The Zimmerman Telegram

As a blogger looking for something to write it would be easy to continue summarizing THE WAR GUILT CLAUSE chapter by chapter, but what I really want to do is put the reader into the mind of the author – where did the ideas come from? When did the narrative begin to take shape? I may have mentioned this before, but  Max Blue is of the novelist school that writes from stream of consciousness as opposed to working from a detailed outline. Max begins with  a tightly wound ball of twine embedded with an encyclopedia of life experiences that often show up on the page  embellished with imaginative romps, and unwinds the story as he goes. A historical novel requires a library of references and THE WAR GUILT CLAUSE is no exception.  The New York Times archives was the primary reference but it turned out that the Rowan University library also housed the microfilm archives of The Times of London which furnished material crucial to the story. And then there was Barbara Tuchman’s captivating account of THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM; it was a goldmine for Max, introducing him to Colonel Edward House, President Wilson’s minister without portfolio who thought he knew German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman, but did not. Thank you also Mrs. Tuchman for the spectacular Bohemian spy, Voska, and for the less colorful but wonderfully named  Wickham Steed. Mrs. Tuchman introduced Steed as the Times Foreign Editor but it seems somebody forgot to tell her he was Foreign Editor of the Times of London, not the New York Times. Max stumbled across this knowledge after the book was published, but only purists would object as Wickham Steed and his wide experience became a major factor in the novel.

From Times to War Guilt

Max Blue’s 1916 war novel called Times, was published in 2004; The War Guilt Clause will be published by Tate Publishing in October 2013. The two novels are tightly connected; the first half of War Guilt is a severely revised version of Times, primarily due to elimination of almost all baseball references which were a significant part of the earlier work. The ventures and adventures of the Frederick twins, Ted and Ed, along with Mary Cady are reprised in the new novel. The second half of The War Guilt Clause focuses on Ed as a war correspondent along with his newly found colleague at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Peggy Schooner.

It all began in the Rowan University library where Max went to mine the New York Times microfilm archives for information about the 1916 New York Giants 26-game winning streak, an achievement that remains a record for Major League baseball. The Streak was what Max called his account – it can be seen online at http://baseballguru.com.

When Max opened the Times 1916 archives he quickly learned that more than baseball was on the minds of the country and the world. Long and detailed accounts of President Woodrow Wilson’s campaign for a second term, as well as informative articles about the views of Republican challenger Charles Evans Hughes, appeared day after day as the winning of John McGraw’s Giants proceeded through September and in to October. Something began to stir in the sequestered non-baseball section of Blue’s brain