A few reviews and a new endeavor

The three audience reviews I read online praised Who Lives?, the play that opened on World Kidney Day in the LA area, for its dramatic qaulity and black and white set. Bill Peckham of Dialysis From the Sharp End of the Needle doesn’t quibble with the dramatic content but says the entire story isn’t told and provides links to “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would have said. Read his entry.

I would still like to see or at least read the play. Vested interest, don’t you know.

Meanwhile back at the homestead

As the waiting creeps on for vocational rehab and direction from The Gazette, I’ve decided to begin research on the 14th Iowa regiment, I company, during the Civil War. My great-great-grandpa served in the regiment, fought at Shiloh in “the Hornets nest” and was captured – along with over 200 other soldiers from the 14th – and discharged at Macon, Ga.

I’m thinking of writing a historical fiction based on his service, the homefront in Henry County, Iowa, and the family connection. There’s plenty interesting about Henry County at the time and about David C.’s family and neighbors. The story could start with the early pioneer days (David C. is first noted in the 1854 census but family names show up even before that date).

The county was also a settling place for Quakers as they met their way across the country. Those Quakers became part of my ancestry, too, and the push and pull they must have felt when it came to serving the union would have been strong considering their abolitionist tendencies and their pacifistic religion.

I’ve done some genealogical research on David C. beginning nearly a decade ago, put it aside too early and lost all the accumulated paperwork in last year’s flood so I’m duplicating now. I find it much easier to find information online than it was 10 years ago.

The realization David C. was a Civil War vet came from that earlier research, at least to my mom. I found the obit for David C., who had moved  many of his family to Oregon in the late 19th century, and read of his service. I soon asked Mom, “Why didn’t you tell me David C. fought in the Civil War?” Her answer was that she didn’t know he had.

Filling in the years after David C. left Henry County was nearly impossible at that time since a fire had destroyed the county courthouse in Oregon and most records of the time were destroyed. Perhaps I’ll  have better luck in this search.

Why historical fiction? Because I have no diaries or family papers to use as resource. Of course that means I have to set a plor, develop tension, develop character, set the scene, etc., not to mention find an agent, a publisher etc.  So don’t look to add the book to your Christmas list.

What do you think, should I blog about my search for David C. and the progress of the novel? In this blog or start a new blog?