A Tangled Blog

This week I happened upon a military writer who  has written many books about the Canadian experiences in WWI and WWII.  First off, I'm reading "Brave Battalion,"  by Mark Zuehlke and taking notes for my Nan stories.  Then I plan on eventually reading almost all of his other other military books to give me inspiration and information for TTTT.

I am highlighting and note-taking like crazy on this thing.  I have dates of departure, time spent at Valcartier, time spent at Salisbury Plain, and other facts that will come in very handy, especially in letters from Jerry and Jem to Nan and Co.

I have a feeling that once I finally finish Nan's stories, I'll have to rewrite my others some time too.

I'm having a problem.

I'm almost done with The Summer Between, and I was planning on going right into the next chapter in Gwen's story, which would be the war.

However, between reading the original edition of Rilla of Ingleside, and watching Downton Abbey, I am finding myself increasingly drawn to writing something set during that period - which would mean a Diana story, her life at Redmond during the war years.

Unfortunately, I've only done the vaguest plotting for that period of time, and don't really have a real story set out at all for her. Should I keep going with Gwen's story, or follow my current whim and start writing Di's tale, even without knowing where exactly it's leading?

I have so many things I want to discuss about Season of Song, which was finished a few weeks ago. I really feel, Louise, this was your best work yet, though I have loved all of your stories. Gwen and Co, though, seemed so real to me, and so complex. The gray areas in this story reminded me so much of the Anne books. You wanted things to be perfect, but they weren't always, and that was so much more satisfying than if they were.

Some things especially I enjoyed:

• The strained relationship between Di and Rilla, stemming from Walter's death. People in families don't always have to get along and I know that we all (me in particular) tend to make the relationships in the Blythe, Ford, Meredith clans a real love-fest. This way was bittersweet, but ultimately more realistic, IMO.
  
• The relationship between Gwen and Oliver. Again, it's easy in fanfiction to telegraph who will end up with whom, romantically, from the beginning, or to set things up very early on. I really have no idea whether or not Gwen and Oliver Grant will take things forward that way, or if Tryg will feature or not, and I like not knowing.
  
• The fact that Gwen didn't stay. Oh, I wanted her to! Just like I wanted Anne to be able to go to Queens at the end of AoGG. But Anne never would have left Marilla in the lurch, and Gwen never would have left her family. Neither of them would be half so loveable if they did.
  

What I'm looking forward to in the next installment:

• Seeing Gwen and the Blake kids interacting with their parents, and seeing what life in Kingsport is like for them.
  
• Seeing the relationship between Gwen and Chloe grow and change
  
• Romance! :)
  

Louise, can you give us a preview of where the next installment will pick up, and what it will cover? Pretty please?

• The
  

I just finished drafting an outline for a Gwen-WWII story, which deals with men working on the home front, and women as Wrens, and military scientists, and I was starting to get bogged down with all the research it was going to take to adequately portray all these different aspects of the war. I got to cheat a bit with Meg by having her removed from much of the immediacy of the war, but I find that Gwen is a bit more insistent about being involved.

Don't get me wrong, I adore research, but the amount of work it takes to even find the right books, or the right websites, sometimes gets to be too much.  By the time I've weeded through all the lousy information out there, I'm exhausted, and usually have a child or two (or a husband) clamoring for attention.

So, I thought, Why not pool our resources? Do you ladies have any websites or books in particular that have really helped you in your WWII-era research? If so, I'd love to hear what they are!

My latest chapter of Blythe By Name is not turning out the way I wanted it, so I decided to rest my brain and work on Blythe By Nature for a few days. Here is what I've come up with for the start of the first chapter, which takes place in October 1939. No spoilers--let me know what you think! This is only a first draft.

I watched this wonderful old movie this weekend, bit by bit, when Bart was upstairs grading papers and such.  I just love it so much for it's portrayal of how things were in the early days of WWII.  Then I remembered that I own a very old copy of the book.  The book is of course very different than the movie.  It starts much earlier.

Also, since I sort of have a phobia of old books, (they're nice to decorate with, but I like new books with only my germs LOL) I found it online to read.  It's such a quick read and so short, that I want to finish it before I progress any more with TTTT.  It shouldn't take me too long.

Some of you may notice that I have taken "Through These Trying Times" off of ff.net.  This isn't permanent, but I've decided after chatting some with Cathy that I could go forward with the story the way it is, but it just isn't right.  That's why I haven't updated it in two years.  Now, the main story will remain basically the same, but I'm going to take my time with it, rewrite it, and give it the proper attention that it deserves.  I plan to resist posting a chapter, just for the sake of posting it.

So, I don't plan to post it on ff.net until I have several chapters rewritten to my liking.  The sad thing is that it's taken me at least a week to rewrite just the first chapter.  That said, I do plan on posting a chapter at a time on a Google site, just for opinions and constructive criticism.

http://sites.google.com/site/throughthesetryingtimes/chapter-one