Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
This has been a good year of finding new voices in Historical Fiction as I have been delighted by the conversations I’ve been able to bring to Jorie Loves A Story as well as highlighting the kinds of historical narratives which have winked a thirst of interest in my own readerly heart to be read the day I can bring those stories home! This marks a day to celebrate finding a Historical Women’s Fiction novel which has a dual perspective threading through the storyline and a hard-hitting premise to boot!
As you’ve come to know about how I like to set the tone of the interviews I’m hosting, I love to dive into the writer’s inspiration behind their story, the roots of their characters own histories and to seek out a few behind-the-book trivia bits if I can manage it! I love discussing the art of crafting stories together both on my blog and through my bookish chat @SatBookChat, which is why the conversations I am sharing with the bookish on Jorie Loves A Story attempt to play off the conversational tone of engagement I bring into #SatBookChat.
This is a new voice in Historical Fiction for me – one which I have a feeling I will enjoy discovering once I get a copy of the novel because of the depth of how she’s layered the story and how well the story resonates with me even before its been read! As you will gather, there was quite a bit to discuss and in one regard, I loved finding out more about the duality of the book’s title because I knew it was a play on words – my own interpretation notwithstanding, the author shares what inspired the title and thereby what inspired the story behind the title!
If you’re seeking though-provoking Historical Fiction narratives – this definitely will be one you will want to have on your shelf because of how convicting it sounds even from afar! I will admit, I hadn’t realised the plot involved Cancer until I had this conversation and I am hoping in the context of the story as it is told it will not overlay the storyline too much as I do shy away from reading stories about terminal illnesses with a few exceptions.
Be sure to brew yourself a cuppa
and let’s discover more about this story together!
She Wears the Mask
by Shelly Stratton
No one can ever really know what lies behind the mask . . .
Gripping and moving, She Wears the Mask is a novel about two women from two very different worlds, both burdened with secrets from their pasts, who form an unexpected bond…
1950s Chicago: Angelique Bixby could be one of many fresh-faced sales girls working along the Magnificent Mile, but she’s unique. She’s a white woman married to a black man in 1950s Chicago, making her stand out among the tenements on the South Side where she lives. Despite the challenges the couple faces, they find comfort and strength in their love for one another. Angelique is content, as long as she has her Daniel by her side and their baby in her arms, until she loses them both—one to death and the other to dire circumstances.
1990s Washington, D.C.: Angelique Crofton is a woman of privilege. A rich, aging beauty and mother of a rising political star, she has learned to forget her tragic past. But now that she is facing her own mortality, she is finally ready to find the daughter she left behind, remember the young woman she once was, and unearth the bittersweet memories she had long ago buried.
Jasmine Stanley is an ambitious lawyer—the only black woman at her firm. She is too busy climbing the corporate ladder to deal with her troublesome family or their unresolved issues. Tasked with Angelique’s case, Jasmine doesn’t know what to make of her new client—an old debutante with seemingly too much time and money on her hands. Jasmine eagerly accepts the challenge though, hoping if she finds Angelique’s long-lost daughter, it will impress the firm’s partners. But she doesn’t count on the search challenging her mentally and emotionally. Nor does she expect to form a friendship with Angelique, who is much more like her than she realizes—because Jasmine is harboring secrets, too.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780999379226
Published by Self Published
on 7th June, 2020
This is a self-published novel.
Converse via: #HistFic, #HistoricalFiction, #WomensFiction
as well as #HFVBTBlogTours
Available Formats: Trade paperback and Ebook
What inspired the choice to tell She Wears the Mask from a dual timeline of interest which crossects the reader into the life of Angelique – starting from her life from the South Side of Chicago and lateron in Washington DC – separated in years and decades as the story begins in the 1950s before it shifts forward into the 1990s? I was curious how you also elected to pick those particular decades to highlight and reference in the course of her life?
Stratton responds: In the book, I wanted to show Angelique at two points in her life. The first, when the pivotal event in her life happened — when she gave away her daughter — that set her on her path and made her into the Angelique Crofton she is at the present time of the novel, which is the early 1990s. The second is when the events in her “present life” — her husband Harold’s death and finding out she has breast cancer — that leads her to echo back to the time in her past when she was a very different person, Angelique Bixby.
