Author: Marissa DeCuir

“Maximum Compound time doesn’t flow; it pools around you, goes stagnant. Each day is similar from the view of a locked world, a day hard and long to get through, and the years flying away.”

NEW YORK – Perpetrator. Bystander. Victim.

Longtime author Stephanie Dickinson straddles the lines of true crime and memoir in “Razor Wire Wilderness,” (June 1, 2021, Kallisto Gaia Press) as she examines the lives of those affected by violence in this immaculately assembled account that takes readers directly inside incarceration and face to face with inmates.

Krystal Riordan watched as her boyfriend beat a teenage Jennifer Moore to death in a vermin-infested New Jersey hotel room. Could she have stopped it? Or could she be his next victim? Now, Krystal is serving a maximum 30-year sentence, while the man who beat Jennifer to death received only a 50-year sentence. So what does it take to survive in a maximum security lockdown for 30 years? Is it possible to thrive?

The answers only lead to more questions in Dickinson’s raw and emotional look into the criminal justice system and how it’s failed not just one but countless victims of violence. And what unfolds is a beautiful depiction of moral ambiguity, loss and redemption within the confines of the prison walls and beyond.

“Razor Wire Wilderness”
Stephanie Dickinson | June 1, 2021 | Kallisto Gaia Press | True Crime Memoir
978-1-952224-04-1 | Paperback, $21 | Hardcover, $26.45 | Ebook, $8.99

Praise for Stephanie Dickinson

“In the ‘Razor Wire Wilderness’ of Stephanie Dickinson’s exquisitely lyrical portrayal of female incarceration — intimately researched by becoming pen pals with many inmates over many years — she reveals her own dark attraction and identification with Krystal Riordan. … It is not, There but for the grace of God go I,’ but because of Dickinson’s grace and amazing god-given talent that she is able to take us into the heart, mind, memory and imagination of Krystal, passive accomplice to a nightmarish crime. In prison where there is no weather, Dickinson manages to encompass the great Outside; her rendering of Maximum Compound is the opposite of a claustrophobic read. Like Hamlet, bound in a nutshell, Dickinson is king of Infinite space, Infinite empathy, and the Infinite beauty of bad dreams.”
— Jill Hoffman, on “Razor Wire Wilderness”
Mudfish editor and author of “Black Diaries,” “The Gates of Pearl,” and “Jilted”

“Part memoir, part true crime, and part meditation on the resilience of the human spirit, ‘Razor Wire Wilderness is penned with precision and grace.’ Due to Stephanie Dickinson’s unique ability to identify and magnify the personal details that are often unknowingly or willingly overlooked, this book transforms the way we see not only the complexities of a tragic crime but also the way violence becomes embedded in our lives and collective social systems. At its core, this is a story about friendship, but it is also about survival, what happens to us, and what we get to decide during our brief existence. It is about the way we live when we are caged, be that literally or figuratively, and the beckoning light of genuine human connection.”
— Jen Knox, on “Razor Wire Wilderness”
author of “After the Gazebo” and “Resolutions: A Family in Stories”

“Stephanie Dickinson writes with the beauty of a wounded angel. The protagonists in these eleven stories are achingly real, so natural that they craft their own lives. Most, but not all, are women; most, but not all, are young. Each has met humanity’s dark underbelly—through war, predation, neglect, the crueler vagaries of family—and felt the jagged elbows of alienation. And yet, like the ‘Flashlight Girls Run’ of the title, they power on with a particular awkward grace that makes these stories hard to put down, and impossible to forget. Gorgeous, heartbreaking, empowering stuff!”
— Susan O’Neill, on “Flashlight Girls Run”
author of “Don’t Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam”

“Despite the haunting beauty of Dickinson’s language, naked is possibly the best way to describe her prose. Naked emotion. Naked observation. The warts and the pimples of living presented with the same intensity and honesty as the finely curved hips and thick auburn hair that give life its pleasure. No one writes like Stephanie Dickinson, except maybe God.”
— Alice Jurish

Stephanie Dickinson, raised on an Iowa farm, now lives in New York City with the poet Rob Cook and their senior citizen feline, Vallejo. Her novels “Half Girl” and “Lust Series” are published by Spuyten Duyvil, as is her feminist noir “Love Highway.” Other books include “Heat: An Interview with Jean Seberg” (New Michigan Press); “Flashlight Girls Run” (New Meridian Arts Press); “The Emily Fables” (ELJ Press); and “Big-Headed Anna Imagines Herself” (Alien Buddha). She has published poetry and prose in literary journals including Cherry Tree, The Bitter Oleander, Mudfish, Another Chicago Magazine, Lit, The Chattahoochee Review, The Columbia Review, Orca and Gargoyle, among others. Her stories have been reprinted in New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. She received distinguished story citations in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays and numerous Pushcart anthology citations. In 2020, she won the Bitter Oleander Poetry Book Prize with her “Blue Swan/Black Swan: The Trakl Diaries.” To support the holy flow, she has long labored as a word processor for a Fifth Avenue accounting firm.

In an interview, Stephanie Dickinson can discuss:

• How the criminal justice system has failed victims of violence — particularly with women and women of color — and what steps can be taken to correct course
• The stigmas surrounding sex work and those who experience sexual violence
• The process of corresponding with inmates in federal prison and the emotional ties formed from connecting with them
• The research conducted for the book and what she learned about U.S. incarceration

An interview with Stephanie Dickinson

1. Can you describe how you first connected with Krystal and when you knew you wanted to tell her story?

In July 26, 2006, Jennifer Moore, age 18, was abducted after a night of underage drinking and taken by small-time pimp, Draymond Coleman, to a seedy Weehawken hotel room that he shared with his sex worker/girlfriend, 20-year-old Krystal Riordan. When I saw Krystal’s arrest photograph, which appears on the cover of “Razor Wire Wilderness,” I knew I wanted to understand her and explore the lethal collision of the worlds inhabited by two young women close in age. I didn’t realize when I first wrote Krystal at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, that I would tell not only her story but that of life and love in Maximum Compound.

2. How does Lucy’s story connect and intertwine with Krystal’s?

Lucy and Krystal met when they were assigned to the same medical unit work detail that involved caring for a disabled inmate. They were simpatico, Connecticut girls, whose personalities meshed as they worked together, laughed together and eventually bunked together. Corrections officers and inmates alike looked upon them as a package deal. Their pasts mirrored each other: Lucy’s mother abandoned the family when Lucy was 4 years old, (after an aborted kidnapping of Lucy and her brother), while Krystal’s sex worker birth mother neglected her daughters and turned a blind eye to their molestation. And ultimately, both of the women became sex workers.

3. What was the research process like as you were writing the book?

I approached the world of Maximum Compound as a friend and correspondent, primarily interested in Krystal Riordan, and in the process, I learned much about how the corrections facility operates, the thicket of rules I had to negotiate when trying to send a book, the invoices required, the designated months for art supplies. I learned about work details, the pay scale, the Counts, Mess Hall, the Yard, about lovers and friends. My contact with other inmates organically evolved, and I interviewed Lucy Weems at length for months by phone, email and letters. Her keen observation and communication skills were invaluable. Every writer is their own investigative reporter, and research feels like filling the tank and immersing yourself in the place, the lore, the texture, more intimate than the hammering down of facts.

4. In the book, you describe a personal experience with gun violence. How did that encounter affect you, and how do you think it affected how you told these women’s stories?

The tabloids had a field day with the story of Jennifer Moore’s rape and murder: the underage victim, the ex-con assailant, his sex worker girlfriend. I was stunned by the utter waste of it and filled with grief for teenage Jennifer, inebriated, doubly vulnerable, who made the fateful decision to walk off into the night, and grief for Krystal, 20 years old, mesmerized by a violent man who demanded obedience. I, too, made bad choices at age 18, hitchhiking to a distant state to attend a party where a 19-year-old boy brandishing a 12-guage shot me in the neck and face, paralyzing my left arm. So I am aware that the impulsive teenage years are crucial with consequences, and mistakes can last a lifetime as my disability has. I approached Krystal and Lucy’s stories from that perspective.

5. Why do you think the true crime genre has become so pervasive in American culture in the past decade?

In our era of the artificial versus the authentic, sensationalism is fed to us digitally as a substitute for the senses — the taste, touch, hear, see, that evolution gifted us with. We explore cyberspace and grow more removed from the visceral physicality of lived life. The documentary resonates mightily today as does true crime, whether in podcasts, Netflix specials or books. There is an obsession with the real, the actual, and with killers and victims. As human beings, we have a blood lust that at a remove fascinates us, and while we’re glad we’re not the victim, we are drawn to the violent spectacle.

