So what do you do when your agent and publisher are eager for you to start another book and you just can’t settle on a topic? You ask the good folks at the SDMB to pitch in with ideas.
I write dramatic narratives, true stories of dramatic historical events that read more like novels. (I’ll avoid shameless plugs for my works here.)
I’ve been through lots of ideas, and there’s no shortage of topics I find interesting. But it has to be commercially viable, meaning something that the public would find appealing, not just me and a few historians.
Any ideas are welcome. Just a few parameters: The story should lend itself to a dramatic telling, preferably with lots of human drama. It should be based in the United States or primarily about Americans. (I.e., a great story about the French revolution won’t work for me.) I’m drawn to incidents in which people were wrongly persecuted or never received the recognition they were due. Military stories are good. It has to be a story that hasn’t already been told in a dozen books or in a recent book. It should be a story with some significance, that a general audience would find appealing.
So… any ideas?
How about a novel about the infamous Cherry Sisters of vaudeville? With a little extra sex and tragedy thrown in to make it more marketable, of course?
Oh? Playing coy because you are the only Doper whose publisher actually wants to see MORE from him? Come on! You can flaunt your success in front of us! What’ve you written?
As for ideas, the story of the Indianapolis has been done to death lately…
The “Lost Battalion” even had a cable movie…
How about 1st Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper? Military, wrongly persecuted, and special interest because he was the first Black grad of West Point.
Good ideas so far. The Cherry Sisters is really interesting. I’ll have to look into that more.
The story of the Indianopolis is exactly the kind of thing I like, but yes, it’s been done quite thoroughly. The Ossian Flipper story is intriguing, but not big enough.
(Dropzone, if you’re really interested, my upcoming book is at www.sailorstotheend.com and my previous one is at www.laythisbodydown.com.)
If you DO decide on the Cherries, I have scads of information of vadueville of the period, and even a few articles about the late, great sisters themselves.
Of course, for novelistic purposes, you’d have to make them a lot sexier and smarter than they were!
I’ve always wanted to read a novelization of the life of Cynthia Ann Parker and/or her son Quanah. Cynthia Ann was kidnapped by Comanches in Texas when she was nine and never wanted to go back to her family. She finally did as an adult, but it was against her will and she was apparently miserable. Her son stayed with the Comanches and he was quite a warrior.
Several years ago Maine Public Television did a series of shows about…uhm…Mainers (? - whatever you call someone from Maine) that included, among other stories, the following true story:
A girl was born to a impoverished family in a small town in Maine (or whatever Maine was called at the time - it may not have been separate from Massachusetts at this point) in the early part of the 1800s. Through a sad turn of events, she is raped and becomes pregnant at a very early age. The child (a boy) is born and given up for adoption. The girl is sent to Boston because 1. she has given birth out of wedlock and 2. the family needs the money from her labor. She spends nearly 20 years in Boston and then moves back to her home town. Upon her return she sets up housekeeping and, after a while, meets and falls in love with a young man. They court and end up married only to find out that they are, in fact, mother and son. The marriage is annulled, the man leaves town and the woman is ostracized by the town. She ends up a recluse but manages to live well up into the 20th century.
Oddly enough, a co-worker’s mother knew this woman toward the end of her life.
Odd story, full of pathos, forbidden sex, and dramatic tension.
The series also included a show about the life of Maine lumberjacks, but it wasn’t anywhere near as interesting as a story about a woman who mistakenly married her own son.
(I’ve always called them Mainiacs)
Was that THE John McCain on the Forrestal?
Okay, now that I’ve seen what you write I can have a better idea of what to suggest. I’ve always found the US Cavalry’s work on the frontier to be underdescribed, with the suggestion of Custer and his men. Life for a troop in the 1860s or early 70s could be interesting, though it might lack the drama you need.
Eve, the Cherry Sisters would be the McGuire Sisters if he made them sexier and smarter. While still interesting, it would be for the wrong reason.
None of you can have The Book I’ll Never Write But Am Laying Claim To Anyway : a look at how our present and future were invented in the 1920s. 
Oh yes, it was the John McCain you’re thinking about. (Assuming you’re thinking about the senator from Arizona, and not some guy in your neighborhood.) He was sitting in his plane on the carrier deck when another plane accidentally shot a rocket into his.
The cavalry is interesting. I agree that it’s not very well known. Hmmmmmm…
Keep 'em coming.
OK, here’s your novel: the Cherry Sisters are kidnapped by Indians while on tour, and rescued by Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper. The lot of them move to Maine, where one of the Cherries has an illegitimate baby. The girl is sent to Boston . . .
Dear, the nice man writes NON-FICTION that only READS like novels. This is the very first time here where I was on the giving end of “You didn’t read the OP thoroughly enough.” It truly IS better to give than to receive.
Ummm . . . I just assumed GregAtlanta was actually Joe McGinniss . . .
How about the foreign troops fighting in the American Civil War?
The Whiskey Rebellion?
The courtmartial of Billy Mitchell?
(This is starting to be fun! I come up with an idea, somebody else does the work, and I get to read the result!)
Tentative excerpt: A coming of age drama about a young black man who learns the maniacal joys of popping his white mother’s cherry. It speaks to your heart, it stimulates your mind, it grips your loins. Come take the journey of a lifetime. Based on true life stories.
Dropzone, you’re pretty good at this. (Though I still like the Cherry sisters. Eve’s are pretty damn funny. ;))
The Billy Mitchell story is really interesting. Just did a quick Google and it looks promising. Gonna go check the Whiskey Rebellion.
If you ever need a new agent, kid… 
Some ideas:
-John Brown
-the mormon church, perhaps focussing on an incident in which the mormon church massacred a bunch of gentile settlers in Utah
-the founding and continuing abuses of the church of scientology
something which everyone knows about in general but I’ve read very few books about in specific is the revolutionary war period. There are scads of historical novels set in the civil war, but the amount that I actually know about the revolution is quite small, and I’m a fan of history in general.
(I’m just starting John Adams, however, so that might change).
lessee… other thoughts:
-the building of the empire state building
-the manhattan project
What’s this about a Mormon massacre? (Love the phrase. Alliteration makes for good book titles.)
The Manhattan Project would be terrific, but I’m afraid it’s been done already. “Fat Man and Little Boy” comes to mind.
This is great! I’m getting really good ideas.
Incidentally, Greg may not want to shamelessly plug his books, but allow me to do so. Click here for my review of one of 'em.
It gets better! It is really the Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre! Hard to find four "M"s in a row like that.
Wife suggests one of the more-entertaining religious movements of the 19th century. You can choose from many types (I’m a sucker for the Millerites) but you’ll probably want to look into one that practiced Free Love, as sex sells. Especially naughty Victorian sex.