An Accidental Theme? An Echo!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my golly, we have a THEME! Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways…well, actually, all the time.

 Before we get to the fab Jess Montgomery and today’s mysterious ways---shout out to our own Lucy Burdette, whose chilling thriller UNSAFE HAVEN is featured on First Chapter Fun today!

 

At 12:30 PM ET, I’ll be talking about Lucy and the book, and then reading the first chapter out loud on Facebook live on First Chapter Fun. Click this link to join us! (It’s a private group, so you have to join.) Then be there at 12:30 ET to join in the fun. It’s always terrific, and Lucy is episode 249. Whoa. AND she is doing a giveaway!

 

And now, I am so honored and delighted to bring back one of the true stalwart fabulous wonderful friends of JRW—the amazing and incredibly talented Jess Montgomery. Her newest book THE ECHOES is out right now (it is gorgeous and evocative and beautiful) –and one of the main characters is the mother of the series star, Sheriff Lily Ross.

 

Just as we discussed yesterday (coincidence!) (and ooh--you might call it--an ECHO!) today we’re talking about mothers. But today, how Jess handled a fictional mom in the 1920s, and gave her a very special role.

 

Moms and Daughters

by

Jess Montgomery

  

The heart of my Kinship Historical Mystery series is Lily Ross, the sheriff of Bronwyn County in the 1920s, in the Appalachian region of Ohio. Lily is inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff, Maude Collins.

 

Each novel is co-narrated by Lily and another woman from her community. (In the first three novels, Lily’s co-narrators have been a woman who eventually becomes a new friend, a life-long friend, and a frenemy!)

 

In the background of each novel has also been Beulah McArthur, Lily’s mother (who Lily calls Mama.) Mama has been there for each story, helping Lily by watching Lily’s children when Lily is out on cases, even though Mama has another child, a change-of-life baby, 7-year-old Caleb Jr., who is the same age as Lily’s youngest child. (Mama is only 48, young by today’s standards, but rather long in the tooth to have a young son back in the 1920s!) Mama has also fussed at Lily about remaining safe and being mindful of the expectations of women. For example, Lily may be breaking convention by serving as sheriff, but Mama reminds her that she is still expected to go to Woman’s Club and church meetings, and to enter her pies in the county fair baking contest. Of course, Mama has also been not-so-secretly proud of Lily’s achievements.

 

For the fourth novel in my series, THE ECHOES, I decided it was time for Mama to have her own voice—and not just as a mother and grandmother and widow. But fully as herself. As Beulah McArthur.

 

This fits the plot of THE ECHOES, set in 1928. The plot is driven by what really happened to Roger—Lily’s older brother and Beulah’s first-born child—during The Great War. From the previous three novels, we know that Roger died in France during the war, but not much more than that. In THE ECHOES, Roger’s friend, who is also a veteran, creates a memorial park dedicated to veterans, and specifically to Roger, set to open on July 4. But of course, murder and other mayhem ensues—partly because both Roger and Beulah have kept secrets from Lily that must now come to the surface.

 

I relished writing from Beulah’s point of view and developing her as a character who fully embraces her role of mother, but who has so many more aspects to her than that. And it was both challenging and fun to have mother-daughter co-narrators, and consider how they might have similar viewpoints on some topics, but very different viewpoints on others. All along, I’ve seen parts of myself in Lily, but also in Beulah.

 

I am also the mother of two adult daughters. Like Beulah, I’m very proud of my daughters. Unlike Beulah, I don’t worry about whether they’re doing what society “expects” of young women. But, again, like Beulah I sometimes do worry about the safety of my daughters.

I’ve learned that parental worry never fully subsides, no matter how competent one’s adult children are. Some of Beulah’s fussiness, therefore, comes from interactions I’ve had with my adult daughters! And yet, in addition to being proud of them, I’m also inspired by them, particularly their courage and confidence. In THE ECHOES, Lily comes to a greater understand of her Mama’s worries and concerns, but Beulah also comes to a greater appreciation of her daughter’s courage, skills, and accomplishments.

How about you? Did your mom—or a mom figure—have a strong influence on you?

 

Leave a comment, and one Jungle Red reader’s name will be drawn at random to receive a copy of THE ECHOES.

 

HANK: Again—we have an accidental THEME! So since we discussed mothers yesterday (what’re the odds?), let’s flip the question a bit and keep going:

 

Have you ever done something your mother would have been surprised about?

