deborah wiles: field notes

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 47

2019-09-30T16:37:00.002-04:00

[NOTE: the last post at Blogger will be on Oct. 1 (Tuesday). To stay connected with Field Notes, you can sub here, or we may have a Feedburner work-around coming by Tues... I am a novelist, not a techie, can you tell? In any case, SUB for best results, hahaha, and stay tuned. xo Debbie]

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 47 (day 1):

AMERICA
Written by Paul Simon
Performed by Simon & Garfunkel
Recorded at Columbia Studios, NY, NY 1968
Drummer: Hal Blaine

And so they journeyed home together....
They drove through a summer when men would walk on the moon and kids would throng to a farm near Woodstock, New York, and Wavy would be there telling them, "What we have in mind is breakfast for 400,000!" and people of all colors and shapes and identities would march against injustice of all kinds in an effort to bring down the established old order and re-establish the ideals of liberty and justice, equality and opportunity, safety and kindness for all.
The future of America drove home.

Without giving away just who drove home, you know that they do go home, and the circle completes itself, although our characters are much changed... and, perhaps, so are readers, for that is the magical, mysterious quality of art. And of America.

ANTHEM is love letter to America, in all its shapes and forms, all its people, and all its incarnations, trouble and good times alike. At our best, we are one nation, indivisible, and that's what I wanted to explore.

I wanted to take readers through the time that... well, as Gail Zappa puts it in ANTHEM's last scrapbook: "In 1965, half the population of the western world was under 25. You have an evolution and a revolution in consciousness when you have a situation like that."

But that was then, this is now, I hear you say. So to Gail Zappa's statement, I added one from Little Richard that ends the book: "It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves."

So I leave you with Simon and Garfunkel's "America." Substitute friends for lovers, and you've got, "Let us be friends, we'll marry our fortunes together." Yes. That's what I want for America. And that's ANTHEM's over-riding theme. We've all come to look for America.

Here are a few more stills from ANTHEM's scrapbooks that highlight our struggles and our triumphs as a people... work that continues today, work that we are lucky to be engaged in, in a country where we can still make change. Where we can still demand the best for America.

And a last still that will lead us to the next book, KENT STATE, which publishes in April 2020:

Chapter 47 of 47 chapters. Thank you for coming along.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 46

2019-09-29T16:21:00.001-04:00

[NOTE: the last post at Blogger will be on Oct. 1 (Tuesday). To stay connected with Field Notes, you can sub here, or we may have a Feedburner work-around coming by Tues... I am a novelist, not a techie, can you tell? In any case, stay tuned. xo Debbie]

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 46 (day 2):

BEGINNINGS
Written by Robert Lamm
Performed by Chicago Transit Authority
Recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, NY, NY 1969
Drummer: Danny Seraphine

Cars rolled past them on the quiet street. The morning was bright and cool. The fog was burning off. It would be a good day for a journey.
"Music is the rhythm of our humanity," said Eddie. "It's the soundtrack of struggle and peace, birth and death, love and war, joy and pain. Music is the heart you open and the family you choose."

When I hear "Beginnings" now, I think of the many 2am mornings I sat here trying to finish ANTHEM, trying to get this chapter right, trying to sum up the themes, characters, plot lines, symbolism, you name it... trying to get it right. Trying to touch what I'd wanted to say about 1969, and about the Sixties Trilogy as a whole... about the Sixties, about my own young life in those years, and about the nation as it struggled through those days.

"Beginnings" is what came to me. "Only the beginning/ only just the start." Exactly. That was where to end, at the beginning, as storytellers know, as life shows us, too. Each ending is a new beginning.

As Molly and Norman come to the end of their journey -- the beginning of the next trip -- they gain a new rider for the miles home, along with a new understanding of who they are, what they mean to each other, and how they want to think about the world they are inheriting.

I wanted to include Chicago in ANTHEM, with their brassy, jazzy, upbeat sound... they were just getting started on their own journey in 1969, and bands everywhere would soon want to include horns in their line-up, including my husband's... he was the self-proclaimed band geek who played the sousaphone in the St. Andrew's Parish High School marching band in Charleston, South Carolina, and the trombone in concert band, and he was my inspiration for Norman. No wonder I love Norman so. I used to go to Friday night football games just so I could watch Jim in the band.

We have one ANTHEM chapter left, a very short one, and I'll blog about it tomorrow... then it's pub date for ANTHEM, and I'll catalog all these song/chapter posts at the ANTHEM webpage.

If you are local to Atlanta, you might come on Tuesday night, October 1, to ANTHEM's book launch, hosted by the Georgia Center for the Book and DeKalb County libraries, 7pm, at the Decatur Library at 215 Sycamore St., Decatur. I'll be there and would love to see you.

All three Sixties titles will be available to purchase, thanks to bookseller Little Shop of Stories, and of course they will be at your local library as well.

The Sixties Trilogy turned into an 11-year project with Scholastic Press... what a risk they took, to being these documentary novels to readers young and old, everywhere. I'm grateful to them for their support, and for three gorgeously beautiful books. Phil Falco's design wizardry and David Levithan's editing skills created something special out of the stories I wanted so much to tell.

