history

Facts and Fantasy: Part 1

August 25, 2021 by admin

My idea for The Factory Girl and the Fey took hold while doing some amateur and clumsy genealogy. As I sought facts about my ancestors, I discovered a mystery: a great-great grandmother who had disappeared from the family lore. I wanted to bring her back to the family, but the holes in the story, the lack of available facts, made it impossible to find the real version of her life. Being a writer, the only thing I could do for her was to make something up. And that required a lot of research.

Two separate visits to the small town of Alva, somewhere about midway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, gave me the layout of the town my ancestors called home. On both occasions, we hiked along Alva Burn, which flows from the Ochils down into Alva and once powered the mills there. Alva Burn turned into a prominent setting in Factory Girl. Knowing nothing about the real Jane, I gave her my love of nature and made it a place for her to go when she needed rejuvenation.

One known fact about Jane is that she gave birth to my great-grandfather out of wedlock. I learned that this was, surprisingly, not uncommon in that time in rural Scotland. However, it “should” have earned her a rebuke from the local kirk under the charge of “antemarital fornication.” On one of my visits, I donned white gloves and held the Alva Kirk Sessions records of that time period in my hands. It was a goosebumpy moment when I realized the handwriting belonged to a couple of my uncles.

Yet there was no rebuke for Jane and her lover, Robert. Why? Was it because the elders were relatives and decided to put it off for some reason? I’ll never know, any more than I know whether Jane and Robert were in love or just had a fling. Everything that happens with their relationship and the kirk is fictionalized, in part to come up with what might have happened, and in part to add dramatic tension to the story.

By the way, since I mentioned a baby, did you know that even in the 19th century, people made baby formula? It was cheaper than a wet nurse and allowed babies to be cared for by others if the mother had to hold a job.

Jane worked as a weaver, and the young women who worked in the mills were referred to as mill lasses or “factory girls.” Ellen Johnston, a weaver and poet of the time, published under the moniker “Factory Girl.” It became important to me to include this term in the title. Part of my research included studying the working conditions of the time and reading about female weavers in Scotland and beyond. Jane’s dream of traveling to Lowell, Massachusetts, is a nod to the once-thriving industry there. Visiting Lowell, I heard the earsplitting noise of a room full of power looms!

The single-end tenement flat of Jane’s parents is modeled on one I viewed in Glasgow. While there, I spoke with a man (also a visitor) who had grown up in such a flat with no electricity! We also visited The Peoples Palace, which had more information on living conditions. When Factory Girl opens, Jane is living in a single end with her parents and two boarders, something that could easily have happened.

Factory Girl addresses many of the issues of the day that continue to be timely such as alcoholism, infertility, and abortion. On the happier side, I also include a handfast ceremony and some relevant wedding and baptism customs.

In another blog post I’ll share more about my dive into folk tales and superstitions that informed The Factory Girl and the Fey.

The Factory Girl and the Fey is currently on NetGalley and will be available until October 14. A Goodreads giveaway is also available through August 31. Two chances to read it for free!

Book Review: Great Circle

April 14, 2021 by admin

In Great Circle: A Novel, author Maggie Shipstead takes us into the epic life of a female aviator, Marian Graves. Rescued from a sinking ship as an infant with her twin brother, Jamie, Marian grows up in Montana, raised by an uncle who had little interest in the two children. While still a teenager, Marian discovers a passion for planes…and will do anything to learn to fly.

Several decades after Marian disappears on a “great circle” flight to both the north and south pole, actress Hadley Baxter is playing Marian in a movie. Hadley is a successful but disgraced actress who takes the role initially to try to redeem herself in Hollywood. The story weaves back and forth between Marian’s life and Hadley’s.

Two things really stood out to me when reading this novel. First, it’s too easy to misinterpret or minimize the complexity of someone’s life when observing it from the outside. After Marian’s disappearance, writers tried to fill in the blanks, creating myth and misinformation. Hadley has to deal with tabloid culture.

Second, I was struck by how a life can be altered by one small action or shift. If Marian hadn’t been rescued as a newborn, she would never have existed. It was as if every aspect of her life led her to flight, but one less twist or turn would have given her a very different experience.

Shipstead’s command of research and her ability to weave it into a story are astounding. Readers will learn a lot about the history of flight and the role of women that is often under-reported.

Initially I had some trouble getting into the story. There’s a fair amount of set-up that may come across as random. Hang in there. It will all make sense in the end. I also struggled a bit with Marian’s precociousness, but I consider this a minor criticism, as the era of The Great Depression forced people to grow up fast.

I would highly recommend Great Circle to anyone who loves stories about tenacious women. There’s a lot here about families, friendships, and love here, too.

Great Circle‘s release date is May 4, 2021. NOTE: I received a free copy of this novel via NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope you’ll subscribe using the button below. I do a book review on Wednesdays (no soliciting, please) and will soon add a second post on other topics. Also, if you like what you read, please consider purchasing one of my books. More information can be found here.

Book Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

March 31, 2021 by admin

I wasn’t sure I wanted to read The Four Winds. The Great Alone was such an incredible novel, and I thought, how can she top it? That might be impossible, after all. Still, I couldn’t resist. The subject matter was compelling: the struggles of a family during the Dust Bowl.

