Thanks for joining us for our third and final installment in our interview with award-winning journalist and author, James Rada. If you missed parts one or two, click here to catch up.
Jim, when we left off yesterday, you were telling us about how you became interested in writing historical fiction. What’s your favorite thing about it?
I like learning something new. At this point in time, I’m writing about American history so with each book or article I write, I learn something new about my country. I like seeing how things that happened in the past have impacted the future, what’s been forgotten and what’s still remembered. For instance, the Spanish Flu was the most-devastating disease ever to hit the world. An estimated 40 million people died or about three percent of the world’s population and about half of the world caught that flu. Yet, World War I pushed it off the front pages for the most part and many people don’t know about it, though you hear a little more about it with the current avian flu scare.
Your least favorite thing?
I’m always worried that I’ll miss some big detail in my research so I keep researching. I wind up going over a lot of the same material again and again. I wrote that smallmouth bass were in the C&O Canal. They are…now. They weren’t at the time my novel was set and a reader let me know it. It’s the small details that trip you up.
As you report the news of today and then research the news of the past, do you find that we do indeed repeat our history?
Definitely! Compare the panic over the avian flu with Spanish flu. I used this example in the LDStorymakers workshop I taught. President Teddy Roosevelt was caught up in a war that was trying to bring freedom to a small country. However, he was being opposed by radical Muslims. They were conducting a guerrilla war against the U.S. so that the soldiers didn’t know who was a friend and who was a foe. The Muslims were conducting some barbarous attacks against the Americans that involved cutting off body parts. When the Americans fought back, they were accused of brutality. The President tried to fight the war, but some of his own high-level people didn’t agree with him so they leaked his plans and memos to the press, which used it to attack him. Sound familiar?
By exploring something like that, I might be able to develop some insights for the conflict going on today in the Middle East.
That’s fascinating. So, tell me, does living in the historically rich area of Gettysburg inspire you?
I have a ball living in Gettysburg. I like going to the re-enactments and watching how the soldiers react. I don’t necessarily find it inspiring, though, because I spend more of my time south of Gettysburg.
I work in Emmitsburg, Md. and Thurmont, Md. Both of these towns have their own claims to fame. Emmitsburg is where Elizabeth Ann Seton, America’s first native-born saint, conducted her life’s work and Thurmont is the home of Camp David. By exploring these two towns’ histories, I have been inspired with interesting stories about spies who were training in the area during WWII, how the wallpaper in one room of the White House was rescued from a house scheduled for demolition in 1962, why 80 percent of the country’s goldfish used to be farmed in the in the county where I work and how the first matches were developed in Thurmont. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
What projects are you working on right now?
I’ve got two freelance history articles to finish in the next month – one on an iron furnace that may have made cannonballs for the Continental Army and one about how the Spanish Flu devastated a nearby county. Then I have two local history columns to write as well – one on how the first woman elected to the city council in Cumberland, Md. refused to serve and one about Coxey’s Army march on Washington in 1894. That’s about average for me. A lot of times I use these articles as fodder for historical fiction.
I have a non-fiction book about Emmitsburg coming out this fall. I still have to see the final draft on that.
Once that’s out of the way, I’ll be starting research for books on Elizabeth Ann Seton and Thurmont.
I’m also outlining a historical fiction novel about the Western Maryland coal wars in the early 1920’s.
I recently pitched a new book to Deseret Book that ties together, the church, history and journalism – some of my favorite things.
Then I’ve always got other projects in the mail.
My wife gets frustrated because sees me doing a lot of work and not a lot of money at the same time. I try to tell her that’s because I slacked off six months to a year earlier. I feel overwhelmed at times too, but I know if I don’t keep stuff in the mail now, then down the road I won’t have paying projects on my plate. So I stay busy.
Besides I love what I do. It’s my job and my hobby.
Thank you for this interview, Jim. I know you’re busy and I appreciate the sharing of your time and talents with us.
If you’d like to learn more about James Rada, visit his website.
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