Daily insights from the National Novel Writing Month

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

Lowell, MI -It’s the second weekend of the National Novel Writing Month. It’s a dreary day out there, a perfect one for writing. However, I have to tend to my family too. So, I broke up my morning writing routine to spend some time with our son Jake and the kids, Josephine and Dominic. Luckily my husband Ludek made dinner: brussel sprouts, ham and gnocci. I don’t want to be a starving writer all the time.

I continued to write in the afternoon logging in with 21,900 words, a lot less than I wanted to. I was hoping to reach the half-way mark tomorrow in the 50K word marathon. I talked with mom Ella a little bit. We usually chat on Sundays, but my parents are going to a Vereran’s Day concert at Ferris State University.

Since, I am working on a historical fiction story “Silk Nora” (c) 2018 Emma Palova as part of the new anthology “Secrets” (c) 2018 Emma Palova, I had to do some research. Normally, I wouldn’t mind if the clock wasn’t ticking. Still, I was delighted to find out some facts from the 1920s: pastry pigs as desserts, cordials for cocktails, the cloche hat, and the increased use of the radio and the phonograph.

I looked up the menu for the 1920s on the Internet and this immediately came up on inliterature.net Book Inspired: “Throwing a 1920s Great Gatsby party; the Menu from the Book.”

Book cover for “Secrets” aka the Face of Gossip.

In a way the 1920s era reminds of what’s going on right now as we approach 2019: increased independence of women, new devices with streaming, Tesla’s “Starman” in space and overall progress in every field.

I feel privileged to be a part of the inevitable progress in humanity by participating in #nanowrimo and its nobel goals of spreading the power of words around the globe. I have a clear intention of publishing “Secrets”, a sequel to my debut book “Shifting Sands: Short Stories” (c) 2017 Emma Palova.

Excerpts from “Silk Nora”

Dressed up to the nines, they walked to Hotel Belding where everything was set up to start as soon as the town clock struck 8 p.m. Nora and Mathilda were in awe since they have never been in the Rose Ballroom reserved for special occasions.

This was a very special occasion since the Belding brothers, Hiram and Alvah were expected to attend the benefit ball for Red Cross. The World War I had broken in Europe, and there was no end to it.

The Rose Ballroom was decked out in fall colors of orange, yellow, brown and green.

Doris after all was coming since it was a ball for the Red Cross. The stately matron was coming with the crew from the hospital.

They were all  seated at the same round table for 12. Nora kept watching the door nervously, if Harry was going to show up. He was supposed to cover the event for the Belding Banner. Nora was shocked when Doris entered through the main door to the ballroom sporting a short bob hiding under cloche hat.

“Doris, you look absolutely ravishing,” said Nora as she stood up the greet the matron and the team.

“I couldn’t resist, dear,” she said jovially. “How do you like it?”

“It’s absolutely adorable,” said Nora, “and your dress, it’s lovely.”

Doris had the dress made for last year’s New Year’s Eve ball but didn’t end up going because of an emergency at the hospital.

Seamstress Lulu with her Lulu’s Fashions was located on Main Street next to the Millinery Shop. At the time, women were expected to wear hats. To go outside without a hat was considered not just unfashionable, but rude and a display of bad manners. Compared to dresses, hats were fairly expensive. Women spent between 20 cents and $7 on a hat. To have two hats look alike was unheard of. The milliner sewed each hat by hand and made it unique to the owner. Being a milliner, was one of the few occupations women were allowed to work along with the seamstress profession.

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