Jodi Daynard's Blog, page 3
July 1, 2017
Jodi Daynard to be Keynote Speaker at HWA Conference in New Mexico
Excited to let everyone know that I’ll be a keynote speaker at the Historical Writers of America Conference in New Mexico this September. Whether you’re a published writer of historical fiction and nonfiction, or just an aspiring one, you should check it out. The location can’t be beat!
May 23, 2017
May 8, 2017
Call to Book Reviewers for A More Perfect Union
Hello, all. I am getting excited for the launch of the third novel in the Midwife trilogy, A More Perfect Union. Johnny Boylston’s attempt to navigate the vicious 1800 election between Jefferson and Adams will strike a modern reader as uncannily similar to our own divided times. If you are a well-reputed blogger or newspaper book reviewer, please contact me for a link to the NetGalley copy, which will be available until June 6th.
April 28, 2017
Awesome Audiobook
March 15, 2017
Book Club Questions for Our Own Country
A reader recently asked for these, so here they are! I may think of some more later and add them. Stay tuned.
Twelve Book Club Questions for Our Own Country
1. How does the fact that Johnny is half-black affect your feelings about Eliza and Johnny’s relationship?
2. What is Cassie’s function in this story?
3. What most struck you about the author’s portrayal of the hardships during and after the Revolutionary War?
4. How does the portrait of life at that time differ from how you imagined it?
5. How was the political polarization of the time similar to or different from that of today?
6. What do you think would have happened to John and Eliza had they been caught?
7. What do you think causes Eliza’s transformation?
8. Does Eliza’s offer to her mother in the end strike you as movingly generous or unbelievable?
9. Of all the scenes in the novel, which did you find most moving? Why?
10. Of all the scenes in the novel, which did you find least believable? Why?
11. How did you feel about the ending?
12. Do you think there are any inter-racial or inter-cultural relationships that have been so taboo in your lifetime? What have they been? Are there still such taboos?
March 4, 2017
Marcus Stewart to Narrate A More Perfect Union
So excited learn that Jamaican-born actor Marcus Stewart will be narrating A More Perfect Union. It should be a treat!
March 3, 2017
Are my characters too modern? A (partial) answer.
I’ve had a number of reviews lately that declare my first novel, The Midwife’s Revolt, to be too modern in its psychology. These reviews assert that women simply didn’t think in the way I portray them to think. They weren’t as bold, or as accepting, as they are today. One reviewer insisted that TMR‘s “major flaw” is my characters’ attitudes towards sex. Good Christians just didn’t have sex before marriage, he said. Well, to these reviews, I would like to say “poppycock!”
I’m not offended when people dislike my work–that’s anyone’s prerogative. No, my annoyance is the ignorance, coupled with a kind of arrogant certainty, that some reviews display. Anyone who truly believes that women were not silly, daring, bold, fun, naughty, brave, or willing to have sex before marriage in the Colonial (or any other) era needs to read more.
Granted, my Lizzie Boylston is an unusual woman for her time, especially in the spying department. Such women did exist, however, dressing up as men and going to war or on spying missions. In terms of her social mores, she is no more “modern” than Abigail Adams, who refused to own slaves and who fought for the right of a black child she knew to attend a white school. It is especially true that, during the revolutionary war, women were hugely enterprising in the art of survival: bartering for goods, creating items to sell, planting, harvesting, and preserving food. During the war, too, the average woman was a bit freer to peruse a book or two, if she was literate, since no nagging husband stood by ready to point out another chore. The women of Abigail Adams’s acquaintance were for the most part ravenous readers of books, when they had access to them.
Finally, on the subject of sexuality, readers who believe that “good Christians” did not have sex out of wedlock need to take a closer look at the history of civilization! It has always happened, though of course it has not usually been condoned. In the Colonial era, sex before marriage was not a very great sin, so long as the couple was already betrothed. Many a child came miraculously into the world after only six–or four–months of marriage. The Colonial sensibility in these matters was a far cry from the more prudish Victorian era or even–among some Christians–our own.
And yet, the reality is probably that in fact my characters ARE too modern for their time period. This may in part be because I am drawn to those who don’t fit the norms of their society. I like “outliers.” Hamlet, for example, was such a character. But the other reason is that my reviewers are right: I can never know, much as I’d like to, a genuine 18th century human being. I must piece together the world of these people from the artifacts they leave behind. This I did, and do. It’s my passion: I’ve read countless letters and memoirs of the period, eager to listen to those long-gone souls whose voices rise up from the printed word. I just sometimes wish my readers would do the same.
January 19, 2017
A More Perfect Union Has a Cover!
A More Perfect Union, due out on May 23, 2017, has a beautiful cover. The colors have not yet been finalized, but this is pretty much how it will look. I hope you love it as much as I do.
December 5, 2016
Novel Summary now on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/More-Perfect-U...
November 29, 2016
Pre-Order A More Perfect Union on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/More-Perfect-U...