6. Why was it so important for you to tell the world this story?

We tend to judge others in a limited binary fashion, sorting people into categories of good and bad, victims and perpetrators. I’ve inserted myself into “Razor Wire Wilderness” to illustrate the blend of good and bad and the mixed ethical essence in most of us. We are not purely one or the other. In telling Krystal’s and Lucy’s stories, I felt it important to portray their humanity and all of their imperfect stumbling toward the light, even in the darkest of places like prison. To avoid exploitation in my treatment of a real-life crime, I worked to transform the raw tabloid material into a more multilayered narrative.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

EDINA, MN – Payal Doshi offers young readers a new world in her debut novel, “Rea and the Blood of the Nectar” (June 15, 2021, Mango and Marigold Press). This fast-paced middle grade fantasy is full of adventure, excitement, and unforgettable characters fighting together for family and freedom. Doshi’s lyrical, quick-witted writing is sure to leave every reader yearning for more!

It all begins on the night Rea turns twelve. After a big fight with her twin brother Rohan on their birthday, Rea’s life in the small village of Darjeeling, India, gets turned on its head. It’s four in the morning and Rohan is nowhere to be found.

It hasn’t even been a day and Amma acts like Rohan’s gone forever. Her grandmother, too, is behaving strangely. Unwilling to give up on her brother, Rea and her friend Leela meet Mishti Daadi, a wrinkly old fortune-teller whose powers of divination set them off on a thrilling and secret quest. In the shade of night, they portal to an otherworldly realm and travel to Astranthia, a land full of magic and whimsy. There with the help of Xeranther, an Astranthian barrow boy, and Flula, a pari, Rea learns that Rohan has been captured. She also discovers that she is a princess with magic. Only she has no idea how to use it.

Struggling with the truth her Amma has kept hidden from her, Rea must solve clues that lead to Rohan, find a way to rescue him and save Astranthia from a potentially deadly fate. But the clock is ticking. Can she rescue Rohan, save Astranthia, and live to see it all?

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is Payal Doshi’s heartwarming and thrilling debut novel about learning to make friends, fighting for what is right, discovering oneself, and understanding complex family dynamics.

“Rea and the Blood of the Nectar: The Chronicles of Astranthia”
Payal Doshi | June 15, 2021 | Mango and Marigold Press
Hardcover | 978-1-64543-763-5 | $19.95 | middle grade fantasy

Praise for Rea and the Blood of the Nectar

“A highly inventive, magic-filled fantasy.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“An extravagant and rewarding fantasy novel involving floral world building and childhood bravery.”
— Foreword Reviews

“With a spunky pari and eccentric creatures like a ‘cow-monkey dressed in jewels reciting poetry,’ Doshi kicks her series off on a high note.”
— Booklist

“Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is a gateway into pure imagination, with a fast-paced plot that will hook you and characters that will endear you. A wonderful debut.”
— KACEN CALLENDER, National Book Award winner for King and the Dragonflies and bestselling author of Hurricane Child

“From the tea plantations of Darjeeling to the flower-filled land of Astranthia, Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is an adventure filled with mythical monsters and marvelous creatures, magic and mayhem, friendship and family struggles. Rea is a fierce heroine whose courage and determination carry her forward to save her twin brother even when the path seems dark.”
– RAJANI LAROCCA, author of Midsummer’s Mayhem, Red, White, and Whole, and
Much Ado About Baseball

More about Payal Doshi

Payal Doshi has a Masters in Creative Writing (Fiction) from The New School, New York. Having lived in the UK and US, she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel.

She was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband and three-year-old daughter. When she isn’t writing or spending time with her family, you can find her nose deep in a book with a cup of coffee or daydreaming of fantasy realms to send her characters off into. She loves the smell of old, yellowed books. Rea and the Blood of the Nectar, Book 1 in The Chronicles of Astranthia series is her debut middle grade novel.

For more information, visit her website, www.payaldoshiauthor.com, or follow her on Instagram: @payaldoshiauthor and on Twitter: @payaldwrites.

In an interview, Payal can discuss:

• Writing as a South Asian author and her experiences getting her book published
• Championing joyful stories about diverse voices
• The process of writing during a pandemic
• How Darjeeling inspired settings in her book
• Growing up without seeing herself represented in literature
• How she created the magical world of Astranthi

An Interview with Payal Doshi

1. What was your inspiration for Rea and the Blood of the Nectar?

I wanted to write a fantasy story rooted in Indian culture and setting that had kids from India who went off on thrilling adventures and became heroes. I wanted to write a story I would have loved to read as a kid and one in which I saw myself in. I also wanted that story to portray these diverse characters having joyful and empowering experiences since often times that narrative gets overlooked when writing about underrepresented minorities. At the same time, I wanted to write a story that all kids would love. So, there’s a mystery that needs solving along with an exciting quest, a ticking clock, dark family secrets, unforgettable friendships, a fantastical world, and my favorite, magic!

I love reading books in which the setting feels like a character in itself and I knew from the beginning that I wanted to portray a region of India that was beautiful and underrated with respect to its landscape and people. The city of Darjeeling is a stunning hill station in the northeast part of the country ensconced within hills, the view of the majestic Himalayas and rolling tea plantations. I was inspired by its unique beauty and knew instantly that’s where I wanted to set my book.

2. Why is it important to you to write stories for diverse voices?

When I first drafted this book, all my characters were white, and they lived in the English countryside. It wasn’t until my writing teacher pointed out my lack of Indian characters that I realized how the books I had read (and loved) growing up had subconsciously trained my mind into thinking those were the only types of stories people wanted to read. I was a voracious reader as a kid, but I’d never read a children’s book with a protagonist who was Indian or South Asian. I simply never saw myself in the books I read and loved. So, when I decided to write my book, I wanted to change that statistic. I wanted South Asian kids to not only see themselves in books but also see themselves as the main characters of the stories they read. Diverse representation is incredibly important because kids from underrepresented minorities should grow up knowing that their stories deserve to be shared and celebrated and that they, too, can be the heroes of novels. It is equally important to show kids from other countries that they can relate with characters from different backgrounds since they, too, share the same hopes, dreams, and fears as them.

3. What is your favorite thing about Astranthia and why?

What I love about Astranthia is that you can’t pin down exactly where, or in which culture I’ve rooted the fantastical land in. Astranthia is an East-meets-West utopia where people from all cultures, races, and lands live together in harmony. I drew from my experiences growing up in Mumbai, India, where I was surrounded by Indian culture and tradition but also exposed to pop culture and media from the West. So, the reader will find several references to Indian, British, and Celtic folklore.

Astranthia is also steeped in the magic of the Som, a sacred and immortal flower, in which flows the elixir of nectar that keeps the realm alive. I love nature and I wanted to weave that lushness into the history and descriptions of Astranthia. I hope that readers will find Astranthia immersive, beautiful, and a magical escape.

4. How is the first draft of the book different from the final draft?

Oh, night and day! Especially the first chapter. I’ve probably rewritten it at least fifteen times! The first draft was a loosely held story in which the characters meandered their way through the plot while the final draft is a fast-paced adventure with complex characters and an exciting adventure. My mantra when tackling drafts is ‘Rewrite, Revise, and Repeat!’ It is true what they say: Writing is rewriting.

5. Did your writing process change during the pandemic?

To be honest, my writing process changed ever since I had a kid! I no longer had hours at my disposal. In that way, the pandemic has been similar since my husband and three-year-old are at home with me and between managing them and the household, I get pockets of time where I can squeeze in my writing. Before I had my daughter, I would sit at my laptop and ponder over how to approach the next chapter or scene. Nowadays, as soon as I get a chance to write, it’s go, go, go! Most of my rumination happens right before I fall asleep, while I’m cooking, or when I’m in the shower!

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

“[A] relatable and emotional saga” – BookLife, by Publishers’ Weekly

Minneapolis, Minnesota–After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing in September, social media instantly flooded with posts mourning and honoring Ginsberg’s life and legacy. Yet the newly vacant Supreme Court seat also caused concern, with many women wondering if, how, and when their access to birth control would be impacted. At a time when reproductive rights are still being contested across the country, novels like “Lemons in the Garden of Love” (She Writes Press, May 11, 2021) should be required reading.

