A Dutch Author Writing American Civil War Stories by Marian Baay

A Dutch author writing American Civil War stories.

Early 2013, author Murray Pura asked me to join his new Civil War series. I seriously doubted his wisdom in asking me – a Dutchie who hardly knows anything about the American Civil War – to write a story about this very same war. So, I declined.
Until then, I simply thought it was impossible to write about a place I had never visited.

However, the idea to write did not leave my mind. Several months later, I finally decided to give it a try. And so it happened that my research began about a place I had never visited and about a war I hardly knew anything about. A story idea had begun to form in my mind, and now I only needed to find the right city or town in the United States where the story was going to take place. After googling on ‘Dutch in the Civil War’ I was led to Michigan and I started reading everything I could find online about this state. So, for my debut story, Heaven Is Not Far, the internet was the main source of my research.

For my second story, The Officer’s Daughter, I downloaded several free Kindle books. I found most info about the war background that I needed in Union General Sherman’s memoir. Although Sherman was not in Nashville during the battle of Nashville, he did write about his correspondence with General Thomas who was in command of the Union army in the city. An eyewitness account of someone who lived in the hills around Nashville gave me the info I needed about the weather and how the area looked back then.

U.S. Army veterans have helped me understand the military ranks and terms and other info about the army I didn’t know.

During my research, I also use Google Earth and Street View Maps to visit the places I am writing about. Of course, everything looks different 150 years later, but it gives me a good idea of hills and woods and streams in the area.

It was—and still is—lots of fun to write about this period in the American history. However, it can be hard to read about all the horrible things that happened back then. Therefore, I try to add a touch of romance and hope to my stories. Even during the time that the states were at war, people did fall in love and hoped for a better future with their loved ones.

Marian Baay lives in the Netherlands, together with her husband and dog, near the North Sea. She enjoys reading a good book, hiking in the woods, dunes, or nature reserves. As a lover of animals, she has always had various pets to brighten her world. In the outdoors, her imagination runs wild and seeds for stories are planted there.
Marian likes to read and write in various genres, but romance is an important ingredient in her stories. The love between a man and woman is such a wonderful gift from God that she likes to add a touch of that heavenly delight into all her stories.


Find Marian online at:
Blog: http://marianbaay.blogspot.nl/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarianBaayAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Marian_Baay
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Marian-Baay/e/B00G51X9QA/