Mary Sisson's Blog, page 34

Progress report

I put together Part 2 and input the changes to the Introduction. Whoo!

Progress report

Went over the rest of what is now Part 1 and started Part 2. I’ve printed out the Introduction and Part 1 and am going to look them over.

I also found a couple of new sources today, which makes me happy. It’s hard because, while one can check things out of the local library—not quite the normal way, but it’s possible—the local system here doesn’t have a lot that’s helpful, and I’m not too thrilled with the idea of traveling around to some of the larger libraries. It’s definitely one of those perfectionist things—I think I can crank out a perfectly good book without reading that biography of that one guy that went out of print decades ago—so I’m trying to focus on the fact that 90% is good enough here….

Progress report

I wrote the introductory material today and started in on the first chapter, cleaning up the letters and adding explanations where needed. Right now my thinking is to have each chapter be a different hospital, since my grandfather did move around. The downside is that some chapters are going to be really long and some really short. Maybe instead of making it Chapter 1, Chapter 2 I’ll make it Introduction and then Part 1, Part 2—that maybe gives people a better idea of what to expect.

Done!

I finished typing up the last of the letters today—the letters (plus my notes) are about 68 K words, so that’s a decent length.

Quote of the day

From a letter to the children.

The other day Lt. Colbaine Conflict—a very dirty raggedy lop-eared Irish terrier—had this nice little pair of pants. I took them away from him and washed them out. Now I can’t find whose pants they are and I’m sending them along to you….

The pants are pretty hard to button and so they must be English.

This, of course, leads to a researcher’s quandary—was this Irish terrier Lt. Colbaine Conflict, or Lt. Col. Baine Conflict? I’m assuming it’s the former, but given my grandfather’s loose attitude toward capitalization, I feel obligated to point out that it very well could be the latter.

Quote of the day

My grandfather discussing a photograph of my mother, who was about 4 years old at the time.

G. has a tremendous tummy, with her britches about down & her tummy out. The pictures will be worth a good deal in blackmail in about 12-15 years.

Spitballin' here

As I’m getting closer to the end of the letters, I think what I’m going to do with the World War II stuff is to have the book have no art other than the cover (easier from a production standpoint) and then have bonus content on this Web site (instead of sample chapters) that will include stuff like my grandfather’s gazillion photographs, his cute little drawings, and the art side of the postcards.

I think that wouldn’t be too horribly time consuming, and that way people will have some access without having to go to the Museum of World War II and getting into the archives. My grandfather was pretty good about identifying the people in his photographs, and sometimes included where and when, so I think it might be useful to family and historians to have the photos in particular be more accessible. I am going to have to rope off the more-graphic surgery photos in some fashion, but that should be easy enough.

I have a cover mock-up that my sister doesn’t entirely like but (as she said) it’s my book (honestly, I think she’ll like it more, or at least understand it more, once she reads the letters). And I have a title that we both like. Once the letters are all typed up, I plan to give copies of them to various family members and tell the side that doesn’t know that I’m planning to make a book out of this, so you know—totally looking forward to splitting the family and being disowned. “Everyone mentioned is dead, so they can’t sue” while legally accurate is, I suspect, an argument that will work less well with relatives….

Quote of the day

Further reflections upon my grandfather’s new post.

Whee Jesus have I stepped into something.

Quote of the day

So this is in the middle of a letter where my grandfather is explaining that he got orders to go to a different hospital the next morning. Both he & his CO thought that was impossible, so they bought him another day and shipped his things after him. He went to London, got a 20-minute INTENSE briefing, and then was sent off to a hospital with some 1,100 patients, most of whom needed complicated surgery. While in London waiting for a train….

While killing time I visited Madam Tussaud’s wax works & enjoyed it very much. I suspect that you have seen it as it would certainly appeal to you. The figures are lifelike to say the least. When one of them suddenly turns out to be a guard instead of a wax figure it makes you start.

Quote of the day

From a letter to the kids.

I picked some fuchsia seed to dry and send home for you to plant. They are a pretty red flower on a bush—but a mouse came into my room and you know sompin—he ate up all the fuchsia seeds. I have set a trap for him but he eats the bait off. He has eaten cheese, a peanut and a piece of chocolate candy without even springing the trap. And I tied them on too with a piece of thread. At night he rattles the papers in my box but when I turn on the light he stops. I think I shall never catch him.