As posted on bookriot.com
This is a guest post from Monte Schulz, who published his first novel, Down by the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel of the Jazz Age,which is now available in three parts: This Side of Jordan, The Last Rose of Summer, and The Big Town. He wrote it for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz.
In writing my opus, Crossing Eden, set in the 1920s, I wanted to make the book as authentic to that era as I possibly could. So, rather than relying on current histories or novels written about the Jazz Age, I wanted to study books written during the period. I delved into the catalogues, the films, the clothing of the era, but the novels and histories written in the 20s provided the best insight into the world that I hoped to capture.