Work in Progress

It’s November once again. That means it’s NaNoWriMo, or National Write a Novel Month. Tis the season to break out the laptop and notebooks and get to writing. Personally, I dream about writing all year and in November, I make it happen.

This year, I entered the month with a plan and outline. Normally a pantster by nature, creating the outline of novel instead of letting the words bring the story to life was a challenge. However, the novel I am working on is historical fiction and in order to get the details right, an outline was needed.

I came across the idea while working on my genealogy last year and being unable to get the story to leave my mind, decided to put it to paper. My grandmother always told me a story when I was younger, about how we were royalty in Austria. She said there was a ring that designated the position of our family, but somehow it was taken away.

Spending the better part of a year exploring websites, researching Austrian royalty, and countless hours on Ancestry.com, I found nothing. Since my grandmother is no longer living, I turned to family members to see if anyone else remembered the story and again came up fruitless. Throughout my tedious research, I came across another family with a story to tell.

Many Jewish people lost much during World War II. While most know about the death camps and abuse, so many stories of those Jewish people have been lost or left unshared. One particular family kept coming up in my family research and though not related to me, I related to their story.

During the Anschluss of Austria, Jewish business owners lost everything, many forced to flee for their lives. Those that remained, had their possessions taken and homes occupied. Priceless collections of art and jewelry became German property, and no one stood up to stop it.

With our current political climate so divided in the US, I can see many parallels with the research I’ve been completing on Hitler’s rise to power. We have forgotten how to care for our fellow humans. Our economy is rapidly collapsing, and people are drawing at straws for someone to blame.

Perhaps the answer isn’t in a leader, but in the people. My novel in progress is about just that, taking control of your life when the world is out of control.

Today, we may not be in the midst of a world war, but we are fighting.