The end of the Sixties Trilogy gives us a new beginning as well... Kent State will be published in April, 2020... more about that book soon. Meanwhile:

Chapter 46.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 45

2019-09-28T15:51:00.002-04:00

[NOTE: the last post at Blogger will be on Oct. 1 (next Tuesday). To stay connected with Field Notes, you can sub here, or we may have a Feedburner work-around coming by Tues... I am a novelist, not a techie, can you tell? In any case, stay tuned. xo Debbie]

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 45 (day 3):

PIECE OF MY HEART
Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns
Performed by Janis Joplin/Big Brother and the Holding Company
Recorded at Columbia Studios, Los Angeles, CA and NY, NY 1968
Drummer: Dave Getz

Molly glanced at Norman. "Where are we going?"
"Fillmore West," Norman told the driver. "Corner of Market and South Van Ness."
"What's happening?" Molly asked.
Norman rummaged in his pocket. "I bought these today," he said, "at a pawn shop. The poster was in the window."
Molly snatched the tickets from his hand. "Iron Butterfly! You love them!"
Norman almost laughed. Someone excited for him. It was a good feeling.
"Barry would love this," said Molly. "Turn around!" she told the driver impulsively. "Norman you should take Barry!"
"Never mind," Norman told the driver. "To the Fillmore, please."...
"Norman, really..." said Molly....
"No." Norman gritted his teeth. "I don't want to do anything with Barry right now. Maybe never.... I want to take you... We'll have this to talk about for years and years..."
"We've already got a lot to talk about. A lot. For years and years."
"I want this, too. One day I might have to go to war. If I'm drafted, I'll go. And I don't want to sit over there thinking about how I could have taken you to see Iron Butterfly in San Francisco but instead I took Barry, who didn't care two hoots about me...." He's selfish. I appreciate you, Molly. Come to the concert with me."

Hearts are breaking everywhere in Chapters 44 through 46. When I was trying to write LOVE, RUBY LAVENDER, my first novel, my editor, Liz Van Doren, at Harcourt Books, kept saying, "Let her heart break."

It took me several drafts to take her advice to heart (ha) and do that. It opened up the story. We hate to break our beloveds' hearts, and yet that's what fiction is about, isn't it? Let's see characters in impossible situations, physical and/or emotional, and let's see what they do, how they fall apart and put themselves back together, and thereby create a roadmap for us to do the same thing in our own lives, with our own heartbreaks.

In A LONG LINE OF CAKES, the fourth Aurora County book, which was published last year, I did such a good job of letting Emma's heart break that my editor (David Levithan at Scholastic) asked me if I wasn't going to put that thing back together that Emma tore up, so readers could see it at the end?

Well... no. Because Emma could put her heart back together emotionally by that point, and the physical didn't matter as much. And that's what's happening here, with Norman, as he begins to determine he's not going to spend any more emotional energy on Barry.

Norman is waking up to what's right in front of him, the cousin who traveled across the country with him, who navigated them to San Francisco, who is a royal pain in the neck as well as -- who knew? -- suddenly, a loyal and faithful friend. Let the record show that Norman's heart breaks, and he lets it. And he makes the decision to move forward.

"Piece of my Heart" and Janis were important to include in San Francisco chapters of ANTHEM, as Big Brother et al were a San Francisco band and I wanted you to hear that San Francisco sound, along with "Evil Ways" and Santana (Chapter 43), and, early-on in ANTHEM, CCR and "Bad Moon Rising" (Chapter 4).

You'll also find, as we hurtle to the end, a repeat of Chapter 2's Iron Butterfly and "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" in Chapter 45, which serves as Norman's theme song in ANTHEM. Norman finally gets to hear the Butterfly live -- remember the drum solo? Watch what happens. I'm bringing it around full circle for Norman.

Iron Butterfly did play at Fillmore West in late June 1969, on the very date I have Molly and Norman there. It's details like this that delight a researcher when she's trying to make a story come together and be true to events. Far out. Or, as Norman would put it, "Groovy!"

Fillmore West 1970 — the research on Bill Graham and the bands who played the Fillmore — and its locations — was its own amazing rabbit hole…

Chapter 45

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 44

2019-09-27T14:51:00.000-04:00

[NOTE: the last post at Blogger will be on Oct. 1 (next Tuesday). To stay connected with Field Notes, sub here, where you'll see the sub box on the right sidebar. My webmistress tells me that mailchimp's rules state that I can't sub you (as I thought I could), that you must do it yourself, hence the link I'll put here all this week, so you can be sure to hop over to WordPress with us. Everything you're seeing here is duplicated at WP. xoxoxo Debbie]

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 44 (day 4):

DAZED AND CONFUSED
Written by Jake Holmes
Performed by Led Zeppelin
Recorded at Olympic Studio, London, England 1968
Drummer: John Bonham

NORMAN:

"I've lived without family for over a year," says Barry. He stabs a noodle roll. "It's not so bad."
Molly looks stricken. "You don't mean it."
"It was pretty bad for us," I say.
"I don't care if I never go back home," says Barry. I can feel Molly steel herself across the table.
After a leaden pause, Jo Ellen asks Barry, "Did your attorney tell you about your draft notice?"
"Who's being drafted?" asks Colonel Chapman.
"I am, evidently," says Barry. "Yeah, she told me."
"Your physical date is July second," I say.
"I don't plan to report," says Barry.
Molly has taken a sip of her soup. She chokes on it.
"It was Mom's idea to bring you home," she says, coughing. "She said we would figure out what to do as a family."
"No way am I going home to let Dad scream at me again!"
Colonel Chapman leans his elbows on the table. "I personally know young men -- or knew them -- who would be happy to have their parents scream at them again, if they could be here, on this planet, alive."

This scene goes on for another two pages. It was a pleasure to write. Dinner-table scenes are full of possibilities. Get everyone around a table, talking and eating, airing their grievances, pressing their points, and move the story forward.

