One of my goals this summer, besides finishing the draft of my next historical novel, is to blog about it. I got to the next phase of my nonfiction project this past week by launching the website (I’ll be writing about and promoting that in the next post), so I’m starting to shift my Words From The Sowul focus a bit; I’d like to write more about fiction here, since I will have a new space to write about my nonfiction. It’s the best of both worlds, for those readers who’d like to follow both blogs!

Since I’ve written very little about Blizzard (working title) here except for the historical topic, today’s post will be an overview of the book. This is the first time I’m sharing any of this information with anyone except my agent. I tend to keep my fiction pretty close to the chest until I’m several drafts in, but I’m excited about this one and I feel ready to let go a little. (I’m inspired by my friend Sara Letourneau in this realm; she frequently blogs about her current draft progress and the characters she’s working on, and I admire these posts so much that I’m taking the plunge myself. Thanks, Sara!)

Let’s start with some basic facts about Blizzard (again, working title).

Setting: New York City, 1888.

Historical focus: The blizzard took place from March 11-14 of 1888, and was one of the most devastating storms of that or any other time period. It was completely unexpected, meteorology not being what it is today, and major cities were caught off-guard. The infrastructure of the growing cities couldn’t support a storm of this magnitude, and the result in New York was complete failure of all communication and transportation systems for several days; systems that, for the first time in history, the public had come to depend on. People were snowbound, families were unable to contact each other, and as the week continued, food and fuel shortages left many starving or freezing. There were a few thousand deaths as a result of this storm, and it took weeks for the city and surrounding area to recover.

Characters: The story focuses on one family, the Allens. They are upper-middle-class, though not all of them are content with this social sphere. The Allen family includes:

1. Arnold: a professor at Columbia with a family inheritance to back up his income; he is recently remarried and his children strongly resent the second wife. During the storm, he gets stranded on an outgoing train to Connecticut, and must band together with a group of men to find shelter and food for the trapped train-riders.
2. Sarah Ann: Arnold’s rather younger second wife, who had been a nurse to his first wife before her death just over a year prior. Sarah Ann is too meek to stand up to her new stepchildren’s bullying, but she has earned a small amount of power by becoming pregnant with Arnold’s child. During the storm, she is trapped at home… and goes into labor.
3. Calvin: Arnold’s oldest son, early twenties. Arnold wishes him to begin courting a suitable woman, but Calvin’s thoughts are focused on his work. He wishes to break into the newspaper business, and he wants to do it without his father’s influence. During the storm, he tries to take an el train uptown to deliver his first promised published story to his editor, but the el crashes into another train and he finds himself in the middle of a tragedy.
4. Flora: At eighteen, the next youngest child in the Allen family. Flora worshiped her mother before her death, and despises Sarah Ann. She is about to be married, and the wedding is just a week away when the storm hits. During the storm, she is trapped in the house with Sarah Ann, and is forced to take responsibility when Sarah Ann goes into labor.
5. Henry: Flora’s fiance, who can’t quite believe she’s accepted him. Henry is a former member of New York elite, but he lost all of his family and fortune seven years prior in a devastating fire. He now works as a piano salesman for the up-and-coming Steinway company. During the storm, he struggles his way uptown to a very important sales meeting at a hotel. The nephew of the hotelier turns out to be Robert, an old friend of Henry’s from school days, and he’s pleased to be reunited with his friend… but then he realizes that Charlotte is also staying at the hotel. He ends up getting stuck at the hotel overnight as the storm worsens.
6. Charlotte: Robert’s younger sister; Henry had a brief love affair with her just before losing his fortune. Neither has forgotten the other, but Henry has not been welcomed back into Robert’s family home since his losses pushed him down into a lower social circle. Charlotte would describe herself as awkward and unattractive; others see her as witty and exceptionally musically talented.
7. Benedict: The youngest of the three Allen children at eight. Benedict is a mischief-maker who always knows how to manipulate the adults in his life. He starts the day off by heading off to school with his friend Martin Luther, but ends up in a strange situation with an out-of-control horse, a mysterious gray-haired lady, and PT Barnum, the great circus master.

I’ll be writing a more in-depth character profile on each of these cast members around once a month. I hope you enjoy watching them evolve as much as I do!

Next post: Introducing… The Creativity Perspective!