If you have daughters, have they ever done anything that surprised you?  

What’s one thing you learned from your mother?

 

What I learned from my mother: Don’t keep tomatoes in the fridge. (Though I do anyway.) It’s just as easy to comb your hair. And her clarion call: The world is not about YOU.

 

And remember,  one Jungle Red reader’s name will be drawn at random to receive a copy of THE ECHOES. (And if you haven't read the first three books--that's fine! You can start with this one. And then, I promise you will read the others!)

 

  

 

Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries, set in 1920s Appalachian Ohio and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff. Under her given name, she writes the “Level Up Your Writing (Life)” column for Writer’s Digest. She was formerly a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. She is a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council, a two-time recipient of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant, and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio). Jess lives in her native state of Ohio, where she enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, swimming, baking, crocheting, and occasionally fishing and hiking. Learn more at www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com

Jess Montgomery Celebrates Powerful Women

DEBORAH CROMBIE: How perfect is it that we have a new book from Jess Montgomery right smack dab in the middle of Women's History Month? You certainly had to be a strong woman to be a sheriff in Ohio in 1925, like Jess's character Lily Ross. And I absolutely love the connections she's made in her new book, THE STILLS, to a real-life powerful woman.

 

Here's Jess to tell you more! (And what a stunning cover!)

JESS MONTGOMERY: Since I’ve been writing the Kinship Historical Mysteries, I’ve received many comments that they feature strong women. Hurrah! I love to write, and read, about strong women.

The heart of the series is Lily Ross, the sheriff of Bronwyn County in 1925, in the Appalachian region of Ohio. Lily is inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff, Maude Collins.

In THE STILLS, the third outing set in 1927, Prohibition comes to the forefront of the story, with Lily's nemesis--bootlegger George Vogel--setting up a dangerous, deadly operation right in Bronwyn County. Lily's co-narrator for this novel is Fiona--George's new wife, and a former member of the Kinship community. Though Lily and Fiona have very different means, and thus on the surface are complete opposites, they desire the same end: control over their own lives.

Into this volatile showdown, I couldn’t help but include another real-life woman: U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the highest-ranking woman in federal government in her day. And she wasn’t an obscure figure. Partly because of her unusual role as a woman (Mabel was the second woman to receive an appointment to Assistant Attorney General, but the first served only a few months, and Mabel served from 1921 to 1929), and partly because she spoke frequently and made the news often, Mabel was very well known across the country.

Her job was to ensure that the laws of the Volstead act, set up to give teeth to Prohibition, were enforced. That included, in part, overseeing the newly formed Bureau of Prohibition. (Previously, a Prohibition Unit fell under the Bureau of Internal Revenue, but in 1927, the unit was elevated into its own bureau.)

Though Mabel personally opposed Prohibition, she did believe in the rule of law, and that it should be enforced for everyone. Her virtuous view didn’t win her a lot of friends—in spite of some spectacular successes in taking down bootleggers and crime bosses—even among those who supposedly, as far as the public was concerned, supported the law. She was given some fairly harsh nicknames at the time—Prohibition Portia and Mrs. Firebrand among them. (The latter was particularly unkind, given that she was divorced—another unusual act for a woman back then.)

Because the Anti-Saloon League was headquartered in Westerville, Ohio (where there is now a museum for the league), which is not too far northeast of where Lily lives and works, it occurred to me that it would be viable for Mabel to have a speaking tour that would include Kinship. And since Lily is working with a Bureau agent in her confrontation with George Vogel (and in real life, Mabel came into conflict with George Remus), I delighted in bringing them together for a brief meeting.

Even at the start of THE STILLS, Lily is nervous about meeting Mabel. And yet, though Lily also believes in the rule of law, she is uncomfortable with how the particular laws of Prohibition are carried out:

“Lily thinks of a quote from Wayne Wheeler, an advocate from the Anti-Saloon League, headquartered just northeast of here near Columbus, Ohio’s state capitol. He’d said, The government is under no obligation to furnish the people with alcohol that is drinkable when the Constitution prohibits it. The person who drinks this industrial alcohol is a deliberate suicide. . . .

