Prompts

How to write fiction based on fact. Prompt #41

Part Two of how to write fiction based on fact.  Part One is Prompt #40. Alla Crone-Hayden began one of her first historical novels with this opening line:  On the cold Sunday of January 9, 1905, the pallid sun hung over the rooftops of St. Petersburg trying to burn its way through a thin layer of clouds.  The weather matches the mood of character, of story.  Perhaps draws you in.  Maybe you want to know more   .  .  .  does the sun succeed in burning through?  Second sentence:  By two o’clock in the afternoon the dull light had done little to warm the thousands of people milling in the streets. The second sentence answers the unasked question about the sun. Notice the word choices:  cold, pallid sun, thin, dull light . . . words match the mood or tone of the day/event. Alla used weather to match the narrator’s…

Book Reviews

Captive of Silence by Alla Crone

Captive of Silence is written with an eloquence matching the elegant author, Alla Crone. Alla captures the time period (1923-1940s) with a finesse fitting her stature and the nature of the times and locales. To tell this difficult story in such a compelling way is an art that Alla has mastered. Toward the end of the book, I could not put this roman à clef * down. Alla’s writing is honest, poignant and genuine. I highly recommend Captive of Silence, especially to learn history in a fascinating way and to be inspired from a woman who rose above an abusive and extremely difficult life. * roman à clef :  French for novel with a key, a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction.  The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the “key” is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction. — Wikipedia Note: …