Christal Cooper – 1,525
Words
Facebook @ Christal Ann
Rice Cooper
Folie A
Deux
Between Friends
“We so much enjoyed the process of
collaboration. It was like a folie a deux, where you have two people talking to
the same imaginary friends.”
Writers Beverle “Bev” Myers and Joanne Dobson
Writers Beverle “Bev” Myers and Joanne Dobson
Kentucky
resident Beverle “Bev” Myers and New York resident Joanne Dobson met on
facebook, developing a friendship and a working relationship – the two women
joined forces to write the fiction drama/mystery Face Of The Enemy.
The two women were already established
writers when they met on line. Joanne is
the writer of the Karen Pelletier academic series.
Bev of the Tito Amato mysteries set in 18th-century
Venice.
Joanne
and Bev already admired the other’s work and had taken on the role of trusted
first reader for individual writing.
Their
Internet friendship took a new fuller meaning when Bev learned that Joanne
owned a part-time condo around the corner from Bev’s full time residence in
Louisville, Kentucky. When they learned
that they also shared the same publisher the two women decided it was time to
meet, which they did at a coffee-shop in Louisville, Kentucky.
“We got along like a house afire, and the rest is history.” The two women wrote in an interview conducted via email.
The idea for Face Of The Enemy came
from two inspirations: Joanne’s mother,
Mildred Abele, and her cache of letters; and the popular PBS mystery series Foyle’s
War, which depicts a British detective attempting to solve murders
while Britain is fighting for survival.
Mildred worked as a private-duty nurse
(like Face Of The Enemy protagonist Louise Hunter) in New York City
during World War II, during which she wrote a treasure trove of letters to her
family in Canada.
“Mildred was a natural writer who made the time and place come
alive in every detail—the letters cried out to be used in some way.”
The two women decided to turn the British
theme of Foyle’s War into an American theme and combine that with
Mildred’s cache of letters – thus Face Of The Enemy was conceived.
The next step was the research, which
took several months and was very intense.
They read online archives of the New York Times, and numerous books
about New York during World War II, some of which are: Over Here:
New York City During World War II by Lorraine B Diehl and Helluva
town: The Story of New York During World
War II by Richard Goldstein They
also read numerous books about America’s experience during the war, some of
which are: The Good War by Studs
Terkel and The American Homefront: 1941 – 1942
by Alistair Cooke.
“Specific
questions such as the procedure for detention of enemy aliens, trends in
mid-twentieth century abstract art, or the location of the coroner’s office in
1941 were dealt with by consulting everything from academic journals to the Internet.
We were also able to interview a number of people who lived through the period,
and their stories were a goldmine.”
During their research, the two women came
across a New York Times issue dated December 8, 1941 with a front-page
article headlined: JAPANESE ROUNDED UP
BY FBI, SENT TO ELLIS ISLAND.
“This was a historical fact
that neither of us knew anything about. We
were curious, so we looked into it, and, indeed, Ellis Island—symbol of welcome
for American Immigrants—was used throughout the war as a detention center for
enemy aliens, Germans and Italians as well as Japanese. Thus was born Masako
Fumi, brilliant artist and beloved Japanese wife of an American professor,
suspected of espionage, detained and interrogated on Ellis Island by the FBI.”
Joanne
received a huge surprise when she learned of a German submarine coming to
Amagansett, Long Island, New York on June 3, 1942, where it landed four Nazi
saboteurs. The four men were equipped
with explosive, primers, incendiaries and $175,000 in U.S. currency with the
plan of disrupting American defense production.
Within two weeks the four Nazi saboteurs and four other co-conspirators,
(who landed in Jacksonville, Florida) were arrested by the FBI.
For Bev, her huge surprise from the intense research was to learn how powerful the German-American Bund organization was.
“In the years leading up
to the war, this powerful organization held open meetings and a massive rally
at Madison Square Garden, ran camps for children that indoctrinated them in
Nazi philosophy and politics, and attempted to induce recent German immigrants
to keep their allegiance to the Fatherland.” Bev said.
Most
of the intense research was completed by the time Bev and Joanne started
writing the novel; but they found themselves faced with more questions during
the writing process that required more research.
“The research slowed but
didn’t stop over the year during which the active writing progressed. Every
scene seemed to present new questions that needed to be answered.”
The
two women had brainstorming sessions where they met over lunches and glasses of
wine and discussed setting, plot, and characters for the novel. Some of those sessions centered on certain
scenes in the book, in which the two women would alternate writing, while the
other would critique the specific scene.