In “Lemons in the Garden,” it’s 1977 and Cassie Lyman, a graduate student in women’s history, is struggling to find a topic for her doctoral dissertation. When she discovers a trove of drawings, suffrage cartoons, letters, and diaries at Smith College belonging to Kate Easton, founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916, she believes she has located her subject.

Digging deeper into Kate’s life, Cassie learns that she and Kate are related―closely. Driven to understand why her family has never spoken of Kate, Cassie travels to Cape Ann to attend her sister’s shotgun wedding, where she questions her relatives about Kate―only to find herself soon afterward in the same challenging situation Kate faced.

A moving portrait of two women, whose stories shed light on the life-changing power of the ability to determine one’s reproductive future.

“Lemons in the Garden of Love”
Ames Sheldon | May 11, 2021 | She Writes Press | Historical Fiction
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1647420482 | $16.95

Praise for the author…

Lemons in the Garden of Love is “part feminist history, part journey of self-discovery… Sheldon’s evocative prose and compelling sense of the sweep of history grabs attention from page one.”
–BookLife, by Publishers’ Weekly

“Don’t Put the Boats Away is chock-full of well-researched historical details about political events, medical advancements, and even food trends of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, and it also offers important commentary on professional opportunities for women during these decades. The author creates believable characters with complex interior lives. Overall, it’s a touching tale that examines the ways in which grief, regret, and unmet expectations can reverberate through generations.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“The world needs more novels like this.”
–Louisa Hall, The Carriage House, Speak, and Trinity

“Don’t Put the Boats Away is a timeless portrait of life’s loves and losses…the novel has raw and dark undertones…Sheldon explores the furtive topics of mental illness and social conflicts with modern clarity…Her characters are empathetically real.”
–Minnesota Monthly

“Ames Sheldon’s remarkably assured debut novel Eleanor’s Wars takes place in 1940s New Jersey and provides the reader with a fascinating view of the Second World War from the home front stage…The novel is a steadily-deepening web of secrets and revelations, something that kept me reading intently right to the last page.”
–Teresa Devine, Historical Novel Society

“Women’s History Sources is monumental… It is a magnificent contribution, and .. sets a standard that will not soon be equaled, let alone exceeded!”
–Frank B. Evans, Archivist of the United States

AMES SHELDON: was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Wayzata, Minnesota. After graduating from Northrop Collegiate School, she attended Bryn Mawr College, where she majored in English. After graduating, she worked in the legal department of a chemical company, as a reporter at two newspapers, as office manager of a start-up auto salvage business, and eventually as a grant writer and development officer for a variety of nonprofit organizations, ranging from the Sierra Club in San Francisco to the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minneapolis Public Library. She has an M.A. in American Studies and was lead author and associate editor of the groundbreaking Women’s History Sources: A Guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections in the United States (R.R. Bowker, 1979). In the process of working on this monumental reference book, Ames discovered her love of women’s history and of using primary sources for research. Her debut novel, Eleanor’s Wars, won the 2016 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Best New Voice: Fiction. Her second novel, Don’t Put the Boats Away, was published on August 27, 2019, by She Writes Press. Her third novel, Lemons in the Garden of Love, will be published in 2021. For more information on Sheldon’s life and work, please visit: http://amessheldon.com/

In an interview, Ames Sheldon can discuss:

• Which elements of her own life influenced part of this historical fiction novel
• The true story of Blanche Ames Ames, co-founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts, which inspired her character, Kate Easton
• Why it’s important to remember the early years of women’s history relating to reproductive rights, especially in our current political climate
• How she conducted the research for this historical novel
• Why women’s accomplishments have historically been overlooked

An Interview with Ames Sheldon

1. What was the research process like for this novel?
I love to do research using primary sources and published sources from the period I am studying but I also enjoy interviewing people who can give me insight into their experiences as they relate to my subject matter. Libraries and librarians in Massachusetts and Minnesota have been enormously helpful in providing a great variety of resources. All my research provides grist for the mill as I work on getting my characters to inhabit a particular time and place in such a way that the reader will find them extremely credible, informative, and interesting.

While I was working on drafting Women’s History Sources with my colleagues in 1976, I received a packet of questionnaires that had been completed by one of the project’s fieldworkers for the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. One of the questionnaires described the Ames Family collection (which contained approximately 119 document boxes at the time) with particular emphasis on Blanche Ames Ames and the Birth Control League of Massachusetts. As soon as I could, starting in 1978, I traveled to Smith and spent many hours perusing primary sources in the archives, reading and having copies made of cartoons and drawings, correspondence, notes, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles, meeting announcements and minutes, flyers, academic papers about Blanche Ames and suffrage, and a history of the birth control movement in Massachusetts by an unknown author. I went back to Smith twice more over the years, most recently in 2018. Because I’m related to Blanche Ames, I could ask questions of the people in my family who are most interested in history, and thus I learned much more about Blanche. I was taken to visit the home she built with her husband in Easton, Massachusetts, and her grandson gave me a self-portrait Blanche had drawn of herself as a young woman. I obtained copies of booklets and books about Blanche and her husband Oakes and copies of photos of her. I probably met her briefly once when I was ten years old.

Visits to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe College and the Nursing Archives at the Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University provided information about the New England Hospital for Women and Children, where Blanche served as president of the board from 1952-54.

As part of my work for a master’s degree in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, I took a graduate course on the Progresssive Era—the period during which Margaret Sanger invented the phrase “birth control” in 1915. The Birth Control League of Massachusetts was founded in 1916, with Blanche Ames as its president. I read widely in the literature of the Progressive Era, including books like Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class, Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit, diaries and poetry and novels of the period, as well as biographies of Margaret Sanger, Linda Gordon’s Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, and many journal articles and books by other scholars of women’s history. I attended the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

I did research on the founding in 1928 and early years of the Minnesota Birth Control League, including the Constitution of The Motherhood Protective League of Minneapolis, clinic reports, a 1931 history of the League, flyers, newspaper articles, and the article “’Motherhood Protection’ and the Minnesota Birth Control League” by Mary Losure from Minnesota History (1995).

Besides research on birth control, I also studied leaflets, political ads, journal articles, and books about the suffrage movement in the United States. Eleanor Flexner’s book Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States is a classic resource on the subject of suffrage. Barbara Welter’s article “The Cult of True Womanhood 1820-1860” from the American Quarterly provided important context. So did “The Female Animal: Medical and Biological Views of Woman and Her Role in Nineteenth-Century America” by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and Charles Rosenberg from the Journal of American History. As I focused on the 1915 referendum campaign in Massachusetts, I found Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s History of Woman Suffrage to be enormously helpful, for it contains a great deal of detail on that initiative. Pamphlets by the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women were also illuminating.

Research on the women’s movement of the 1970s included re-reading books like The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left by Sara Evans, and Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Issues of Ms. Magazine from the 1970s were also helpful.

For research on abortion, I read Abortion and Its Treatment, From the Standpoint of Practical Experience by T. Gaillard Thomas, MD (1896), “Contribution A L’Etude Du Curettage Uterin Dans Les Complications de la Retention Placentaire Post-Abortive” by D’ M. Oui in Ann. De Gynec. & D’Obst (1895), Cider House Rules by John Irving, and the Cockle Law Brief of 250 American Historians as Amici Curiae in Support of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Robert P. Casey, et al, before the Supreme Court of the United States, October Term 1991. I also read “First Trimester Abortion” by Minnesota abortion physician Jane Hodgson, M.D., from Abortion in the Seventies, Proceedings of the Western Regional Conference on Abortion, 1976. I also interviewed several women who had abortions in the 1970s and two who had abortions at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in 1985 and 2017.

Blanche Ames’s husband Oakes Ames was a world authority on orchids who directed the Botanical Museum and Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. Wanting to create a similar career for the husband of Kate (the character inspired by Blanche), I made Kate’s husband Del a botanist who specialized in ferns. I read autobiographical writings, diaries, and letters in Oakes Ames: Jottings of a Harvard Botanist, collected by Pauline Ames Plimpton, published by the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. Then I consulted A Natural History of Ferns by Robbin C. Moran (2004) and visited the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Horticultural Library where I learned a great deal about ferns from A Naturalist in Costa Rica by Alexander F. Skutch and Life Above the Jungle Floor by Donald R. Perry. I learned about the fern Oleandra from Rolla M. Tryon and Alice F. Tryon’s book Ferns and Allied Plants and about the fern Asplenium rutaceum from The Field Guide to Plants of Costa Rica by Margaret B. Gargiullo, Barbara Magnuson,and Larry Kimball.

