The Widows
Page 32
The other strong women characters in this novel—Nana, Mama, Ada—are from my imagination as well but also inspired by the women I consider the strongest from my family of origin: my paternal grandmother, Lorrainey (Engle) Hurley; her sister, my great-aunt Cassie (Engle) Lewis; and my father’s sisters, my aunt Opal (Hurley) Mann and aunt Mary Alice (Hurley) Lee. All have passed on now, but I think, for example, of how my grandmother made gorgeous quilts and mouth-watering dried-apple stack cake and yet was steely-eyed strong in the face of difficulties, of how my aunt Opal was a strong proponent of education, particularly for females in an era and region that made pursuing education extra difficult for them. All of these women quietly put forth an attitude that mixed encouragement and a no-tolerance view of giving up in such a way that around them I always thought, Well, I guess I’ll just do what I’ve set out to do, then.
As for setting the novel in the 1920s, I’m drawn to historical settings for many reasons, a major one being how by looking at lives and attitudes in the past, we can often see, as in a mirror, more clearly than by just looking directly the attitudes and issues of our own times. Nearly a hundred years later, it is both startling and fascinating to see that issues and problems of the past keep coming back, not quite as resolved as we’d like them to be—such as feminism, fair treatment of workers, and more. As a child, I loved the Time-Life books that explored U.S. history decade by decade, and as an adult, I’ve made a point of collecting them. So of course I pulled The Jazz Age: The 20s (Time-Life Books, 1969) off my shelf as a start to researching the era. I was surprised to realize, which I hadn’t as a child, that the book, though fascinating, entirely glosses over experiences of people in rural areas—not in the least glitzy, jazzy, or particularly “swell.” I’m indebted to many resources, including an extensive review of newspaper articles of the era, such as the Vinton County Courier, for getting a glimpse into life at that time in rural Ohio, life that was as complex and nuanced then as it is now.
Another aspect of writing this novel that called me was the setting in the Appalachian portion of Ohio. Ohio is comprised of eighty-eight counties; thirty-two of them on the eastern and southern borders of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky are part of the vast range of the Appalachian region. My family of origin is from deep in the hills and hollers of Appalachia in eastern Kentucky. I’m a first-generation “Buckeye” (the nickname for an Ohioan), and proud of it, but in terms of my background, I’ve always felt that I stand with one foot firmly on midwestern soil and the other foot on Appalachian soil. In the household of my childhood, I understood that though we were in Ohio, we (certainly my parents) weren’t from there, and we took fairly frequent trips to “go home,” that is, to Morgan County, Kentucky, though my parents hadn’t lived there since World War II. They were part of the diaspora that led many Appalachians to migrate north to Ohio and Michigan for industry and factory jobs that promised—and for a long time delivered—greater economic prosperity than the tobacco farming (in my family’s case) of the generations before them or, for others, coal mining.
Yet I grew up on traditional Appalachian foods, faith traditions, music, storytelling (my children tease me that I am like my father; I can’t resist “spinning a good, long yarn”), and an emphasis on family that was a mix both positive and challenging. In the prosperous suburban neighborhood of my childhood, Appalachians were often pejoratively called briar-hoppers or hillbillies, so though I was proud of my grandmother’s crocheted lace and my other grandmother’s quilt making, for example, I knew not to make too much of my Appalachian roots outside of the home.
But perhaps an aspect of being Appalachian is being a bit stubborn, and so I couldn’t entirely comply with “not making too much of it.” In my senior year of high school, I wrote a musical called Just an Old Ballad, based on the ballads I’d learned from my maternal grandmother. (I was hopeless at crocheting lace, so I think she was glad to teach me at least the ballads.) One, “Pearl Bryant,” is quoted in The Widows. A kind theater teacher let me put it on and direct it. Though it wasn’t particularly well received by the student population, the good news is that I cast a certain young man I’d taken quite a shine to in the lead role. Reader, I married him. (Albeit several years post high school.)
