Time-Bound Tales | Fusing Historical Fact & Fiction

Fusing historical fact and fiction involves blending research, creativity, and storytelling, with much backtracking and correcting. “Mission 2: Unexpected Visitors”, the second volume in my middle-grade series, “Sophia of the Bright Red Sneakers,” has taken far longer to write than I expected.

Initially, I imagined my two enslaved twins telling their story to Sophia and Pedro after they traveled through time to New York City. Something felt off. So I wrote six new chapters depicting their life and attempted escape in June 1834. Rather than telling, I showed it.

Historical fiction always has word issues, such as when writing casual situations among twelve-year-olds and authority figures. “Kids” and “okay” would be common in modern times. But what was it in 1834? “Kids,” meaning children, not goats, came into use in the 1590s. However, “kids” or “okay” were not common until the 1840s. Whoops, my book’s in 1834!

Jeb and Liza were to escape in July 1832, but they couldn’t go further than Norfolk. An 1832 cholera epidemic closed East Coast ports. I changed it to July 1834, but the Abolitionists’ Riots occurred when they would have arrived in New York City. They needed to arrive in June when there was unrest, but not bloody battles.

Another issue is actual travel time, e.g., how long it takes to row a mile in a flatboat. The answer is six to twelve minutes. It was six miles from Oak Grove Plantation to Edenton, so thirty-six to seventy-two minutes. Their father was a powerful rower and traveled the river every day, plus he was helping his enslaved twins to escape to the north, so I chose six minutes.

They sailed on a wood-burning sternwheeler from Edenton to the Dismal Canal. A sternwheeler travels three to five miles per hour. Still, the rate depends upon currents, wind resistance, and fuel efficiency, as some wood burns faster, plus stopping to purchase chopped wood, and if that is not available, having the crew get off and chop it themselves.

Writing historical fiction is meticulous, but I love the thrill of bringing the past to life to share my discoveries with my readers! I hope to have the beta version completed in two weeks.