2. Can you tell us about Blanche Ames Ames, the founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts, and the inspiration for your character Kate Easton?

After learning about Blanche Ames from my work with Women’s History Sources, I had a dream in which Blanche instructed me to write her autobiography. I took that to mean I should compose the diary of my great-grandaunt, a woman I didn’t personally know. I didn’t find diaries by Blanche in the Ames Collection at Smith College, but I found many letters to and from her.

Blanche Ames was born in 1878 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her parents were General Adelbert Ames, Civil War general and Governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction, and Blanche Butler, daughter of General Benjamin Butler and Sarah Hildreth, a Shakespearean actress. After graduating from Smith College and the Art School of Smith College in 1899, in 1900 Blanche Ames married Oakes Ames, a friend of her brother’s to whom she was not related despite their both having the same last name. Oakes was an instructor in botany at the time of their marriage. They had four children: Pauline (born in 1901), Oliver (born in 1903), Amyas (born in 1906) and Evelyn (born in 1910). Their home known as Borderland was designed by Oakes and Blanche and built in North Easton in 1911. 

Blanche was strongly committed to women’s rights. In college she wrote that “as long as I can remember I never could see a truly reasonable argument against women’s suffrage.” She and Oakes were members of the Easton Suffrage Association and in 1915 they both took part in a pro-suffrage parade past the Statehouse in Boston. Oakes chaired the campaign committee of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage even though his cousin Mary Ames was one of the leading anti-suffragists in Massachusetts. Blanche and Oakes had an old Cuban slave bell at Borderland rung every night until women won the vote. Blanche created political cartoons in support of women suffrage that were printed in local and national newspapers. President Taft criticized one of her cartoons in The Saturday Evening Post. 

In 1916 Van Kleeck Allison, a young socialist, was arrested when he handed out pamphlets on limiting births among the poor. Blanche and a few others established a defense committee to defend Allison, and soon thereafter Blanche co-founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts. The defense committee did not succeed in convincing the Massachusetts Supreme Court that laws against distributing printed information about birth control or manufacturing contraceptive devices or drugs should be overturned. In 1917 Blanche made sketches for a panel to represent the plight of women and their need for birth control. The central figure was a woman crucified on a cross. The panel was never completed. Attracting supporters to the Birth Control League of Massachusetts proved to be an uphill battle. When Dr. Antoinette Konikow was arrested in 1928 for exhibiting contraceptive devices, the League gained new life. Blanche served as its president until 1935. The birth control diary entries and some of the letters in my novel follow the actual developments, setbacks, and challenges the League faced.

For more than fifty years Blanche worked as a portrait artist. She was influenced by the Boston School centered around Edmund Tarbell, an Impressionist painter. Blanche’s portraits hang in many public collections at Dartmouth College, Phillips Exeter Academy, Barnard College, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Mississippi Hall of Governors, and elsewhere as well as in private collections. A portrait that Blanche painted in oil of my grandmother when she was in her early 20s hangs in my office today.

Blanche was recognized as a leader in the field of botanical illustration. After using a microscope to study the orchids Oakes discovered in his travels, she created scientifically precise drawings and watercolors. Drawings of Florida Orchids was published by Blanche with notes by Oakes in 1947.

In addition, applying scientific methods to her painting, she developed color theory and color charts unusual in their breadth and complexity. She studied various color theorists writing between 1909 and 1929 and then in her notebooks and journals she recorded her own system of color notations for 4,000 different color variations, which she used to code pencil sketches of subjects she planned to paint.

As well as being a feminist and an artist, Blanche was an inventor. At Smith she tried to invent new hair curlers. In 1939 she sought to patent a hexagonal wood cutter she invented to minimize waste in the processing of lumber at Borderland. She invented a device to ensnare low-flying aircraft during World War II. In 1969 she applied for patents on a device that incinerated fecal matter in toilets.

Blanche’s last major accomplishment was the writing and publication in 1964 of Adelbert Ames, Broken Oaths and Reconstruction in Mississippi, an exhaustive 625-page biography of her father that was prompted by a dismissive paragraph in John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage, where Kennedy described Adelbert Ames as a carpetbagger. Blanche showed that when her father was appointed provisional governor of Mississippi, he took steps to advance the rights of freed slaves and appointed the first Black officeholders in the history of the state. He was elected governor in 1873. Blanche asked Kennedy to alter the reference in his book, but Kennedy declined to make any changes.

When she died in 1969, Blanche was 91 years old. Oakes died nineteen years before her, in 1950.

Blanche’s grandchildren include George Ames Plimpton (1927-2003), a founder and editor of The Paris Review; a sports journalist who wrote Paper Lion, Mad Ducks and Bears, Open Net, and The Bogey Man; an actor as an extra or in cameo appearances in a variety of movies; and a friend of Robert F. Kennedy. George is credited, along with Rafer Johnson and Rosey Grier, with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the floor when Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968.

There is a recently produced documentary about Blanche called “Borderland: Life and Times of Blanche Ames Ames” created by Kevin Friend at BCN Productions in Boston.

3. You have been personally involved with women’s rights initiatives for many years. How did you begin on that journey?

My great-grandaunt co-founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916. Both my mother and grandmother were ardent supporters of Planned Parenthood too. As a young woman, my grandmother marched in a birth control parade in Boston where she was pelted with eggs and garbage. In the 1950s and early ’60s, my mother stood at the Planned Parenthood booth at the Minnesota State Fair, maintaining her composure talking about birth control while people yelled and spat at her 

Working on the Women’s History Sources book opened my own eyes to the emerging field of women’s history and women’s studies. I joined a consciousness-raising group in 1976, completed a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s history, and started work on this novel. With many thousands of other women, I marched for the Equal Rights Amendment in Washington, DC, in the early 1980s. I became a supporter of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota in the ’80s and continue to this day, joining in on Good Friday demonstrations. In 1984 I became very involved in the political campaign of Joan Growe, who unsuccessfully challenged U. S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz for his Senate seat. 

The inauguration in 2017 motivated me to pull out the original draft of Lemons in the Garden of Love and to rework it. I finished the last chapter on January 20, 2021. That felt  like perfect timing.

4. Why do you think women’s accomplishments have historically been overlooked? Do you believe this can change?

Women’s accomplishments have been overlooked because until the last fifty years, historians were mostly men who focused on the achievements of men who were famous in the military, politics, religion, business, the arts, and other fields.  Historians didn’t think to mention the roles that women, slaves, peasants, colonials, or natives played in establishing the cultures in which they all lived. When women are left out of recorded history, the implication is that women have no history worth recording. As a result, women historically have been robbed of the heroines and role models that could help show them possible new paths for themselves. 

Since the 1970s, women historians and historians of women have helped to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge about the roles and accomplishments of women. 

For me, writing stories of valiant, talented women is my way of inspiring women today to be everything they can imagine.

5. What do you hope readers will take away from “Lemons in the Garden of Love”?

I hope that women born after Roe v. Wade will come to understand how hard it was and how long it took for women to gain legal access to birth control and then to abortion. I don’t want women to take the right to reproductive freedom for granted. In light of a Supreme Court that now includes more judges who are against the “right to choose” than justices who support Roe v. Wade, and many legislatures that have tightened or eliminated access to abortion, we are likely to have many fights ahead of us to protect women’s right to control their own bodies. As Kate said in my novel, I wonder “Why don’t these men mind their own business?”

I also hope that readers will find Kate and Cassie to be characters they can relate to and who inspire readers to live the lives they choose for themselves.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Distant relative of the philanthropist tells her life story for the first time

PRINCETON, New Jersey – No one expected Sarah B. Cochran to push the boundaries of her era’s expectations for women. Born to humble beginnings, she became an unexpected coal and coke industry leader and philanthropist at a time when Pennsylvania women couldn’t vote or serve on juries. Ironically, women were also legally barred from working in and around mines at the time she served as owner and director of successful coal and coke companies. She was an outspoken advocate for education and women’s suffrage, working to ensure that voices like hers were respected and listened to – not silenced.

In 1915, Cochran, who was now a widow, used her powerful position as the “Coal Queen” to open her private estate, where hundreds of men and women gathered to listen to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw speak about women’s suffrage. Cochran’s dedication to higher education showed in her work as a college trustee, Phi Kappa Psi
benefactor and in her quiet financing of young people’s education, including that of author Kimberly Hess’ great-grandmother.

