Research: Up Close and Personal

When I first started writing, a friend recommended that I read Anne Lamott’s wonderful book Bird by Bird. Direct and to the point, Lamott gives the first-time writer encouragement and suggestions. One suggestion that impressed me was this:

There are an enormous number of people out there with invaluable information to share with you, and all you have to do is pick up the phone. They love it when you do, just as you love it when people ask if they can pick your brain about something you happen to know a great deal about — or, as in my case, have a number of impassioned opinions on.

Beginning with my second book, Eli’s Heart, I knew I was going to need to pick up the phone Ms. Lamott makes reference to. My principal character was born with a daunting congenital heart disorder, and a prodigious musical talent as a pianist. I know a little about playing piano but certainly not at Eli’s level. And I knew zero about Tetralogy of Fallot, the heart disorder.

I found Ms. Lamott was absolutely correct. It has been my good fortune to have crossed paths with many people of diverse talent during my lifetime. A young man who had performed the leading role in a musical I directed during his high school years, Dr.

Dr. Andrew Rennekamp

Andrew Rennekamp, was a medical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital when I began Eli’s Heart in 2014, and through him I connected with a cardiologist, Dr. Aarti Asnani, who was generous with her time and expertise to the point of doing research of her own as to how T.O.F. was treated sixty years earlier. 

Dr. Aarti Asnani

And a dear friend who is a remarkable pianist and a great teacher, Scott Besser, talked to me about what it felt like to face the challenges and the emotion of the musical literature Eli performed.

Scott Besser, Chris Souza

From that point on, with each succeeding book I’ve needed to phone at least one person for help with writing what I don’t know. The joy of that is how much I’ve learned and been able to convey through these novels. For Jamie’s Children, my character Laura is a violin prodigy. As much as I love hearing violin, I know very little about what it would be like to play the instrument. Another local musician and friend, the exceptional violinist and teacher Chris Souza, talked to me, read through some passages (just as Scott had with Eli’s Heart), and I began to get into Laura’s head.

Her brother Niall was an even greater challenge. Niall suffers from bipolar disorder and aspires to be a singer-songwriter. Mental disease—and in particular, bipolar disorder—is 

Nate Taylor

Dr. Andrew’s specialty. He was an enormous help, suggesting books and articles, and discussing the disease with me.

 A former voice student, Nate Taylor, who is an aspiring singer-songwriter, walked me through his journey and read my attempts at what it felt to perform great music such as “The Sound of Silence” as well as creating one’s own music.

More recently, writing about two brothers who survive service in Vietnam, only to be faced with the aftermath of emotional and mental stress, required a great deal of study about the war and what our military endured during those years. The two books in “The Cameron Saga,” Memories of Jake and Man with No Yesterdays, cover the war from the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to the fall of Saigon.

Col. Charles Vincent

After much online research, reading a number of mostly first-person accounts, and watching videos and films, through another former voice student I was put in contact with a remarkable man, Lt. Col. Charles J. Vincent, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a veteran of Vietnam and also of the Korean War. Again, I presented Col. Chuck with a list of questions he patiently addressed, and he agreed to read sections of both books to give me his suggestions and corrections. He even gave me the scenario for one brother’s final combat mission. I was fortunate enough to meet Chuck and consider him a friend.

For my latest venture, a mystery series set in the city I love, Cincinnati, in the 1960s, I needed assistance with police procedure

Lt. Stephen Kramer

overall and in particular during that era. Through the website for The Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society and Museum, I connected with retired Lt. Detective Stephen Kramer. When I wrote the first book in 2018, Lt. Kramer was President of the Society; he continues to be active as its Archivist. A writer himself, he understood what I was looking for and he has been kindly available for thus far four books in the “Augusta McKee Mystery Series.” He’s done more than help me with police procedure; he’s become vital in developing the character of Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell. It’s not at all unusual for Malcolm’s words to actually have come from an email from Lt. Kramer, with his kind permission.

In my personal experience, I haven’t found writing to be “a lonely profession” at all … not with the contacts, encouragement and support of remarkable people such as these. They’re part of my world.

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All my books are available on Amazon. You can find links to order 
on my website: www.susanmoorejordan.com
Or on my Amazon author page https://www.amazon.com/Moore-Jordan-Susan/e/B00IBZ731U

Life Imitating Art?

Coincidence or Something More?

Jamie’s Children follows the paths of brother and sister, Niall and Laura Logan, as they use the music in their souls to deal with life’s challenges. I challenged myself when I chose to make Laura a violin prodigy and Niall a gifted singer-songwriter who was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

My challenge with Laura was learning more about the instrument, what is required to be a successful performer, and studying violin literature. My good friend Chris Souza, an exceptional violinist himself as well as an outstanding teacher, has been a great help with this. I’ve listened to some wonderful music. I’d heard many of these pieces before but never listened to them quite the way I needed to in order to better understand Laura.

Chris suggested I listen to American violinist Hilary Hahn, and I found her impressive and appealing. Reading her history was kind of astounding, actually. The path Hilary Hahn had followed is much like that of my fictional character. Laura’s genius as a violinist is discovered when she is four – the same age as Hahn. In my book, Laura begins her professional career at nineteen, a few years older than Hahn began hers. Both women complete a college program, Laura at Juilliard and Hahn at Curtis, both venerable musical institutions. How was it that I made choices for my character that parallel the professional life of the real violinist, choices that were made months before I became aware of Hilary Hahn?

Niall’s gift is as a folk singer-songwriter, another genre of music which I knew little about. More opportunities to be introduced not just to fine performances, but an opportunity to revisit some artists I was familiar with and an introduction to some I had not been aware of. Fortunately, I had another guide to help me with this – a former private voice student who is making inroads in his quest for just such a career, Nate Taylor. During the course of the book, Niall writes several songs, or at least the lyrics for songs. Maybe a subject for a future blog post?

Now my friend Ashleigh Evans has sent me a message about a young man currently competing on the television show “American Idol.” Dalton Rappatoni was diagnosed young with bipolar disorder, and apparently what has been his salvation has been the guitar someone gave him and his love of music which followed. My character Niall finds his passion for folk music before he is diagnosed, but that passion is vital to him. Another coincidence? Again, I created Niall well over a year ago when I first began research on bipolar disorder – a terrible chronic disease which has taken many months of study to begin to understand.

How do these things happen? I would think I am not alone in experiencing this – creating a character and inventing their life, only to learn of an actual person who has at least some of the qualities we’ve given our fictional character. Dalton is fortunate that he is living in the twenty-first century and is able to share his journey openly. My character Niall was born in 1969 and when he is diagnosed at the age of twenty-five in 1990, most people are unable to understand his illness and don’t want to hear about it.

Coincidence or something else? Shakespeare commented in Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth than we have dreamed of.”  (Paraphrased; apologies to W.S.) Do we as writers somehow tap into a Muse which provides us with these ideas?