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What’s for Dinner? Food in The Factory Girl and the Fey

September 16, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

“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.

Hugh, Hugh, and Hugh: Scottish Character Names

September 9, 2021 by admin 2 Comments

View of Alva, Scotland, looking down from the cemetery

My main character in The Factory Girl and the Fey, Jane Thorburn, is loosely based on my great-great grandmother. Her father’s name was Robert. Her love interest is also Robert. You may be picking up on a problem here!

Scotland has traditional naming conventions, the details of which can be found Here. As the author, I had to decide how to deal with the duplication issue. To give everyone new names would disrespect the tradition. To keep everyone’s name the same would require other strategies.

The first thing I did was to give the younger Robert a nickname, Rabbie, which is also a nod to Robert Burns.

Peripheral characters were easier to deal with. One of the “Johns” in my ancestry turned into a Ewan, for example (he was an uncle), and a second Sarah became Kirstin. Since their parents and grandparents weren’t part of the story, I could change the names easily and thus reduce duplication.

The biggest challenge was Hugh, Hugh, and Hugh. My great-great-great grandfather was Hugh Stein. He had a son named Hugh and a grandson named Hugh, all of which appear in the story. What to do with this?

I made the elder Hugh Stein (Rabbie’s father) a stern gentleman who liked to be addressed with proper respect. Jane calls him Mr. Stein, and he never invites Jane to call him anything else. I changed nothing about his son Hugh, because he’s a minor character, and it’s clear he’s a teenager with a tendency to roughhouse with his brothers.

The baby Hugh, who in real life was my great-grandfather, is referred to as Wee Hugh.

With regard to last names, readers may be surprised that a name like “Stein” was a Scottish name. There are Steins documented in Scotland as far back as the 13th century that I know of. Some of them were well known for making bad whisky but having the political clout to sell their swill while hampering the efforts of the Highland distilleries, which were superior in quality. I’ve not been able to connect my ancestors with these Steins, though I long to! It’s just too good of a story. It’s also the reason I focus more on writing fiction than being a good genealogist, where exact details matter.

Anyway, Stein means “stone” or “rock.” In Scotland it is pronounced STEEN, while in the U.S. we pronounce it STINE. There is no connection to Jewish Steins, and the use of this surname predates the time when Jews took surnames.

Thorburn is a name that likely has Viking roots, which is one reason I gave Jane reddish hair. My DNA is about 12% Scandinavian, so this could be part of that connection. I’ve only been able to trace this line back to about 1780, so who knows what happened before that? The real John Thorburn, like his fictional counterpart, was a man of the sea.

The Factory Girl and the Fey will be released October 14th! You can pre-order the book here. If you have a NetGalley account, you can read it for free there in exchange for a fair review.

View of the Ochils as we arrive in Alva, Scotland

Facts and Fantasy: Part 2

September 2, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

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!

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: Bronte’s Mistress

July 21, 2021 by admin

In Bronte’s Mistress, author Finola Austin tells the story of Lydia Robinson, possible mistress to Branwell Bronte, the ne’er-do-well brother of the famous Bronte sisters. Lydia is lonely and frustrated, but also grieving the deaths of her young daughter and mother, leaving her vulnerable to the charms of the much-younger, roguish Branwell. As their attraction grows, others notice, causing all kinds of problems.

Robinson is portrayed as a spirited woman who was a victim of her time. She had few options as a woman to make her own choices, and thus depended on her beauty and appeal to men to get what she wanted…and who expected her three daughters to do the same.

It’s of note that even the book title reduces Lydia Robinson to her relationship to a man, even though the story is about her.

The affair may or may not have happened, and has been the source of conjecture. Clearly something was going on based on some writings that exist, but how far things went is unknown.

I found Robinson shallow and detestable at times, but still felt sympathetic toward her. She longed for the love and attention of her emotionally distant husband, and I came away believing that she would have given up her lover had her husband given her even a crumb of his attention.

Even in our modern times, if a woman is perceived as being “too much,” she is criticized for it. In Robinson’s day, women were punished. Kudos to the author for keeping a sometimes-unlikable character compelling.

What I’m Reading Now

July 14, 2021 by admin

My fiction tastes get fickle from time to time. After obsessing about fairy tales, I’m backing off a bit (not completely, mind you, but a little. I was reading one but not getting through it, so I jettisoned it for some straight up historical and contemporary fiction. I hope to get caught up on book reviews very soon!

So, while I wait to review something I really enjoy (for I won’t review it here if I don’t like it), here’s a list of my current line-up of books at the top of my TBR pile:

Bronte’s Mistress by Finola Austin – novel concerning an affair between Branwell Bronte, brother of the famous Bronte sisters, and the very married and much older Lydia Robinson. I’m a fan of all things Bronte, so I couldn’t pass this one up!

The Spinster’s Fortune by Mary Kendall – a gothic-tinged novel of family secrets. I found this one on Twitter, for writers who wonder if their books are ever really noticed there!

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin – Pro tip: if you want me to buy a book, put “bees” in the title and I’m already hooked. This story concerns a trio of unlikely friends who must work together to save the bees from a pesticide company.

There are more in my pile, but that’s what I’ll report today. Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some reviews!