I’m a member of a fabulous on-line writing group called Backspace.  Many of our members are published authors, and I made an offer to them.  Write a guest blog, on (almost) any topic you like, and I’ll post a link to their book(s) in the side panel.

The Haymarket Martyrs

Most of the world celebrates May 1 as a holiday for workers, whether it’s called Labor Day, International Workers’ Day, or simply May Day.

Why has the United States chosen to relegate the holiday to obscurity, primarily by celebrating something similar in September? You won’t learn about May Day in an American school. Why not? Because here is where it began. In the U.S. they decided to have Labor Day in September, in an effort to dissociate the holiday from the events in the Haymarket, Chicago, 1886. International Workers Day is rarely mentioned in the U.S. media.

Railroad Man, the Legend of Lil’ Jay, will be released May 1, 2011 in Chicago. The reason for the date and location of the release becomes clear when you read Chapter 6, The Haymarket. Railroad Man is the biography of a modern-day hobo with ties to the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World, and in the course of Jay’s story, the reader will learn a little bit about the struggle for the eight-hour workday, and the men and women who gave their lives for the cause. Here’s a bit of background on the Haymarket in an excerpt from Chapter 6.

***

Unions gained strength in the mid 1800s. Working conditions were harsh, hours were long, pay was low. Business owners grew wealthy at the expense of workers.

Saturday, May 1, 1886 was the deadline for the eight-hour workday. If labor bosses didn’t shorten the workday to eight hours, workers across the country would strike. Chicago proved to be the epicenter of the quake heard round the world.

May 1st, in city after city thousands of workers rallied and marched for the cause. A half million workers protested with one voice, loud enough to finally be heard. Albert Parsons led a march of 80,000 workers down Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Monday, May 3, 1886, McCormick Harvesting Machine Company strikers harassed scabs who crossed picket lines. August Spies led the group and encouraged them to remain peaceful and united. The police stood by and when a confrontation erupted they opened fire, killing six workers in an attempt to intimidate anyone bold enough to take a stand against big business.

But the movement would not be stopped. The next day they quickly planned a rally at the Haymarket Square, at Randolph Street and Des Plaines. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and others took turns addressing the crowd of hundreds that evening. The speakers encouraged the workers to remain peaceful, but to hold their position for the eight-hour workday. Nearby a large group of police officers waited for confrontation. Toward the end of the talks a light rain began and most of the crowd dispersed peacefully.

If strikers could be made to look like troublemakers in the eyes of the country, the businesses would appear justified in refusing to meet their demands. Therefore, it suited the interests of businesses to assure the strikers came out looking like the troublemakers. And so far this evening, they were looking completely peaceful. Someone wanted that to change.

Reports said police charged the dwindling crowd and someone threw a pipe bomb, killing Officer Mathias Degan. The identity of the bomb-thrower was never established, but logic pointed to someone with reason to start a riot where none existed.

The police responded by opening fire, mainly at each other. Was it too dark or did they realize the side with the most injuries would be the side with the most sympathy in the eyes of the public? Seven policemen and four workers were killed.

The news media had the fodder it needed to denounce the strikers. Across the country and around the world Chicago became the focus of the workers’ rights movement. The media exaggerated the incident and called for revenge. The bomb-thrower was never identified, and that suited the purpose of the business owners, the police and the media. Blame those who led the movement. Hang them all and hopefully the leaderless workers would humbly go back to work.

The infamous trial was held mainly in the media; the jury was the American public. Eight men were found guilty of Degan’s murder. They appealed to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and then to the United States Supreme Court but the public outcry was for hanging and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

One man was sentenced to 15 years in prison; the remaining seven were sentenced to death by hanging Friday, November 11, 1887. The day before the hanging the governor commuted the sentences of two men to life in prison. The night before the hanging another one died in his prison cell of questionable cause.

Black Friday, November 11, 1887, August Spies, Adolph Fisher, Albert Parsons and George Engel were publicly hung.

June 25, 1893 the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument was dedicated in Waldheim Cemetery outside Chicago to commemorate Spies, Fischer, Parsons, Lingg and Engel. The next day then-Governor John Altgeld granted a full pardon to the three living defendants, Schwab, Fielden and Neebe who had spent nearly six years in prison for a murder they did not commit.

