Harper Voyager Books: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, Or Me, Music, and the Civil War, James D. Macdonald

A long time ago, when I was six (and even younger) my family used to go visit my grandmother (on my father's side) in Eagle River, Wisconsin. She had a record player, and on a couple of the records that she had (old 78 rpm shellac records--anyone remember those?), two of the songs were "Gallant Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" and "Wake Nicodemus."

I don't remember who did "Pat Murphy," but "Wake Nicodemus" was sung by Burl Ives . (A sample of Ives singing "Wake Nicodemus" is track 26 on disk one at that link.) That's when I learned that song. And that's the Nicodemus that our ship in Land of Mist and Snow is named after. (It's also why the spirit Nicodemus lives in the center of a wooden sphere--it's the heart of the old hollow tree.)

One of my favorite haunts in my youth was the White Plains Public Library in White Plains, NY. (Whenever in one of our books you see a spiral staircase mentioned, and it leads to revelation and understanding--that's the spiral staircase in the old library building.) For some reason they put all the folklore material in the Children's Room, including some very detailed scholarly works (such as The Fairy and Folk Tales of Irish Peasantry by W. B. Yeats, which has some seriously scary material in it). You'll notice lots of folkloric elements in our works.

All this aside. In the upstairs part of the old White Plains library they lent out phonograph records (LP by this time--anyone remember LPs?), including Songs of the Civil War on Folkways. Check out the link--they have full versions available to listen to. Particularly, check out Track 8 ("Roll Alabama Roll") and Track 15 ("The Cumberland and the Merrimack") on Disc One.

A quick aside: Alabama was built in England by Commander James Bulloch, CSN, one of the historical characters we used in our mix. She was known as Hull #292, rather than Alabama, in order to deceive the British, who might look askance at companies building warships for belligerent powers in their shipyards. Bulloch was one of the more fascinating characters in a period full of fascinating characters.

But back to the main thread: Those two songs, "Roll Alabama Roll" and "The Cumberland and the Merrimack", introduce a couple of other themes that show up in Land of Mist and Snow--the ships, and in particular the southern commerce raiders (such as CSS Alabama) and the innovative ship designs intended to break the Union blockade (such as CSS Virginia referred to in the ballad by her old name, Merrimack). The two big real-world naval battles that are never mentioned in our novel, but that hang like shadows around it, are USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads, and USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama off Cherbourg.

When you read Mist and Snow you'll find echoes of "The Cumberland and the Merrimack" in Lieutenant Nevis's commands to his gun crews, and in Captain Sharps's words upon first sighting CSS Alecto. Also, the dimensions we give for USS Nicodemus and CSS Alecto are based on the historical dimensions of USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama.

(The recording library at White Plains was also where I borrowed a disk-and-book set on Teach Yourself to Type, when I was ten years old and decided I wanted to be a writer. But that is another story.)

Time passed. I joined the Navy. I lived in Newport News. I visited the Mariner's Museum and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard where in Drydock #1--there's a plaque--USS Merrimack was converted into CSS Virginia. (I was surprised by how small the drydock was.)

All during this time I picked up Civil War music. One of the cassette tapes I got (anyone remember cassettes?) was Songs of the Civil War by the Cumberland Three. And that was where I first ran into "Abraham's Daughter." On that tape the song was called "Down to Washington" (and "Roll Alabama Roll" was called "Number 292"), but by golly! It had a catchy tune.

"Abraham's Daughter" became Miss Columbia Abrams in our novel. If you listen to the sample you'll see exactly why. Here's a sample of Bobby Horton singing "Abraham's Daughter," and here's the full text and tune, as originally written by Septimus Winner.

Hah, Septimus Winner! I'm sure everyone knows other songs he wrote: "Listen to the Mockingbird." "Little Brown Jug." "Ten Little Indians." "Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone." No wonder "Abraham's Daughter" was a catchy little tune.

So, that's my story on where I got some of the ideas for this book. It's all from everywhere, but mostly from the Civil War songs that I'd been hearing all my life. When you're a writer, everything is grist for your mill.