“Some passages were tossed back and forth
six or eight times, some only once. We were quite surprised and pleased when
this process yielded an authorial voice that was neither Joanne nor Bev, but a
third voice altogether.”
Joanne’s favorite entries that Bev wrote
were the scenes featuring Lt McKenna and the young Howie Schroader.
“She
nailed everything about those characters, their lives, their heartbreaks, their
hopes and dreams, and especially, their voices. The scenes where Howie begins
to remember details of his childhood summers at the American Bund’s summer camp
on Long Island, and comes to understand the Nazi indoctrination he was getting
there, are Bev’s. And they are heartbreaking.” Joanne said.
Bev was impressed by Joanne’s writing
entries about Masoka during her imprisonment.
In these entries it is amazing how Joanne manages to make Masako so
strong and yet so fragile (especially when she falls into a severe depression) all
at the same time. This attribute makes
Masako a three dimensional character that is essential to make a novel a
literary one.
“Like
a painter wielding her own brush, Joanne interspersed the narrative with brief
passages that laid Masako’s heart bare. Her shame, grief, and worry became
palpable things.” Bev said.
In the end, both women identified with
different characters of the novel. Bev
identified more with Lt. Michael McKenna, which is a surprise considering how
unalike the two people are: Bev is not
Irish, not a New Yorker, and never had any connection with law enforcement.
“This man spoke right to
my heart. I could feel his irritation at having to delay retirement because the
younger men were going off to war, his sorrow and bewilderment over his wife’s
retreat into dementia, his frustration with accomplishing good police work
while the world seemed intent on destroying itself.” Bev said.
Joanne,
the true native New Yorker, identified more with Louise, who is a Southern
woman, new to New York and sometimes bewildered with its culture.
“The plight of this
sweet Southern woman, seduced by a New Yorker and then abandoned in the big
city, spoke to me. I loved seeing her pull herself together, face her brave new
world, and begin to develop some of that brash New York moxie!” Joanne said.
There is one character that insisted to
be in the novel, even without persuasion from Bev and Joanne, and that
character is Abe Pritzker.
“He
wasn’t in the plans when we outlined the book, but he let us know he intended
to join the cast! Once he opened his
mouth and began talking, there was no shutting him up. And then I fell in love with him . . . and so
did Louise, especially after the scene in the Macy’s women’s coats’ dressing
room. . . .” Joanne said.
Face of the
Enemy
was published on in September 2012 by Poisoned Pen Press (http://www.poisonedpenpress.com) the same press that
published both Bev’s and Joanne’s other books.
“We
have a good relationship with the entire staff, so the process of getting to
print was relatively uneventful.”
There were quite a few surprises Bev and
Joanne received as writers of Face Of The Enemy; one of which was
for their readership finding it hard to believe that the United States would
incarcerate Japanese ancestry on the East Coast. Readers were also upset with Bev and Joanne
for sympathizing with Masako Fume.
“There has also been a
small but definite backlash over our sympathetic treatment of a Japanese
character.”
This criticism has not prevented Bev and
Joanne from writing. Bev’s book Whispers
Of Vivaldi, a part of her Tito Amato series, will be published in
January of 2014.
“In Whispers of Vivaldi, a purloined opera
meant to save Tito’s theater from ruin leads to murder.” Bev said.
Joanne has just completed a historical
novel set in 19th-century New York City and India.
“The
connections are the American Foreign Missions movement, a runaway wife, an
interracial love affair, and the Colored Orphan Asylum on Manhattan’s Fifth
Avenue.” Joanne said.
Photo
Description and Copyright Information.
Photo
1, 27,
Beverly
Graves Myers. Copyright by Beverle
Graves Myers.
Photo
2.
Joanne
Dobson. Copyright by Joanne Dobson.
Photo
3 and 36.
Jacket
cover of Face of the Enemy.
Photo
4a.
Jacket
cover of Quieter Than Sleep.
Photo
4b.
Jacket
cover of Northbury Papers.
Photo
4c.
Jacket
cover of Cold and Pure and Very Dead.
Photo
4d.
Jacket
cover of The Maltese Manuscript.
Photo
5a.
Jacket
cover of Interrupted Aria.
Photo
5b.
Jacket
cover of Painted Veil.
Photo
5c.
Jacket
cover of Cruel Music.
Photo
5d.
Jacket
cover of The Iron Tongue of Midnight.
Photo
5e.
Jacket
cover of Her Deadly Mischief.