Hess’ “A Lesser Mortal” (May 18, 2021) reveals the little-known story of a woman from American history who was constantly doing the unthinkable – from expanding her company, to becoming a respected benefactor of her community, often rivaling the efforts of more well-known philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie. A trailblazer who forged her own path, Cochran’s essence is finally captured in this compelling biography.

“A Lesser Mortal: The Unexpected Life of Sarah B. Cochran”
Kimberly Hess | May 18, 2021 | Books Fluent | Nonfiction, Biography
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-953865-14-4
eBook | ISBN: 978-1-953865-15-1

KIMBERLY HESS: During her business career of nearly twenty years, Kimberly Hess served in volunteer leadership roles at the global and local levels for Smith College’s Alumnae Association and Office of Admission, and she was a trustee of the Alice Paul Institute and a board member of the Chubb Partnership of Women. Her writing has appeared on the websites of Thrive Global, the National Women’s History Museum and the Forté Foundation, as well as on the blogs of the Women’s Museum of California and the David Library of the American Revolution. She has a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Smith College, an M.B.A. in Marketing from Rutgers Business School, and a Certificate in Historic Preservation from the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University. An avid genealogist and traveler, she lives in New Jersey with her husband and daughter.

In an interview, Kimberly Hess can discuss:

• What drew her to Sarah B. Cochran’s story
• Why Sarah was left out of the historical narrative, and why it’s critical that we now recognize her life and work
• Why this story is important for the region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio
• What readers should take away from this book, in addition to learning about Sarah’s life and legacy

An Interview with Kimberly Hess

1. Why did you choose to write the first biography of Sarah B. Cochran? What drew you to her story?

Initially I didn’t set out to write Sarah’s first biography because I felt like that was a job for a historian or someone living in western Pennsylvania. When I took my husband to western Pennsylvania after we were married, he was amazed that he couldn’t find information about Sarah when he Googled her and encouraged me to write a Wikipedia entry for her. I liked that idea because anyone else could add to it. As I did research, I found new information that led me to want to write more about her. I gave a presentation to the Fayette County Historical Society, and the reactions to the presentation made me decide to write a book. I thought about the unique perspective I could offer: I grew up knowing about her, visiting her mansion and church; her putting my great-grandmother through college might have influenced the educational trajectory for part of my family; I had a business background and an MBA that allowed me to analyze the coal and coke industry; and, I had experience with Smith College, a corporate employee resource group, and the Alice Paul Institute that had informed my perspective about the value of Sarah’s story today and even outside of western Pennsylvania.

2. Why is this topic important for the region of southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio?

As a business owner, Sarah is a unique and inspiring person in the region’s history. In
one respect, this is important because Sarah made an impact on the region’s built environment and tried to improve life politically and philanthropically. Being able to better understand the scope of her work, not just what she accomplished in one town or campus, is very impressive. I also think her story is important because as part of the Appalachian region, Sarah’s story is about wealth, philanthropy, and influence that people don’t always associate with the region.

3. You write that, when Sarah’s name is mentioned in historical records, it is usually as a “coal magnate’s widow, not as an accomplished woman in her own right.” Why do you think Sarah was largely left out of the traditional narrative of this time and place in history? Why is it crucial that we tell her story now?

First of all, it’s easy for anyone in that time and place to be eclipsed by Carnegie and Frick, and certainly Sarah wasn’t the biggest self-promoter. But in certain records, evidence of Sarah’s existence or business responsibilities is missing because of the way records were kept and because of assumptions about women’s labor. Pennsylvania mine reports usually named managers, not owners like Sarah; some mining community histories cover women who were miners’ wives, which she wasn’t; and even on the U.S. Census her occupation was sometimes a blank space or the word “None.” So it’s important to tell her story, not only because her story has some universal and timeless elements to it, but because she’s a case study of how someone can become invisible because her reality didn’t fit neatly into expectations.

4. How did midlife experiences contribute to your perspective when writing about Sarah?

When I was researching and writing about Sarah, I realized that we were about the same age when each of our lives changed dramatically. She lost her husband when she was 42 and had to take on the business that he had owned. Then her only child died as she turned 44, and her traditional roles as wife and mother evaporated and her focus shifted. The timing really struck me because I got married for the first time at 40, left a corporate career, and then gave birth for the first time at 42. During my pregnancy, my mother died. For each of us, a new phase in life was beginning in our forties, and certain losses felt like they happened out of sequence. So I started thinking about midlife and the opportunities and challenges associated with it. I see midlife as an opportunity because it’s a time when you’re still relatively young and healthy, and you’ve developed interests, networks, credentials and experience that you can leverage in ways you might not have contemplated twenty years earlier. I couldn’t have written this book in my twenties or thirties because certain personal and professional experiences wouldn’t have happened, yet, to inform it.

5. In addition to learning about the life of Sarah B. Cochran, what do you hope your readers take away from this book?

I hope the book’s existence makes people think about ways to tell the stories of “lesser mortals”–the people who might be historically invisible but whose stories need to be told–in their own communities. There are many ways to make stories like Sarah’s accessible to researchers and the general public. When books and articles aren’t an option, sending artifacts to archives and museums is an option. In the process of writing this book, I sent primary source material to a Methodist archive and sent digital copies of photographs to IUP’s archive.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

“Lyrical and heart-wrenching” — Erin Hahn, author of You’d Be Mine

BOSTON, Mass. –In Miel Moreland’s young adult debut, four queer teens realize that sometimes you have to risk hitting repeat on heartbreak.

Eva, Celeste, Gina, and Steph used to think their friendship was unbreakable. After all, they’ve been through a lot together, including the astronomical rise of Moonlight Overthrow, the world-famous queer pop band they formed in middle school, never expecting to headline anything bigger than the county fair.

But after a sudden falling out leads to the dissolution of the teens’ band, their friendship, and Eva and Celeste’s starry-eyed romance, nothing is the same. Gina and Celeste step further into the spotlight, Steph disappears completely, and Eva, heartbroken, takes refuge as a songwriter and secret online fangirl…of her own band. That is, until a storm devastates their hometown, bringing the four ex-best-friends back together. As they prepare for one last show, they’ll discover if growing up always means growing apart.

“It Goes Like This”
Miel Moreland | May 18, 2021 | Macmillan / Feiwel & Friends | Young Adult
Hardcover | ISBN: 9781250767486 | $17.99

MIEL MORELAND: Miel was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With time spent in California and France, she has a Midwestern heart but wandering feet. When not making pop music references and celebrating fandom, she is likely to be found drinking hot chocolate and making spreadsheets. She currently resides in Boston. “It Goes Like This” is her debut novel. For more info, please visit: https://www.mielmoreland.com/

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

“Weaving together humor and pathos, McGue’s tale of redemption offers
hope to anyone seeking to know and be known as they truly are.”
— Jonathan Callard, writer and teacher at the University of Pittsburgh

Michigan City, IN – Julie Ryan McGue is adopted. And she is also a twin. But because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and the names of their birth parents — which becomes pertinent for Julie when, at 48 years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. McGue’s poignant and hopeful debut memoir, “Twice a Daughter,” (May 11, 2021, She Writes Press) chronicles the complex search for her uncharted family history.

To launch the probe into her closed adoption, McGue first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over and make a pact: McGue will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents — and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background.

The quest for her birth relatives spans five years and involves a search agency, a private investigator, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker and a genealogist. By journey’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest — one that unearths secrets, lies and family members that are literally right next door.

McGue earnestly writes about discovering who you are and where you come from, all while trying to make sense of it all. In sharing her unconventional journey through life, which involves new family, exploration and acceptance, this heavy-hearted history considers personal identity and all the complicated and captivating moments that encapsulate one’s life.

“Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging”
Julie Ryan McGue | May 11, 2021 | She Writes Press
Memoir | Paperback | 9781647420505 | $16.95
Ebook | 9781647420505 | $9.95 | Audiobook | 9781953865137 | $9.99

Praise for “Twice a Daughter” and Julie Ryan McGue

“ An engaging, endearing chronicle of a woman’s quest to find her origins.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Rarely does an adoptee rights advocate and legislator have the chance to witness the results of their efforts in such a profound and personal way as in ‘Twice a Daughter.’ … Every adoptee deserves to know their identity, the first chapter of their life, and the circumstances of their birth. It is their personal story and a basic human right. Keep up the fight!”
— Sara Feigenholtz, adoptee and Illinois state senator

“Julie McGue’s quest memoir is an extraordinary account of a woman’s mid-life search for her birth parents and the medical history she and her twin sister desperately need. … I was moved by this suspenseful tale that ultimately celebrates the meaning of family in all its forms.”
— Joelle Fraser, author of “The Territory of Men” and “The Forest House”

“ An enchanting story about searching and fighting for hidden information and what it means to be adopted — to wrestle with love, pain, rejection and acceptance. … This is a must read for everyone — especially those touched by adoption.”
— Linda Fiore, Director, Adoption Center for Family Building, Chicago

“ ‘Twice a Daughter’ is not just another tale of an adoptee’s search for truth. The author’s craft and candor turn this into an inspirational story of perseverance and resiliency. … This is a story about the discoveries that searching for the truth reveals, how it sets you free and offers the gift of love.”
— Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers,
author of “Don’t Call Me Mother”

“Julie very eloquently conveys the range of emotions felt by an adopted person who yearns for answers and connection with biological relatives. … The reader will surely be enlightened by joining Julie on this sometimes bumpy ride.”
— Lisa Francis, LCSW, Post Adoption Services, Catholic Charities, Chicago.

“A masterful storyteller … In ‘Twice a Daughter,’ the road to genetic connection may be fraught with hidden roadblocks, but the destinations open up to the widest horizons of the heart-authenticity, courage, wholeness and compassion.”
— Diane Dewey, author of “Fixing the Fates: An Adoptee’s Story of Truth and Lies”

“Although a memoir, ‘Twice a Daughter’ is also the tale of every adoptee’s search for answers, connection, relationship, and family. It’s a must-read for all members of the adoption triad: birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees.”
— Nancy Golden, cofounder of the Midwest Adoption Center

JULIE RYAN McGUE is an author, a domestic adoptee and an identical twin. She writes extensively about finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it.

Julie’s debut memoir “Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging” (She Writes Press) comes out in May 2021. It’s the story of her five-year search for birth relatives. Her weekly blogs That Girl, This Life and her monthly column at The Beacher focus on identity, family and life’s quirky moments.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Julie received a BA from Indiana University in psychology. She earned a MM in Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University. She has served multiple terms on the Board of the Midwest Adoption Center and is an active member of the American Adoption Congress.

Married for over 35 years, Julie and her husband split their time between Northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. She’s the mother of four adult children and has three grandsons. If she’s not at her computer, she’s on the tennis court or out exploring with her Nikon. Julie is currently working on a collection of personal essays. For more information, visit her website, juliemcgueauthor.com.

In an interview, Julie Ryan McGue can discuss:

• Coping with feelings of abandonment and loss — initially feeling rejection by her birth parents — and how she persevered and found healing through her journey
• How using DNA is key for many adoptees to connect with lost relatives
• The various search strategies sometimes required by adoptees to locate lost family when they cannot connect by DNA
• The differences between open and closed adoptions and the “right to know” vs. “right to privacy” arguments for both
• What it’s like discovering and getting to know new siblings so late in one’s life

An Interview with Julie McGue

1. What is it like to grow up knowing you are adopted?

Being a twin and being adopted are so intertwined in my identity that it’s impossible to separate them.

My sister and I must have learned at a very early age that we were adopted because I seemed always to have known this fact. While I am grateful that I was not a “late discovery adoptee,” certain questions have preoccupied me throughout my life: Why was I adopted? Who were my birth parents? Have they ever wondered what happened to us? Will they come back for us? These inner yearnings were finally answered as a result of my adoption search and reunion.

2. How did staying with your twin throughout your life affect you?

As a result of our twindom, being adopted is a different equation for us than the typical adoptee. Yes, we’ve always been curious about the reasons for our adoption, but the rejection that is inherent in the adoption experience never seemed to slow us down — it didn’t threaten our confidence or our sense of self. Our exclusivity, our belonging to one another, was like a shield that protected us from the debilitating and searing ‘primal wound’ of adoption.

Our adoption agency, Catholic Charities, told our adoptive parents that we were fraternal twins. Throughout the course of our lives, my sister and I have always looked so similar as to confound not just strangers but family and friends, too. Because Jenny and I have been together since before we were born, our bond is strong and secure. Unbreakable. I relied on her during our adoption search and reunion and her support made navigating the complicated process that much easier.

3. When did you decide you wanted to search for your birth relatives? What kept you from searching earlier in your life?

My sister and I were happy kids. We loved our parents, and we knew we had a good situation. When we were growing up, our fear was that by expressing an interest in learning more about our adoption that our parents’ feelings would be hurt. Through my involvement with a post-adoption support group, I learned that this fear is a common reason why adoptees delay searching. Many wait until their adoptive parents are deceased before deciding to launch a search, and many adoptees delay or halt searches for fear of exposing themselves to more loss and rejection.

Adoption search and reunion is not for the faint of heart. An adoptee must have a strong support system before tackling such a tedious project, one with very uncertain outcomes. While adoptees long for answers regarding identity, family health history, and genealogy, it is the fear of damaging important relationships that holds us back. The other factor is timing. An adoptee must be in a good place with respect to marriage and family, career path and financial stability before tackling the uncertainty of an adoption search.

When I was 30 years old — and without my parents’ knowledge — I sent a letter to Catholic Charities requesting information about my adoption. This was before the Illinois adoption statutes underwent an overhaul and ultimately began to recognize an adoptee’s inherent right to information. Several weeks later, I received a form letter that stated, “Nothing can be shared at this time.” Eighteen years passed before a breast biopsy compelled me to launch a full-scale search effort.

4. What is the most astounding thing you learned about your genealogy?

Besides learning that both fraternal and identical twins run in my birth mom’s family, I was shocked to learn that we have Native American blood on both sides of our family tree. Raised a Catholic, I discovered that one of my ancestors was a Messianic Jewish rabbi. And, for someone who had previously no known family history, my pedigree now dates back to the 1700s.

I have roots in Germany, France, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. None of which I knew beforehand. While most of my birth relatives are dispersed across several Midwestern states, there are some that reside, quite literally, right next door.

5. What did you discover about your inner self and your journey after finally unearthing the details of your personal story?

Perseverance and resilience were qualities that I possessed before the search, but the degree to which I needed to test and further develop those virtues dumbfounded me. Normally a quiet, reserved and serious person, the range of emotions that the search brought out in me was often exhausting. In one day, I might cycle through anger and then joy, denial and then resignation, disappointment and then forgiveness.

I look back on this tumultuous period of my life and reflect on how it was that I made it to the other side. I didn’t realize that I had the capacity to accept so much disappointment, that I could forgive so many grievous wrongs, and that I could experience so much contentment and satisfaction. I do not regret any of my efforts or actions.

6. How did you and your sister feel after finding your birth family right next door to you after all those years?

Two words best describe finding family so close by: serendipity and synchronicity.

Once I discovered the link to neighbors, my adoptive mother’s resistance to my adoption search evaporated. It was as if an onerous plague had been vanquished overnight. The result of such a stunning and unexpected turn of events not only facilitated the blending of our families, but it shredded obvious skepticism: Who are these people? What do they want? How do we invite or incorporate them into our lives?

I am not generally a “woo-woo” type of person, but as a result of my search efforts, I believe that there is much we do not know about the machinations of the universe. We are all connected in some way and we have it in our power to discern the patterns in a complex web.

7. What do you hope readers take away from your story?

The adoption experience is complicated. Each member of the adoption triad/triangle has a unique perspective that must be heard and appreciated in order for the healing of adoption loss to occur.
For those outside the adoption triad/triangle whose lives have not been touched by adoption, it’s far too easy to judge, to make assumptions, and to accept long perpetuated myths. It is better to listen with your ears and your heart, than to offer comments on what you have not experienced.

Not all adoptees feel the same about their adoption experience: Some choose not to search, to delay their search, or to avoid thinking about or discussing their adoption. Neither choice is right nor wrong. Whatever choice is made is the right one for that person.

When considering adoption search and reunion, having a meaningful and effective support system in place is essential for navigating the process. Participating in post-adoption support helped me to accept and forgive what I could not change, and it gave me the tools to maintain and foster new and complicated relationships.

