sense of living through that time and even after the executions when the guard picks up the thread....
I have long been intrigued that all the Romanovs and their retinue, relatives and friends wrote such frequent letters- often more than one a day to the same person, and kept up journals and often wrote poetry as well. The grand duchesses wrote down their daily events and thoughts in silk covered journals that Alexandra gave them- a new one each year. The archive of literature and resources is a treasure for anyone seeking first hand information...I studied Marie's actual letters and journal entries and then imagined that her 1916 diary might have been scribbled in the margins with events of the years that followed- the fateful l017, 1918- as no new diaries could be handed out as gifts. All the grand duchesses tucked pressed flowers and sweet drawings and notes between the pages. In my novel, Marie's diary becomes a key piece of evidence that might save the life of the guard Mikhail Letemin who was there, on the night of her family's murder...I stayed with the facts as best I could and employed my imagination and a bit of literary license for the rest...The documents themselves supplied such a wealth of information, I often felt I was THERE...I depended on primary sources so that I and the reader could draw their own character studies...and a 
sense of living through that time and even after the executions when the guard picks up the thread....
sense of living through that time and even after the executions when the guard picks up the thread....