I learned to do this with EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS. I had an ensemble cast for that book, the largest I'd ever created at that point, and I needed a way for them all to be heard in conversation. A dinner table -- or, in the case of THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS, a ball field; or in the case of A LONG LINE OF CAKES, a gathering at an old man's house and an impromptu picnic -- accomplish so many storytelling tasks.

The dinner table scene in COUNTDOWN, where Uncle Otts waves Life Magazine and says, "We won't have another Thanksgiving if we are all blown up!" or the dinner scene in REVOLUTION where the reader understands Memaw's character and Uncle Vivian's politics, and suddenly the relationships between all the characters and Sunny, our hero, comes into view.

These scenes contain a ton of dialogue, and dialogue accomplishes three major tasks in a story: 1. It provides information. 2. It characterizes. 3. It moves the story forward.

Even a small scene, like the one between Sunny and Laura Mae, the hired help, gives us so much information, and provides all kinds of emotional resonance, whether they are at the kitchen table alone or sitting in the back of the car and Laura Mae reminisces about Emmett Till. Dialogue is rich territory.

So in Chapter 44, sitting at the big round table at Sam Wo's in Chinatown, it all comes together. They process what happened earlier in the chapter, secrets are revealed, personalities are confirmed, backstory is given, exposition is laced in, and resolutions are begun for characters who are about to exit the stage.

There is so much confusion, and Molly is certainly dazed by now, but at the same time, this confusion is making a path for clarity... that's how it works. Dinner-time (or gathering) scenes are big payoffs for the reader. Nothing is so rewarding to write in a novel as dialogue.

As for Led Zeppelin and "Dazed and Confused," the song title was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish in this chapter. Led and I (hahaha) were never close, but I knew the song, and knew how crazily-right it sounded for Molly with its psychedelic-rock overtones that mimic the Hendrix that Barry so loved. Molly is at a crossroads, just as the country was, in 1969. So much was being born:

While so many were also dying:

Dazed and confused. Yes. We were.

Chapter 44.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 43

2019-09-26T16:34:00.001-04:00

and

Chapter 43.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 42

2019-09-25T10:45:00.001-04:00

[NOTE: the last post at Blogger will be on Oct. 1 (next Tuesday). To stay connected with Field Notes, sub here, where you'll see the sub box on the right sidebar. My webmistress tells me that Mail Chimp's rules state that I can't sub you (as I thought I could), that you must do it yourself, hence the link I'll put here all this week, so you can be sure to hop over to WordPress with us. Everything you're seeing here is duplicated at WP. xoxoxo Debbie]

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 42 (day 6):

DARK STAR
Written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Performed by the Grateful Dead
Recorded live at Fillmore West, San Francisco, California 1969
Drummer: Mickey Hart

"My name is Molly. I'm a friend of your brother's. Drew."
Jo Ellen was concerned. "Is everything all right?"
"With Drew, yes. With us, no."
Molly described their dilemma while Jo Ellen listened.
"I just happened to stop home to pick up some files," she said. "Can you come to my office? I'm in the Castro. Do you have a pencil for the address?"
They were sitting in the waiting room when Jo Ellen returned. She ushered them into a small office, barely big enough for the five of them. Stacks of file folders lined the desk and more stacks on the floor threatened to topple over.
"I'm new here," she said. "This is my first job out of law school. I'm not sure I can help you. We do civil rights litigation, mostly violations of the first, fourth, eight, and fourteenth amendments."
"They've all been violated," said Flo.
"Excuse me, who are you?"
"We're the veterans. Moral support," said Flo.
"We're the adults," said Eddie.
Jo Ellen raised an eyebrow and continued, speaking directly to Molly.

With apologies to Deadheads everywhere, I'll confess that I was not a fan, and that I didn't learn to be a fan as I wrote ANTHEM. I wanted a Grateful Dead song to reflect where we were in the story, and to honor the Dead as they are a San Francisco band. You'll find several San Francisco bands in this last section of the book, as we head for the end/finale.

"Dark Star" is a perfect title for a chapter where that dark star is revealed after so many hints and smaller peeks into just what Molly and Norman have been hurtling toward. Not to give it away, but to say that I did learn to appreciate the jam that is "Dark Star" and could imagine how the music could live on to today as something quite special.

The version of "Dark Star" above is the jam recorded at the Fillmore West, which is where Molly and Norman may well be headed before it's all over; keep reading. It was fun to research San Francisco bands, and Bill Graham's Fillmore West.

It was meaningful to walk across the Berkeley campus and stand in the places where so much student activism had been born and nurtured, from the Free Speech movement in 1964 (which opens ANTHEM's first scrapbook) to the People's Park protest in 1969. More stills from ANTHEM scrapbooks:

I needed to know locations for various venues in 1969. The internet and interviews can only take you so far. So I went to San Francisco for research and to get a feel for the Haight, the Berkeley campus, the San Francisco Zen Center, the Castro, city hall, the jail, pawn shops and coffee shops and more.

1969 was a pivotal time in this country, and a trippy time to be in San Francisco. I took my research and used my imagination for much in these chapters. The Grateful Dead took me there.

Chapter 42.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 41

2019-09-24T14:26:00.001-04:00

The scrapbooks in ANTHEM show different ways of serving as well:

Chapter 41.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 40

2019-09-23T15:27:00.002-04:00

and one more:

The watchtowers of war are highlighted in Chapter 40, manned partly by two men I named after the Sixties pop duo Flo and Eddie, two of the original founding members of The Turtles.