The quote, reported far and wide and in her local newspaper just last month, had so horrified Lily that it stuck with her, word for word. It could only be deliberate if the drinker was fully informed. She finds the law requiring deadly methanol to be added to industrial alcohol to

be reprehensible, no matter the twisted logic defending it. Maybe, when she meets Mabel Walker Willebrandt, she’ll ask how a government that’s supposed to help and educate people could do such a thing.”

Does Lily confront Mabel with such a question? Well, you’ll have to read THE STILLS to find out!

In the meantime, it’s clear that Lily, Mabel, and even Fiona, are all strong women in their own, unique ways.

One reason I like to write about strong women (and strive to be one, myself) is because of the role models of strong women in my family I still look back on: My Aunts Opal and May, my Grandmother Lou, to name a few. And there are celebrities who I admire as strong women—Dolly Parton immediately comes to mind.

How about you? Do you think of strong women from your family, your community or even history or popular culture when you need a dose of encouragement and strength?

Leave a comment, and one Jungle Red reader’s name will be drawn at random to receive a copy of THE STILLS.

 

 Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mystery Series published by Minotaur Books. The Stills is the most recent title in the series, inspired by Ohio's true first female sheriff in 1925. Set in the Appalachian region, the series draws on themes of workers' rights and women's roles, and has garnered several awards, including the Ohioana Book Awards Readers' Choice in Fiction for 2020. She is also the Level Up Your Writing (Life) columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine, and the Literary Life columnist for the Dayton Daily News.

There's more about THE STILLS here.

 

Jess Montgomery's Kinshp series continues: THE HOLLOWS

HALLIE EPHRON: Last year Jess Montgomery's THE WIDOWS came out last year to much acclaim. Library Journal awarded it a starred review, and a tumult of rave reviews praised its gritty historical context, Appalachian setting, and strong female characters.

Good news for us: Now there's a sequel in what Jess Calls her Kinship Historical Mystery Series. THE HOLLOWS is just out, Jess is here to talk about it.

JESS MONTGOMERY:  I didn’t realize that it was the first title in a new series. I thought I’d written a standalone.

Let me back up a bit. I was inspired to write THE WIDOWS after I learned of Ohio’s true first female sheriff, who served in 1925 in the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. The real-life sheriff, Maude Collins, worked as jail matron for her husband, the sheriff, until he was killed in the line of duty. There was no mystery as to who murdered her husband.

But in true writerly fashion, I started wondering… what if there was a mystery? What if no one witnessed the murder, but the sheriff was found dead? What if his wife becomes sheriff, and investigates?

Those what-ifs led to three years of researching, brainstorming, writing and rewriting, and in the process, my first female sheriff in Ohio, Lily Ross, came into being in my imagination and on the page, which she shares with an unlikely ally, Marvena Whitcomb, a widow, union organizer, and childhood friend of Lily’s husband. Their sleuthing plays out against a backdrop of women’s rights, worker’s rights, union miners sparring with management, coal mining, and prohibition.

Honestly, by the time I finished their story in THE WIDOWS, I was tired! I thought I’d wrung out every bit of emotion and detail I could from their story. And creating it had wrung quite a bit of emotion out of me.

Then my brilliant agent sold THE WIDOWS—break out the champagne! —as one of two historical mysteries to be published by Minotaur. That meant the second mystery could be—but didn’t have to be—a sequel to THE WIDOWS.

So, I started the research for a mystery novel set in the 1960s, a novel idea that I’d had on a backburner of my imagination for quite a few years.

And a few weeks into that process, I had a conversation with my also-brilliant Minotaur Books editor.

I told her about what I was working on, which she found interesting, but…

But she had a what-if of her own.

What if, she suggested, I at least play with the idea of writing further books set in Lily’s and Marvena’s world, in the town of Kinship and in the county of Bronwyn.

My instant response was that I just couldn’t see Lily and Marvena continuing as sleuthing duos without it feeling forced.

Well, my editor said, you don’t have to do it that way. You’ve created a huge cast of characters, built a whole world around them. I want to know more about them, and I think readers will, too. Just think about it.

And so, I did. Truth be told, after hanging up from our chat her words kept echoing in my thoughts: you’ve created a huge cast of characters, built a whole world around them. And my thought in response was: I have?

Talk about being too close to your own work.

With my editor’s nudge, and some more ruminating, I realized that indeed, I did have a whole cast of characters and a story world to play with.

