The Worlds of Meg Stout » Children of Heaven

Meg’s Book – Chapter 33 – The Vision

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:41:00 +0000

Trivia – An established author with whom I will be attending a writing workshop (Aug 2007) shared information on writing a 1000-word synopsis of one’s novel, describing the crisis and climax of the tale.

That’s how I realized that the events in the chapter titled “The Virgin” were the climax of the first part of the book (Elvira’s story). But I hadn’t written it as a climax.

As I transformed the previous chapter to meet the structural needs of my fiction, I felt I needed to add this chapter as well.

The imagery of fire and glass, of Scylla and Charibdis, are present in scripture (Rev 15:2, D&C 130:7) and classical literature.

Meg’s Book – Chapter 17 – Expulsion

admin — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:09:00 +0000

Trivia – The appalling thing about my decision to stick with all known historical facts in my fictional tale is that I have been able to go back and insert major events without causing major structural damage to my later narrative.

For those who do not know the fictional from the factual, the basic facts of the major characters in this chapter are true – dates, who leaves, what is published, the search party and the way they found the man they were looking for. Elvira and Jonathan didn’t keep journals during this time, so while their part of the story is plausible, I certainly hope they didn’t have to live what I put them through in this fiction. But what I imply about JCB is based on documents and affidavits.

Meg’s Book – Chapter 12 – Blood and Water

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:00:00 +0000

Trivia – Summer 1841 was an awful time, only to be exceeded by the summer of 1842. Joseph Smith was particularly saddened by the death of his younger brother, Don Carlos. I can’t help think that Joseph must have wished that a different man had died of malarial fever…

Meg’s Book – Chapter 11 add – Forgiveness, arrest, and tea

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:14:00 +0000

Trivia – The press in Jackson County, Missouri, on which the Book of Commandments was being published was destroyed by a mob. The few books that were able to be created were from the sheets that fifteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her thirteen-year-old sister Caroline saved, grabbing the pages and running from the mob to hide in a nearby cornfield. The scripture I have Joseph quote is well known, but the section number and versification is as printed in the original Book of Commandments rather than what is contained in the Doctrine & Covenants today.

The June 1841 arrest of Joseph Smith appears connected with Tom Sharp’s new-found animosity towards the Mormons, particularly given that the arrest occurs only a few miles from Warsaw, in the community where Elvira’s sister Louisa lived in real life.

I do not know how it was discovered that Dr. Bennett had been inappropriate with Sarah Pratt, but it was discovered shortly before Orson Pratt’s return from England. The use of herbs described is legitimate, although I don’t know that Sarah Pratt would have necessarily ‘needed’ squaw mint. Dr. Bennett’s use of chloroform in this chapter predates the first recorded use of chloroform to anaesthetize humans (1847) but is well after the discovery of chloroform (1831), and Dr. Bennett is noted as being a pioneer in the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic.

Chapter 10 – Tom Sharp

admin — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Trivia – Students of Mormon history may recognize Tom Sharp as the editor of the Warsaw Signal, who famously called for violence against Joseph Smith in 1844, writing “Citizens arise, one and all!!! Can you stand by, and suffer such infernal devils! To rob men of their property rights, without avenging them. We have no time for comment! Everyman will make his own. Let it be with powder and ball.” Joseph was shot and killed fifteen days later.

But in 1841 Tom was sympathetic to the Mormons. It is not until the 19 May 1841 edition of the Warsaw Signal (four days after the fictional encounter in this chapter) that Sharp first makes any negative comments.

Since Louisa and Wesley lived a few miles from Warsaw, it seems plausible that they knew Tom Sharp. In real history, Louisa and her husband do not end up making the trip out to Utah.

Chapter 9 – The World of the Dead

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:42:00 +0000

Trivia – Many stories we take for granted today did not exist in their current form in 1841. Goldilocks first appears in literature in 1904, for example. And it isn’t clear whether Elvira would have known the tales of the Grimm brothers. Yet stories must be told to fill time when small children are about. The myths of Greece and Rome, however, would have been known.

I enjoyed the idea that Hades suffered some punishment for stealing Persephone, although the damnation of never knowing his children is nowhere in classical literature to my knowledge. I got the idea from hearing about the men who serve on ballistic missile submarines. With their on again, off again schedules, it is apparently rare to be present for both a child’s conception and his/her birth. They universally agree that they’d rather miss the birth than the conception.