issued Munich apartment reading about the Holocaust.
That date was when I first became aware of the November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht (night of broken glass) when the Nazis orchestrated a “spontaneous” attack against the Jews.
(Definitely not spontaneous. The German woman I worked with at the Army-Air Force Motion Picture Service before my security clearance came through was a teenager in night school that night in Munich. She told me the students were sent home early in preparation for the “spontaneous” action.)
How ironic that the fall of the Wall — signaling the coming together of the two parts of Germany — occurred on the same date that the attacks on Jews in Germany heralded the horrors the Nazis were about to unleash on so very many people and countries and then ultimately on their own country.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 1, 2013
Reaching a Global Audience for Your Books on Amazon
In my experience they get the U.S. page without prices and a message that they cannot buy from this Amazon site.
I asked Collette at www.booktweetingservice.com if she knows what happens when an ebook is free via KDP Select. If I tweet, for example, an Amazon.com link, can people in other countries download from that link as the book is free?
Her reply:
No, they can’t download either. What happens is, if you click the .com in a tweet then it just says “continue shopping at Amazon UK” so then you need to copy the name of the book and go looking for it on Amazon UK — which is such a pain and must put folks off.
Collette uses a free service that takes your book link and produces a global link and also does the same for your Amazon Author Central profile (on Amazon country sites that have this feature).
Warning: In a Facebook group to which I belong I learned that there is an Amazon affiliate link in the links provided, which makes sense as the service is free. Therefore, you do NOT want to use this global link when you are submitting your free books, for example, to a site listing free Kindle books and the site asks for a non-affiliate link.
On the other hand, when you are tweeting about your books’ free days or your books in general or posting an update on Facebook, this would be a good place to use a global book link and a global Amazon Author Central link as social media is global.
You can get an individual book’s link at http://viewbook.at/ (for an example click on the global link for my spy thriller CIA FALL GUY — viewBook.at/B00895AKMQ)
To get a global Amazon Author Central link go to http://viewauthor.at/ (for an example click on my global Amazon Author Central link — viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller)
And I’ll be using Collette’s book tweeting service on March 11 and 12 following the March 6 and 7 KDP Select free days for my 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT. Click on the MRS. LIEUTENANT global link now at viewBook.at/B0019V2HFK to read about the novel.
P.S. If you missed my blog post “ONE VET AT A TIME Reality TV Proposal” click here now to read it. I’ve been getting positive reaction to the post, including connecting with a second cousin I didn’t know I had who works as as advocate in Florida for veteran rights.
Also, click here to read that the cover of CIA FALL GUY created by Yael K. Miller won best cover design in the spy thriller category from Venture Galleries.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at viewAuthor.at/PhyllisZimblerMiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
February 24, 2013
ONE VET AT A TIME Reality TV Proposal
Below is a reality TV show proposal I’m working on that could help our U.S. military vets and their families. If you know of anyone who could help move this project forward, please share this post with them.
Overview:
The thousands of U.S. military men and women veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to civilian life bring with them a host of problems — problems already affecting previous veteran populations such as those from the Vietnam War — and these problems spill over into the rest of the U.S. population.
These problems include:
Drug use
Violence
PTSD
Spousal abuse
Homelessness
High suicide rate
With VA hospitals and other government programs unable to address all these issues, innovative solutions by others are being developed. Los Angeles is fortunate to be at the center of some of the most innovative solutions.
In addition to showcasing these innovative solutions, ONE VET AT A TIME will focus on the men and women veterans and their families who are getting help through these innovative solutions — as well as those who have not yet been helped.
The reality show’s goal — in addition to showcasing these innovative solutions, the veterans and their families — is to encourage others to participate in finding ways to help our heroes.
Format of show:
Each week the host visits the site of one innovative solution, showcasing brief interviews with the creators of the solution and then interviews and clips of the veterans being helped.
For example, in the LA County Veterans Court episode, we would talk briefly to the judge, interspersed with scenes from the courtroom, and then interview and visit in their daily lives the vets (and their families) being given this second chance.
Host of show:
The host of the show can be decided on from a pool of celebrities such as Gary Sinise (who actively works on behalf of veterans) or James Gandolfini (exec producer of HBO documentary “Wartorn 1861-2010”) to others involved in helping our heroes.
