Who woulda thunk!

A (pretty-much) weekly newsletter to share my book writing process and adventures while also sharing what I discovered as I researched nurses and medicine in the Civil War.

Researching American history for my book is a challenge because it isn’t as interesting to me as pre-1500s Scottish history, but something about the South has been simmering in my mind since childhood. I didn’t know what about the South it was when I started to write my book but do now. Here’s the story of my revelation.

During my childhood, my family and I drove from Chicago to Tampa/St Pete a few times to see my retired maternal grandparents. In Tennessee, a highway exit sign for Murfreesboro caught my eye. I stared at the sign until we were passed it. Something inside of me stirred. I didn’t know what grabbed me and soon forgot about it.

Several years later my mother got my best friend and me jobs at United Airlines, and we worked in Chicago’s Loop—her at a ticket counter, me at the reservations office a block from the Board of Trade building on LaSalle Street. One day while I was at work, an Eastern Airlines employee came around and asked each person to draw a pencil from a cup. If the person drew a pencil that was sharpened, he’d give them a pass Miami to Nassau. I got a sharpened one. Maybe all the pencils were sharpened. I didn’t check.

My friend and I drove to Miami to catch a flight to Nassau because it was more fun to drive than to fly. While driving through Tennessee, we passed the offramp for Murfreesboro. My eyes again transfixed on the highway sign, and I wondered what was pulling me in and making me want to go there. A few decades have passed since our very fun trip to Nassau, and I still haven’t gone to Murfreesboro to check it out.

When I loosely outlined the plot of my Civil War book, I wanted the protag to go to Chickamauga, Georgia for the climax of the story. That was a famous American battle and sounded intriguing because of its proximity to strategic Chattanooga, where more action took place.

When I got to a certain point in writing the story, I realized the book would be 400 pages in length if I put her in Chickamauga for the climax, and there’d be A LOT of boring material along the way. What now?

I reviewed my earlier research and saw some stuff about Nashville, Tennessee. That sounded to me like a boring setting for my book, but I noticed there was a nearby battle, Stones River, that took place south of Nashville. Maybe, I thought, that would work because she’s near Nashville in my writing.

Turns out, Stones River was the bloodiest short battle in the war. It lasted less than one day but left behind carnage-a-plenty. I looked a little closer to the map and saw the Stones River battlefield is 4 miles south of … yep … Murfreesboro. That sealed the deal: the climax will take place in Murfreesboro.

This summer I hope to stomp around the battlefield and pick the brain of a national park docent, if there are any national park docents still employed by then, and to visit Murfreesboro. I read Murfreesboro is the most haunted city in the U.S. Ghosts inhabit several buildings, and there’s a cannon ball stuck in the side of one building. A ghost that appears in human form converses with people! Creepy, but awesome. Ooh! Maybe I can get a first-hand account of the battle! Right.

Murfreesboro. Who woulda thunk!

[Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. I’ll read the comments and answer any questions you may have about my book writing process.]