Why I Write Historical Fiction -- A Guestpost by Terri Wangard
Terri Wangard’sfirst Girl Scout badge was the Writer, the result of scribbling stories in a notebook. Reading such books as the RevolutionaryWar tale, The Hornet’s Nest by Sally Watson, during her school days,whetted her appetite for history. An interest in genealogy led to her being therecipient of old family letters, which led to an idea for a historical novel.
A batch of forgotten letters was found in my grandmother’shouse. Written in 1947 and 1948, they came from distant cousins in Germany. Mygrandparents and other relatives had been sending them care packages. Mygreat-great-grandfather immigrated to Wisconsin in the 1870s, as did twobrothers. A fourth brother remained in Germany, and these letters came from hisgrandchildren.
When I revived a dream to write in 2008, I decided thefamily in the letters would be the perfect subject around which to craft astory. Research revealed life in Nazi Germany as increasingly grim before thewar even started. While the letters provide a fascinating glimpse of life in postwar-tornGermany, but nothing was mentioned about the war years. How had the familycoped? I turned to the internet and searched on the family’s factory name. Ifound it all right, in a list of German companies that used slave labor. Iwanted my family to be the good guys, but that hope grew shaky.
Contact with the German relatives ceased in 1948 after theGerman currency reform, and with their silence in the letters, many questionscouldn’t be answered. Why had they refrained from any mention of their thoughtsand activities during Hitler’s regime? Desire to forget? Shame of the vanquished?Concern the American family wouldn’t help if they knew the truth?
Circumstances of their postwar life offer a few facts. Thefamily consisted of a brother, his wife, and three young children, and a sisterand her husband, and their “old gray mother,” who turned 66 in 1947. Anotherbrother languished as a prisoner of war in Russia, not returning home until1949, I learned from the German department for the notification of next of kin.The sister and her bridegroom had lived in Canada for five years, returning toGermany in 1937 because she was homesick. They were bombed out of their homesand lived in their former offices, temporarily fixed up as a residence. Beforethe war, they employed about one hundred men, but in 1947, had fewer thanforty-five, with no coal, electricity, or raw materials to work with.
My imagination took over. The family, not the newlyweds,came to Wisconsin in the thirties. Because a critique partner scorned someonereturning to Hitler’s Germany due to homesickness, I gave them a morecompelling reason when I rewrote the story. The grandfather had died and thefather had to return to take over the factory, much to the daughters’ dismay,who loved their new life in America.
They did not support Hitler. Because their factory had toproduce armaments and meet quotas imposed on them, they had no choice inaccepting Eastern European forced laborers, Russian POWs, and Italian militaryinternees.
The older daughter (my main character) took pride incommitting acts of passive resistance. Now a war widow, she hid a downedAmerican airman she had known in Wisconsin, an act punishable by execution.When they were betrayed, a dangerous escape from Germany ensued.
Maybe the family did support Hitler. Many did beforerealizing his true colors. My version probably doesn’t come close to the truth,especially concerning the daughter. The real daughter was twelve years old in1947. No matter. This is fiction, and I created a family I can be proud of.
I hadn’t planned on continuing to write historical novels,but an editor informed me that I likely would receive a contract only if I hada series. Okay, I wrote two more. All three feature B-17 navigators atRidgewell Air Base in England. In the second book, the plane had to land inneutral Sweden. How many World War II stories have you read based in Sweden?Finding unusual settings is part of my fun.
I was a history major in college, so I obviously enjoyhistory. Writing in a past era allows me the opportunity to step into yearsbefore my lifetime. I live vicariously through my heroines. They have talents Iwish I had. In the series, one is a seamstress, one an artist, and one anoutgoing Red Cross Clubmobile doughnut girl.
My new series, Unsung Stories of World War II, again turnsto the unexpected. Seashells in My Pocket, my seventh novel which releasedin March, takes place in Brazil. Next year’s No Leaves in Autumn is setin Iceland. The challenge of these locations is finding research materials towrite accurate stories. I’ve been blessed to discover three out-of-printmemoirs that allowed me to step back in time and join my characters in theiradventures. It’s the closest I’ll come to time travel.
Find out more about Terri's books at: www.terriwangard.com
Blog host Helena P. Schrader is an award-winning novelist and author of six non-fiction and twenty historical fiction books. Her current project in a three-part series about the Berlin Airlift.
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The first battle of the Cold War is about to begin....
Berlin 1948. In the ruins ofHitler’s capital, former RAF officers, a woman pilot, and the victim of Russianbrutality form an air ambulance company. But the West is on a collision coursewith Stalin’s aggression and Berlin is about to become a flashpoint. World WarThree is only a misstep away. Buy Now
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