Ready. Set. Write! Week Five

Alison Miller, Katy Upperman, Jaime Morrow, and Erin Funk are once again hosting the summerlong Ready. Set. Write! initiative. Each week there will be a few headings, with short responses to allow for more writing time.

• How I did on last week’s goal(s)

Baruch Hashem, I finished Chapter 79, “Terror at Tarawa,” and moved on to Chapter 80, “Day of All Days.” I also did a lot of research, mostly reading firsthand accounts from soldiers who were in D-Day.

• My goal(s) for this week

Finish Chapter 80 and move onto 81, “A Friend Is a Friend,” about the Battle of Saipan. I also want to finish doing some preliminary sketches/drawings in preparation for starting my next book cover. I see Lyuba as a bit of a Russian-looking Theda Bara in her natural, non-Vampy state, so I chose two pictures to base her on:

• A favorite line from my story OR a word or phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised

From the ditch on top of the bluff, amid continued fire raining down from the cliffs, Fédya can see Omaha Beach laid out like a horrific panorama. The beach and water are littered with dead soldiers, abandoned, destroyed tanks and weapons, Higgins boats and Navy boats, many also blown apart, and fresh waves of soldiers continually coming ashore, only to be met with the same unabated, intense German gunfire. If he makes it to a safe place and there’s enough of a break in hostilities, he’d like to draw this scene and others from memory with the set of seventy-two colored pencils he got from the Derwent company while he was stationed in England. If he has to take several years off from university to fight, he might as well keep his artistic talent nurtured when he can.

• The biggest challenge I faced this week

Finding a balance between writing and research, and having to write while researching instead of only or mostly from my own imagination and relationship with these people.

• Something I love about my WIP

I love all the unexpected couples (some yet to get together romantically) I came up with—Inga and Yuriy, Inessa and Vitya (second marriage for both, after their first spouses were murdered by Stalin), Inna and Prince Arkasha Orlov, Osyenka and Oliivia, Patya and Vladlena, Rodya and Valentina, Dusya and Vasya.

I also love my secondary character Dagnija Liepienė (née Liepaitē), the Latvian-born second in command and alternate designer at Anastasiya’s salon. She’s so had this woman cowering before her ever since she found out about her secret bastard son in the second book, and knows just the right things to say to keep Anastasiya on her good side. (Latvian women’s surnames have different endings depending upon whether one is single or married, though male names typically don’t change.)