19thcentury

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!

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 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!

A Visit From the Fey

June 30, 2021 by admin

The Factory Girl and the Fey was never meant to be a fairy tale. The original idea was straight historical fiction, and I had done a lot of research on the era (19th century), location (Scotland), and the lives of the working class.

There’s a mysterious process that happens when we start to put a story down, however. In this case, two of the Fair Folk showed up in a dream: Gentle and Rain, now known as Flora and Coira. Before I knew it, there was a Queen, Donella, and a whole host of others who showed up once Flora and Coira had established their presence.

Flora and Coira are sisters, but they are a yin and yang sort, with the former a gentle, sweet woman, and the latter sarcastic with a hint of danger.

I tried ignoring them, preferring to write straight historical fiction. Over and over I tried. I knew nothing about fairy tales. Hadn’t read them since childhood. Hadn’t even watched a lot of Disney movies. I was clearly in over my head. But they wouldn’t leave. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t write the story without them.

There was only one solution: do more research. I started reading Neil Gaiman. I studied Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner. I found books that were retellings of fairy tales, such as Janet Yolen’s Briar Rose (sleeping beauty) and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club (The Twelve Princesses) by Genevieve Valentine. Day by day, I sought out those who could teach me what I needed to know. I found The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic and enrolled in some of their courses.

I had believed, mistakenly, that fairy tales were for children. The Factory Girl and the Fey is definitely not a children’s book, with some controversial topics in it. I wondered what adult would want to read my “weird little book.” Turns out, there’s a whole world of people who love all things Fey and Folklore.

Over time, I fell in love with the Fey. I am still learning, but I’ve learned enough to know that my story is oddly on track, despite my ignorance. Perhaps the fairy tales of my childhood were informing me, despite the decades in which they gathered dust in my brain. Or perhaps the storytelling aspect of fairy tales is hardwired within us, so it comes naturally once we allow our imaginations to carry us aloft.

Either way, I no longer try to shoo them away. They get to stay. And I suspect they have much more to tell me.