AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVELS discussion
UNDER THE ALMOND TREES
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Interview with Linda Ulleseit
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Linda, I can't wait to read your book. It sounds very good. I am also a Diana Gabaldon fan. The amount of research that goes into her books is amazing. If she influenced your writing I am sure to be a fan. I'm looking forward to reading more about you and your writing in the coming week.
My best friend from elementary school lost her Dad in a similar fashion to Ellen. Though a much different time your story sounds like one I would like to read.
Amanda wrote: "My best friend from elementary school lost her Dad in a similar fashion to Ellen. Though a much different time your story sounds like one I would like to read."Thank you, Amanda! I hope you enjoy the rest of my posts this week.
Linda, I write almost exclusively about my ancestors, and have a strict rule about not getting any closer than great-grandparents just to protect the family members still living. I enjoy reading other people’s ancestor based fiction just to see how others handle the good, the bad and the missing. Looking forward to your posts this week. Love your website. How do I get more information about Paper Lantern Writers?
Tracey wrote: "Linda, I can't wait to read your book. It sounds very good. I am also a Diana Gabaldon fan. The amount of research that goes into her books is amazing. If she influenced your writing I am sure to b..."Thank you, Tracey! I don't claim to be on the same platform as Diana the Goddess, but I hope you'll enjoy my book!
Jae wrote: "Linda, I write almost exclusively about my ancestors, and have a strict rule about not getting any closer than great-grandparents just to protect the family members still living. I enjoy reading ot..."Hi, Jae! It sounds like you are intimately familiar with the joys and frustrations of writing about family! Check out paperlanternwriters.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Linda wrote: "Amanda wrote: "My best friend from elementary school lost her Dad in a similar fashion to Ellen. Though a much different time your story sounds like one I would like to read."Thank you, Amanda! I..."
I was a little unclear. My friend's Dad was also struck by a tree in the way Ellen's husband was. Devastating for her family and an interesting way to advance your story.
Thanks for having me, Kari! I’m a retired elementary school teacher who loves reading and writing. I wrote three Young Adult historical fantasy novels that I shared with my students as I wrote them. Under the Almond Trees is my first novel published for adults. It follows three real life women who lived in early California.
Ellen is pregnant with her third child when a falling tree branch kills her husband. She takes over running his paper mill, and becomes frustrated when she can’t influence city decisions with her vote. But it is 1862, and the women’s vote is decades away.
Emily wants to be an architect, but the state of California denies her application for a license because she is a woman. Together with her partner, Lillian Palmer, Emily must find a way to build her dreams. Then Julia Morgan, who studied in Europe, gets an architect’s license.
Eva expresses her creativity with a camera. She has a small business selling photographs at a local store. When she marries, she gives it up to have a traditional marriage where the wife doesn’t work outside the home. Her husband’s traditional views chafe against the examples of the strong women in her family.
How were you inspired to write Under the Almond Trees? What sparked your interest in women’s history?
My grandmother told me stories about my strong female ancestors when I was young. She is the photographer in my story. Her aunt Emily is the architect, and her grandmother is Ellen the suffragette. These were real women who made very real contributions to the development of women’s place in our modern world. Their stories deserve to be told, too.
Can you give us insight into your writing process?
First I select a woman that intrigues me. Luckily, I still have many ancestors on my side, and several in my husband’s family, whose stories I need to tell! I write down every fact I know about her: birth, death, marriage, education, events in her life. The reason I don’t write biographies is that the details are pretty thin. Usually there is one magnificent story that piques my interest in the woman. I have to build a life around that tale. So next I research what was happening in the world around my character at the time she lived. I use this information to infer, based on the actions I know about, how she felt about events and people of the day. This is where I find the actual story. I use fictional events to flesh out the people with dialogue and quirks, and to fill spaces between known events. I try to be true to what history I know.
Did you find anything in your research that was particularly fascinating or that helped shape the novel?
I knew that Ellen sued the county of Santa Cruz, California, to vote in 1869 and that she lost. In my research, I discovered that the founder of Santa Cruz was Elihu Anthony, a cousin of Susan B. Anthony. Susan came to Santa Cruz to speak around that time. She used Ellen’s lawsuit as an example in her speech of 1872. Ellen must have met Susan. I had to include that in the book even though I have no evidence it really happened.
What is your favorite time period to write about? To read about?
I love history. After teaching ancient history to sixth graders, I love reading stories set in the ancient world. I also love reading European history since my family tree is traced back to medieval times. So far I’ve written more modern history with the late 1800s in California, and early 1900s Hawaii in my new book coming out in August. The one I’m working on now is set in the early 1800s in Minnesota. So clearly I don’t have a favorite. I will read well written historical fiction from any era.
What has been your greatest challenge as a writer? How have you been able to overcome that?
Since I write about my family, I was initially concerned that a living relative would take issue with my novel. With Under the Almond Trees, most of the family had passed away before it came out, and I’m not sure the remaining few ever read it. If they did, they never said anything to me. My new novel coming out in August, The Aloha Spirit, is more of a problem. My husband and I just returned from Hawaii where we met 200 relatives at a family reunion. I hope they think I did the family justice! That concern about portraying real people correctly can be very harmful to the creative process. In a writing class, someone referred to the real historical figure as inspiring their novel. That released my creativity. Now I can say The Aloha Spirit, for example, was inspired by my husband’s grandmother.
Who are your writing inspirations?
My main inspiration is Diana Gabaldon. She is a prolific writer with superbly researched stories and compelling characters. I met her briefly at an author event and told her how inspiring she was to me. I’m sure she gets that a lot, but I know I’d love to hear it no matter how successful I get.
What are you reading at the moment?
With the recent cancellation of group events, several of my fellow She Writes Press authors have had to cancel their book launch events. I’m reading as many of their books as I can. This week I’m starting Queen of the Owls by Barbara Lynn Probst and Beyond the Ghetto Gates by Michelle Cameron.
What are three things people may not know about you?
First, I am a founding member of Paper Lantern Writers, a marketing cooperative for women who write historical fiction. Our goal is to shout to the world all the good news about each other’s books. Second, I am currently the Marketing Chair for Women Writing the West. I am in charge of their social media! Finally, I am totally in love with my two yellow Labradors, Luke and Leia. They love their walks, cookies, and snuggling on the couch.
Care to share what you are working on now?
My next novel, The Aloha Spirit, comes out from She Writes Press this August. I have a completed first draft of a memoir, a new genre for me. It takes my teaching career from twenty years ago, when there were no guns in schools, no technology, and students were respectful, to recent times when so much has changed. It’s a difficult time to be in the classroom of a public school. Finally, I am beginning a new historical novel set in 1835 Fort Snelling. Yes, I have an ancestor born there that year, but in my research I discovered many famous in the area around that time, like Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Zachary Taylor, William Clark, Seth Eastman, Dred Scott, and even Eliza Hamilton. I hope I can write a good story without name dropping!