Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
You might have seen my joyous celebration in finding a lovely new Cosy Historical Mystery series which is also a wonderful introspective Biological spin on the living histories of Edith Lewis & Willa Cather! As soon as I first picked up On the Rocks, I was immediately connecting to this sense of place and the era in which the women lived. The scenery alone on Grand Manan became very real to me as did the ambiance of life on this island in the Eastern Maritimes of Canada feel as if time were not the key component of how life was lived but rather, the creative ways in which you spent your hours creating something to give back to the world.
It was a place where creatives of all backgrounds came together and rejoiced in the common goal of being creatively inspired in a place where time was irrelevant as community, friendship and the art of pursuing your creative instincts is what thrived here instead.
I am in the process of finalising my thoughts on behalf of the sequel Death Comes whilst filled with eager anticipation for the third installment – of which, I’ll happily await until the time is right to find it ready to be read. This is a curious series – as it has it’s own unique pace and it’s own unique voice within it. I love finding these hidden gems within the branches of Mystery & Suspense – wherein, their not necessarily defined by the ‘mystery’ per se as there is a lot more going on besides this vein of interest!
For me personally, I loved being able to draw keen insight into the lives of Edith Lewis & Willa Cather – the only true surprise being, I learnt I relate better to Edith, than Willa! Imagine? In this conversation, you’ll see me sharing a smile with the author about this one bit of trivia. If you haven’t yet discovered the writing style of Ms Hallgarth, I hope this interview will encourage you to seek out her collective works. She truly has a beautiful knack for re-envisioning the lives of these women and bringing them into the forefront of our focus.
To give you a cursory introduction as to why I love reading this series, here is what I shared on behalf of On the Rocks:
Such a refreshingly original setting and locale to focus on – the Fundy Isles hold their own allure and by setting this first installment at a place in the North Atlantic few might take notice of themselves, the joy of reading the novel is enhanced tenfold for the reader! I appreciated how Hallgarth introduced both setting and character – everything unfolded in a way which befits smaller communities where strangers are not common. She had a keen insight of how to balance the elements of the natural world with the distinctive lifestyles of her characters, too. It was a breathable balance where you felt a ‘part of’ the air and rooted in the spaces between the heartbeats.
The way Hallgarth paints the portrait of the island community rings true of what I know of this area myself – of where neighbours pitch in to help one another and where no one is ever left without assistance for something they’re working on. It’s the opposite of how many townes and cities function on the mainland stateside – where there are clear distinctions and disconnections amongst neighbours and community members; where each are practically living on their own ‘island’ (metaphorically speaking!).
The pace of the narrative is set in such a way to encourage you to sip tea and musefully ponder what your reading – to fully sense and feel this world, whilst allowing Willa and Edith to share the duties for how you navigate it. It’s one of those lovely immersive narratives where you can get lost in the descriptive narrative and feel as if you’ve lived half a moon in this setting. She has given all of us the chance to ‘know’ Willa Cather up close and personal – ahead of reading her stories – of peering into what was important to her and why she felt the legacy she left behind might slip past people who hadn’t realised the point behind her stories. Intuitive readers would notice and see her messages, but to the casual reader? I can see how her narratives might be glossed over for what was readily taken as the truth of what they revealled.
-how I described her poetic style on my review of On the Rocks
The Willa Cather & Edith Lewis Mysteries:
Why Jorie loves reading this series:
Being able to read these two novels back to back has been a special treat for me – they provided me with hours of enjoyment – tucking into the lives of Willa & Edith as if they were long lost best friends rather than strangers I’ve only just had the pleasure of greeting into my life. Ms Hallgarth channels their spirits to such a degree of capture, you truly feel their spirits reach you through her narratives. It is also a credit to her, whose research has bridged such a great gap between what we know of them and what ‘could have been’ – these mysteries feel plausible – as if their not just literary theory but they could have been (real) living adventures both of these women would have enjoyed encountering. There is an introspective intuitiveness threading throughout the series – each installment builds upon the last, giving you a lovely tome of insight and joy to fill your hours.
-quoted from my forthcoming review of Death Comes
Published By: Arbor Farm Press
Available Formats: Paperback & Ebook
Converse via: #EdithLewis + #WillaCather & #CosyMystery
You were able to channel the voices of Willa & Edith with such respective clarity of insight, it felt as if they were living through your mysteries. Were each of them easy to attach thought and heart too or did you find one had a way of ‘voicing’ herself easier than the other? Of whom did you feel the most connected to during the process of creating the series?
Hallgarth responds: Willa Cather and Edith Lewis were both very present to me throughout the writing of On the Rocks and Death Comes. If you notice, I use Edith’s point of view and not Willa’s, so I suppose I do feel more connected to Edith while in the process of writing. But Edith’s eye (and mine) is always on Willa Cather.
