Sarah Shaber is the author of LOUISE'S WAR, LOUISE'S GAMBLE, LOUISE'S DILEMMA (Nov. 2013), the Professor Simon Shaw murder mysteries, BLOOD TEST (2013) and editor of TAR HEEL DEAD. Website: www.sarahrshaber.com
Thank you, Kaye, for asking me back to Meandering and Muses. I’m delighted to be here, especially as the third book in my Louise Pearlie mystery series, Louise’s Dilemma, will be published in November. It was in this space, in 2011, that I described the thrill of getting my contract for this series, my second.
Louise Pearlie is a “government girl” working for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, DC, during World War II. In the 1940s, obviously. But I find that many of my fans ask me if I go to Washington to research my book. And I answer, not in person! Washington DC during World War II was a very different place than today. My job as a writer setting an accurate scene during the past is to visualize the location as it was then, without the corrupting influence of the present.
I do this by using photos from the period. Most of them I locate in in old magazines, movies and maps, which I find on Ebay. My most precious possession is a 1942 Esso tourist map of Washington. It shows not only the layout of the city at the time, but many of the government buildings, hotels and department stores. So Louise can find her way from her boarding house near Dupont Circle to the Mayflower Hotel or Woodies in no time!
I’ve also found that using Google images is a quick and easy way to locate specific photographs. In Louise’s Dilemma, Louise and Joe go ice skating on the Reflecting Pool during the unusually cold weather of 1943. With little problem I found this photo of two girls taken a bit earlier than 1943, but still giving me a sense of what the scene would have looked like.
Since Louise works in an office I am always on the lookout for what government offices looked like during the war. Here’s one that I think gives a good picture of what Louise’s environment might have been--acres of filing cabinets surrounding women typing at desks in one large room, supervised by a man!
And just for the fun of it here’s a photograph of the White House lit up for an evening event.
When I’m writing my books I print out photographs and pin them up around my office so I can feel as though I’m with Louise, working hard to help win World War II!