Choosing the 1990s and 1950s was done just for feasibility. I wanted to go far enough in the past where women were still constrained by social norms and interracial marriage still wasn’t legal throughout much of the U.S. I also wanted it far enough in the “present” where it to still be a challenge to find Angelique’s daughter. It wouldn’t be a series of simple internet searches.
Equally compelling is that this dual timeline is not about two separate characters – but rather two benchmark moments of an individual’s life where unresolved issues and hidden secrets abound. How did you approach reflecting the differences in her character and the differences in how she approached her life across both spectrums of interest in telling this story? How did you want readers to identify with her in both timelines in other words?
Stratton responds: Both timelines connect to the reasons why Angelique gave away her daughter. In the “present”/1990s, she tells her lawyer Jasmine her reasoning for doing so. But we realize that in the flashbacks that there may be more to the story than what she shared, and the flashbacks unravel her other motivation like a spool of thread. That’s why I chose to tell the 1950s timeline backwards rather than in chronological order. As we move further and further back into Angelique’s past, we find out more about who she truly is and her other motivation for giving her daughter away.
There is a second character whom I felt was equally pivotal to the telling of the story (Jasmine) and I wanted to ask how you brought her forward into the timeline of the story where her path and Angelique were walking tandem together in order to bridge the past into the future? How did you want Jasmine to be a bit of a catalyst towards the redemption and healing your character dearly needed?
Stratton responds: I wanted Jasmine and Angelique to be redemption vehicles for each other. I think sometimes in dual timeline novels or novels with two major characters, the character in the past seems to be the one living this vibrant, complicated life and the character in the present is simply hearing about it and learning lessons from it, but not living a complex life of their own. I wanted both characters to have fully developed storylines that could be autonomous of one another, but they have so many similarities that it made sense that they’re stories be told together.
What do you love most about writing Historical Fiction and what enriches your readerly experience the most when reading Historical Fiction? Do you tuck into specific eras in History or like me do you like to time travel and discover new eons of History which have something important to depart to us now in the 21st Century?
Stratton responds: I love all types of historical fiction and I’m not married to any era. I do see it as a chance to transport to another time and place as a reader. Executed well, historical fiction can be as dynamic and immersive as speculative fiction.
She Wears the Mask is a telling title in of itself – what clues did you hide within the title that most readers have picked up on already? For me, I was curious if it was a nod towards ethnic identity and cultural heritage being withhold from being presented in public or if it wasn’t withheld if it was being masked due to prejudice in society? People mask themselves for different reasons and generally it is for protection of their personal safety. I was curious which vein of interest you were taking the reader by choosing this title?
Stratton responds: That was a great guess! The inspiration for the title was We Wear the Mask, the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar that Angelique and Jasmine talk about in the novel when Jasmine sees Angelique reading Lyrics of Lowly Life in bed. So it does reference ethnic identity being withheld on some level, but it also refers to holding back an element of yourself or putting on a brave front or happy face despite inner pain, something that both Angelique and Jasmine have done. And on another level it’s a cultural pain that is hidden behind a smile. This is what the poem refers to — this false cheerful image that plagued the black identity in the past, especially in old slave images. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s bright smiles are perfect examples of this.
We smile, but O great Christ, our cries,
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet and long the mile;
but let the world dream otherwise;
We wear the mask!
What did you want this story to represent on the topic of race and privilege as well as the need for Intersectionalism in today’s society?
Stratton responds: I wanted there to be an understanding that though society has changed and there are definitely more opportunities afforded to people of color now than there were hundreds of years ago — even decades ago — there are still societal constraints that have to be navigated and that means hard choices have to be made. To gain “success” or “the American dream” is not an easy task for anyone, and it is particularly challenging for people of color, regardless of the time period.
Internalised guilt and the mental anguish of a character is a hard subject to tackle as a writer – how did you approach those aspects of your character’s internal world which was able to be reflected in your story to where a reader could connect emotionally to her journey and feel as if she’s lived a portion of Angelique’s life?
Stratton responds: Whenever I write a character, whether I believe them “good” or “bad”, I try to find a way to understand their logic and experience the story as they would see it. I think it’s the only way you can make a character believable, is to try to execute them without judgement and just with empathy. I tried to do that when I told Angelique’s story. That being said, I think she’s a character who most would empathize with; I didn’t have to try too hard to put the reader in her mindset. Most would understand if not identify with her struggle and the hard decisions she had to make. They could also understand her guilt and regrets.