I, had noticed actually – although, I thought I might have been mistaken – as I personally, felt closer to Edith myself reading the stories. I smiled reading your response! And, like you said – always keen on watching what Willa would say or do, but it was Edith of whom charmed me the most by her presence and the ways in which she saw the world. She had an interesting perspective to share of her own and I think, this is what pulled me into her character most readily. She took me by surprise and that’s always a good thing for a reader whose unsure which character will shine most inside a dual narrative of focus!
You brought to life the atmosphere of the Fundy Isles with such local insight, I can tell it impacted you to where you could articulate it viscerally to those of us who’ve found your stories. What to this day, has stayed in your heart about this particular area of the North Atlantic?
Hallgarth responds: I fell in love with Grand Manan the moment I first saw it, now almost thirty years ago. It was beautiful and so “unspoiled,” just five fishing villages, a great climate, wonderful hiking trails, marvelous bird watching, and its own history in addition to the history of two women’s summer colonies, one of which included Willa Cather and Edith Lewis. It is still all those things, despite the fact that the fishing industry has been negatively affected by global warming, and larger ferries with more frequent schedules mean islanders are no longer as isolated as they were. It was and is a “living history.” Whale Cove Cottages are still there and available for rent, the island’s museum contains Willa Cather’s typewriter and desk, and the Bay of Fundy is ever-present. The islanders are generous and warm, and you can still join many of them at “The Whistle” (fog horn) to watch the sun go down. I continue to return and hope I always will.
I think I fell in love with Grand Manan because of your novel! There is something to be said for unspoilt landscapes and a place where it lives by it’s own code. I’ve been reading about the Bay of Fundy since I first starting reading ‘On the Rocks’ – such an inspiring place, but also, quite interesting due to the tides, the natural landmarks and of course, the fact there are so many artists living in the Fundy Isles – all the local communities have their own focus on not only celebrating the arts & artisans who live there but they encourage newcomers to visit. I’ve known about the effects on the fishing industries – from Newfoundland to Maine – the entire region relies so heavily on the sea for it’s trade & commerce. In some ways, it is said to see such a legacy spiral down due to how the more industries we have and the more pollutants we cast out has a negative effect on everything else.
Negate this, I hope one day to visit the Maritimes – if only to smell the salt in the air and breathe in a place which is not lit by the high pace of the rest of the world but has a cosiness about it where everything can happen in it’s own time. I love living histories – your quite right, there are some places so alive with them, you cannot help but feel touched by them when you visit.
I was interested in how you’ve been selecting the locales for the mysteries – are you strictly adhering to the locations the women were inhabiting while alive or are you taking a few liberties of placing them in certain places as it befits the series? I know the first two mysteries do chart through their own histories – but I wasn’t sure if moving forward, you were going to have them go ‘outside’ those histories?
Hallgarth responds: I do a great deal of research before writing and have strictly adhered to the actual locations where Willa Cather and Edith Lewis were—their own cottage among those at Whale Cove Cottages and other local places on Grand Manan, including the women’s colony at The Anchorage on the other end of the island, in On the Rocks; and in Death Comes, the pink adobe and main house at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s in Taos and the D.H. Lawrence ranch in Northern New Mexico. All of the places are real, I have visited and/or stayed in them, and I describe their actual features in detail. My fiction is based in fact. I take liberties in creating the “mystery” characters of each story, but I deal with thoroughly researched facts for main characters and locations. And I have no need or desire to take Willa Cather and Edith Lewis anywhere other than places they actually were. They traveled often and went to so many places, the possibilities are already endless.
What an incredible landscape of choice for you, then! It will be a delight watching you populate the series and move us continuously through the threads of their lived lives – re-seeing the places they were and tucking closer into who they were as well. I hadn’t meant to imply you hadn’t researched this series to the hilt – in fact, I have a strong appreciation for the level of research you put into the stories and the women. I was merely trying to gauge if there was enough source material to move the series forward – which thankfully, there is.
I personally love Biographical Historical Fiction – it etches out a curious theory of how the lives of well-known persons once lived but also, of how we can still relate to their lives today. Did you initially set out to create a long running series or are you limiting the number of adventures Willa & Edith engage inside?
Hallgarth responds: I initially set out in the 1986 to write a critical study of works by Willa Cather. But I quickly realized my reading of Cather would more easily be accepted by Cather scholars if we were on the “same page” about Cather’s life. At that time homophobic fans and scholars interested in protecting Cather’s reputation ignored Edith Lewis and considered Willa Cather a lone genius. My goal is to correct those misassumptions and place Cather and Lewis in context. Fiction is a fun way to accomplish my goal: no footnotes, and “living” history with no limits.
