Grandparents Are for More than Just Baking Cookies and Explaining Baseball

Well, believe it or not, I have been writing a lot lately! It's just been in my novel draft and not here in my blog.... My apologies, faithful readers.

But, you will be happy to know that as of this morning, I have composed over 53,000 words in this particular project. And, things are getting exciting, as I have reached the climactic scene of the first part of the novel! It has been both fun and challenging to write. Over in Part II, wherein, as I reported to you in my last post, I have been dabbling, the infamous day of December 7, 1941 is about to dawn. (I don't think I'm really giving away anything to you by telling you that Pearl Harbor happens in the course of the plot. This is 1941. If you didn't know it was coming, then maybe you need to brush up on your history.)

But, how do I write about one of the most tragic and incendiary days in American history when I wasn't even born?! I have asked my grandparents about their personal accounts of that day in the past, but I think I am going to take the time to ask them again, and pay a little more attention this time. I want to know as much as possible about how they really felt that day. After all, that would be a little bit of how my characters, who are actually a little bit older and therefore even more impacted by the war, would be feeling.

I know that I could probably find many accounts on the internet, and maybe I will look into some of them. But, getting to talk to someone face to face, who is comfortable with sharing their emotional memory with me, I think will be much more helpful as I try to absorb that emotion into my writing. And, really, I like any excuse to listen to my grandparents' talk about their lives. Or anything at all. My grandparents rock. Yours probably do to.

So, here's your assignment:  Go talk to your grandparents this weekend! If you can't visit them in person, call them on the phone. Maybe they're lonely. I'm sure they miss you. And, if you take the time to listen, I can almost guarantee you'll learn something. At the very least, I hope you feel the love.