Watchtowers have always fascinated me as guardians of whatever they are appointed to protect. In this case, both Eddie Mullin and Florian Finelli are about to accompany Molly and Norman on the last leg of their trip, as they enter, finally, San Francisco and the drama that lies ahead.

Chapter 40.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 39

2019-09-22T01:05:00.001-04:00

Chapter 39.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 38

2019-09-22T00:16:00.001-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 38 (day 10):

ENTER THE YOUNG
Written by Terry Kirkman
Performed by the Association
Recorded at Columbia Studios (voices) and
G.S.P. Studios (instruments), Los Angeles, California 1966
Drummer: Ted Bluechel (concert); Hal Blaine (studio)

MOLLY

Finally we find it, and sure enough, there's the line, snaking out the door and around the corner. "This is gonna take a while," says Norman. "I'm bringing Flam."...
The afternoon sun blazes all over us and everybody sweats. We listen to the talk in line, all about gigs and bands and best places to play around town, who's playing at the Whisky, the Paladium, or the Ash Grove....
"Why don't all these rock and rollers have to go to Vietnam?" says a woman with long red hair. "My brother's got to go."
I turn my body so I can hear the conversation.'"Barry McGuire was a Green Beret" replies a bearded man with the red-haired woman.
"He's not a rock and roller," says the red-haired woman. "Not really."
A man wearing a hat and carrying a guitar case says, "I happpen to know one of 'em's a fortunate son."
"What's that?" says the red-haired woman.
"His dad's got money. Or influence. Or both. Listen to the song."

The original title of this chapter was "Fortunate Son," a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Molly and Norman meet one such fortunate son in the Laurel Canyon chapter of the book and he (and others) goes with them to the hoot at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

This happens in a cut chapter, Chapter 37A called "Both Sides Now," Judy Collins' version, which will appear at Anthem's webpage after October 1. If you want to meet the Laurel Canyon musicians, they'll all be in Chapter 37A, sitting on the porch of the Canyon Store, where Molly and Norman stop for directions after leaving Capitol Records and getting lost trying to find the Troubadour.

Laurel Canyon songs mentioned in 37A are "Our House," "Monday, Monday," and the Joni Mitchell rendition of "Both Sides Now." I wanted to showcase the beginning of the singer-songwriter era, both solo artists and groups such as the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who were all, at one time or another, in the Canyon.

In the meantime, here they are, in Chapter 38, at the Troubadour, to listen to a band that Molly has long loved... not hard to figure out who, if you've been following along or listening to the Chapter 38 song, "Enter the Young."

I had wanted "Enter the Young" to start ANTHEM, with its lyrics, "Here they come, some are laughing, some are crying, some are doing, some are trying, some are selling, some are buying, some are living, some are dying, but demanding recognition one by one."

When we put the permissions budget together, the lyrics to "Enter the Young" were prohibitively expensive, and so we cut them and I've used it instead as a chapter title, with some acknowledgement of the lyrics inside the chapter.

In researching the Los Angeles/Hollywood section of ANTHEM, Jim and I spent some time there with our son Zach, who lives in Hollywood and works at Universal Music Group, as a guide.

Zach took us to Capitol Records (chapter 37), to the Griffith Observatory (coming up), and to a raucous night at the Troubadour, where I sat in the balcony, and then stood at the stage, where Molly stands in this chapter, listening to the Association sing her songs, while at the same time, some truth about their trip, and her brother, begins to dawn on her in a real way.

Joy and heartbreak in the same moment, and isn't that sometimes how life is?

Chapter 38.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 37

2019-09-21T11:09:00.001-04:00

I spent weeks researching Capitol Records -- not just the history of the label, but the story of the building, and how they got that special studio sound, so I could write Chapter 37, and realistically put Molly and Norman in Studio B and introduce them to Hal Blaine.

I came to love Hal Blaine as I read and listened to interview after interview of this iconic drummer who played on more than 40 number 1 hit records and scores of other hits during his long and illustrious career.

I'll write more about Hal here and edit this entry and provide more links when I'm home from my travels, which I'm going to write up as well -- a bit of mail coming into your box in the next few days, but thanks to MailChimp's delivery system, you'll have each day's posts in only one email, coming soon to a mailbox near you.

Chapter 37

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 36

2019-09-19T07:44:00.002-04:00

Every Monday night was Monkees night, from 1966 to 1968, and I was glued to the television for that theme song, and for every second of their program. You can watch full episodes on YouTube, and of course I fell down that rabbit hole while researching ANTHEM.

Just like I had done with the Beatles, I knew every word to every Monkees song, who sang it, what album it was on, and I knew all the trivia, thanks to Tiger Beat Magazine.

Molly is past the Monkees by 1969, and I suppose I was, too, fickle me, but "Mary Mary" is a great song to remember them by, and a perfect tune for Chapter 36, as Norman and Molly survive a dust storm in the Mohave Desert and meet the mysterious and possibly magical Mary Beal. Lots of links here, to Mary, each of them a different story, all worth your time.

Mary Beal, "Botanist of the Mohave Desert," came up in my research about the Mojave, and as soon as I stumbled upon her, I knew she was part of my story. I loved this chapter with Mary Beal, and loved pairing it with "Mary, Mary, where you going to?" as that was exactly what Molly and Norman were trying to figure out with her. Where did she come from? Where did she go?

Mary Mary leads them on their way, out of the dust, safely back to their "conveyance," to the right "wagon road" and onward to California.

