The Library of Congress visit

As planned, I went to the Library of Congress on Wednesday. It's a huge place with multiple buildings and security checkpoints, plus rules and regulations like crazy. I could easily have been intimidated there if I wasn't so excited about what I might find.
I had already searched their archive listings on their website and identified about 6 months of German newspapers I wanted to see. I also identified 3 LOTS of photos I wanted to look through, about 300 photos altogether, and I submitted requests via email for permission to access both the newspapers and photos. Librarians in both departments emailed me back the same day, acknowledging my request and assuring me the materials would be ready and waiting for me on Wednesday when I arrived. And they were right.
With my bare hands, I actually touched newspapers from 1938 Germany. I used the LOC's scanner to save dozens of pages of text and newspaper photos onto my memory stick. I had to don white gloves to look through files of photos, and I was able to photograph the photos (sans flash) to save the image to my computer. Plus, I was able to access and print out full-text articles from the Times of London during 1938 to help me understand the world-view of German events at the time. What an amazing resource. What an experience.
I am indebted to Amber Paranick and Jeff Bridgers, Research Librarians at the LOC for their help in accessing and readying these materials for me. I plan to cite both of them (plus Elisabeth Angermair, helpful librarian in Munich's Stadtarchiv) in 'Acknowledgments' when I get this book of mine published.

Focusing for my final research run (I think)

As I'm finishing the finale, I find I have a few outstanding questions to answer in order to accurately ground the piece in place and time. A little more research is needed in primary sources, newspapers in this case, and yet finding newspapers printed in Germany in 1938 has been a challenge. Since the German media was controlled by the Nazi Party, the newspapers went out of print when the war ended and most of the copies were herded into large libraries as part of the 'denazification' of Germany. Lucky for me, the Library of Congress has original copies in bound volumes, and a librarian there will get them from remote storage for me next week. Yay!
I'm very excited to get my hands on them, look at the pictures, and search for specifics of the Day of German Art procession which figures into my finale. Facts like time of day, number of participants, number of spectators, and weather should be there. Random points of interest such as a spectator interview, maybe a photo of a street vendor at the parade, etc. will hopefully add color to my portrayal of the event.
Now if only I could figure out how to save a scanned newspaper file to a Word document so I could run it through a translator.

Everything I need to know...

For Mother's Day, I got "Everything I need to know I learned from a children's book: Life lessons from notable people from all walks of life" edited by Anita Silvey. It's a fascinating read for anyone interested in how people develop character traits, a subject which I find intriguing in both the real world and in fiction. Famous and/or accomplished adults by the dozen contributed their memory of a favorite childhood book and then discuss how the story or its lesson impacted their life.
Among them: William DeVries (surgeon who performed the first successful permanent artificial heart implantation) loved the Wizard of Oz and was drawn to the Tin Woodman, the character without a heart. Steve Wozniak, the cofounder of Apple Inc, remembers how the Tom Swift book series introduced him to creative problem solving using scientific principles. Brad Paisley's favorite book was and is the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and its adventurous spirit touched him so deeply that he gave his son the middle name Huckleberry. As a premature twin who had seizures and grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, Tiki Barber found inspiration in The Little Engine That Could.
What a wonderful legacy these authors have created. What an honor it would be to touch a developing character in such a rich and lasting way.

Amazing videos

I have a tendency to get lost in my research for the book, and yet finding primary sources (Germany newspapers, diaries, or magazines) from 1938 Germany has been a little harder than I expected. Lots of information is available about the war itself, especially from the American viewpoint, but that prewar period in Germany is a bit harder to come by.
Last week, I spoke with the librarian at the Abington Library about finding some additional primary sources for details I need to set up the historical accuracy of my finale. She had a great suggestion for primary sources: video. She suggested going to the US Holocaust Museum website as well as Google videos and use my typical search terms -1938 Munich- and see what kind of hits I got. I tried it and Bingo. I found some actual footage of parades - in color! Amazing.
Seeing a Nazi-era parade in living, moving detail will make my description of it more accurate. It also helps me see how to fit Sophie's climatic scene into it in a way that will be logical and exciting.

Endings

My WIP (work-in-progress for those of you non-writer folks) is printed out and sitting next to my computer, still missing an ending. I was working through possible endings when my sister Joyce died. Obviously, my attention has been on matters far more important than a fictional story, so I've been drained of story-focus and energy.
This hiatus from writing will be good in the long run, I'm certain, because I'll probably be able to see the story with fresh eyes. Hopefully an ending will be obvious to me- but my biggest fear is that I'll write an ending that's too obvious to the reader. Nothing bugs me more as a reader than investing all that time in a book and figuring out the ending halfway through.
I recently read a book called When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. It was a decent read until the ending- which totally surprised me - which made the book unforgettable. I love the sense of satisfaction that comes from an ending that ties up loose ends, isn't hokey, and somehow combines being unexpected and inevitable at the same time.
Just like life.
Gosh, I hope I can do that as a writer.