On the #PubDay for ‘Becoming Bonnie’, I talked about what implored me to become interested in reading this particular debut novel which is part of a special duology on the life behind #BonnieAndClyde told from a unique perspective by Ms Walsh. Today, is the 83rd Anniversary of the day Bonnie and Clyde died quite tragically and where their lives turnt from legend to lore. There is a lot of unknowns about the crime duo, including different accounts of whether or not Bonnie herself played a pivotal role in the crime sprees or if she was merely Clyde’s accomplice who was treading water in the deep end of a situation she could not exit. I’ve been doing a bit of light research into her life, similar to what I did after I read Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald as there are some authors out there who simply find an incredible way to tap into the heart of the living person they’re broaching into fiction.
Although, I am still awaiting my copy of the audiobook for ‘Becoming Bonnie’, being able to bring to my readers select excerpts from the novel itself has clued me into a small portion of how Ms Walsh transitioned the legend, the lore and the woman of ‘Bonnie’ into her novel. She had a lot of groundwork to cover and a lot of research to wade through, but each time I read a passage from the novel on one of my posts, the closer I feel to Bonn herself. I impart this to the depth of understanding Ms Walsh has achieved in believing not only in Bonnie herself but in the process she took to unearth a part of Bonn’s life we might not have expected to uncover.
This is one reason I dearly love reading Biographical Historical Fiction – you get to take a critical step into a life of someone you might not have felt you could understand in any other way, because the way in which writers use this thread of literature is to be wholly representative of a living person’s life. Whether or not they take creative liberties to tell their stories or shift time or setting to make a working theory of their lives is unknown, but what I do know is my firm appreciation for the work they put into their stories. You will find a lot of stories which fall under this category of interest in my Story Vault, as it’s happily one of my favourites to devour!
Becoming Bonnie
Subtitle: The Crash of the Century: When Bonnie Met Clyde
From debut historical novelist Jenni L. Walsh comes the untold story of how wholesome Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde duo.
The summer of 1927 might be the height of the Roaring Twenties, but Bonnelyn Parker is more likely to belt out a church hymn than sling drinks at an illicit juice joint. She’s a sharp girl with plans to overcome her family's poverty, provide for herself, and maybe someday marry her boyfriend, Roy Thornton. But when Roy springs a proposal on her and financial woes jeopardize her ambitions, Bonnelyn finds salvation in an unlikely place: Dallas's newest speakeasy, Doc's.Living the life of a moll at night, Bonnie remains a wholesome girl by day, engaged to Roy, attending school and working toward a steady future. When Roy discovers her secret life, and embraces it—perhaps too much, especially when it comes to booze and gambling—Bonnie tries to make the pieces fit. Maybe she can have it all: the American Dream, the husband, and the intoxicating allure of jazz music. What she doesn't know is that her life—like her country—is headed for a crash.
She’s about to meet Clyde Barrow.
Few details are known about Bonnie's life prior to meeting her infamous partner. In Becoming Bonnie, Jenni L. Walsh shows a young woman promised the American dream and given the Great Depression, and offers a compelling account of why she fell so hard for a convicted felon—and turned to crime herself.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780765390189
Published By: Forge (@torbooks) | Read their incredible BLOG
Available Formats: Hardback and Audiobook
*Guest Topic I selected for Ms Walsh*
From a purely aesthetic perspective, what did you love most about the era in which Bonnie & Clyde lived? From fashion to music to the cultural backdrop of their generation – what interested you most about the timeline itself?
Becoming Bonnie (and the sequel Being Bonnie) gave me so much to work with as far as the time period and I enjoyed visually bringing the eras to life. In Becoming Bonnie, the novel opens in 1927 during the height of the roaring twenties. Then, in 1929, she experiences the stock market crash, along with the beginning of the Great Depression. This multi-year time-frame allowed me to drop Bonnie in the middle of a foxtrot in a speakeasy, but also outside a bank wringing her hands together as she tries to figure out what’s next.
A speakeasy was an especially fun and exuberant element for me to depict in Becoming Bonnie, and I’d love to let you see one of my favorite moments of the book through Bonnie’s eyes as she stood on a stage and looked out at the dance floor at an illicit juice joint.
I subtly bob my knee to the beat, waiting for the chorus, a place to make my entrance. This feeling of anticipation is the most alive I’ve felt in days, weeks, maybe even years. It rumbles through me, and I lean ’til my lips touch the cool metal of the microphone.
I swallow. Then I’m singing, “Ain’t misbehavin’ . . .” I pause, and the piano carries me to the next note. “I’m savin’ my love for you.” I stretch the last word, my voice strengthening, deepening to become sultrier. The way the song is intended.
This earns me hoots and hollers from the people on the dance floor and from those sitting at the tables, but I don’t dare look up from their feet. I unclench my fingers, lace ’em ’round the microphone stand.
Rosie bumps me with her hip, my body falling into a natural sway. I count down the beats ’til the next verse. Three, two, one. “I know for certain the one I love,” I purr, enjoying the silkiness of my voice. “I’m through with flirtin’. It’s you that I’m thinkin’ of. Ain’t misbehavin’. I’m savin’ my love for you.”
The lyrics pour out of me, ones I’ve heard here at Doc’s, ones I’ve secretly heard at home on our radio, ones I’ve hummed in the time in between. Line after line, I sing, my voice melding with the song’s rhythm ’til the drums pick up, like rain pinging on a roof. The piano matches it, and then a cowbell, and finally trumpets, the instrumental solo creating a frenzy of feet on the dance floor.
Mary Janes and men’s dress shoes move at lightning speed, hopping, skipping, tapping. Men swirl the women ’cross the dance floor. My eyes trail up the bodies to hands that join and unjoin. People are thrown smoothly from side to side, between legs, into arms.