And the American working class earned the eight-hour workday.

***

Today, at the entrance to the cemetery (now called Forest Home Cemetery), a small sign points to the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument, the most famous in the cemetery.

The towering memorial features two bronze figures, a woman representing Justice standing with a determined look on her face, ready to draw her sword to protect the fallen worker behind her.

On the base, engraved in stone, are Spies’ last words as he was led to the gallows, “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.”

May 1, 2011 will be the 125th anniversary of the strike that led to the standard eight-hour workday, now recognized around the world. The Illinois Labor History Society is restoring the Monument in time for the celebration. See their site at www.IllinoisLaborHistory.org.

In connection with May Day 2011, Railroad Man, The Legend of Lil’ Jay will be released at a celebration in Chicago, Illinois. Jay would be happy to know he is remembered, and he would be thrilled to know his life story will forever be connected to the workers who fought and died for their beliefs, beliefs Jay championed.

Bio

Tina Wald is the Project Coordinator for The SansLand Group, (SLG) a collective of writers, editors, web designers, artists and translators. She is also the author of Railroad Man, the Legend of Lil’ Jay, (Pelrin 2011), the biography of Jay Litzner. Wald traveled to ten states and interviewed over seventy people to compile the story of this freight-train hopping musician and his young wife. For photos and more information on the book, check out the site at www.RailroadManBook.com

I’m a member of a fabulous on-line writing group called Backspace.  Many of our members are published authors, and I made an offer to them.  Write a guest blog, on (almost) any topic you like, and I’ll post a link to their book(s) in the side panel.

How not to write a novel

Read pretty much any creative writing guide and it will tell you that a number of things are essential to the process. Write every day, get the first draft down before editing, start at the beginning and write to the end, and more.

Do I do all of those things? No. Possibly because I have to write to strict deadlines and tight word counts for the day job I’m horribly ill-disciplined when it comes to writing fiction. I don’t write for long periods, I edit as I go and I write scenes out of sequence.

How, you might ask, do I ever get anything done? Well, it’s a slow process, both Fallen Star and the unpublished novel that preceded it took more than two years to write. I do make lots of notes, when an idea for a scene or a line of dialogue pops into my head I write it down along with salient facts that might come in handy. These can be picked up from many sources, TV, newspapers, magazines, all over the place. I also tend to have ideas whilst driving which doesn’t lend itself to making notes – though if an idea can last twenty miles or so it’s usually worth keeping.

I also like to have an outline. I need to know roughly where the story ends, though the journey to get there may not always stick to the original route. When I do write it’s usually in short spurts.

One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve picked up along the way is to write first and research later. Get the story sorted then you can check the facts. If you do too much research up front you end up with stacks of material you feel you have to include and that works against the story. All of the detailed stuff for Fallen Star – particularly relating to the Northern Ireland conflict – was researched after I’d written the basic story.

If I have a tip for other writers it’s this. If a particular way of working suits you do it. Don’t feel you have to work a certain way because someone else says it’s a good idea. Find your own technique. Just don’t do it my way!

Fallen Star: The book is about the shallowness of celebrity culture, the price of fame and how, almost inevitably, we find ourselves living in the shadow of our parents and often repeating their mistakes.
Karl has been a member of a boy band since leaving school and at 21 knows no other life. When another band member dies of a drug overdose he’s forced to readjust to real life. To further complicate things he falls in love with Lizzie, but she’s the daughter of an IRA terrorist and that makes her someone Karl’s ex-soldier father is bound to hate.
All of that might sound a bit grim but there’s a lot of comedy in the book. Although it’s been described as a modern day morality tale it seeks to shine a light on modern society not hit you over the head with a message.

The book is available in both ebook and tree book forms from Amazon and other bookshops.

Author Bio:

Ian has always dabbled in writing since leaving school. However, he spent almost 20 years working in IT before he discovered that writing about computers was easier than fixing them. He is now editor of PC Utilities magazine and lives and works in Greater Manchester, UK. Fallen Star is his début novel. Ian can be found on the Web at www.iandavidbarker.co.uk

I’m a member of a fabulous on-line writing group called Backspace.  Many of our members are published authors, and I made an offer to them.  Write a guest blog, on (almost) any topic you like, and I’ll post a link to their book(s) in the side panel.

