Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

Fan Mail!

10/24/2015

6 Comments

 
Picture
This week I got one of the greatest gifts a writer can get: 
a packet of fan mail.

My friends, family and fans are great people, and they are generous with their praise and opinions, so this isn't the first time I've gotten fan mail before.

But this is the first time that I've received a whole packet of fan mail: 19 pieces of it at once!


Mrs. Blaine, a fifth grade teacher Sundance Elementary School in Los Lunas, reads to her students for fifteen minutes a day, every day, right after recess.  Lucky me: she's just finished reading them my Civil War novel, and as a follow up she had her students write letters to me. 


The letters were interesting: full of kind and encouraging words (things like "the detail in the book puts a little movie on in my mind" and "this is my new favorite book"), advice (one boy wrote "I think you might have to take all the violence down an notch just saying." In this time of violent video games and graphic news programs, it's nice to know that violence still bothers some kids), and lots of questions (Did Sarah and Martin get married?  Did Micah survive?) The most frequent question was one I had never expected; what kids wondered more than anything else was who, Union or Confederate, was responsible for the death of Beatrice the cow.


I am writing responses to each child's letter. I hope that their teacher will be able to arrange a class visit for me; I would love to show these students pictures of the Gettysburg battlefield, the farms and orchards mentioned in the book, and of some of the minor characters. Then I can deliver the responses in person. 



6 Comments

Naming Characters

10/6/2015

5 Comments

 
Picture
I recently answered an email from a fan who wondered where I got the names for the characters in Code: Elephants on the Moon. Since he wondered, I thought perhaps others might wonder about this as well, so I'm answering his question here. 

I've got to admit I don't work too hard at naming my characters. Most of the times, as crazy as it sounds, they name themselves. Unlike characters in a play, who do what the script demands, characters in a novel-in-progress often take on a life of their own. My characters tell me a lot about themselves. As I ponder plot, my characters reveal their personalities, some interesting character traits, their looks, and even their names.  Sometimes they haul off and do things that change the direction of my story in ways that I hadn't intended.

The name of my main character, Eponine is French, but it comes from the Breton word Epone or Epona. This works well for a girl whose red hair suggests Breton blood. Bretons are Celtic in origin, making them more closely related to the Welsh and Irish than their French and Norman neighbors. Epona is the name of the Celtic horse goddess, a fact that makes the name even more appropriate for my character. It is also a name with a literary heritage. Victor Hugo used the name for one of his characters in Les Miserables. 

PictureGalopin. Public domain from wikicommons.
Eponine's horse is named Galopin, which is also a name I didn't make up. In French, a galopin is a monkey or scamp, neither of which describe the personality of the sway-backed, dish-faced Breton horse in my book. The British have had a championship horse named Galopin, who was a much better-looking horse than my character. There is also an early French science fiction writer named Arnould Galopin, who is kind of the Jules Verne of the French speaking world. He was not an inspiration at all in the naming of my horse. Mostly, I named my horse Galopin because the word sounded like the English word 'galloping' to me.  And because the horse told me to call him that.

5 Comments
    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage