Entry for 7/25/2008 at 4:10:59 PM by ncbrowncoat

NCBROWNCOAT'S BLOG

ncbrowncoat

Entry for 7/25/2008 at 4:10:59 PM
Friday, July 25, 2008

I had a question about why I write pre-war Mal. And my answer was....
"I don't know, the stuff just pops into my head".

I was thinking on this while I took my evening walk on the historic Pamlico River in eastern NC while listening to a mishmash of 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's music.

I guess that's it's how I was brought up. I'm a boomer but born late enough (1960) to miss the worst part of the drugs, protests, riots etc.

And I've always had a sense of history. I live 120 miles from a place that up until the late 1970's or so the fisherman still had a brogue that an Elizabethan would recognize.

And about 20 miles away Blackbeard actually lived (in the oldest incorporated town in the state), married a local girl, got cozy with the local government and eventually decided it was all too tame so he turned again to piracy.

Historical markers are every where in town. Markers about the Civil War (and earlier) are everywhere and the houses that survived the Federal (there's that word again!) occupation are guarded jealousy.

Add to that stories of the strong women of my family. Like my ancestress that refused to swear allegiance to the US after the Civil War. She was buried never surrendering in her mind. Or my great grandmother who was born in the early 1880's. She lived to see not only cars but airplanes and eventually space flight before she passed in 1968.

Also stories and family history were passed down from one generation to the other both orally and were in some cases written down. (as an American Studies major I wish my Grandmother had recorded her recollections, they were priceless and they died with her. I also just re-found a 1875 family
letter that describes a smallish town recovering from war that could be on one of the Border planets-I wish I could show it to you.)

Let's see here...sense of history, small town rebels and is occupied by the Feds, strong women, all sorts of family stories equals one geeky, glasses wearing (had my eye exam Wednesday now bifocal glasses or contacts, ughhhhh!) American Studies major at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill that's currently devouring a biography of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir after an orgy of Tudor biographies.

Add a dash of the dramatic, Cecil B. Demille (Washington, NC spelling of the last name) is a distant cousin.

Does any one see a trend here?

COMMENTS

Saturday, July 26, 2008 11:10 AM

WYTCHCROFT

"I had a question about why I write pre-war Mal...."

nah, wrong question. the REAL question is:
How do you write em so good?:)

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