With Lily’s story, I realized, I could, after all, make much of, or at least draw upon, my own Appalachian roots. Appalachia is a huge region; its dialect, customs, geography, and so on vary throughout the region. One can’t just write about Ohio’s Appalachia as if it’s the exact same as Kentucky’s or Georgia’s, for example. So I have tried to be sensitive to regional differences. Currently, Appalachia is more in the news than it’s been in a while and many folks, from outside and inside the region, seem to want to diagnose it as a whole. In this novel—and in future novels and in other writing—I endeavor to respectfully represent the specific region I’m writing about, which means a mix of celebrating its beauty while not glossing over its troubles, while showing the fictional individuals I’ve created as just that—individuals, not caricatures.
On a lighter note, I admit I had a great time incorporating everything from ballads to soup beans and sorghum while writing about the region. And my father, who began hunting at age four alongside his father, was tickled to be interviewed by his daughter about shotguns, revolvers, and rifles—any errors are mine, not his. He might also have shared a story or two with me—that he would never have owned up to when I was a child—about “just tasting” moonshine and somehow happening to be at a still.…
The specific setting of The Widows, Bronwyn County, is not one of the real-life counties of Ohio. My fictional Bronwyn County purposefully takes in the western Athens, eastern Vinton, and southern Hocking and Perry counties. This way, I can pull in the gorgeous Hocking Hills region—truly a stunning natural wonderland in our state—the rolling hill farms, and the coal-mining region. However, I try to stay as true as possible to the history and geography of the actual counties.
And what a diverse, fascinating history and geography these counties represent. In their history, as now, one can find sorrow and tragedy and yet hope, beauty, and opportunity. Included in the area is a microregion called Little Cities of Black Diamonds, referring to more than seventy coal-mining communities—some company-owned in their day—that had a heyday from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Many of these communities have faded along with the coal industry of the area. Some, albeit smaller versions of their past, remain and I am grateful to the kind people who talked with me in towns such as Murray City, Shawnee, Nelsonville, and Buchtel.
I relied as well on the nonfiction works of other authors to research both the region and the incredibly complex history of coal mining and union organization in our country. These books include in particular: Little Cities of Black Diamonds, by Jeffrey T. Darbee and Nancy A. Recchie (Arcadia, 2009); Coal Miners’ Wives: Portraits of Endurance, by Carol A. B. Giesen (University of Kentucky Press, 1995); The Blair Mountain War: Battle of the Rednecks, by G. T. Swain (Woodland Press, 2009; originally published by Mr. Swain in 1927); and The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America’s Largest Labor Uprising, by Robert Shogan (Basic Books, 2004).
In these notes, I have shared much of what inspired me to create my own characters, story lines, and settings.
What is purely factual, though, in my novel is the Battle for Blair Mountain—an uprising that I firmly believe should be part of our mainstream history education—and the uprisings and disasters that Marvena recites to inspire the coal miners to organize. To this day, New Straitsville’s underground coal seams still burn—more than 130 years since the fires were set to sabotage the mines in protest of unfair wages and practices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Behind every story is another story: the writer’s journey to create the story that readers, ultimately, hold in their hands—and, hopefully, their hearts. Thankfully, writers never travel alone. This writer humbly acknowledges that on this particular journey I’ve been
accompanied, comforted, encouraged, guided, and even gently nudged by a merry band of fellow travelers.
First, thank you to the three who are always by my side: husband, David, and daughters, Katherine and Gwen. Not only did you read drafts and offer feedback, but also every time I asked, “Can I really do this?” you unhesitatingly answered, “Yes.” An extra thank-you to David for accompanying me on research trips—and keeping me out of too much trouble.
On one such research trip, Brian Koscho, Marketing Director of Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio, gave us a tour that informed several key scenes in my variation of the town. Rose Ann Bobo, a volunteer at the Vinton County Historical and Genealogical Society, located in the beautifully restored Alice’s House in McArthur, Ohio, provided invaluable assistance with reference materials, photographs, anecdotes, and tirelessly answering my questions or directing me to resources for those answers.
And on another trip, we happened upon the Murray City Train Depot and Coal Mining Museum, in Murray City, Ohio, where Richard Buchanan and Larry Mitchell spent several hours sitting with us by a cozy coal-fired stove, sharing not only the lovingly restored museum but also personal memories and, as my husband later described it, “memories of other people’s memories.” I am indebted to their generosity and hope I have thoughtfully and respectfully applied their insights into the mining life and the region’s history.
