A Benefit to Blogging and How a Book is Born

Last week my friend and fellow NC blogger, Joan Edwards, interviewed me on her blog. She asked questions about writing Half-Truths including how my blog has helped me develop my writing skills. This is what told her:

My blog has helped me in two ways. I read and reviewed lots of mentor texts. Each review has taught me to analyze what makes a novel stand out. I also was able to journal my progress with Half-Truths including reviewing books about the Black experience. The books were crucial to making Half-Truths authentic and the online journal helped me answer your questions!

Yesterday as I was working on my next book, Unbroken Heat (working title) I thought how keeping track of my progress with Half-Truths was helpful to me as well as to anyone who wanted to know the book's backstory. So, here I am with this week's blog post, to tell you about Unbroken and my love for glass.

Over 25 years ago I walked into a glass bead shop and I was hooked. I couldn't believe the intricate, gorgeous beads were glass! I told the owner I wanted to write about her and she replied, "Don't write about me. I'm going to introduce you to people who are bigger than me--you're going to meet some North Carolina glass artists."

As a result of her introductions, I watched hot, molten glass transform into works of art and wrote several articles. I won two awards from Highlights Magazine for my article, "Paul Stankard's Paperweight Magic;" and signed a contract for Discover Glass about the history, art, and science of glass. I thought I was set to become the expert on glass for kids. But the publisher went belly-up and I was left with boxes full of drafts, research notes, and photographs. 

Soon after that, I started Half-Truths. I promised myself that any book I wrote going forward would include glass. I couldn't waste all my research! So, when I created my protagonist's backstory,  her grandfather's (Andrew Dinsmore) history included working in a glass factory when he was a boy.

Meanwhile, somewhere along the line, I purchased KIDS AT WORK: LEWIS HINE AND THE CRUSADE AGAINST CHILD LABOR.

Pictures like these caught my attention:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.01154/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018676573/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lewis_Hine,_Glass_works,_midnight,_Indiana,_1908.jpg

Who were these boys? How did they end up working in glass factories as young as 10 years old? What were their stories? Those images and questions stuck with me. 

I started researching. I thought I wanted to write about child labor in the glass industry, but as Harold Underdown reminded me when I began Half-Truths, that was only the setting. That wasn't the story itself. 

I started studying a book that Paul Stankard gave me years ago, 

and I watched YouTube videos that Wheaton Arts produced. 

I knew this was Andrew Dinsmore's story and that he had to go to work as a young teen--but I didn't know much else. Slowly, Andrew's life in a New Jersey glass factory in 1893 is getting fleshed out. I'm discovering what he wants and who or what will keep him from his goals. 

As I read about New Jersey's glass industry, I realized that besides the failed attempt at producing glassware in Jamestown, Va., the first successful glass factories were in colonial New Jersey.  Suddenly I had another story besides Andrew's--I had the story of a young indentured servant from England who landed in Philadelphia and must work off his debt in a glass factory in South Jersey. 

I had just finished reading The Blackbird Girls and was intrigued by Anne Blankman's use of two different timelines and multiple points of view. Could I do that with Unbroken? If so, what was the other timeline and how could I connect the two stories? Here's the pitch I came up with:

At the turn of the 20^th century, a young factory worker is surrounded by deafening noise, blisteringly hot glass, and mind-numbing exhaustion. There is no end in sight until he finds mysterious notes from a boy who lived this life 100 years earlier.  

And now, I can begin a new page on my blog. And when Joan Edwards interviews me about Out of the Flame--I'll know exactly how it all began. 

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Please go to Greg Pattridge's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday blog for more middle-grade book reviews and news.