Research, Research, and More Research

That's sort of been my unspoken motto for the last few days. This afternoon has probably been the most grueling stint of research, though, and I was only working for two, maybe two-and-a-half hours. I think I'm close to finally understanding the chain of casualty evacuation in the army during WWII. Don't ask me to verbalize it yet, though--I'm still trying to work through all the details. But it's coming.

Now I can finally give you a little blurb about next month's novel: It takes place during the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations--the campaigns of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy) of World War II. Trey Whitney, the protagonist, is a surgeon assigned to a field hospital that begins in Tunisia (North Africa) in 1943 and then goes on to Sicily and the Italian mainland. Still grieving over the deaths of his wife and son four years earlier, the novel's reoccurring theme and symbol is healing--both external (his duties as surgeon) and internal (recovering from the loss of his family). On a broader scale, the novel includes Sheila Blooming, a woman with a medical degree who joined the nursing corps because the army wouldn't take her as a commissioned surgeon. A romance between the two doctors ensues in due time. Nurses Maureen Reid and Julie Smith along with another surgeon, Ed Kipp--Trey's long-time friend--complete the supporting cast. The role of antagonist falls to a fanatical Nazi, Franz Vogler, the mastermind of a vicious plot that involves Trey's field hospital.

Sorry if that sounds too academic. LOL As you can see, I'm still trying to get everything worked out. My goal is that Sheila will actually be working as a surgeon near the beginning of the novel. How I'm going to turn her from a nurse into a surgeon, however, is going to be an interesting stretch. In 1943, the army DID start commissioning women doctors, but from what I can tell, they were only in the Women's Army Corps. Thank goodness that fiction has no bounds! I'll still need to find some way, though, to make the change--an inaccuracy, to be sure--sound plausible.

Also, I'm still not sure how Franz's little "spy network" is going to play out. That's one point of research that is, as of yet, untouched (learning about the medical corps and field hospitals has been an adventure in and of itself). I could tell you more about him, but if I did, I'd spoil one of the mysteries of the story. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have a pitch paragraph to share with you that will tell you a bit more about the central conflict of the story.

Until my next update . . . Ta-ta!