by Connie Connally | Apr 17, 2012 | Writing
On Easter Sunday I did something I’d been fantasizing about for a long time: I wrote the last paragraph, the last sentence, the last period of my novel. As it happened, the day was warm and sunny, and I wrote this long awaited conclusion (long awaited by me, that...
by Connie Connally | Jan 6, 2012 | History, Writing
When I decided to undertake writing historical fiction, I thought that the hardest part would be finding all the facts I needed and getting them right. That actually turned out to be doable, though very time-consuming. More difficult has been finding the small...
by Connie Connally | Nov 20, 2011 | History, Writing
Writing historical fiction is full of challenges, and among the most formidable of those challenges is the research involved. It’s a huge task. But it’s an interesting one, and if the research leads you to interviewing other people, as my research has done, then one...
by Connie Connally | Nov 4, 2011 | History, Writing
For the last several years my writing time has been absorbed by two novels. The one I’m currently writing, tentatively titled Voice, is about ¾ complete in its first draft. The other, The Bomb Shelter Quintet, has been finished, but I will be revising it after I...
by Connie Connally | Oct 13, 2011 | History
Here is a story from Béla Zsolt’s holocaust memoir, Nine Suitcases. It is a striking account of some Jewish prisoners who were given a chance to escape . . . and chose not to. The story, for me, is a poignant reminder that some things can be stronger than the fear of...