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Of Blood Transfusions and Brain Magnets

Of Blood Transfusions and Brain Magnets

To say that World War I was gruesome is to understate the obvious. Updated weapons—like the 600-bullets-per-minute, rapid-fire machine gun, with a range of more than 1,000 yards—decimated infantries. Chlorine gas, phosgene, and...

December 14, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz American Ambulance Hospital, hospitals, WWI medicine 0 Comments
Wordsong

Wordsong

When I write, I hear music. In the words, that is. Some writers play favorite music in the background while writing. I don’t. It distracts me from hearing melodies as they emerge from the page. I can trace my awareness of word rhythms to...

October 12, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz stylistic choices, writing process 2 Comments
In the Query Trenches

In the Query Trenches

I’ve been sending out queries for Line of Flight since November, about 10 months, now. So much for any naive assumptions that I’d find a literary agent sooner than later. I’m up to about 40 queries, so far, and have received a...

August 31, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz getting published, literary agent, querying 2 Comments
Time Travel

Time Travel

This afternoon at 2:15, my husband and I were supposed to be on a plane taxiing from the gate on a long-planned trip abroad—our first significant excursion in three years. I had been dreaming of our destination even before the pandemic hit...

July 8, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz plot structure, point of view, stylistic choices 2 Comments
Letters from a French Hospital

Letters from a French Hospital

In October 1914, two-and-a-half months after Germany launched WWI in Europe, Dr. Mary M. Crawford, a graduate of Cornell University (’04) and Cornell Medical College (’07), set sail for France—one of six American surgeons...

April 29, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz American Ambulance Hospital, Dr. Mary Crawford, hospitals, WWI medicine, Zeppelins 0 Comments
In Their Words

In Their Words

For anything I’ve ever written, be it fiction or non-fiction, my favorite research is always sifting through primary sources. There is something about reading materials that are unfiltered by someone else’s editorial judgment, in...

February 16, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz American Fund for French Wounded, primary sources, research 0 Comments
Men Weren’t the Only Literary Legends to Drive Ambulances in WWI

Men Weren’t the Only Literary Legends to Drive Ambulances in WWI

Literary giants Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings, W. Somerset Maugham, Dashiell Hammett—all were aspiring writers when they volunteered as ambulance drivers during World War I. But Hemingway, perhaps the most celebrated for...

January 13, 2022 Evelyn Herwitz American Fund for French Wounded, Gertrude Stein, woman ambulance drivers 0 Comments
Angels in Waiting

Angels in Waiting

Uniforms are cultural artifacts. They encapsulate social values, priorities, gender biases, romanticized ideals, and more. Practicality factors in, too. During WWI, for example, combat soldiers stopped wearing bright colors that had characterized...

December 15, 2021 Evelyn Herwitz hospitals, nurses, WWI fashion 0 Comments
On Creating a Voice

On Creating a Voice

Of the many lessons learned over seven years of writing Line of Flight, one of the most challenging was figuring out the voice of my narrator, Simone Levitsky. I knew in my gut that I needed to tell the story from her point of view, and I wrote...

November 22, 2021 Evelyn Herwitz character development, point of view, stylistic choices 0 Comments
In the Trenches

In the Trenches

You can travel the world on the internet, but you can only go so far. About nine months into writing the first draft of my WWI novel, including a 20,000-word false start, I realized that I needed to see and feel the landscapes that existed only...

November 12, 2021 Evelyn Herwitz HWK, Le Linge, research, Vosges Mountains, WWI Battlefields 0 Comments
Eighteen Minutes

Eighteen Minutes

Chances are, you’ve heard of the Titanic. On April 15, 1912, the great British transatlantic steamer struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. More than 1,500 souls lost their lives in...

November 4, 2021 Evelyn Herwitz Lusitania, Titanic, Woodrow Wilson 2 Comments
A Pigeon Waddles into a Scene

A Pigeon Waddles into a Scene

One of my favorite pieces of writing advice comes from Ann Lamott in Bird by Bird. First drafts are incredibly hard to write and often lousy. She is more blunt: For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the...

November 4, 2021 Evelyn Herwitz Ann Lamott, first drafts, Grub Street, pigeons 0 Comments
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Eighteen Minutes
Eighteen Minutes
November 4, 2021| Evelyn Herwitz2
A Pigeon Waddles into a Scene
A Pigeon Waddles into a Scene
November 4, 2021| Evelyn Herwitz0
Why Write About World War I?
Why Write About World War I?
November 3, 2021| Evelyn Herwitz0
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American Ambulance Hospital American Fund for French Wounded Ann Lamott character development Dr. Mary Crawford first drafts Gertrude Stein getting published Grub Street hospitals HWK Le Linge literary agent Lusitania National WWI Museum nurses Otto Dix pigeons plot structure point of view primary sources querying research stylistic choices Titanic Vosges Mountains woman ambulance drivers Woodrow Wilson writing process WWI Battlefields WWI fashion WWI medicine Zeppelins
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