The story centers around Elsa Wolcott, whose early life was defined by an illness and, in her family’s opinion, a lack of attractiveness. Expected to live at home and tend to her parents in their later years, Elsa had different ideas. Readers will find a young woman defined by both a deep sense of inadequacy and an innate wildness that will give her strength to endure tremendous hardship, though she won’t recognize the latter in herself for some time.

As in The Grapes of Wrath, Elsa will find herself migrating to California with her children to escape the Dust Bowl, where instead of finding milk and honey, she finds more hardship and bigotry. Californians weren’t impressed with the increasing numbers of migrants seeking work, so not only is work limited, but the pay continues to drop.

Hannah describes the conditions in excruciating detail. As someone who just finished writing a historical novel, I was impressed with her ability to take us there, not just as observers, but to help us truly feel the suffering and hardship of these difficult times.

In this painful reality, Elsa finds her inner strength, and that is the real beauty of this story. She is a reminder of the lengths most women will go to for their families, especially their children. I think I cried more during the small happy moments and the occasional humanity than the most difficult times.

I found the beginning a bit slow, and it felt as if the parents and future husband could have been more nuanced. Elsa seemed a bit like Cinderella, and the family a bit too much like the wicked stepmother and stepsisters. However, this part of the story was necessary to set up Elsa’s worldview, so I can forgive it. Elsa, Lareda, and Elsa’s in-laws are far more developed and interesting, and the story really picks up when Elsa leaves home.

The Four Winds is, sadly, too relevant for our times. The treatment of migrants, the inequality, the sense of endlessness of the Depression…all of these are visible now. In addition, the environmental crisis of the time, the Dust Bowl, is a sad reminder of what happens when we don’t care for our planet, and we see that in our current climate crisis. What is astounding to me is how long these travails went on…we are a year into a pandemic and going bonkers, while the main part of this story spans six years. How our fellow Americans endured this is beyond me.

Some reviewers have complained about the “political agenda” of the book, particularly the role of Communists in trying to organize the workforce. Yet what was she supposed to do, write them out of history? They were there, and they were trying to help. I did not see Hannah as “advocating for Communism,” as some reviewers believe. In fact, she uses Elsa to voice deep concerns and reservations about the philosophy. At the same time, by respecting their role in seeking better working conditions for the migrants, she reminds us that people are far more complex than Twitter would have us believe.

I highly recommend The Four Winds, and hell, anything else Kristin Hannah writes.

Writing Women Back Into History

August 5, 2020 by admin

I would not leave thee, dear beloved place,

A crown, a sceptre, or a throne to grace;

To be a queen—the Nation’s flag unfurl—

A thousand times I’d be a Factory Girl!

An Address to Napiers Dockyard

Ellen Johnston

Years ago while working on a project for college, I ran across a book where astrophysicists debated the existence of God (don’t worry, I’m not going to write about that). I happened to notice they were all male. Are there female astrophysicists? Of course there are, and here’s a list. For whatever reason, though, not a single woman was represented in that book.

This was my first realization of how women are written out of history, even with significant achievements. I thought of this again when I saw the movie Hidden Figures. Would my life have been different, I wondered, if I saw the success and achievements of women at an early age? When I was growing up, I had no idea women, let alone women of color, used mathematical expertise to launch rockets.

So when I discovered my great-great grandmother had been removed from the family history, I wasn’t surprised. Jane the Factory Girl, which I am getting closer to completion, is a fictionalized attempt to bring her back into the family…and to also pay tribute to the women who worked in the mills and factories, whose stories have also been erased.

While doing research for the novel I fell in love with the poetry of Ellen Johnston…and along the way gained exposure to a wealth of Scottish poetry written by women. Never heard of her? Of course not. And yet, in her lifetime, she was well known and popular as a poet.

Ellen began working in factories at either age 11 or 13, not uncommon at the time. She had little schooling, enough to read and write. She later gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, and put the child in her mother’s care because she had to keep working.

After being fired from a mill, Johnston successfully sued for severance. However, this action caused her to be blackballed.

As a poet, Johnston published a number of poems in newspapers under the name Factory Girl. In 1867 she published a collection called Autobiographies, Poems, Songs, and The Factory Girl. A second edition (that deleted references to her daughter) was published in 1869.

Ellen’s fate is unknown. A woman named Helen Johnston died in a poorhouse in 1874, but this may or may not be her. Rumors suggested she married or moved and changed her name. She was known to be in ill health, however, from her years in the mills, so the latter theory is not likely. It’s more, perhaps, what we wish were true. Instead, like too many women, Ellen Johnston just disappeared.

It is a tribute to Johnston that each chapter of Jane the Factory Girl begins with a poem. Where possible, I use Johnston’s lines. Where not, most of the poetry is written by women (I threw in Stevenson and Burns, so men aren’t entirely ignored).

Here again, though, the only female poet I had heard of before working on this novel was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose stunning poem The Cry of the Children still haunts me. Others include Elizabeth Melville, Mrs. G. G. Richardson, Elizabeth Hamilton, and more (lots of Elizabeths here, I just noticed).

Hopefully Jane the Factory Girl will not only restore Jane’s standing in the family history, but will also bring other women to life whose work and achievements had previously disappeared.