BookView Review

Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we talked to  Melissa Clark Bacon about her writing and her recently published novel, Through Her Lens, a gripping historical drama that offers a poignant exploration of dreams versus duty, love, passion, family, societal constraints of the era, and female empowerment.(Read the review here).

Where and when did your interests in World War II begin? How did it lead you to write your own novel set in that time period?

My grandmother’s favorite brother was a fighter pilot whose plane went down off the coast of Italy. He was never found, and she felt his loss deeply. When she spoke about the time before he left for the fight, she lit up. To hear her tell it, they spent their days and nights learning, dancing, and frolicking with friends, as they lingered in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood.  Even when she spoke of the days after the attack on Pearl Habor, her voice had traces of romance. Living with her mother in her grand childhood home, now divided into apartments to help manage Wisconsin winters with energy rations, waiting for letters from my grandfather who was fighting with the 101^st airborne and her beloved brother and writing letters herself. I know she missed him dearly when he went missing. I am not convinced she really believed he was dead for a very long time. My family felt her loss and the toll fighting took on my grandfather always.

The war shaped my father’s life as well. His father couldn’t fight because of his bad heart, and the remote notion of war captivated my father. He devoured the black and white movies made about the war, and Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, became one of his heroes. To him, his parents’ generation represented the best of the United States. Every childhood vacation included at least one stop at a place Americans had fought. The memorials to those who fought in WWII touched me the most.

Finally, as my love affair with reading began, the Chronicles of Narnia were among my first loves. I can see the children standing on the train platform, tags pinned to their coats, gas masks hanging across their chests, waiting to leave London as a part of Operation Pied Piper. The short story where Millie, my protagonist, took her first gasp of air had her participating in the evacuation. That portrait of Millie has admittedly evolved, but I do believe that is why I wanted to set the story in that time and place. Once I saw the PBS special, 3D Spies of WWII, and understood how much women contributed to the success of not only Operation Crossbow as it would come to be known, but also all of the aerial reconnaissance work done at RAF Medmenham, I knew I had my external plot. From there came understanding of how participating in that particular work and project would shape Millie the way the war had shaped so many of the people I loved.

How were you able to create a world/setting that felt realistic and relevant to the modern reader, while maintaining the World War II period accuracy?

My first attempt at keeping the modern reader’s attention was to write the book in first person. It didn’t work. Frankly, it made me lazy as a writer, and so many of my secondary characters felt flat.

Then I switched course for revision five. It became clear that Millie’s struggle between what she wanted to do and what she felt she should do is as real today as it was then. The idea of a woman fighting for agency in a man’s world is also still very real. So, I got the external plot in order and explored Millie’s internal journey, a current problem for many to be sure.

As I leaned into this part of the story, I quit trying to teach my readers something about the period with what frankly read like mini lectures and simply focused on getting details correct. I was writing fiction, not a textbook. I focused on populating the world with objects of the time: fountain pens, hats, cigarettes, blackout curtains, air raid sirens, wool skirts, trousers, scarcity, etc. and attitudes of the time, particularly ideas around duty. 

Through Her Lens is a stunning female perspective considering so many WWII stories are male-dominated. Was that an intentional choice on your end? How did you create the character of Millie to deliver the story you wanted to tell?

It was. As I dug into the primary source research, I discovered a multitude of women contributing to all sorts of the Allied Forces’ efforts. I was frankly amazed at how many women’s stories hadn’t made their way into secondary non-fiction sources and, of course, into the fictionalized portrayal of the time including both books and film.

I think some know how women became the scaffolding for the Homefront: working in factories, filling support roles in the military, growing food, and making do. Fewer know the lengths to which they worked alongside men to crack codes, analyze intelligence, research new areas of science and gather pivotal intelligence. I created Millie by learning about as many of these women as I could unearth in the archives and the handful of men who saw what they could contribute, put social norms aside and let them do necessary work.

For the exact work Millie was doing during the war, I found the book Women of Intelligence by Christine Halsall invaluable. It was the launching point for the primary research I did at the British National Archives. To portray her love and drive for documentary photography, I looked to the photographic careers of Lee Miller and Martha Gellhorn. As a photographer myself, this part of my research journey was particularly illuminating. All the women’s lives I discovered were deeply influenced by the men around them: fathers, brothers, bosses, lovers, but they managed to step out of traditional confines and contribute in satisfying ways. I wanted this for Millie, so I followed their example. I want this for my readers, too.

Is there a particular chapter or scene that was especially rewarding or impactful for you to write?

I do love the scene where Millie rediscovers Callum at the train station in Wick. Making him part American and giving him formative time in the States gave me a chance to write a charming rogue American style. I sometimes felt constrained by the expectation that many of my characters were obliged to comport to the rule of always keeping their emotions under control. Giving Callum a few American qualities gave Millie a chance to mirror them, all the while learning something new about herself. Plus, the flirtatious banter is fun to write.

What was your favorite part of the process of writing Through Her Lens?

I loved doing the research. I traveled to every location except for Peenemunde, where I hope to visit one day. And handling the photographs kept at the National Collection of Aerial Photography, Edinburgh, Scotland, sliding them under the massive stereoscope and sliding them together until they bounced to life in 3D was an unexpected thrill. As was working with the actual documents from RAF Medmenham. It may sound odd, but it made the folks I had studied come to life for me, touching the same papers they had. And every unearthed fact made me curious to know more, to meet one more forgotten woman, to see one more abandoned place.

What authors or books have inspired your writing?

I love how Tracy Chevalier reveals women to readers with her historical fiction. It inspired me to go looking for characters of my own. And if I, even for a moment, wrote those characters with the honesty, vulnerability, and sense of humor of Larry McMurtry and Pat Conroy I would be most satisfied.

What’s next for you as a writer?

As mentioned, I found writing flirtatious banter quite fun. I have an idea swimming in my imagination of a group of female whiskey trippers, the folks who hauled booze during prohibition, and have written a few short stories to unearth my heroine. But that time period was pretty bad for women. So perhaps an alternate reality of the time or maybe a more modern setting like revamped Smokey and the Bandit, populated by women, of course. I’d like to spend my time with a lighter topic and give my sense of humor a bit of a workout. I’ve visited a few spots in Appalachia to start getting a feel for possible characters and see who I can unearth for more inspiration. And I am constructing a cast with short stories and essays which is my second favorite part of the writing process.

***