Sunday, September 7, 2008

The History of a 5,000-Word Story

by Ilmars Birznieks

CadillacCicatrix is a semi-annual journal for writers, poets, and artists.


My story, The Long Journey to Freedom (over 5000 words), just happened to have the kind of plot the editor was looking for--adaptation.


The Long Journey to Freedom was born from my first novel, Baltic Amber, that's been gathering dust on the shelf since 1987.


The story tells the plight of a young American woman who was unjustly accused of espionage in communist Hungary and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. I describe her return from the Gulag to East Germany.


If you want to read the whole story, all you have to do is click www. CadillacCicatrix. com or .org on the Internet and you will have it in the features.

1 comment:

J. Lovelle said...

Illmars,

I will look forward to reading this story when I get the opportunity. I have always been interested in learning how you go about doing your research for stories/novels. Your work is always full of historical context, and the mood and details all feel very authentic. Does your research mostly come from history books, or are there a variety of types of sources that help you get to the level of detail you want in your stories?

Janie