I wanted to convey the nuances of each position in the adoption triangle: the possessiveness of adoptive parents, the innate rights of birth parents to maintain their privacy or to achieve connection to their biological child, and to advocate for the adoptee’s inherent right to all information that concerns them.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Action-packed sequel to the Lefty award-nominated debut keeps readers guessing

VANCOUVER, Washington, USA – In Mary Keliikoa’s Kelly Pruett Mystery series, a grieving single mother inherits her late father’s PI business, and begins tackling mysteries on her own, leading her into dangerous territory.

PI Kelly Pruett has a lot on her plate – working with clients at the detective agency, handling a difficult ex, and caring for her Deaf daughter. If motherhood taught her anything, it’s that the best things in life are never easy, so, despite recent injuries, PI Kelly Pruett is eager to get back to work.

When a mommy-to-be hires Kelly to locate her estranged dad, Kelly is thankful for the straightforward missing-persons case. But as she rummages through the trash in search of clues, she uncovers gambling debts to gangsters… and a blood-soaked severed finger. With her investigation suddenly heating up, Kelly’s hunt takes a deadly turn when her quarry is found driven off a cliff to his doom. She’ll need more than her cop boyfriend’s help to expose the truth when the mob sends her a cease-and-desist notice with an explosive ending. Can Kelly take on the mafia and make it out alive?

“Denied” (Camel Press, May 11, 2021) is the second book in the gripping Kelly Pruett mystery series. With a strong and relatable female lead, off-the-charts tension, and breathtaking twists, Mary Keliikoa’s action-packed story is one you won’t want to miss!

“Denied: Kelly Pruett Book 2”
Mary Keliikoa | May 11, 2021 | Camel Press | Mystery
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1603817837 | $15.95

Praise for the Kelly Pruett Mystery Series…

“Following up on a multi-award nominated debut mystery is no easy task, but Mary Keliikoa succeeds and then some in DENIED. In Kelly Pruett, Keliikoa has created a three dimensional private eye whose humanity and determination make you both want to root for her and ride along next to her on an investigative thrill ride. Bravo!”
– Matt Coyle, Shamus, Anthony and Lefty Award-winning author

“An entertaining detective story with a personable lead”
– Kirkus Reviews, for “Derailed”

“Winning series and debut launch… this is definitely a series to watch”
– Publishers Weekly, for “Derailed”

“DERAILED has it all: an engaging heroine, a twisty, twisted crime, and plenty of food for thought about families and their secrets. I loved this debut and can’t wait to read about Kelly Pruett’s next case”
–Kristen Lepionka, Shamus Award-winning author of the Roxane Weary mystery series

“Intelligent, tightly plotted, and satisfying. Kelly Pruett is a new PI on the scene and I’m eager for her next case”
– Dianne Freeman, Agatha and Lefty award winning author of the Countess of Harleigh mysteries, for “Derailed”

“Mary Keliikoa’s DERAILED is a humdinger of a good read. Sharp, detailed writing, a riveting plot and well-drawn characters make it practically unputdownable”
– Tracy Clark, author of “Borrowed Time”

MARY KELIIKOA is the author of the Lefty, Agatha, and Anthony award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series, as well as the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. She has had mystery shorts published in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s. She spent the first 18 years of her adult life working around lawyers. Combining her love of all things legal and books, she creates twisting mysteries where justice prevails.

At home in Washington, she enjoys spending time with her family and her fur-kids. When not at home, you can find Mary on a beach on the Big Island where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is. To learn more about Mary’s life and work, please visit: https://marykeliikoa.com/

In an interview, Mary Keliikoa can discuss:

• The inspiration behind her series’ heroine, Kelly Pruett
• Why it’s important to showcase strong women in the mystery genre
• Her writing techniques and how she plots her mysteries
• Her background as a legal secretary, and how she infuses her love of all things legal into her writing
• Whether readers can expect to see more of Kelly Pruett in the future

An Interview with Mary Keliikoa

1. What inspired you to write mystery novels starring Kelly Pruett, a female PI agent?

I am a big fan of Sue Grafton so the original idea of writing a PI novel grew from that love. But the minute that I made the decision to write a PI novel, I immediately knew her name would be Kelly Pruett, and who she would be as a person. Looking back, I can see that some of the issues she faces are things I was experiencing in my life at the time– in my 30s, raising step-kids, wanting to step out on my own in a career. So I believe part of my inspiration really was to help Kelly find her way, just as I was.

2. Praise for your first book in the Kelly Pruett series–“Derailed”–included a lot of love for Kelly Pruett as a character. Why is it important to showcase strong, relatable women as protagonists in the mystery genre?

PI novels in particular have been dominated by male characters, which is why I really wanted to showcase that a woman could handle the job. Having her not be from a law enforcement background was a conscious choice, along with her not having some of the vices that many investigators in detective novels fall victim to. She’s a mom, looking to be a role model to her Deaf daughter. She’s a woman trying to find her own place outside what society thinks she should be doing. I think we can all learn from that, and that was my goal for Kelly.

3. You have a background as a legal secretary. Did your experience working with lawyers shape your writing at all? If so, how?

I was born with a fairness thing in general, but I learned quickly things don’t always fall that
way. But that need for things to be made right, made my gravitation towards working in the legal field almost a natural. Working around lawyers in particular, I was able to see firsthand how they went about defending or prosecuting a case, their thought process, how they worked to poke holes in theories. I definitely absorbed that and find that the way I think about solving a case stems from that time in the legal field.

4. What is your writing process like? Do you need anything specific in order to plot a good mystery–a favorite drink, access to a library, something else?

When starting a new story, I play a lot with the idea before I even sit to write. I think about the
characters. The plot. The murder. Who did it. Then I sit down and I write a back cover copy
which consists of a couple of paragraphs that tie the entire book up. If I find that I’m excited
about the story at that point, then I start the first chapter. Coffee is a must for me when I’m
writing, but other than that, I just need my laptop!

5. What are your plans for the future? Can readers expect to see more from Kelly Pruett in the coming years?

I can’t imagine a day when I’m not writing stories—so storytelling will always be in my future. In fact, I recently completed a standalone mystery/suspense novel, and will be starting on another soon.

As for Kelly, Book 3 will be out in Spring of 2022. I definitely have ideas for at least two more Kelly Pruett novels, so we’ll see what happens there. The wonderful thing about writing a PI series is that as long as there is a case to be solved, Kelly will have plenty to do!

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Philadelphia, PA – Acclaimed author Joan He (Descendant of the Crane) is releasing her first new YA novel since her highly successful debut: a beguiling blend of intrigue, mystery, and “cli-fi” (climate science fiction), The Ones We’re Meant to Find (Roaring Brook/Macmillan, May 4, 2021). He will donate $1 to the Ocean Conservancy for every book that is pre-ordered, supporting her commitment to addressing climate change both on and off the page.

The novel opens on a world in the spasms of climate disaster. But from within the peaceful confines of an eco-city built for the world’s elite, Kasey Mizuhara has only two things on her mind: how she can use her prodigious intellect to preserve the remainder of humanity, and how she can locate the only person she’s ever felt a true connection with–her recently-vanished sister, Celia. Meanwhile, Celia has awoken marooned on an island with no knowledge of how she got there, and one memory: She has a beloved sister, Kasey, and she must find her. Elegantly weaving between the sisters’ dual perspectives, the mystery of Cee’s whereabouts–and Kasey’s plans–twists into an exhilarating and terrifying exploration of how far people will go to achieve their objectives.

A perfect balance of the melancholic beauty of Never Let Me Go and the most intriguing parts of Lost, “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” is a surprising, compelling, and even profound dive into the nature of memory, the meaning of humanity, and the bonds that we form with those we love, crafted from gorgeous prose that crawls under your skin and sticks with you long after the last page.

“The Ones We’re Meant to Find”
Joan He | May 4, 2021 | Roaring Brook/Macmillan
Hardcover | 9781250258564 | $18.99
E-book | B08BKL8BBG | $10.99

JOAN HE was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River. Descendant of the Crane is her debut young adult fantasy. Her next novel, The Ones We’re Meant to Find, will be forthcoming from Macmillan on May 4th, 2021. Learn more at https://joanhewrites.com.

