Don't forget your geography when researching

On route to our spring break vacation, hubby made an innocent comment that really got me to thinking. He said, "You know, there's only one natural lake in Texas."

How many of us who write historical romance rely on maps to help us picture the setting? I do. I try hard to look for historical maps and there are a ton out there, but often, those maps don't give me the details I'm looking for. On the other hand, I write a lot of historical western romances, most of which are set in Texas. Being a Texas resident, I assume the topography won't have changed much in 100 - 200 years. And too, being fiction, readers generally assume this as well so if you change the land to reflect what it really looked like back then, readers will sometimes argue with you. Needless, I never gave much thought to researching geography in addition to researching the history. Luckily, I don't think I've made any grave errors in the work I've done so far with regards to the evolving land, but you can rest assured I'll be including geography from now on.

As for the one natural lake in Texas, that would be Caddo Lake. An earthquake and a log jam helped create the 25,000 acre body of water. Not only is it the only natural lake in Texas, but it's the only natural lake in the south. What does this mean to authors creating settings for their historical fictions? Be sure to look at the history of the lake or river you're including in your manuscript. Due to flooding from the Brazos River, state legistlature mandated dams in the 1930s and 40s. These dams created lakes. If you're writing a historical western set along the Brazos River, make sure your characters don't encounter any lakes prior to this time.

Weather plays a part in the changing topography as well. As you know we took a trip to Indianola so I could better visualize my setting. Because of the two hurricanes (the one in 1875 and the one in 1886), the coastline if different than what my characters would have enjoyed. For one, there's less land.

Mappin' it out

So one of the things I learned when I made my trip to the Calhoun County Museum is that the town was laid out much differently than I assumed. Unfortunately that meant some major tweaking where my story was concerned.

This was a recreation scale model of the town and since it was in a class container, the pic isn't all that clear but it will give you some idea of the docks. The longest dock actually has railroad tracks on it as the train would pull up right next to the ships so they could load and unload freight.

The town moved from higher ground to this area next to Powderhorn Bayou which unfortunately aided in their demise. The elevation was much lower and a prime target for the flooding the hurricane would bring.

Researching Indianola

Got back from my vacation ready to plow into my wip and finish that baby. Hubby and I tootled down to the coast and spent three nights enjoying the scenery and good food. Of course, we had to share with the ton of college kids on spring break but we only had one bad night of no sleep where the party next door got rather loud and obnoxious. And dang - they didn't invite the old folks. What's up with that?


Our first day took us to Port A. The weather was rainy but we didn't mind. We were there to just relax and hang out.

The following day, we headed to Fulton and had the best seafood. I'm still stuffed just thinking about it. We went to the Rockport museum and refreshed our memories on La Salle's Belle. I'd gone about 15 years ago with a group of students to see the excavation. Very interesting as they'd created a void in the ocean around the Belle's reckage so they could excavate. We took a boat and could see down into the cofferdam they'd built. After this field trip, we took another to TAMU and saw how they were preserving the various items rescued from the find. We also went to the Fulton Mansion, a very impressive Victorian structure.

The next day we spent at Port Lavaca where we saw the Halfmoon Reef Lighthouse. It survived the hurricane of 1875 at Indianola so this fascinated me. We had to wait until the following day to visit the Calhoun County Museum where I could really find the information I was seeking.

So - with that, I'm going to post the rest tomorrow. Off to enjoy a date with my mother.

Why did I choose Indianola?

I'm working steadily to finish what I thought would be a novella set in Indianola, Texas in 1875, but I have 50,000 words already and I'm no where near the end of my story so....could this be another full length novel? As a pantser I won't know until I reach the end but it's looking that way.
I chose the town because I wanted a ghost town. Ghost towns have a fascination unlike real or fictional towns in that they possess mystery. Why did the town die? I wanted that part of the town to be a real element in the story. At the time I went searching for a setting, I had no idea how that history would play into my story but wow - I'm so excited about this one.

Indianola rivaled Galveston back in the day and was known as "the" port for shipping and for newly arrived immigrants. It was perfectly situated with easy access. In fact, it was the county seat at the time, but nature had other plans. A very distructive hurricane swept through in on Sept 16, 1875. Folks managed to rebuild, but another hurricane in 1886 sealed her fate and the post office was officially closed in 1887.

After reading some of the town's history, I told my mom about my selected location and she got all excited. She actually had a book on the town's history because she's huge into geneaology and that's the port where my forefathers entered the US for the first time. Having the book made my research go a lot smoother. Yes, there's plenty of info on the Internet, but not the wonderful tidbits offered by Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas by Brownson Malsch.

Even more fascinating is the culmination of the Sutton/Taylor feud. The trial of Bill Taylor was in progress when the hurricane hit so the town was full of visitors seeking a bit of excitement. I started my story in August and I'm now at the point where the hurricane hits. Can't wait to see how my hero and heroine react, how they survive. So many lost their lives to nature's destructive forces.

I'm planning a trip to the actual site sometime in March. I'll post pictures later.

Sagging Middle Woes

And no I'm not talking about my spare tire though I probably do need to make dieting top priority on my New Year's resolution list. Ugh.
I'm talking about the middle of the story that usually has writers pulling their teeth, their hair and anything else worth pulling. I'm a pantser, a term fondly applied to writers who pen manuscripts by the seat of their pants with little to no structured planning. Yep, that's me.

I'm working on a book now that has my muse screaming in frustration, but I know why. This is the first book I've done where I've written the sagging middle before the lead-up that follows the beginning. In essence, I wrote the beginning with no trouble. And then I rewrote the beginning. And then I rewrote the beginning again. I've rewritten the beginning five times now. But I'm happy with the fifth attempt. However, in doing this, I jumped into the sagging middle and floundered.

To make the story flow better, I just kept adding meat and cheese, sandwiching in scenes that happen before the middle. When I finally got it all put together, I realized I'd written that middle section first. Doing so kept this part far from sagging. I think the flavors all mesh now and I've written the perfect hamburger. I just need to put the ending bun on top and I'll be finished. Dinner served.Yay! (oh wait, what happened to that diet I just talked about?)

So what do I do to keep the middle from falling flat? First, I try to include foreshadowing and hooks throughout the beginning that have to be addressed along the way. Second, when I put my characters into situations where they have to react, I try to figure out more than one direction for them to go. I try to throw out the first solution because if I thought of it right off the bat, it will probably be the solution readers are expecting. I want to give them the unexpected if possible. Third, I try to keep those pages full of action. If it sags too much, kill a character. Ha ha. And if you can't kill 'em, put your hero or heroine into yet another impossible situation. But in all honesty, to sustain a story from beginning to end without the sagging middle, a writer has to have well developed characters with internal and external conflicts that drive the story forward. Without goal, motivation and conflict, it's hard to have a story at all.

I have 47,000 words written and am pretty much done with the middle. I'm now at the crucial black moment. This will be a difficult section to draft. My story takes place at the beginning of a hurricane and while I want to keep the facts as true to the real event as possible, I don't want folks to die. Unfortunately, folks did die in this tragic hurricane. I'm currently doing a ton of research on Indianola, TX, a ghost town that was once a city to rival that of Galveston. At the time my story takes place, the port town boasted a population of about 5000.