At the heart of this story is a mother searching for answers and for redemption from the past and the choices she had to make on behalf of her daughter. How did you want Angelique’s story to inspire women today who are facing similar circumstances and need to make hard choices of their own for the goodwill of their children?
Stratton responds: Motherhood and parenthood, in general, is not something that always looks pretty. My mom said my grandmother used to tell her, “When you give birth, they don’t hand you your baby with a blanket and an instruction manual.” You can read about parenting, get advice from others, but ultimately, you are winging it as you go. And it can be overwhelming the thousands of little decisions you have to make all the time to ensure your child’s present well-being and healthy growth physically, psychologically, and emotionally.
Some mothers end up making the biggest, hardest decision that they just aren’t ready or aren’t capable emotionally or financially at that point in their lives to be a mother or they aren’t what’s best for their child at that time. Angelique made that decision and was still questioning it 40 years later. Jasmine’s mother pretty much made that decision, too. It’s a painful call.
Society definitely punishes those mothers for making the choice to walk away from their child, which is understandable, but I wanted to show in the novel that for some this decision isn’t made lightly and the motivations behind it can be complex. There’s more to the “bad mother” stereotype than what we see.
As Adoption has been in my life since I was quite young – as my parents had tried to adopt when I was younger and I’ve grown into a woman who will be adopting in the future – I understand this topic from a different perspective altogether. However, those who are not familiar with foster care and adoption might view this whole situation differently and not have empathy for women who choose to give their child a second chance at a life they might not have had otherwise. I do agree – there is a lot of prejudgements in society and a lot of misunderstandings about the choices women make in the best interest of their child(ren).
What was the most challenging aspect of writing this story and what was your favourite scene to write and why?
Stratton responds: My most challenging aspect of the writing is not to be too heavy handed with the meaning behind the story and I’m still not sure if I executed that part as well as I could have. My favorite scene is probably when Jasmine comes to the end of her search in Chicago. It was definitely an emotional one for me to write.
When your not writing or researching your stories what renews your spirit the most?
Stratton responds: I would say time with my family renews me, especially now in the age of COVID-19 when we’re all stuck in the house and can’t escape each other. LOL We’ve gotten comfortable with sharing our spaces and still learning how to function as a family and individuals.
I used to be a person who wanted to escape all the time into writing and reading novels but I figured out that my writing got stronger when I was actually living my life. It informed my stories. It helped me to understand my characters better. The best research for writing is having experiences and taking in the moments and observing others while you’re doing it.
I could not have stated this better myself! As the same is true for me – not the disappearing bit but the experiencing bit – the more I seek out to experience and to drink in through the hours I am living seeing the world, the more I realise how much better my writing becomes because it is full of the experiences and the observations I have made. Living in of itself is a what can fuell our creative lives and when it comes to writing – before we can write, we have to drink in all of what we can from life.
In closing,.. I want to thank Ms Stratton for giving us such a wonderful up front and personal glimpse into her story “She Wears the Mask”. It is a though-provoking drama into one woman’s life which anchours us through History in a way that both reflects and explains the changes that women have had to endure both culturally and through the obtainment of our rights as women to live our lives without the shame and the regret that others in the past had to endure themselves. I was truly invested in the conversation and hope others will find this a story they will want to read for themselves after having read the interview.
I’d love to hear your reactions, thoughts and comments as well.
This Blog Tour is courtesy of:
Follow the Virtual Road Map
as you visit others participating:
As this particular one has a bookaway along the route:
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. 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. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book covers for “She Wears the Mask”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Malia Zaidi, the tour host badge and HFVBTs badge were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours 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 via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.
This was a fascinating interview! Thank you for hosting Shelly today, Jorie!
Amy
HF Virtual Book Tours
You’re most welcome, Ms Bruno!
I’ve been enjoying interviewing your authors this year – lots of interesting stories to fetch to read and a lot of lovely conversations to be shared and enjoyed throughout the past eight months! I am grateful I can continue to interview them and seeing where our conversations take us as each author brings something unique to the interviews themselves. Thanks for dropping by – I was offline whilst this was finding everyone on the blog tour. Our storms have been brutal this year which are leaving me a bit disconnected – at least throughout August where it seems like it brings another bad storm everyday or every other day! I’m looking forward to Autumn and Winter now; where the temperatures will settle down and perhaps I’ll have a bit more peace from the storms! Glad everyone has been enjoying this conversation.