Their faces: enthralled and without a care in the world.
Copyright © 2017 by Jenni L. Walsh
Forge Books: A Trade Hardcover ISBN: 9780765390189
$25.99 | 304 pages eBook: 9780765390202
On Sale May 9, 2017
Adversely, on Black Tuesday, Bonnie found herself in another crowd,
but this time with a very different vibe.
My mouth drops open, and I push my bike through the crowd, soon realizing it’s easier to leave it propped against a nearby shop. Banging and screaming pulls my attention to a new ruckus. I use a nearby man’s shoulder to prop myself higher, not caring I don’t know him. Men are pounding on the bank’s door. Inside, the bank tellers, their movements frantic, are trying to keep it closed.
Like part of a breaking wave, I stumble forward with those ’round me. The doors to the bank are thrown open, people rushing inside. I move with the men, nearly whisked off my feet, my heart beating erratically, ’til I’m at the door, then inside the lobby, having no other choice.
Outside, a gun is fired, followed by a string of gasps, profanities, screaming—some belonging to me. I grip the coats ’round me; otherwise, I know I’ll lose my footing and be trampled.
Through the bodies, I catch glimpses of hands grasping the bars of the teller windows, shaking them. Even behind their metal cages, the bankers take steps back, heads rocking from side to side, palms up.
I yank on the coat beside me. “What’s happening?” I scream to him.
A crashing sound.
I duck and use my arms to protect my head as shards of glass rain down. The room darkens. Steps away, another crash, another hanging light being smashed. The lobby grows even darker, louder.
“What’s happening?” I ask the man again. He looks over me before down at me. “It’s gone,” he says, and then his voice is directed at anyone, his panicked face jolting from side to side. “All of our money is gone. Bank used our money to invest. Lost it all.”
I tighten my grasp on the man’s sleeve. “What?”
Copyright © 2017 by Jenni L. Walsh
Forge Books: A Trade Hardcover ISBN: 9780765390189
$25.99 | 304 pages eBook: 9780765390202
On Sale May 9, 2017
I loved that telling Bonnie Parker’s origin story allowed me to so vividly show a contrast between these two settings. With the sequel Being Bonnie set during the Great Depression, I’m able to dig deeper into that era and, for example, show visuals of people using “hoover blankets” or newspapers for warmth.
As an author, I want readers to feel like they are there with my characters, and I hope it’s something I accomplished in Becoming Bonnie through all the nuances and details from each era. You’ll have to let me know in the comments how well I did!
About Jenni L. Walsh
Jenni L. Walsh spent her early years chasing around cats, dogs, and chickens in Philadelphia's countryside, before dividing time between a soccer field and a classroom at Villanova University. She put her marketing degree to good use as an advertising copywriter, zip-code hopping with her husband to DC, NYC, NJ, and not surprisingly, back to Philly. There, Jenni's passion for words continued, adding author to her resume. She now balances her laptop with a kid on each hip, and a four-legged child at her feet.
For the mamas, Becoming Bonnie is her debut novel that tells the untold story of how church-going Bonnelyn Parker becomes half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde duo during the 1920s.
For the kiddos, the Brave Like Me series is her middle grade debut that features true stories from heroic women who, at a young age, accomplished daring feats of perseverance and bravery.
The new excerpts rub off the innocence of what we knew of Bonnie previously shown in the chapter sampler from the interview I hosted with Ms Walsh. You can see she is transitioning here into ‘Bonnie’ of the fame we know her but evenso, there is more behind her persona than what is presumed. I almost think Bonn had so much to say to Ms Walsh, it was harder on Ms Walsh to decide what to put into the novel(s) at any given point in time! Bonn comes across as such a fiercely and fiery independent spirit, it’s a credit to Walsh’s insight how she’s portrayed Bonn and how she’s allowed the growth of Bonn stepping into her own spotlight to shine.
I personally love historical nuance – I love reading portions of narrative which hint towards a different era, setting and ‘moment’ of life. Where we can feel ourselves alive for a period of time outside our own reality and re-living the life of someone else who has captured our attention. One reason I love reading Biographical Historical Fiction is how emotionally convicting they become and how much they broker into the layers of the human condition & the sociological choices which determined a person’s fate or in this case, the trajectory of a person’s life on the wrong side of the law.
This #Bonnieandclydeversary showcase is courtesy of:
the author jenni l. walsh & Tor/forge
Read my #PubDay Interview feat. a chapter sampler of #BecomingBonnie!
I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary!
Especially if you want to carry the convo into the comment threads & / or want to share why this title is tempting you to read it and discover a more authentic ‘Bonnie’ than the woman we all knew out of history’s annals. What interests you most about how Ms Walsh approached writing the life of Bonnie ahead of Clyde? Is this someone you’ve read about previously?
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Becoming Bonnie”, book synopsis, author photograph, author biography, and the chapter excerpt were provided by the author Jenni L. Walsh and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie in Canva: Writerly Topics banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2017.
I’m a social reader | I love sharing my reading life
The only reason I ran the Bonnie & Clyde post is because the 23rd of May is a critical day in their living history as they really did pass on themselves on the 23rd so many years ago, and that’s living history too. We cannot predict everything nor feel guilty if something horrid happens when we are planning something else. Therefore, I decided to run it whilst my prayers went to the UK. I did take a ‘social day of silence’ after posting this single promo tweet in observance of what happened.
(see also Cover Reveal of ‘Where Rainbows End’)
.@torbooks | #BonnieAndClydeVersary
feat #GuestPost w/ #Excerpt by @jennilwalshVisit: https://t.co/fxzxotAyMO#BookBloggers love #HistFic pic.twitter.com/y4ns1NB0gB
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) May 23, 2017
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