A look at 1944

When I started writing The Red Scarf, and set the novel in 1944, I realized it was going to take some research into the how much, what happened, and when it happened in that year. I started with the Internet, but I got my real insight by interviewing some elderly men and women that lived during that time period. Of course, the cost of everything was so different it was unreal---Eight cents for a double feature movie--or I should say "a picture show" and eleven cents in the fanciest theater in town--if you were under 12. Paper boys were paid $3.50 a week. Even though the Depression was over, money was in tight supply, and hunting for coke bottles to turn in for a two cent deposit was an everyday occurrence. Buying a comic book--or I should say, "Funny book" was a real treat---ten cents for a Captain Marvel funny book. Cokes and candy bars were a nickle. In my novel, Richard, the paperboy, is determined to buy the prettiest girl in the 6th grade a red scarf---it's cashmere and costs $15.00, an impossible sum for a young boy to earn in 1944---but he's resourceful.


But it turned out there was a bonus by having the novel set in 1944. When I started writing the novel, I didn't intend for a lot of the readers to be Seniors, but the flavor and nostalgia of 1944 pulled them in. When I sign books at a bookstore or for a book club, I always sell more books to adults than the youth market.



Will there be more? Yes, I've finished the sequel and it's full of the same characters as The Red Scarf--I'll keep you posted on publication.