Chapter 36.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 35

2019-09-18T12:28:00.002-04:00

Space travel was such a big deal in the race to the moon in the Sixties. Here's JFK's speech at Rice University on Sept. 12, 1962. The space race was on everyone's mind, as the moon landing became a reality in the summer of 1969. We are headed there with Anthem. Just got to get to California first.

Chapter 35.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 34

2019-09-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

And today, after a renovation in 2017, it still captures the imagination in the desert:

Families were vacationing like crazy -- you'll see them in Chapter 34 -- traveling by car, smashed together in station wagons in the late sixties, flocking to the national parks, and there was a concerted federal effort, called Mission 66, to expand park services in time for the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service.

Our dusty travelers are so hot, and the air conditioning is so inviting. It's not enough to cool hot tempers and exhaustion, but it does give them some temporary relief from the various weights they are carrying.
===
They watched parents taking Polaroid pictures of their kids standing in front of Multitudes. The kids were dissolving in laughter, posing and making funny faces, raising two fingers in peace. "Sock it to me!" said one kid. "Veeery interesting!" said another.
"Wimps," said Norman. He wiped at his eyes. "They should have gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail."
Molly sighed, relief in her voice. "Yeah. They're squares."
"She likes me," said Norman.
"Let Victor drive," replied Molly.
Norman handed her the keys. They climbed into their chariot and raced across the high desert.

Chapter 34.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 33

2019-09-16T16:38:00.003-04:00

This issue of Life brought the war home to Americans in a way television couldn't. There, on their coffee tables, were 242 dead Americans in one week. One week. Sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, friends. Gone. And for what?

That is Barry's cry in ANTHEM, of course. For what? You'll meet others along the way who are more sure of why we were in Vietnam, but for Chapter 33, I want you to meet Victor, who managed to come home, although much altered than the young man he'd been when he left.

A great short video from the Newseum about this issue of Life is here.

And here is an inside still from that Life Magazine feature, and a link to a June 2019 WBUR piece (with text and photos) of stories about the men, and the families left behind:

"All these boys, look at these beautiful boys, look at them," she says. "Oh, there he is."

What we wanted, now more than ever:

"Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding// No more falsehoods or derisions -- golden living, dreams of visions, mystic crystal revelations, and the mind's true liberation... Aquarius."

Chapter 33.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 32

2019-09-15T16:03:00.002-04:00

Chapter 32.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 31

2019-09-14T15:04:00.002-04:00

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 30

2019-09-13T08:47:00.001-04:00

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 29

2019-09-12T14:01:00.000-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 29 (day 19):

WASN'T BORN TO FOLLOW
Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Performed by the Byrds
Recorded at Columbia Studios, Hollywood, California 1967
Drummer: Michael Clarke (concert); Jim Gordon (studio)

When Norman opened his eyes, Molly was there beside him. There was worry in her voice. "Want some water?"
Norman half sat up and sipped some cool water from a tin cup. He was in a real bed in a tiny adobe room with a fireplace that warmed the walls and everything within them. It was the coziest he'd felt since leaving Charleston.
"Where are we?" He vaguely remembered pulling into the yard and children crowding the bus, happy waiting arms taking Moonglow from Carol, and other, capable arms, guiding him to a place to sleep.
"You're at New Buffalo," said a voice on the other side of the bed. Norman turned to look at a woman with smoky brown eyes and corkscrew black curls spilling around a head scarf, like a halo around her head. "My name is Sadie." Norman blinked and swallowed.

"Wasn't Born to Follow" is an important transition song in ANTHEM, as Molly and Norman come into their first commune experience in New Mexico. Plus, it's just a song I adore by The Byrds, a group that got its start at The Troubadour in Hollywood; remember that when we find our heroes there in a future chapter.

The song was also a part of the movie "Easy Rider," which you can see scenes from in the song clip above. The actual part of the film where the song plays is here, if you want to see that. And putting the song title into the YouTube search box will give you a plethora of other choices.

I rewatched Easy Rider in 1989, at its 20th anniversary, and wrote an essay about "our generation" back then, and I have rewatched it several times since, and have... wondered... about my generation. Which, of course, is one reason I'm writing about it now.

I became fascinated with the lore behind filming the movie, which you can read here (one version) in "A Reefer Runs Through It." One line of many telling lines: "As it turned out, any problems the production may have had over finance were as nothing compared with the trauma of the Easy Rider shoot,"

I had a thing about this movie from the moment it appeared on the scene. I asked my father for an advance on my allowance to go see it. And I defied him to see it. He forbade me to go, with, "I will not give Peter Fonda three dollars of my hard-earned money."

So I saw it with my boyfriend anyway (who is now, somehow, miraculously, my husband), in 1969. (Somehow, miraculously, a movie ticket was once $3.)

When I started researching New Buffalo for this section of ANTHEM, I discovered that the "Wasn't Born to Follow" section of the movie sets up Captain America and Billy's time at just such a commune in New Mexico. So I paid careful attention to it as I rewatched the movie for research.

It turns out, Dennis Hopper wanted to film this section of the movie at New Buffalo, but the residents voted against his request, so he had to film the scenes on sets they built nearby. But the landscape is the same, and the movie holds the same weird fascination for me now that it did when I was a teenager in Charleston, South Carolina, like Molly, and discovering the world.

Now Both Captain America and Billy are gone, figuratively in the movie, and literally, in life. I miss them. I miss those days. But they weren't easy for the kids trying to create a new life in the high country, in the communes of the desert Southwest, as you'll see in these chapters of the book, as Molly and Norman make a stop so Norman can recover, and so they can make plans for (and argue over) the next push.

