A Change of Pace, S. R. Mallery Visits
First
of all, much thanks to Marilyn for going outside the box and allowing me to be
included in this prestigious mystery group. Although I am primarily an
historical fiction writer, I do love mysteries, in all shapes and sizes.
However, what’s currently on my mind is…
Ancestors. Are they simply some snapshots glued into
photo albums buried deep inside our closets?
Do their edges come with little black corners or are they pasted in with
a modern flare? Do they make it out into
the living room every ten years to show visiting relatives, or perhaps our sons’
latest dates, our daughters’ husbands?
I
have always been fascinated by studying the faces and outfits of my cognates
and wondered what their lives were really like.
Then one day, my grandmother sat me down and told me to write some names
on the backs of their photos, since she was in her 90’s and after her, who
would be there to do it? That got me
thinking. Was this cousin really killed
as a child by a streetcar? Did my
great-great spinster aunt in her late eighties actually blow a whistle to hail
a cab? What was it like for my relatives
leaving Europe and arriving at Ellis Island? Were they scared? Frustrated?
Years
later, lying in bed with my then 2 year old daughter, I was reading a short
story my mother had written, and as I glanced down at this little being nestled
up against me, I suddenly realized that there were actually three generations
in bed with me. Beyond that, since my
mother’s story involved WWI prejudice, that conjured up all kinds of thoughts about
German Americans–– their angst, their fear of reprisal, and their wish to
assimilate. Did my ancestors go through
any of that?
Hence,
my book, “Unexpected Gifts,” where the main character Sonia, a confused
college student forever choosing the wrong man, searches for answers from an
old, attic steamer trunk, filled with family diaries, journals, letters, and
mementos. Guided by her mother, she begins to read her relatives’ stories from
America’s past: the Vietnam War, Woodstock and Timothy Leary era; Tupperware
parties, McCarthyism, the Beatles, and Black Power; the Great Depression, dance
marathons, and Eleanor Roosevelt; the 1910 immigrant experience, the Henry Ford
factory in Detroit, and the Suffragists.
Back and forth the book journeys, dovetailing yesteryear with Sonia’s
life in the late 90’s, until finally, she begins to make some right choices.
A FEW BLURBS:
S. R. MALLERY BIO:
S. R. Mallery has worn many
hats in her life. Starting out as a
classical/pop singer/composer, she moved onto the professional world of
production art and calligraphy, followed by a long career as an award winning
quilt artist/teacher and an ESL/Reading instructor. Her short stories have been published in descent 2008, Snowy Egret, Transcendent
Visions, The Storyteller and Down In the Dirt.
Unexpected Gifts is her debut novel.
Sewing Can Be Dangerous and Other
Small Threads, a collection, is due out late 2013.
LINKS:
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