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My Mother, My Muse

December 23, 2021 by admin

Today I am not trying to sell books. For that reason I am not including purchase links to the ones I mention below. I just want to try to express what is in my heart, though words are difficult to come by right now. Please bear with me. I have written about some of what follows before, but it bears repeating. Sometimes we have to tell a story many times to connect the right threads.

On December 19, my mother, who I jokingly said had more lives than two cats, said goodbye to the world. Her determined, fighting spirit could no longer master the body that had grown too fragile, too frail.

I write this today because those two telephone calls totally changed the trajectory of my life in ways too many to count. Two calls that gave me an entirely different life.

In 1998, a few months after I’d had a stillbirth, my second pregnancy loss in nine months, Mom and I talked on the phone. My husband at the time and I were going to a support group for parents. I learned that she and Dad were grieving as deeply as I was, and I quickly learned about the unique qualities of a grandparent’s grief. She asked me if I could find them a book that would help them, and I assured her I would.

There was just one problem: at the time, there were no such books currently in print. I managed to find an out-of-print book and some pamphlets, but that was it.

Like a lot of people, I’d “always wanted to write a book someday.” Turns out, When a Grandchild Dies: What to Do, What to Say, How to Cope, was that book. I gathered information from grandparents who said they’d never been able to share their story with anyone before. To this day, WGD continues to help people.

WGD helped me, too. It helped me as a grieving mom, and my parents, but also guided me to the writing path I had longed for. A further side benefit was, when I met my current husband, WGD made him want to get to know me better.

All this from one telephone call.

Fast forward to 2014. We were planning a trip to Scotland, and I asked Mom if there was anything she wanted me to see on her behalf. Her answer surprised me: “I’d like to know where my great-grandfather is buried,” she said. That simple remark led to my finding him, but also learning that the woman who bore his child was not who we thought she was…and I discovered Jane Thorburn, who had disappeared from the family history. This led to a new interest in genealogy, but also to The Factory Girl and the Fey. The lack of details from Jane’s life could only be filled in by fiction.

The struggle to finish Factory Girl took years. It was an unruly book, a new genre for me, and one that punched all my emotional buttons. As Mom’s health and vitality began to fail, I feared I wouldn’t get it done in time for her to read it. I sent her drafts, just in case. Then, finally, I was able to send her a real book.

It’s too soon to say what finishing Factory Girl will lead to for me, but I have a feeling more major life changes are yet to come.

All because of one telephone call.

There were likely countless other times when her words influenced me, and no doubt they will surface in the coming weeks and months. Thanks, Mom, for being my muse. Say hi to Dad for me. Love you.

One Week to Launch!

October 7, 2021 by admin

The Factory Girl and the Fey will finally come out October 14, one week from today! I am so excited to finally share Jane Thorburn with you.

The journey for this release has been a long one, six years in fact. Jane is loosely based on my great-great grandmother, and bringing her back into the family fold has punched every emotional button. I have done my best to pay tribute to her by creating a story worthy of her. Without her, I wouldn’t be here!

There were times I needed a break. I spent a year away from it nursing health problems. Other times, I struggled with the sense that I was grieving for all those in the family who never knew she existed (I won’t say why here, because it’s a big spoiler). There was also the challenge of taking the sparse facts of her life and turning them into an actual story.

I’m grateful to editors Rosie McCaffrey and Esther White, who helped me stay on track and stuck with me until it was done. I also send a shout-out to Lynne Hansen, who created the perfect cover.

Early reviews have been favorable, with some readers emotionally affected by it in the way I was, and that encourages me.

The most important review came from my mom, who pronounced it my best work yet! Since I wrote it for her, I am satisfied, whatever happens from here on out.

The journey to completion and the self-discovery along the way has made it an important and worthwhile endeavor. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Digging the Roots of the Family Tree

September 30, 2021 by admin

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.

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

September 16, 2021 by admin

“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

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

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!