Chapter 29.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 28

2019-09-11T11:19:00.001-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 28 (day 20):

GOING UP THE COUNTRY
Written by Alan Wilson
Performed by Canned Heat
Recorded at ID Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California 1968
Drummer: Adolfo "Fito" De La Parra

The next morning Molly read out loud from An Adventurer's Guide to Travel Across America as they rode through a landscape of shinnery oaks and prickly pears, past the vast grasslands inhabited long ago by plentiful buffalo and bison herds, land tended by the Kiowa and other tribes before the Homestead Act of 1862 sent white settlers pouring into the territory.
"You mean before invaders brought cholera and chaos to Indian land," said Ben.
"It doesn't say that," said Molly.
"It wouldn't," said Ben.
Molly frowned. "Why wouldn't it?"
"Because 'the Kiowa and other tribes' didn't write that book," said Ben.
"This is an official guidebook," said Molly, looking in confusion at the cover.
"That's the problem," said Ben. "There's the official version of the past, and there's the real past."
"How do you know which version is real?" Molly asked, genuinely curious.
"Start paying attention to who's telling the story," said Carol. "The story changes depending on who's telling it."
Molly put the book away but not her questions.
They entered New Mexico at Texline.

"Going Up the Country" indeed. I was not familiar with Canned Heat, at all, but I knew this song of theirs from its radio play (it was also sung at Woodstock), and knew it was considered a "rural hippie anthem" -- and we're getting into a new hippie incarnation now, with Ben and Carol and baby Moonglow along for the ride, and an education Molly and Norman would never have received at home in Charleston.

Chapter 28 begins a new way of seeing the wide world and those who inhabit different places in it, and hold different stories from the history we've been told.

A totally different experience of living awaits Molly and Norman in New Mexico's communes, populated by young people who are trying to carve out an existence away from materialism, commercialism, and the life and goals of their parents... and far away from war.

I knew I would need expert readers here, as we segued into New Mexico, and we got them, from enrolled members of Indian tribes in the area -- some of whom were students at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in 1969, to those "kids" who had actually lived and worked in the New Mexico communes in 1969 and built a life there.

What an education *I* received as well. Research can take you very far, but to hear people's stories who lived that time, and to be the lucky recipient of their expertise and knowledge about your subject matter... this is essential to writing history. You want to get it right.

And you want to have a dog... you neeed a dog:

Molly came around the corner from the bathrooms and the ice machine and saw her cousin with a garden hose, a bottle of shampoo, and something living, white with foamy suds.
"We've got a dog!" Norman called as he wrestled with the animal, who clearly wanted to be anywhere than where he currently was.
Molly stalked past Norman without a word and boarded the bus.
They had a dog.

Chapter 28.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 27

2019-09-10T16:03:00.002-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 27 (day 21):

OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE
Written by Merle Haggard and Eddie Burris
Performed by Merle Haggard and the Strangers
Recorded live at the Civic Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma 1969
Drummer: Eddie Burris

"Nice tune," Norman said.
"Thanks," said the kid without looking up or stopping. "I'm workin' it up."
"Yeah? What's it called?"
"Mama Tried. It's a song by Merle Haggard, you know it?"
Norman shook his head. "Nope."
"Hey!" Molly appeared with a bag of ice in her arms. "We just saw he's playing in Muskogee tonight!"
"Yeah." The kid stopped playing and looked at them with bright blue eyes. "I can't go. Are you going?"
"We're going the opposite direction," said Norman. "You like country music?"
"It's the best!" said the kid. "And Merle's the best, too. Did you know, he's been to prison?"
"Not exactly my definition of the best," said Molly.
"That's what the song is about -- listen! I'll sing it!"
"Not again!" said the attendant. He was cleaning the bus windshield, stretching to reach as much of it as he could. "Play something else!"

Just as I learned to appreciate the Allman Brothers Band, I have fallen completely in love with Merle Haggard. Completely. I remember when "Okie From Muskogee" -- "a place where even squares can have a ball" -- was a hit, and how we laughed at the spot-on lyrics -- they make me laugh with such affection for those days, still. "We don't make a party out of lovin'// we like holding hands and pitchin' woo."

But I didn't understand what a great songwriter and guitar player Merle was until I began to widely listen to him and read about him while researching Chapter 27. I hope you'll give him a listen here.

Yes, we come into Oklahoma in this chapter, but before we get to country music, this is as good a time as any to tell you that there is a chapter cut between Chapters 26 and 27 that I still mourn, and that I will put here at the blog, and on Anthem's webpage, after October 1, so it will live there, and you can read it.

This "Chapter 26A" is the first of three (or four? I have to count) chapters we cut for length and movement. My editor, David Levithan, did such an amazing job of helping me see where to cut in order to keep our action moving, and not lose major threads, but I'm also -- still -- bereft at all we cut.

The book is still 540 pages long. That includes maybe a hundred pages of scrapbook material, but it's still a long book, getting these kids across the country and having them experience 1969 along the way.

The cut chapter, 26A, "Lady Madonna," takes place in Little Rock at band practice, and features a walk on by a man named Bill who plays the sax (!), while Kyle (the kid Norman and Molly picked up just as they came into Arkansas) sings a new tune for the band, "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles, as a nod to his mother, Phyllis, and all working mothers in the late sixties.

Women were increasingly entering the workforce in the late sixties, often after a divorce, which was unheard of (or whispered about) in the pages of COUNTDOWN in 1962.