Sample episodes:
A Former Vet Sits in Judgment at Veterans Court
Veteran and Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan heads the LA County Veterans Court and is already on board this project. He runs a tight shop in the innovative collaborative justice model of the Veterans Court (for example, he requires veterans to write essays about why they are messing up) and his courtroom is at odds with the usual American adversarial justice system.
Local Doctor Hired by LA VA Hospital to Help with Homeless Vets
A UCLA medical doctor has been hired by the VA Hospital in LA to help assess what can be done with the huge population of homeless vets in Los Angeles. Many people in the LA community wonder what the VA Hospital is doing with its huge tract of land in West LA. Why can’t housing be provided the vets on that land?
National Food Organization Starts Food Program for Vets and Their Families
MAZON’s Help Our Heroes initiative addresses challenges that military personnel and veterans face in feeding themselves and their families, including their ability to access federal nutrition assistance programs.
LA County Bar Association Uses Local Lawyers to Help Vets in Hot Water
The LA County Bar Association recently approved the Armed Forces Committee, which works to help veterans with their legal programs, including child custody issues.
USC Uses Virtual Reality Therapy for Help with Post Traumatic Stress
USC is expanding the landscape of treatment for PTSD by using virtual reality therapy.
UCLA Operation Mend Repairs Badly Burned Facial Injuries
“UCLA Operation Mend is a groundbreaking program that provides returning military personnel with severe facial and other medical injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, as well as comprehensive medical and mental-health support for the wounded and their families.”
Oscar connection:
The Oscar-nominated documentary THE INVISIBLE WAR was created by Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick. The Jewish Journal (Los Angeles) Feb. 8-14 article “A Visible War Against Military Rape” by Danielle Berrin states:
Another of the film’s producers, public relations executive Regina Kulik Scully, stepped forward with a half-million dollars (in addition to her contribution to the production) to pilot The Artemis Rising Invisible War Recovery Program, a two-week residential treatment program at The Bridge to Recovery in Santa Barbara.
The pilot program began Feb. 3 with five of the women from the film. In addition to offering intensive individual and group therapy along with equine therapy, yoga and dance, a researcher from Stanford has attended the retreat to gather data for a scientific study, hoping to quantify the program’s results.
If effective, Ziering and Scully suggest it could become a prototype for the VA, a model for future treatment. “Right now, the one-stop shop is pharmaceuticals,” Ziering said.
This too could be an episode of ONE VET AT A TIME.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
Using Wikipedia to Write Historical Fiction
(I started writing this project two days before I saw the film LINCOLN, which begins at the start of 1865. It is very interesting how many things had changed in 100 years, and how many had not.)
The protagonist of my writing project is one of the four women protagonists from my 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT. In 1964 she is a sophomore in high school at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.
Even though I was a junior in high school that year (in Elgin, Illinois) I cannot remember the timing of certain events. That’s where Wikipedia comes in so handy!
One example:
I wanted the protagonist Donna Garcia to have pictures of The Beatles on her bedroom walls. Now I remember going to the drive-in theater with my girlfriends in high school to see a Beatles movie. But I can’t remember what year.
I needed to know whether The Beatles were popular in the U.S. by 1964, and according to Wikipedia they were. (Yes, I do know that Wikipedia is not infallible.)
Other examples:
I knew that the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. But was it passed before the fall of that year? Yes, it was:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (“public accommodations”).
I also wanted to know had the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution been passed before the fall of 1964? Yes, it had too:
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (officially, the Southeast Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.It is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of “conventional” military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist “any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty.” This included involving armed forces.
Then there are the changes in military life that I have to take into account:
When I was a Mrs. Lieutenant from May 1970 to May 1972, wives did not stay on post if their husbands had an “unaccompanied tour” to Vietnam. Nowadays apparently wives do stay on post.
I wanted to include an official “notification of death” scene on post. But in 1964 it could not be the wife being notified on post. Solution? The parents of an unmarried 18-year-old son killed in Vietnam who live on post because the father is in the military.
While there are challenges of getting history correct (or as correct as possible) in fiction writing, I welcome these challenges. Part of the reason I’m writing about this period is to help preserve this slice of U.S. Army social history.
And for the music popular in a specific month in 1964?
I’m using THE ALL MUSIC BOOK OF HIT SINGLES that starts in 1954. It’s fun to revisit which of my favorite songs were popular when.
P.S. MRS. LIEUTENANT will be free on Kindle on March 6 and 7. Click here to read about the book now.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
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