What editors want…

Well, I’ll tell you what I look for from an editorial standpoint.  When I read e-zine submissions, I want the television and my children and my husband to fade into the distance.  I want to be so engrossed in the story that dinner burns and we have to order out.  I want that first line to catch me in the snare and drag me through the story as if you, the writer, have my hand in a death grip and are racing through the streets at mach speed.  In essence, I want to be blown away.

Give me emotion, and action, and a plot that isn’t predictable.  I want the story to unfold before my eyes. I do not want to be told what’s happening at every turn.  I want to know how the characters react to the situation – not just in their heads, but physically – viscerally.  I want the flow to make sense, stimulus then response – in that order, because if not, it dilutes the impact.

I want to laugh, or cry, or shiver with anticipation, and I believe this is what every editor wants regardless of the genre.

So how do you as the writer accomplish this?

In a recent blog on STET (http://backspacewriters.blogspot.com/), I delved into Stimulus and Response.  Let’s take that a step further and expand on what I mean by visceral reactions.

Let me give you an example.  Think about when someone jumps out of a hiding place to scare you.   What happens first?

You jump, your heart skips a beat, stops, or pounds in your chest, your stomach drops like you took a dive off a skyscraper, you might even pee in your pants a little – all visceral reactions – physical reactions to stimulus that can’t be controlled.

Writing visceral reactions in a fresh way and avoiding clichés is a key component in reaching your readers on a subliminal level.

Here’s the stimulus/response example I used in the blog on STET:

1. 1. She opened the door and a man wearing a mask jumped in front of her.  With her heart lurching in her chest, she yelped and took a step back. “What are you doing?”She shrieked.

Let’s take this a step further and get some fresh visceral reactions in here to make the read more compelling:

1. 2. She opened the door and a man wearing a mask jumped in front of her.  Her heart slammed against her ribcage in a staccato beat that would challenge even Jimmy Sullivan’s drumming skills.  She took a step back, distancing herself from the intruder when his laugh cut through the air, sending shivers up her spine to the base of her neck, where they bunched and turned her muscles to liquid.  “What are you doing?” She shrieked, her voice breathy and shaking with fear.

I used three visceral reactions in the passage above.  For me, the second sentence has much more impact than the first.  Now, let’s see what you can do with the same scenario…

Thanks for hanging with me for a bit.

In the meantime, check out my November releases:

VENGEANCE: After an undercover bust goes to hell, Special Agent Steve Williams becomes the target of an assassin and his wife’s visions escalate, forecasting a brutal assault on their family. Escaping from the city and armed with scant details from Jennifer’s dreams, Steve trudges through a litany of past connections, searching for the key to stop the course of fate.  A brother with a grudge, a serial killer and a mafia assassin are all on his trail and the hunt begins . . .

Released November 1, 2010 by FIDO Publishing.  Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Vengeance+by+J.E.+Taylor

MIND GAMES: Chris Ryan doesn’t understand why he’s alive.  If it wasn’t for a miracle, he would have died in the prison his step-brother created and five years of nightmares hasn’t erased his passion for Jessica Connor. Haunted by visions of her daughter’s death, he runs to her doorstep, but all his good intentions fall short when they realize he led the vengeful spirit of his step-brother right to her.

Released November 29, 2010 by eXcessica. Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Mind+Games+by+J.E.+Taylor

Until next time.

Ciao

JET

Author Bio:

J.E. Taylor is a writer, an editor, a manuscript formatter, a mother, a wife and a business analyst, not necessarily in that order.

She first sat down to seriously write in February of 2007 after her daughter asked:

“Mom, if you could do anything, what would you do?”

From that moment on, she hasn’t looked back and now her writing resume includes five novels either published or targeted for release in early 2011 along with several short stories on the virtual shelves including a few within upcoming eXcessica anthologies.

Ms. Taylor also moonlights as an Assistant Editor of Allegory, an online venue for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and as a “slush slasher” for Dark Recesses, an online venue for literary horror. She also lends a hand in formatting manuscripts for eXcessica as well as offering her services judging writing contests for various RWA chapters.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children and during the summer months enjoys her weekends on the shore in southern Maine.

www.JETaylor75.com