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If you read this blog regularly, you know by now that Jane Thorburn of The Factory Girl and the Fey is loosely (and when I say loosely, I mean waaaayyyy loosely) based on my great-great grandmother.

It has occurred to me that studying my ancestors is a great way to mine for book ideas. There’s my Bohemian great-great grandmother who was first widowed in her early 20s, whose marital history seems to provide more questions than answers. There’s the alleged Civil War battle on a family farm (unconfirmed and possibly a legend, it appears).

There are the Scottish Steins I haven’t been able to connect to my family tree who made bad whisky but had a lot of political clout to keep the upstart Highland distilleries from tapping into their market share. I wrote about them years ago and was gently reminded by a distant relative that we are probably NOT related to them…which shows you my limitations as a genealogist. My brain, alas, is too much “fiction writer.”

Recently my husband and I visited Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts for a brief vacation. We moved to New York State a few years ago and are still exploring the area around us. We stayed in a B&B that was a restored old home, and I saw a sign that said, Isabel N. Chapman. I thought, hmm, we have Chapmans in our family. A quick Ancestry search confirmed that yes, she was potentially a relative (what are the odds of staying in a B&B that was once owned by a distant ancestor?).

A bit more quick digging, and I learned my ancestors played a large part in founding the town of New London, CT, where we were staying. I now have several tabs open of books about my family, including some grotesquely gleeful accountings of the Native Americans they slaughtered.

Oh. That.

It’s similar to when I found that yes, we also had slaveowners, especially on my father’s side of the family. Though I’m sure I could come up with a dozen book ideas for these, do I want to? I suppose I could if I could write with the sensitivity such subjects would deserve. Is it a way to atone? I don’t know yet.

What I do know is, The Factory Girl and the Fey began with a genealogical question, and I suspect future books could also spring from this deep well. I also know that I need to start writing a lot faster. The ideas are building up too fast.

The Factory Girl and the Fey is available for pre-order now! A Goodreads giveaway begins October 3. I’ll post the links on social media once that happens.

“Soon a stream of servants entered, all women. The first two covered the dining table with an elegant white cloth. A third trailed behind with a basket of silverware and red cloth napkins. A half dozen servants then brought in large silver trays filled with the most beautiful, colorful food Jane had ever seen. This was nothing like the simple fare of her life in Alva. Juicy beef, cooked rare, steaming hot, and smelling of cooked onions filled one large tray. There was a lamb shoulder roast and next to it, salmon that looked freshly caught. There were vegetables of the richest reds, greens, oranges, and purples piled high. Another tray was filled with fresh fruit: blue-red plums bursting with juice, along with an assortment of large, juicy berries. And the sweets! Oh, my. One servant, a young woman about Jane’s age, stepped forward. Pointing to each item, she named them: apple butterscotch pie, chocolate fudge, honey and whisky cake, and, oh, yes, a pumpkin cake. At the sight of it all, Jane’s stomach started to growl.” — from The Factory Girl and the Fey, Chapter 15

Food, and its abundance or scarcity, is a bit of a minor character in Factory Girl. The paragraph above is set in the palace of the Fey when Jane Thorburn visits. It’s a stark contrast to the routine, bland food of the mill workers, which revolves around porridge and bread to fill the stomach but not the soul. She grows up with an aunt who keeps a garden, so there’s some fresh produce in season, at least, but money is tight, and the closer our characters get to payday, the thinner the soup, the lighter the offerings.

Rabbie Stein’s father, Hugh, is the mill superintendent, so they can afford an occasional roast, though it’s seen as a major splurge…which Jane, initially, is not welcome to.

For fun, I gave Skye a love of making sweets. This might be a bit of a stretch since factory girls made little money, but sweets such as tablet are used in scenes with Jane, Skye, Maisie, and Wynda, to show the sweetness and richness of their friendships. And for weddings and handfasts, the mill workers pitch in to celebrate with plenty to eat! It’s a rare thing because money is always tight, but demonstrates that then as now, food is a way for those in community to gather together. Also note that during the setting of the tale, a sweet bridal cake has become a fairly recent fashion, replacing traditional savory bride’s pie.

The Factory Girl and the Fey will be released October 14, 2021! Pre-order the book here.

When I wrote The Factory Girl and the Fey, I didn’t expect “the Fey” to be part of it. I initially set out to write straight-up historical fiction. When they inserted themselves into the story, then, I had to do a LOT of reading and research. I didn’t want to offend those who know a great deal more about folklore and the Good Folk than I do.

One quirky piece of research was my visit to Aberfoyle, Scotland, and the home of the Reverend Robert Kirk. He was the author of The Secret Commonwealth, a book claiming to detail the lives of the Fey. Legend has it that Kirk displeased the Fey by telling too many of their secrets, and his untimely death was their doing.

When we arrived at Aberfoyle, I was shy about entering the Visitor Center, but, well, a lot of people like to see where Kirk lived and died. They were more than happy to give us directions. As we hiked up the hill to where he died, we saw plenty of fairy houses and notes with prayers. It was an oddly sacred space, and it became very important to me to present the Fey in a positive light. Though Jane never fully trusts them, they do what they do to protect their way of life, and I wanted to respect that. Hopefully I have done so.

Since writing Factory Girl, I have immersed myself more deeply into the world of fairy tales and folklore. There’s too much to tell in this blog post, but I am reading the old stories like crazy and have begun to schedule one day a week for more study. I’m not sure where this is going, but I have a feeling it’s going to inform much of my future writing. Stay tuned for more!

The Factory Girl and the Fey is currently on NetGalley, where you can read it for free in exchange for a fair review. I hope you’ll check it out!

Test post.

As this is International Women’s Month, I thought I’d share more about the treasure trove of women writers I found while researching The Factory Girl and the Fey (historical fantasy, October 2021). I’ve already written about Ellen Johnston and other Scottish poets whose work I uncovered, but this time I thought I’d share about Fanny Trollope.

I found Fanny’s books when looking for work that accurately depicted life in the mills in the 19th century. Fanny wrote Michael Armstrong: Factory Boy, a searing account that may have resulted in child labor reforms that came after its release.

Fanny was a popular writer in her day, though her sons’ fame eclipsed hers over time. She didn’t start writing seriously until age 50, when family debts required she produce as many books as possible in a short time.

Despite her late start, she wrote 40 books along with countless articles and poems, some of them controversial. Fanny didn’t shy away from social commentary. In addition to Michael Armstrong, it has been suggested that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was influenced by Trollope’s Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, an anti-slavery novel released in 1836. She also took on the Church of England and the corruption she saw.

The knock on Fanny’s writing was that it was often rushed, but this was largely due to her need for money. Also, though gregarious and welcomed into salons to discuss her work and ideas, those around her feared showing up in one of her books–and this happened rather often!

A friend and colleague of Dickens, Browning, Barrett, and more, Fanny Trollope is one of the forgotten writers of the era. Her courage, work ethic, strength, and skill deserve to be admired and remembered.

Suggested Reading:

More on Michael Armstrong: Factory Boy: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-life-and-adventures-of-michael-armstrong-the-factory-boy#