Reflections about Water and Fire
Why write a novel about the Springfield Race Riots?
Although some may accuse me of opening old wounds with this novel, Water and Fire, that was not my intent when I started writing this novel back in 2005.
Yes, I have always wanted to be “an author” (like so many of us), and I’d written a young adult novel that didn’t get published, so when the idea of writing historical fiction (always my favorite genre) set in Springfield at the time of the riots came to me, I decided to follow it. I knew there would be an increased level of interest in 2008, the 100th anniversary of the riots and the more I wrote about these fictitious characters, Sheba Tully and Elliott Loper, the more I believed in them. Because they were fictitious, their actions and lives could tell a story that might add to the understanding of this awful event. I was also interested in exploring how a girl brought up in the bosom of the black church with firm Christian beliefs, choose to react to racial hatred and bigotry.
As I researched the riots, they began to fascinate me, not only as an historic incident, but as a bellwether of the tone of the city even to this day. It’s amazing to me how the racial division of Springfield, Illinois has been maintained and even deepened in the past century.
The idea of weaving a novel around real events and real people (Frank Lloyd Wright, Vachel Lindsay, Charles Deneen) fascinated me. EL Doctorow's Ragtime did this to perfection, illuminating a time period in a way that non-fiction can’t for many readers.
With the continuing public fascination with Wright, was there any need to include him in yet another book? Didn't we know everything about this man there is to know? Well, yes, and several capable biographers have pulled apart his life in minute detail; but it was interesting to speculate about his actions in situations that haven't been documented. Why did Susan Lawrence Dana let him have such a "free hand" in designing her opulent house? We'll never know for sure, but one explanation is in my book.
That's the exciting part of writing a novel based on real events and including real people. You can take what you know about the people, put them into a situation and see what happens. It was interesting to write and, hopefully, entertaining to read as well.