Follow Joan on social media:
Goodreads: Joan He | Twitter: @JoanHeWrites | Instagram: @JoanHeWrites

In an interview, Joan He can discuss:

• Why she chose climate disaster (particularly as it pertains to our oceans) as the backdrop to her novel’s events
• How she crafts game-changing narrative twists
• Why quieter, less “relatable” characters make ideal (and rarely seen) protagonists in YA
• How she developed a futuristic world that is still eerily recognizable
• Why she focused on the complex bond between sisters
• How and why she explores the nature of memory, identity, and free will in her novels

An Interview with Joan He

1. How did the early inspiration and ideas for “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” first begin to occur to you?

The inspiration came in two parts. First, I dreamed about a girl diving into the sea, clearly searching for something. As I tried to figure out what that something was, I thought back all the YA dystopians I read when I was a teen. Books such as The Hunger Games first introduced me to the trope where the older sibling saves the younger one. What if, I wondered, the girl in my dream was searching for her sister? And what if I shook things up so that the younger sibling didn’t need saving?

2. Your characters are nuanced, complex, and (at times) morally ambiguous. What traits are most important to you when developing your characters, and why?

As much as we want to believe we’re all special, I think it’s more fascinating to approach characters with this psychology finding in mind: we’re actually far more similar than we are unique. For the most part, we want the same things. To be loved for who we are. To fit in. And when put into high pressure situations, we can betray even our most tightly held values. So before firming up traits, I like to focus on actions. How much agency does a character think they have? How much are they willing to exert it? Are they actually being true to themselves when they act? Or, as in the case of Milgram’s experiment, are they flipping switches and pushing buttons because of their environment, upbringing, or some other situational factor outside of themselves?

3. “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” crafts a unique futuristic world, develops an utterly intriguing mystery, balances complex themes like the nature of memory and identity, and still manages to subvert readers’ expectations for how the story might play out. There are so many narrative elements in play here — how do you approach writing stories that are so multifaceted, but tightly woven?

To keep a story focused, I rely heavily on knowing my midpoint from the start. In fact, the best way for me to test the viability of a premise is to see if I can turn it inside out halfway through. Once I have my “tent-pole”, the rest of the pieces either have to play a role in leading up to that event, or fall out from it.

4. Do you imagine that we’ll actually reach a state of climate disaster as portrayed in the novel?

Some events in the novel are certainly exaggerated beyond what is scientific to make a statement. But as the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us, it’s really hard to get people to care about an invisible enemy that affects people unevenly. The same could be said for climate change and pollution. How many US residents, for example, are aware of the mask wearing culture in China that existed pre-pandemic due to pollution caused by China’s robust manufacturing landscape (which exists, largely, to supply many of our needs)? So while I don’t think we’ll arrive at the exact destination portrayed in the book, I do think the road to some sort of tragedy is already paved.

5. What do you want readers to take away from your novel?

I think it’s easy to say “live life to the fullest” as a throwaway, uplifting phrase. But none of us exist in a bubble; our most innocuous actions can and do affect other people. There’s no avoiding this, and the book isn’t prescriptive, but I hope it helps readers consider the complex connections between all of us, be it as individuals, siblings, or nations.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Can a curse become a gift?

SEATTLE – Longtime physician and successful mystery author Susan McCormick is back with a new novel sure to enchant readers of all ages. “The Antidote” (May 5, 2021, The Wild Rose Press) is her first foray into middle grade fantasy, though readers will be left hoping it won’t be her last.

Twelve-year-old Alex Revelstoke can see disease. And not just disease — injury, illness, anything wrong with the body. A gift that comes in handy when a classmate chokes on a hot dog or when the janitor suffers a heart attack unclogging a gooey science experiment gone awry.

But Alex soon learns his new ability puts him and an unsuspecting world in peril. Throughout time, Revelstokes have waged a battle against ancient evil itself — the creator of disease. Alex has seen its darkness. He has felt its strength. He does not want to fight. But Alex is the last Revelstoke. The war has just begun.

With her unique perspective as a doctor, mother and writer, McCormick combines her knowledge of medicine and her storytelling skills to craft a one-of-a-kind adventure about disease, darkness and deception — one readers won’t be able to put down.

“The Antidote”
Susan McCormick | May 2021 | The Wild Rose Press | Middle Grade Fantasy / Historical Fiction
Paperback | 978-1-5092-3566-7 | $16.99 | Ebook | 978-1-5092-3567-4 | $4.99

SUSAN McCORMICK is a writer and doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine and served as a doctor for nine years in the U.S. Army before moving to the Pacific Northwest and civilian practice. In addition to “The Antidote,” she writes a cozy murder mystery series, “The Fog Ladies.” She also wrote “Granny Can’t Remember Me,” a lighthearted picture book about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. She is married with two boys, neither of whom have any special powers. She loves giant dogs and has had St. Bernards, an English Mastiff, Earl, and two Newfoundlands, Edward and Albert. None of them had any special powers, either, except the ability to shake drool onto the ceiling. Visit her at https://susanmccormickbooks.com.

Follow Susan McCormick on social media
Facebook: @susanmccormickauthor | Twitter: @SMcCormickBooks
Instagram: @susanmccormickbooks | Bookbub: @susan-mccormick

In an interview, Susan McCormick can discuss:

• How her children’s love of Rick Riordan’s books inspired her to write a middle grade novel
• Integrating science and medicine into an adventure story to engage students and make learning fun
• Providing readers with a historical framework to understand the relationship between humans and infectious disease
• The novel’s sudden timeliness during the pandemic and how COVID-19 upended the book’s own release
• Writing across multiple genres — from cozies to fantasy to picture book — and how she incorporates her perspective as a doctor into all her work
• The amazing talents animals have at detecting disease

An interview with Susan McCormick

1. What made you decide to write a book catered toward a middle grade audience but focusing on disease and health?

When I volunteered in my oldest son’s middle school, I was struck by how much mythology the kids knew — everything there was to know and then some. They studied it in school, but they already knew it through the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. During a science class chicken wing dissection meant to teach about tendons, muscles and bones, I realized the kids didn’t know nearly as much about the human body. As a doctor and mother, I wanted to impart an enthusiasm of the human body and a knowledge of disease and health much like the kids had for mythology. The importance of this is even greater in the era of COVID-19.

2. Did you come across anything interesting or surprising during your research while writing the book?

Something fun I learned during research for the book was the extra gifts animals have, extraordinary senses, etc., that have been harnessed to help people. For instance, dogs (and cats) have the ability to detect diseases and dangers of all kinds: cancer, low blood sugar, an impending seizure, infectious diseases, bombs, etc. In the book, the giant dog, Valentine, can detect cancer.

3. You are a very busy person! How do you find time to write?

As a doctor and a mom, time was always in short supply. In Seattle in the summer, the sun rises at 4:30 a.m., shining bright light into my bedroom and waking me up. I would write in these early morning hours on the weekends before my family woke up. My giant, black, fluffy, silent Newfoundland dog, Albert, would dutifully pad downstairs with me and lie by my side as my constant writing companion.

4. What advice do you have for budding writers?

When I was young, I wanted to be a ballerina, a doctor and a writer. All together, all at once. My ballet days ended before they began when my first performance’s curtsy took out the backdrop and crashed it to the floor. All that was left was being a doctor and a writer. The latter took me a while. Being a doctor was a straight shot: four years of medical school, three years of internal medicine residency, then fellowship, then pay back the military with a stint in the Army because they paid for medical school, and voila, doctor.

Being a writer took longer, but I’ve been plotting my stories since those ballerina days. In elementary school, I was chosen to attend a Young Authors’ Conference, with workshops and local authors. The conference was on a Saturday. I was so excited that I dreamed God allowed me to skip Friday. I woke up on Friday convinced it was Saturday, and I grew more and more desperate when my parents told me I had to go to school. I was certain I was going to miss the conference. That’s how excited I was. But, sadly, excitement isn’t enough to turn a dream into a reality. That part took sitting in a chair every day, putting my fingers on the keyboard and writing. Do the work. Show up on time, with enthusiasm. Keep it up. Persevere. Maybe if I’d done that with dancing, I’d be a ballerina today, too.

5. What do you hope readers gain from the book?

“The Antidote” is full of illnesses kids may have encountered in their life, through family, friends or media, like heart attacks, appendicitis and allergic reactions. The story also explains infectious diseases of the past, like plague, polio, smallpox, Spanish flu, measles, leprosy, etc., which kids come across in school and history and have gained crucial relevance today with COVID-19. These diseases are woven throughout the story and I hope will spark interest in learning more about the body and medicine. At heart, though, “The Antidote” is an adventure, with good vs. evil, and I want kids to just have fun.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/