Definitely, so! By placing them in the full embrace of a fictional world – you can quite literally carve out an endless array of stories & adventures for them to take part in whilst honing in on their conjoined perspectives and honouring who they were to each other. I believe you made the smarter choice and thereby, gave everyone an entry into who Edith & Willa truly were whilst they were alive.
Of the two, whom do you think left behind more of ‘herself’ to assimilate best into the mysteries – in regards to personality traits and quirks of personal nature? Was one of them more private or reserved than the other or were they equally able to share enough of themselves while alive to give you enough source material to expound upon?
Hallgarth responds: The real issue here is not whether Cather or Lewis was “more private or reserved than the other” but how to find out who they were. In my case, that meant examining primary sources (letters, diaries, journals, and artifacts and Cather’s fiction as opposed to secondary sources, which means what others have said about them).
Doing so meant years of travel to archives and undertaking expensive projects. Cather and Lewis did not leave an easy trail. Once they were a couple (by 1906 or certainly by 1907), both were private about their personal lives, and after Cather gained widespread fame in 1922, they shared a determination to preserve their privacy and protect Cather’s creative time and space. Then from the late 1930s through the end of Cather’s life and on through Lewis’ death in 1972, Cather’s literary and personal reputation came under critical attack, especially from homophobic critics and biographers like Leon Edel, who distorted Cather’s fiction and Cather and Lewis’ relation to each other.
Lewis tried to set the record “straight” by publishing her own memoir, Willa Cather Living, but Cather had already muddied the water by declaring in her will that her letters and other ephemera were never to be quoted or published, so negative attitudes and critical distortions continued until the current re-evaluation of the facts about their lives. The greatest boon to understanding their lives and Cather’s fiction is the publication in 2013 of the Selected Letters of Willa Cather by the University of Nebraska Press (until recently available only in archives across this nation) and the more recent donation of journals (including some of Lewis’) and other materials to the Cather Archives at the University of Nebraska. Melissa Homestead, a professor at the University of Nebraska, is also adding a great deal of information about Edith Lewis to Cather studies—her life with Cather and their professional relationship—and will soon be publishing a book on their creative partnership.
It is definitely sad how some people are not open-minded about accepting people who live a different life outside their own; my heart is always saddened by people’s quick judgements & prejudices. I grew up in a family who embraced our melting pot of a metropolis and of whom, knew many lovely individuals I am sure most would have dismissed for different reasons known only to them. I loved meeting with the artists, writers & artisans – from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to all the lovely souls who lived nonconventional lives – by pursuing their art rather than a regular nine to five job. People miss out on conversations and enlightenment by removing themselves from meeting people outside their own circles.
I am thankful for the knowledge of what is being published now on behalf of their lives, as moving forward I hope to seek out a few of these books before you’ve had the chance to finish the third mystery! I would dearly like to know more about them and thereby, furthering my understanding of them more directly to pick up on the nuances of their presence in your series, which I am sure makes you smile as an author to have them included.
Why do you think writing and artist colonies are not as prevalent (or at least, as well known) today as they had been in the early Nineteen Hundreds? Did the appeal die out or did our lives move forward in such a way, as being dedicated to the pursuit of art and literature, not allow such fanciful trips to be included in our schedules? I often wondered why there is less talk about certain places writers or artists can ‘retreat’ to find their muse in our modern era?
Hallgarth responds: But there are writers and artists’ colonies today, many already well known during Cather’s lifetime. Yaddo, McDowell, the Wurlitzer Foundation, to name only three. Writers and artists are still able to retreat, whether at a colony or some private place of their own. Cather visited McDowell but preferred to “retreat” to her own, well-loved private places in New Hampshire and on Grand Manan.
Hmm, this is odd. When I first started researching these kinds of places in my early twenties, I wasn’t able to locate them. The best I came up with was a guide for Abbeys who would allow writers a respite from their lives to focus on their writings but outside of these calm sanctuarys, my researched led into a dead end. Thanks for cluing me into the ones which are still active!
Prior to writing the mysteries themselves, what was your first ‘introduction’ to Edith & Willa? What was it about their lives which inspired your series?
