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Re: A Question for Helen Frost
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From: Helen Frost <helenfrost_at_comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 05:49:05 -0400
Thanks, Merri, Good question--I found myself wondering that myself as I read the book again in preparation for this conversation.
In CROSSING STONES, I began with Muriel, and her voice carried me into the story. I knew the suffrage movement would be important, and I understood the relationship between WW1 and women's voting rights.
Here's a personal connection to that:
When I was a child (I was born in 1949), we had a neighbor we called "Crazy Jim." We were a little scared of him, but also liked him. In retrospect, I don't think he was dangerous to children, and our parents must have known that, because they never warned us to stay away from him, only monitored our behavior to be sure we were not being unkind to him. I remember adults using the term "shell shock" in relation to him--with a mix of sympathy and respect.
Another fixture of my childhood (in Brookings, South Dakota) was a librarian named Ruby Jarman. At some point when I was writing CROSSING STONES, I realized that that generation of people in their 40's and 50's when I was a child would have been the age of my characters in 1917-18. I thought about this much-loved librarian, and googled her name, Ruby Jarman, which brought up the Brookings H.S. 1918 yearbook, including a beautiful picture of Ruby and a list of servicemen who were overseas. One of those men was William Jarman--Ruby's brother, and (my older sisters confirmed this!) the man we'd known as "Crazy Jim."
Such an interesting connection--I spent a lot of time looking at the yearbook, which helped me to envision my characters and their related stories.
So many men in that generation were killed in WW1, leaving many women leading their lives as "happily unmarried women." I'm sure some of them were not so happy, but when I was a child, I knew many single women (including several aunts) who were active, independent, and happy in their life work, whatever it was. I'm sure that affected my sense of my life choices, or at least gave strength to what was a radical new concept at the time: girls can be anything they want to be.
I remember telling my editor, Frances Foster, that I was thinking of exploring that time, and her response was something like, "That's an important story, and you are the right person to write it."
To address Merri's question more directly, as I researched and wrote CROSSING STONES, I had a different chart for each event and character, with the months across the top of the page, and the events noted in the column for that month. One page for WW!, one for the Suffrage movement, one for the flu epidemic, one for each character. I looked back and forth among these notes as I thought about each poem, then wrote from that. As I wrote, the focus of the form helped me find the story and develop the voices.
It wasn't easy, but it was fun when it worked! thanks, Merri, Helen
On Apr 17, 2014, at 1:19 AM, CCBC-Net digest wrote:
CCBC-NET Digest for Wednesday, April 16, 2014.
1. A question for Helen Frost
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: A question for Helen Frost From: Merri Lindgren <mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 13:30:03 -0500 X-Message-Number: 1
Tomorrow Helen Frost will be joining the discussion of her book
*Crossing Stones*. We encourage you to take advantage of her involvement by posing questions about this book that merges a strong narrative with a distinctive poetry structure.
Helen, as I read *Crossing Stones *I wondered how you kept all those balls (singular characters who develop over the course of the story, a detailed historical framework, complex poetry forms) in the air simultaneously. Do you start with one of those elements and work out from there?
Merri
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 05:49:05 -0400
Thanks, Merri, Good question--I found myself wondering that myself as I read the book again in preparation for this conversation.
In CROSSING STONES, I began with Muriel, and her voice carried me into the story. I knew the suffrage movement would be important, and I understood the relationship between WW1 and women's voting rights.
Here's a personal connection to that:
When I was a child (I was born in 1949), we had a neighbor we called "Crazy Jim." We were a little scared of him, but also liked him. In retrospect, I don't think he was dangerous to children, and our parents must have known that, because they never warned us to stay away from him, only monitored our behavior to be sure we were not being unkind to him. I remember adults using the term "shell shock" in relation to him--with a mix of sympathy and respect.
Another fixture of my childhood (in Brookings, South Dakota) was a librarian named Ruby Jarman. At some point when I was writing CROSSING STONES, I realized that that generation of people in their 40's and 50's when I was a child would have been the age of my characters in 1917-18. I thought about this much-loved librarian, and googled her name, Ruby Jarman, which brought up the Brookings H.S. 1918 yearbook, including a beautiful picture of Ruby and a list of servicemen who were overseas. One of those men was William Jarman--Ruby's brother, and (my older sisters confirmed this!) the man we'd known as "Crazy Jim."
Such an interesting connection--I spent a lot of time looking at the yearbook, which helped me to envision my characters and their related stories.
So many men in that generation were killed in WW1, leaving many women leading their lives as "happily unmarried women." I'm sure some of them were not so happy, but when I was a child, I knew many single women (including several aunts) who were active, independent, and happy in their life work, whatever it was. I'm sure that affected my sense of my life choices, or at least gave strength to what was a radical new concept at the time: girls can be anything they want to be.
I remember telling my editor, Frances Foster, that I was thinking of exploring that time, and her response was something like, "That's an important story, and you are the right person to write it."
To address Merri's question more directly, as I researched and wrote CROSSING STONES, I had a different chart for each event and character, with the months across the top of the page, and the events noted in the column for that month. One page for WW!, one for the Suffrage movement, one for the flu epidemic, one for each character. I looked back and forth among these notes as I thought about each poem, then wrote from that. As I wrote, the focus of the form helped me find the story and develop the voices.
It wasn't easy, but it was fun when it worked! thanks, Merri, Helen
On Apr 17, 2014, at 1:19 AM, CCBC-Net digest wrote:
CCBC-NET Digest for Wednesday, April 16, 2014.
1. A question for Helen Frost
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: A question for Helen Frost From: Merri Lindgren <mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 13:30:03 -0500 X-Message-Number: 1
Tomorrow Helen Frost will be joining the discussion of her book
*Crossing Stones*. We encourage you to take advantage of her involvement by posing questions about this book that merges a strong narrative with a distinctive poetry structure.
Helen, as I read *Crossing Stones *I wondered how you kept all those balls (singular characters who develop over the course of the story, a detailed historical framework, complex poetry forms) in the air simultaneously. Do you start with one of those elements and work out from there?
Merri
-- Merri Lindgren, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) School of Education / UW-Madison 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706 608-263-3930 --- END OF DIGEST ==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: helenfrost_at_comcast.net. To post to the list, send message to... ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to... digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To unsubscribe, send a blank message to... leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu ==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at... http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net ...and enter the following when prompted... username: ccbc-net password: Look4Posts ==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to... ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to... digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To unsubscribe, send a blank message to... leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu ==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at... http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net ...and enter the following when prompted... username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Thu 17 Apr 2014 04:49:36 AM CDT
