Don’t Know Much About History
Elena Santangelo is the author of the Pat Montella mystery series, which includes Agatha Award finalist By Blood Possessed and continues most recently with Fear Itself. The series combines ghosts, history, a protagonist brought up on Italian cooking and superstitions, and a 91-year-old sidekick. Her nonfiction book, Dame Agatha’s Shorts, a Christie Short Story Companion, won the Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction, and earned nominations for Macavity and Anthony Awards. Elena is also the author of 16 published short stories. Follow her blog at www.elenasantangelo.blogspot.com, contact her at www.elenasantangelo.com, or become a fan of Miss Maggie Shelby’s on Facebook.
My Pat Montella mystery series is semi-historical, with each book touching on a different era from the past. My latest, Fear Itself, for instance, focuses on the Great Depression. Readers have asked me if I majored in history in college. Far from it.
History was never my best school subject. In fact, about the only thing I remember from all my history classes was the Greek temple I built from cardboard and toilet paper rolls in junior high. I nearly flunked my one general history elective in college.
Yet, as I grew up, I learned to love history and didn’t even know it. My dad took us on Sunday afternoon drives and day trips. We visited every park and historic site between Gettysburg and the Jersey coast, from Delaware Water Gap to Annapolis. In the summer, we’d take a two week road trip to some scenic wonder, but we stopped at plenty of historic places, too. I saw Lexington and Concord, all the Virginia Civil War sites, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Harper’s Ferry, prehistoric burial mounds in Ohio, and dozens more. Even the scenic destinations seemed to have interesting histories: the carriage roads of Acadia National Park, an early tuberculosis clinic inside Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, and all the great Indian legends surrounding places like Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire and Virginia’s Natural Bridge.
Of course, you can’t grow up in the Philadelphia area without field trips to Valley Forge, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Hopewell Furnace.
My first summer out of college, I landed a job at Valley Forge National Park as an historical interpreter. I jumped at it. How cool was it that I could work in one of my favorite places, where I’d hiked and picnicked and flown kites most of my life? And how cool was it that I got to wear a Smokey-the-Bear hat?
Elena at Valley Forge
By the end of my first day on the job I realized, oh my gosh, I have to learn a slew of historical facts and fast. It didn’t help that half of what I thought I knew about Valley Forge was wrong.
The National Park Service introduced me to primary sources, that is, documents and other evidence written during the time I was studying. I read diaries, letters and military orders from the 1770s. I got my first glimpse at two
Elena as a Colonial Reveler
hundred year-old deeds and wills. I learned to sing the music of the era and, maybe best of all, I learned how to bake in a stone oven, load a musket, and maneuver in a long skirt without tripping or setting myself on fire.
My heroine, Pat, has a psychic ability to “see” events that happened in the past. In true life, I found that anyone with an imagination can do this. Read the documents, look at the archaeological evidence and lay of the land, then let your mind fill in the blanks. Place yourself into the scene. Once in a while, you get what serious buffs call an historical epiphany, where all at once you see the big picture, understand the motivations of the key players, and feel the fear or wonder or exhilaration of everyone involved. What a rush!
So if you want your kids to learn history, take them where the history happened. Check a Civil War diary out of the library and read it together. Let them dig up the backyard for pottery shards and arrowheads. But beyond all, encourage their imaginations.
May 31, 2011
Posted in: Guest Blogs
Loading ...
6 Responses
Elena Santangelo, in addition to being a great writer (love the Pat Montella books!), is correct about going to where history happened. I had seen the Civil War series on PBS, read some about it, and had seen the movie “Gettysburg” which was filmed on-site. However it was not until I visited the Gettysburg battlefield and actually started walking across the fields that Lee sent his final surge across that I understood why Lee lost.
Excellent interview. Especially loved the point about an “historical epiphany.” Now I can’t wait to read one of your Pat Montella books.
Hi Elena, (waving)
I loved, loved your books. I’m so glad you came to Sisters in Crime to speak or I never know about your books.
I have to admit that I complained about writing a time travel romance for a Sci-Fi, Fantacy and Horror class, but I loved going to Fort Delaware to do my research. My best friend and I had so much fun and learned so much that we took Hubby back the following year for garrison day. He loved it also. We’ve gone back at least a dozen times. We even went for the Halloween ghost tour. And to think I bellyached about that class for days. Oh, and I won my first writing award with that story too! You just gotta love history.
Love the uniform.
Pat
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words. I enjoyed writing the article, and digging out that old Park Service photo.
Elena, it has been SUCH a pleasure having you here and I hope you’ll come again
Such an impressive woman! Can bake in a stone oven, no less! I loved the Park Service photo,particularly.
Good writer, good singer, fine woman. It’s a pleasure to know you.
Leave a Reply