Hallgarth responds: I first got interested in Willa Cather’s novels when I went to an International Seminar on Willa Cather in 1983. That was an introduction only to Willa Cather. Edith Lewis was rarely mentioned and then only as Cather’s “companion” or secretary. That fact alone got me interested in Edith Lewis, an interest that intensified the more I understood Cather’s fiction and read her letters and Lewis’ memoir. What finally got me writing the series was a visit to Grand Manan and the discovery of the “lost” women’s colony at Whale Cove. It was lost only because no one had been looking at what was right before their eyes. I saw that Cather and Lewis were not running away from the world as Cather’s biographers suggested but running to, to be with their friends. Then I wrote what I saw but “slant,” as Emily Dickinson would say. I chose fiction because at that time (twenty-five years ago) no one would yet believe the facts.
I am thrilled to bits you took this journey and undertook the time you needed to not only re-visit where they walked themselves but to find a way to bring their lives so fully into the narrative you’ve created. I cannot commend you enough for bringing them forward and making them so dimensionally real as if they were here talking to us; sharing these adventures, as if they had truly lived them. That’s a credit to you but also, to the heart of who they were for inspiring you to write their stories. To honour how they lived but also, who they were at their core. They each had so much to give – it is truly sad how so many have overlooked their legacies.
How did you set about allowing the background atmosphere of the settings have their own curated ‘voice’ of presence in the novels to correlate with the women who cannot help their curiosities to find reasons to sleuth? In essence, how did you find the balance of how the narrative has it’s own flow of buoyancy?
Hallgarth responds: I’m not sure exactly what you are asking here, but I will say that my narrative mind always follows my characters and once I have them in place—literally and figuratively—I simply follow where they lead and describe what they see, feel, and think.
Yes, you did broach into what I was referencing – I was so captivated by the ways in which you had the background elements wholly authentic into their own truths, I was fascinated by how you had created a buoyant story-line where everything felt fully fleshed out and realistic. Not just the people who populate the novels but the places themselves as sometimes locales and the atmosphere of a location can be so powerful as to be its own player of interest within a story.
The natural world has a strong presence throughout your series – what is your favorite place of respite in nature and what makes it still your mind?
Hallgarth responds: My favorite place of respite is a meadow on Grand Manan Island called Hay Point. You come down to it from a trail through the woods and suddenly the meadow is there, a mild breeze moving though tall grass, a perfect sky, and the Bay of Fundy beyond. No people, just peace. That is where I go when I need to meditate. And so many places in New Mexico where infinite vistas with stunning sunrises and sunsets abound. Silence and space and beauty, my perfect combination.
I can see why! These sound absolutely divine! To have such a place to eclipse away the clutter of ordinary life – of things which distract us and which ferret our minds into tangents we sometimes can get lost inside – it is refreshing to find these places, where we can be introspective but also, still. Stillness is it’s own reward.
What will surprise readers the most in the 3rdmystery – if you could give us a piece of insight to chew on while we await it’s publication? Will the girls go to New York or have you selected a different locale to explore?
Hallgarth responds: No decisions yet. Possibly several places this time, including New York and maybe Virginia, and maybe.… Still thinking.
Ah! I shall be pleasantly surprised, then! Virginia before New York would be interesting, though…
This was a thinking man’s mystery – the ‘mystery’ in of itself is also unique, because instead of being an isolated incident it’s a piece of a wider puzzle! I like how mysteries take on an enlarged cusp of an area’s secrets – of how whilst the reader has to stay patient to understand the different components of what is being fused together, it’s the manner of how things pull apart and are put back together in proper order which is the most exciting! For me, this mystery was wicked enjoyable if only to draw further insight into understanding the people of Grand Manan and how where they live influences their lives.
-as quoted from my final ruminative thoughts on behalf of On the Rocks
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Kindly leave your comments & commentary for the poet, Ms Hallgarth in the comment threads below – especially if your an appreciator of sophisticated Cosy Historical Mysteries which dip into the beautifully lovely sub-category of Biographical Historical Fiction – you’ll love finding this series as Ms Hallgarth truly illuminates these women back to life! Perhaps, you’ve read other series such as this and Thank you!
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “On the Rocks” & “Death Comes”, book synopsis, author photograph, author biography, and the tour badge were all by Poetic Book Tours and used with permission. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna, Post Script banner using Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2017.
Thanks for being on the blog tour! I love your interviews
Hallo, Hallo Ms Cox,
What a kind thing to say and share with me!! :) I love putting together interviews and guest features – ever since I first started blogging those were the posts which I truly enjoyed because it allowed me to research the person I was interviewing and truly bring something original to my blog that they might not have been asked previously. This particular book series I was enquiring about is still amongst my favourites and I am hoping the author continues to release them in sequence because I am eagerly in need of reading them!! I talk about them quite often – on my blog, on other people’s blogs and even on Twitter or IRL! lol I really am bookishly chatty!
Truly appreciative and grateful you included me on this blog tour!!
It became one of my top favourites I’ve hosted for you!!