I further realized that in creating a county seat called “Kinship” I hadn’t just named a place—I’d created a setting that symbolizes community. Lily and Marvena both value community, but also their independence, and tension between the notion of serving community versus being true to individual identity and desires strums just under the surface of every scene.

Lily is at the heart of the community, I thought, and as such would need to be one of the main narrators in each Kinship Mystery Series novel.

But just as she and Marvena are dual narrators in the debut title, Lily and another Kinship character could be dual narrators in future novels.

Once I figured all of that out, I put that 1960s backburner standalone idea back on the, well, you know. The backburner. It’s still bubbling away, and I’m sure I’ll give it a stir another time.

I thought back over THE WIDOWS, re-read portions, and realized that there were plenty of secondary characters about whom I, too, wanted to know more. What about her, or her, or him, or…

The secondary character that quietly, shyly, yet insistently, kept raising her hand and whispering, “me, next!” was Hildy Cooper, Lily’s best friend from childhood, and a source of comfort and support in THE WIDOWS.

And so, in THE HOLLOWS, Lily and Hildy are dual narrators, sleuthing together (and sometimes apart), and again experiencing the tension of community expectations and strictures versus individual identities and opinions.

(For fans of Marvena in THE WIDOWS, don’t worry. She’s still in the story, though this time as a secondary character. Some characters, like Hildy, are shy, and others like Marvena… Well, let’s just say she’s not reticent about speaking her mind!)

Now, I look back at my original notion that THE WIDOWS was a standalone—and indeed, it can be read as such—and I must shake my head, just a bit, at myself. On the one hand, I understand why I needed some time, and gentle nudging from my editor, to see the full potential in what I originally created. I’d spent years laser-focused on the story of THE WIDOWS and had grown too close to my own creation. On the other hand, I’m so glad that I finally did understand the potential of The Kinship Mystery Series. It would have been such a missed creative opportunity for me if I hadn’t been open to that editorial suggestion. Rather than feeling like I ‘have’ to write more books in the series, I’m very excited that I ‘get’ to do so.

THE HOLLOWS isn’t just a sequel to THE WIDOWS, it’s the second in the series. As it turns out, I’m contracted for at least books three and four! And I now have ideas for plenty more after that, should I be so lucky.

But in the meantime, I’m celebrating the publication of THE HOLLOWS today! THE HOLLOWS is set in 1926, as Lily runs for election in her own right (rather than in a special appointment and election to fulfill her husband’s term). When an elderly, identified woman is found murdered by the train tracks in a remote part of Bronwyn County, Lily investigates, and soon her friend Hildy is also caught up in the case. Together, they discover a shocking event in their county’s history, even as they deal with the hurts and haunts of their own pasts. I hope you get a chance to read it!

HALLIE: I loved THE WIDOWS so much, and I can't wait to read THE HOLLOWS. I'm guessing the title has more than one meaning, just as the first book did. And I'm eager to go back to that time and that part of the world, and most of all those women.

Prohibition era. Appalachia. Mining. Scrupulous research. Conflict, of course. It all makes for a potent brew that's anything but a traditional mystery series set in "Kinship."

Jess's series got me thinking about the times and places we set mystery novels. St. Mary Meade, of course. Henning Mankell's Ystad. Gillian Fynn's Wind Gap. Louise Penny's Three Pines. And more... books in which the place is virtually a character. What are the settings that have stuck with you?

THE WIDOWS: A Visit to a 1920s Appalachia Mystery with Jess Montgomery

LUCY BURDETTE: We're so excited to be hosting Jess Montgomery and her brand new release, THE WIDOWS. You might know Jess as Sharon Short, who's written a wonderful novel MY ONE SQUARE INCH OF ALASKA, along with several mystery series and many essays and humor columns. But this month she's here to talk about her new historical mystery, written as Jess Montgomery. Welcome Jess!

JESS MONTGOMERY: I’m a child of Appalachia—both sides of my family of origin go back generation after generation after generation deep in the hills and hollers (as we pronounced ‘hollows’) in Eastern Kentucky. However, I grew up in a region of Ohio that’s geographically outside the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio—a first-generation “Buckeye,” as I was often teased as a child.