Photo
6, 8, 23,
Joanne
Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers at the Face of the Enemy launch at the
Frazier History Museum. Copyright by
Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers.
Photo 7 and Photo 22.
Joanne
Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers at Longfellows Books in Portland, Maine.
Copyright by Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers.
Photo
9.
DVD
jacket cover of Foyle’s War.
Photo
10a and Photo 10b.
“Her
married name was Mildred Abele, but professionally she went by her maiden name,
Mildred McKinley, R.N. These are earlier
than WWII but she did work all during the war as a private-duty nurse in Manhattan.” Joanne Dobson said. Copyright by Joanne Dobson.
Photos
11.
Top
photo on the right is of Mildred and her baby girl Joanne Dobson in 1942. “The others are my father and my Aunt Martha
who came to liv with us when my father was in the Merchant Marines and my
mother was working 12-hour shifts.”
Joanne Dobson said. Copyright by
Joanne Dobson.
Photo
12.
An
early letter written by Mildred Abele a.k.a Mildred McKinley, R.N. Copyright by Joanne Dobson.
Photo
13a.
Jacket
cover of Over Here: New York City During
World War II.
Photo
13b.
Jacket
cover of Helluva Town: The Story of New
York During World War II.
Photo
13c.
Jacket
cover of The Good War.
Photo
13d.
Jacket
cover of The American Homefront: 1941 –
1942.
Photo
14.
Photograph
taken in the Great Hall of Ellis Island on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1943 of
German, Italian, and Japanese nationals, all incarcerated. Public Domain.
Photo
15.
The New York Times front page from December 8, 1941.
Photo
16.
Ellis
Island, the Manzanar of the East Coast.
Public Domain.
Photo
17.
Nazi
saboteur trial, Washington, D.C. The special seven-man military commission
opens the third day of its proceedings in the trial of eight Nazi saboteurs in
the sixth floor courtroom of the Department of Justice building. Sitting on the
commission left to right are: Brigadier General John T. Lewis; Major General
Lorenzo D. Casser; Major General Walter S. Grant; Major General Frank R. McCoy,
president of the commission; Major General Blanton Winship; Brigadier General
Guy V. Henry; Brigadier General John T. Kennedy. This
image is a work of a U.S. Army
soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As
a work
of the U.S.
federal government, the image is in the public
domain.
Photo
18.
Flag
of the German American Bund (AV), or "German American Federation," a
pre-World War II American Nazi organization active in the United States between
1933-1941. Attributed to Paloeser. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain
Dedication.
Photo
19.
German American Bund parade in New York City
on East 86th St. Oct. 30, 1939 / World-Telegram photo. This
photograph is a work for hire
created prior to 1968 by a staff photographer at New York World-Telegram & Sun.
It is part of a collection donated
to the Library of
Congress. Per the deed of gift, New York World-Telegram
& Sun dedicated to the public all rights it held for the photographs in this collection
upon its donation to the Library. Thus, there are no known restrictions on the usage of this photograph.
Photo 20.
Rally
Poster of a German-American Bund Rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20,
1939. The United States Holocaust
Memorial Archives cited in www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/156.html. This
work is in the public
domain in the United States because it is a work
prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of
that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1,
Section 105 of the US Code.
Photo 21.
Image of pen in hand from Joanne Dobson’s website.
Photo
24, 29,
Beverle
Graves Myers at Carmichael’s Bookstore on October 11, 2009. Copyright by Beverle Graves Myers.
Photo
25, 26, 30, 32,
Joanne
Dobson. Copyright by Joanne Dobson.
Photo
28.
Beverle
Graves Myers at the Venetian Ghetto in 2007.
Copyright by Beverle Graves Myers.
Photo
31.
Image
of the Empire State Building from Joanne Dobson’s website.
Photo
33.
Macy’s
Department Store in New York City.
Photograph taken on April 6, 2010 by Mike Strand. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
Photo
34.
Photo
35.
Launch
day for Face of the Enemy - a
1941 tugboat pulling barges full of copies of Face of the Enemy. Copyright by Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves
Myers.
Photo
37.
Kuroda
Seiki, Lakeside, Kuroda Memorial Hall, Tokyo. Originally called Summering. Public Domain.
Photo
38.
Jacket
cover of Whispers of Vivaldi.
Photo
39.
Illustration
entitled "The Great East River Bridge. To connect the cities of New York
& Brooklyn." Published by Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau Street, in
1872. Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection. Public Domain.
Photo
40.