It’s a bit scary.
March has always been the busiest month of the year for me. I mean, at least since when I started blogging, what with the preparation of the AtoZ Challenge and the Reading Ireland Month. This year is even scarier.
But we’ll talk about it at the end of this post. For now, let’s dive into some good 1920s stuff!
12 Things You Didn’t Know Abour Women During WWI
A quick look at the situation of women in the UK during the First World War. Most of this information is the same we find in many other articles on the same matter, but I enjoyed seeing everything put together. It gives a strong feeling for what kind of change was going on for women’s role in society during the war. True, much fo this changed again when the war was over, but getting an idea of the piling up of small advancement for women in wartime helps better understanding the big change that would come in the interwar years.
Grave City
This is a heavy-with-photos article about four Dallas-born famous actors of the 1920s.
The information is very essential, but the photos are so lovely.
Lest we forget: the 306 ‘cowards’ we executed in the first world war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/nov/14/firstworldwar.uk
This is an article from 1999. The British Government did grant the pardon to the Shot at Dawn soldiers of WWI in 2006, but it is still moving to read about these soldiers.
Every war is terrible, but the condition in which these soldiers lived never failed to move me, nor does the misunderstanding they were subject to, both during and after the war.
One woudl think that we should have learned.
How World War I Revolutionized Medicine
Mary Merritt Crawford, the only woman doctor at the American Hospital during WWI, said, “A war benefits medicine more than it benefits anybody else. It’s terrible, of course, but it does.”
In the terrible emergency of the battlefields, doctors had to develop solutions, which allowed them to advance the way many kinds of treatments were imparted. The war had damaged soldiers in new, terrible ways, had put them in danger not just for the wounds but also for the complications of the wounds. And the numbers were staggering. In such dire circumstances, old ways and treatments didn’t work anymore. Doctors and nurses had to think up new solutions.
That’s how WWI enhanced medicine like nothing before.
Sensuous life in the trenches
This is not a long article but manages to give such a vivid impression of life as it was in the trenches of WWI.
It is always difficult to imagine how it must have been like living in the trenches. They are such a foreign place, so alien, so difficult from anything we know today. I’ve learned that life in the trenches was so very different from what we may imagine. This article gives some surprising images of that life.
Voices of the First World War: Over by Christmas
In our times, nobody who lived through WWI is still alive. But there are many recordings from the years after WWII. All the recordings I’ve heard are from old people who would have given their memories in the 1950s or the 1960s at least.
This podcast collects a few of those recordings.
I always find it so moving to here these people remembering the days of war—the words they use, how their voices sound. I often wondered whether they recounted their experience only decades later because they couldn’t cope with it. I know this is the case with many concentration camp survivors too.
Truly, it is hard to imagine how it must have been like.
As always, I can hardly resist footage from the past. I love these images from the 1920s around the world that makes the life of 100 years ago look so near to us.
Wonderstruck by Allie Therin
New York, 1925
Arthur Kenzie is on a mission: to destroy the powerful supernatural relic that threatens Manhattan—and all the nonmagical minds in the world. So far his search has been fruitless. All it has done is keep him from the man he loves. But he’ll do anything to keep Rory safe and free, even if that means leaving him behind.
Psychometric Rory Brodigan knows his uncontrolled magic is a liability, but he’s determined to gain power over it. He can take care of himself—and maybe even Arthur, too, if Arthur will let him. An auction at the Paris world’s fair offers the perfect opportunity to destroy the relic, if a group of power-hungry supernaturals don’t destroy Rory and Arthur first.
As the magical world converges on Paris, Arthur and Rory have to decide who they can trust. Guessing wrong could spell destruction for their bond—and for the world as they know it.
Sarah Plugs Her Own Stuff
Yes, March and April have always been busy on my blog because of the AtoZ Challenge. I am getting better at organising, but I don’t think it will ever become easy. If anything, this year is going to be harder because of the creation of the Tolkien course.
Add to this that March is traditionally a Tolkien month, and many activities are going on. I’d hate to miss on those.
So – I don’t know how I’ll manage it, but I need to find the way.
Stay tuned for the AtoZ Theme Reveal next week. It is a lot earlier than it used to be, but hey! Fortunately, I already know my theme, and I’m almost done researching. Then, it will be writing writing writing.
Or rather, writing, recording, writing, recording – because I’ll have to accommodate the Tolkien course recording too.
Come May, I want to try a new writing schedule.
I’ve been experimenting with different productivity methods, since I feel I should use my writing time more efficiently. I’m quite happy with the one I’m following now, which relies on blocking out my time in 90-minute blocks with 30-minute breaks in between. It seems to work quite well if you wont to try.
From May, I want to post on this blog every Thursday, focusing on everything 1920s related. So it’ll be social history, of course (I still have to finish my Spanish Influenza series), but also novels set in the 1920s or shows. Anything, really.
I also want to post on my Medium publications on Mondays, alternating articles about Tolkien and articles about creative writing.
I really hope the new productivity schedule will help because I also want to turn most of my blog series into ebooks. And, of course, I do want to finish posting The Frozen Maze.
Is this an ambitious plan?
Maybe.
But this is how I envision my writing at the moment.
What do you think? What are you looking forward the most?
And while we’re here, have you already downloaded my free story Sea Phantom? You’re super welcome to do so.
And if you do, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads. Never estimate the help you can give to indie authors with an honest review!
Have a fantastic March!