So. Changing times. And country music! As American as music gets. In Oklahoma, in Chapter 27, Norman and Molly certainly enter another world. Read closely and you'll recognize Troyal, the 7-year-old kid at the gas station who is playing guitar and singing Merle's "Mama Tried." Such classic country lyrics: "I turned 21 in prison, doing life without parole//no one could steer me right, but Mama Tried." (Great photos of Merle at that link.)

I included lots of cameos in this book that young readers might not have recognized, but adults would certainly know Bill Clinton with his sax and a young Garth Brooks with his cowboy hat and guitar, and the others who show up in California, like a Forrest Gump of walk-ons, few of whom made the final cut. As David pointed out to me, less is more in that department, let's get these kids to the finish line.

Which, in the end, is what I did. But I mourn those chapters. You'll be able to read them, too, right here, and meet the other walk-ons, after ANTHEM publishes on October 1. I'll point out the other "missing" chapters as we get to them.

In the meantime, Molly and Norman are hot-footing it across Oklahoma, with a freshly repaired bus, a new "old glory" American flag and the radio blasting, as they head into the Texas panhandle.

Chapter 27.

more housekeeping

2019-09-09T13:14:00.002-04:00

Cheers, on this 97-degree mid-September day from Atlanta, Georgia. I bring you news about the transitioning of this Blogger blog to WordPress. The Anthem posts for Chapters 25 and 26 should appear in this email beneath this post. Three today, all in a row. I took Sunday off.

If you are an original subscriber to "One Pomegranate," as this blog was originally called, and I know many of you are, you've been reading posts from me since 2007 detailing the writing life, the creation of various books, finding a new life in Atlanta after great loss, the importance of -- and joy in -- a family of chance and choice, and a great curiosity about how we tell our stories.

I started blogging in 2005, before blogs were a thing. You can read that blog at my website, right here. It was sent by email to a list Harcourt put together when I went on tour for Each Little Bird That Sings. It is text only, and was archived at my website.

I kept a tour journal, at Harcourt's request, in 2007, for The Aurora County All-Stars. Harcourt set me up on Blogger and I went to town with a daily entry of the two-week tour, complete with a rasher of photographs each day.

I would sit up at midnight in whatever city and hotel I found myself in, writing about the day and realizing that what I was doing was as much for me as for anyone else, documenting my writing life, yes, but also my LIFE, like a scrapbook.

So I decided to continue blogging when I got home, but I didn't realize I could just continue on with the tour blog, renaming it, so I started "One Pomegranate," this blog, in 2007, which has been renamed "Field Notes" but still comes into your inbox as "One Pomegranate."

I took a four-year hiatus from blogging and all social media, from 2015 to 2019, for various reasons, which one day I'll go into. For now, though, I want to get you moved over to the WordPress blog, where I've been posting these exact same blog posts you're getting in email.

I want you to receive them from WordPress. The blog-in-email that will come to you is beautiful, airy, easy to read, a snap to navigate, plus you can listen to the song (or whatever I might include) right in your email without having to click over to hear it at the blog, in your browser... although the blog's homepage itself, as well as the newly-designed website, is gorgeous and worth looking at.

The other reason I want you at WordPress is I'm working toward putting everything I do online in one place that I alone own, my website. I'll eventually move all older Blogger posts, all 700 of them, to the WordPress blog, along with the the '07 Book Tour, and the Little Bird Tour Journal.

So. This is my very long way of saying I want you to come with me, if you want to. May I take your subscription email from Blogger and enter it into the subscription box on the WordPress blog?

If this is okay by you, you need do nothing but click on the link when an email from WordPress and Deborah Wiles comes to your inbox on October 1, confirming you want to receive "Field Notes" blog posts from WordPress now.

And you want to do that, as I'm going to quit double-posting when I get to October 1, Anthem's publication date. The Blogger blog will be set to private and I'll quit blogging there.

You can sub to the blog at Wordpress now, yourself, if you want to, and unsub from Blogger (link at the end of this email) or you can wait until October 1 when posts will no longer be at posted at Blogger and you receive the email from WordPress.

Right now I'm publishing a daily blog post because I'm counting down to Anthem's publication by highlighting the song that leads off each chapter of Anthem, and giving you a look into why it was chosen, along with some background on the creation of the book, and a snippet from that chapter. These posts will all be archived under #teachingAnthem1969 on Anthem's page at my website on October 1.

I don't anticipate daily blog posts after October 1. But if you still want to receive blog posts after October 1, it will be through Wordpress. (Is there a capital P in that word?)

I think this is as clear as mud. I'll try again another time. This is a heads-up for October 1. I'm going to sub you to the Wordpress blog then, unless you do it yourself before October 1, or you tell me you don't want me to sub you there, which I respect and will honor. You can comment here, or email me directly at deborah@deborahwiles.com.

It's been good to travel the road with you, all these years. Here's to many more adventures together. Thank you for coming along!

xoxoxo Debbie

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 26

2019-09-09T12:10:00.002-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 26 (day 22):

WIPEOUT
Written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller, and Ron Wilson
Performed by the Sufaris
Recorded at Pal Recording Studios, Cucamonga, California 1962
Drummer: Ron Wilson

Norman sat behind his drum kit and held up his sticks.
"Ready for anything!"
"Okay you animals out there!" said Steve. "Here comes what you've been waiting for! Our signature number!"
The driveway kids screamed and came running. The musicians readied themselves in an instant.
"Keep up!" Steve yelled to Norman. He whooped in a high-pitched cackle that made Molly cover her ears. Then he yelled "Wipe ouuuuut!" and there were drums.

