Tag Archives: character: tillie ingram

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Historical Divider Art

Being able to be a volunteer at the local museum has been a rather beneficial thing for me (I’m not so sure I was as helpful to them, even as much as I tried to do my best to transcribe the letters as quickly and accurately as I could.) I have been able to experience many things, learn about different historical events and skills and ways of life.

At the orientation, I wandered around and took pictures of some of the buildings, including this one:

school

That picture enabled the artist to create the divider art for the two historical novels I’ve written featuring Tillie, a teacher. She had to have her school.

divider art school house cs5 rev 1

Upon reconsidering, we knew that the school needed a chimney, but a chimney expert told us the chimney in our reference picture was not right for the time period that I’d set the story in, so this one was added, and this is the end result:

divider art school house cs5 rev 2

It will be a lot smaller in the book, since it will be used to divide scenes/chapters, but it is a beautiful piece of work, isn’t it?

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I Wanna Get Married

So lately, I’ve been working on a lot of historical fiction.

It has been a process that is teaching me better ways of researching and put me in contact with my local museum and got me volunteering, all of that fun. It has also forced me to look at traditional roles.

People who listen to this song are going to laugh, as it is a spoof, and it’s a good one. The thing is, though, that this type of attitude was common, expected, and encouraged back in the times that I’ve been dealing with. To go against it would have invited considerable censure and ostracism. Today if the woman was to think this way, we’d mock her just like the song does.

Yet, this is the role that women like Tillie, Mena, and to a degree even Lady Nichols would have been expected to fill and enjoy. It’s hard to find that balance between what was and what we would like to see today.

Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.