As tempting as it is, writers can’t just research a topic forever but must eventually start, well, writing.
When I first shared the idea behind this book with my amazing agent, Elisabeth Weed of The Book Group, she told me to trust it and promised she’d help me through the roughest parts of this journey. Thankfully, she kept that promise, and then some, and I am truly and eternally grateful.
I’m also so thankful for my amazing tribe of fellow writers, who are also among my dearest friends. Their thoughtful insights helped shape this novel and bring my cast of Bronwyn County characters to life; imperfections are mine alone: Heather Webber, Katrina Kittle, Kristina McBride, Martha Moody, Erin Flanagan, Jessica Strawser, and Ron Rollins, who gets extra-credit points for helping me create Mr. Abe Miller.
In addition to these great people in my community, I must thank several organizations. In 2014, I was selected as the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at the Thurber House (www.thurberhouse.org/nanceresidency) in Columbus, Ohio, based in part on an early opening to The Widows. My month-long stay and the residency stipend enabled me to focus solely on writing, writing, writing—and that meant finishing the first draft. In addition, my employer, the Antioch Writers’ Workshop at University of Dayton (www.antiochwritersworkshop.com), where I am executive director, generously gave me that month off. In 2016, I was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award based in part on a later version of The Widows. The award enabled me to again have focused time to complete revisions of the novel. And thank you, too, to the Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts and Cultural District for a 2017 Artist Opportunity Grant that enabled me to create a robust website with extended background information about the time and place of The Widows.
I’ve already mentioned Elisabeth Weed, but believe me, she deserves a second thank-you (and then some) for her incredible insight and patience and for finding the just-right publishing home for this novel. I’m honored to work with her and the team at The Book Group as well as with Tiffany Yates Martin at FoxPrint Editorial. The wise input of these professionals showed me the way to fully realizing the heart of Lily and Marvena’s story
The newest addition to my band of fellow travelers on the journey to bring The Widows into the world is the superb team at Minotaur Books. I’m honored to work with them and am especially grateful for Catherine Richards, my editor, who helped me deepen the mystery elements of The Widows and see a way forward for future projects. I can’t help but add that I was nearly giddy when I realized during one of our conversations that we approach books the same way—not just as professionals but as readers.
And on the subject of readers: Thank you! Thank you for picking up this book, reading it, and entering Lily’s and Marvena’s world. The magic of creating a story is only complete when a reader experiences it, and you have my sincere gratitude for being part of the magic. I’d love to hear from you, so please do find me on my website, www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com, or on Facebook @JessMontgomeryAuthor.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JESS MONTGOMERY is the Literary Life columnist for the Dayton Daily News and executive director of the renowned Antioch Writers’ Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Based on early chapters of The Widows, Jess was awarded an Ohio Arts Council individual artist’s grant for literary arts and the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in Columbus. She lives in her native state of Ohio. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Map
Prologue
Chapter 1: Lily
Chapter 2: Marvena
Chapter 3: Lily
Chapter 4: Marvena
Chapter 5: Lily
Chapter 6: Marvena
Chapter 7: Lily
Chapter 8: Marvena
Chapter 9: Lily
Chapter 10: Marvena
Chapter 11: Lily
Chapter 12: Marvena
Chapter 13: Lily
Chapter 14: Marvena
Chapter 15: Lily
Chapter 16: Marvena
Chapter 17: Lily
Chapter 18: Marvena
Chapter 19: Lily
Chapter 20: Marvena
Chapter 21: Lily
Chapter 22: Marvena
Chapter 23: Lily
Chapter 24: Marvena
Chapter 25: Lily
Chapter 26: Lily and Marvena
Chapter 27: Marvena and Lily
Chapter 28: Lily and Marvena
Epilogue: Lily and Marvena
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MINOTAUR BOOKS
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THE WIDOWS. Copyright © 2018 by Sharon Short. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: woman © Mary Wethey/Arcangel; hawk © Melinda Fawver/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-18452-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-18453-5 (ebook)
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First Edition: January 2019
1. Lynn Langton, “Women in Law Enforcement, 1987–2008,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2010.
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