What local/garage band in the Sixties did not play "Wipeout"? The song is so much a part of that "let's put a band together" mythology/lore of the Sixties, that I knew I needed it for ANTHEM. Plus, it's so drum-heavy, there is no way I couldn't have included it for Norman.

And Chapter 26 is the perfect place for it. Molly and Norman are marooned in Little Rock while the bus is repaired, their trip temporarily wiped out. And Little Rock, Arkansas was a hotbed of the garage band phenomenon of the Sixties.

There are great websites devoted to these garage bands. The one I used most extensively is Garage Hangover, where you can read about the bands Kyle's band talks about as their competition, in Chapter 26, including the Romans, who sometimes came to gigs wearing togas.

I listened to "Wipeout" over and over, trying to understand how the drums worked, so I could describe them in this pivotal Norman chapter -- I want you to see that he really is a drummer. I watched videos! Here are The Ventures (who are perhaps better known for the song) playing "Wipeout" live in Japan in 1966 -- great for drummer-watching.

So is this fabulous, more recent video of The Ventures playing "Wipeout" with guest drummer Max Weinberg. TWO DRUMMERS! The energy and their joy at the collaboration is infectious. I watched this video on repeat while I tried to describe how two teenaged drummers would play "Wipeout" during band practice in a suburban garage in Little Rock, Arkansas.

"Wipeout" is the perfect song to display Norman's growing drummer chops. He has a blast here, in Steve's (actual) garage, playing his drums (the drums Molly couldn't understand why in the world Norman would need to bring on the road, but Norman insisted on having them with him) to "Wipeout."

And for the first time, Molly can see that Norman really is a drummer. A drummer without a band, but a drummer, nonetheless. An important development for our heroine, who heretofore in this chapter was more interested in Dennis, the keyboard player, being, perhaps, her one-hour boyfriend in Little Rock.

From the Allman Brothers' integrated band in Georgia, to race records listened to through an Alabama night, to FAME Studios integrated band and R&B, to the funk of STAX Records in Memphis, to the very-white world of Little Rock garage bands, Molly and Norman are making their way across the country.

Chapter 26.

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 25

2019-09-09T11:32:00.001-04:00

ANTHEM is coming, chapter 24

2019-09-07T14:37:00.002-04:00

ANTHEM, Book 3 of the Sixties Trilogy, publishes on October 1. Each of the book's 47 chapters begins with a song from the Sixties to set the tone, mood, and scene. Every day between now and October 1, come have a listen and read a snippet from each chapter. On October 1, these posts will be archived with a link at ANTHEM's webpage for #teachingAnthem1969

This is Chapter 24 (day 24):

A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION
Written by Mac Davis and Billy Strange
Performed by Elvis Presley
Recorded at Western Recorders, Hollywood, California 1968
Drummer: Hal Blaine

"Vietnam is different," said Norman, out of nowhere. "You fight in the jungle. It's dangerous."
"Well, son," said Elvis. He tapped the glass to signal the driver to return them to the studio. "Serving your country is always an honorable thing to do. I could have gotten the special treatment in the army, could have worked in an entertainment corps, but I wanted to be a real soldier. A soldier is one of this country's highest callings. To serve with pride is a mark of distinction and high moral character."

Above, Elvis singing "A Little Less Conversation" in the 1968 film "Live a Little, Love a Little." I'm sure Birdie saw it multiple times. Here's another take, updated, from Junkie XL, same song, still Elvis, just refreshed. I listened to it on repeat while writing Chapter 24.

Chapter 24 is all conversation. Constant conversation, between Elvis Presley and his four charges. I use the chapter specifically to reveal character (one of dialogue's key strengths), to relay information, and to move the story forward internally. There will be a call-back to this chapter in future chapters, so stay tuned.

Some of the information I wanted to reveal was alternate opinions about military service, so Elvis talks about how important serving one's country is, and he isn't the first or only character to say so. In a country that was so divided by the Vietnam War, it felt important to give as many viewpoints as possible, across America in 1969. And using Elvis as a sounding board for the good soldier gave me a way for him to double duty in the story.

Elvis's time in the Army, from 1958 to 1960, was carefully scripted by Colonel Tom Parker, his manager. It wasn't for purely patriotic reasons that Elvis became a "real soldier."

Whereas Elvis might have been glad to have been in the "entertainment corps" during his army stint, Parker was savvy enough to know that Elvis entertaining army troops in Europe would have provided them with free entertainment, including photo ops and recordings of his shows, and would have diluted how much Elvis was missed by fans in the two years he was absent from the music and film world.

More importantly, it meant that whatever Elvis did in those two years, from an entertainment perspective, belonged to the U.S. Army, and would not be under Parker's control. So there was a lot going on to manage this particular career and its impact in those years.

For my story reasons, it was good to be able to show that being a soldier was an honorable profession, and that going to war was justified. This sentiment is echoed throughout ANTHEM, alongside the war protests, and the stories of those who were irreparably damaged by war.

In this way, I get to show the reader the struggle Norman and Molly are having with their feelings about the war -- what are those feelings? How are they evolving? -- and the fact that Barry has left home, is now "ordered to report" for his physical and be drafted, and that he is missing... are they doing the right thing, to go get him?

Plus, in this chapter, I get to write some killer dialogue. With Elvis Presley! I've been waiting for 25 years to make that happen, ever since I began writing "Hang the Moon." The payoff was most definitely worth it.

Chapter 24.