Yet, the dynamics of growing up in an Appalachian family shaped me far more than actual location of birth. I grew up steeped in Appalachian lore, dialect, food, attitudes, customs, crafts, music. When I was in high school, I wrote a musical, “Just an Old Ballad,” inspired by the Appalachian ballads I’d grown up learning—ballads that often centered around heartache and sorrow and, yes, murder. “Pearl Bryant,” a variation of the ballad more commonly known as “Pearl Bryan” was one of the songs my Mamaw taught me. The opening verse as I learned it from my Mamaw:

Down, down in yonder valley

Where flowers fade and bloom

Lies our own Pearl Bryant

A-mouldering in her tomb…

Probably not the lyrics an eight-year-old girl ought to learn from her grandmother, but though I couldn’t have described it this way as a young kid, I was enchanted by the ballad’s intrigue, the striking imagery and lovely though dramatic words, the haunting melody and mournful rhythms.

I loved singing it while helping Mamaw wind skeins of thread or yarn for her crocheting projects. Such songs—along with quilts, and soup beans and corn pone for supper, and observing aunts and uncles barter tomatoes and canned goods back and forth at the end of each summer, and trips ‘back home’ (as my parents called it even decades after moving north for factory work) to the land where my family members were tobacco and subsistence farmers—formed the backdrop of my childhood.

So perhaps, knowing I wanted to be a writer, and being fairly proficient as a pianist and guitarist, it’s not all that amazing that I wrote a musical play inspired by this backdrop and the ballads I’d learned: “Just an Old Ballad.”

What was amazing is that my school’s drama teacher allowed me to produce and direct it. Even more amazing—I cast in the lead male role a young man who I’d later date and marry. Thirty-plus years later, we’re still happily married—a pretty great outcome for a self-penned and produced high school musical!

But in the middle-class, suburban high school I attended, the audience of my peers was a bit less than, well, receptive. It wasn’t just that the tunes I wrote were pretty amateurish. (I was 17, after all.) I think the dialect and subject matter and characters were odd and jarring to them.

As years went by, I never wrote directly about Appalachian characters. Looking back, I was probably somewhat burned by the reception of my murder-mystery/love-story musical. I’ve always felt a bit at odds with where I fit—not geographically born into Appalachia, and yet formed by the region more deeply than where I actually was born and grew up.

Then, a few years ago, we were planning our first trip to visit our younger daughter for her birthday weekend at Ohio University, in Athens County, Ohio—the Appalachian foothills. I ran across a tourism website for Vinton County (just southwest of Athens County), which featured Maude Collins, Ohio’s true first female sheriff in 1925 after her husband was killed in the line of duty while writing a speeding ticket. Maude worked as her husband’s jail matron in the small jail attached to the county-owned sheriff’s house, where they lived with their five children. The story goes that Maude was packing up to go back to her parents in West Virginia when the county commissioners came by and asked, “Where you goin’, Maude,” and then further inquired as to whether she’d fill out her husband’s term. She would and did, and in 1926, was elected in her own right as sheriff—in a landslide.

My imagination immediately went to work: what if great mystery surrounded the murder of the sheriff? What if he was allegedly killed by a prisoner he was transporting—and that prisoner supposedly ran off? What if his widow didn’t accept that easy explanation, but did accept the role of sheriff—just so she could investigate his murder?

And so, Lily Ross came into being. Along with an unlikely ally—Marvena Whitcomb, herself a widow after her common law husband dies in a coal mining cave in, a union organizer, and a childhood friend of Lily’s husband—Lily sets to investigating the murder. Their sleuthing plays out against a backdrop of women’s rights, worker’s rights, union miners sparring with management, coal mining, and prohibition.

But the setting—1920s Appalachia—is as much a character in the story as Lily and Marvena.

So at last, I could come full circle and embrace my Appalachian roots in my writing—lore, dialect, food, attitudes, customs, crafts, music. More importantly, as I shaped the strong female cast of THE WIDOWS, I particularly drew on the paternal side of my family of origin—my grandmother, aunts, great aunts, and a cousin—and memories of their quiet strength, their traditions. I thought about travelling with my parents down winding roads, deep in the night, to finally come to my grandma’s tiny house, set on a sloped lawn that bloomed with purple phlox in the spring. In any season, she always had some treat waiting for me—a slice of pie, or of her delicious dried-apple stack cake, or sorghum cookies, and a big glass of fresh cold milk. I didn’t live with her, but somehow, each visit with her deep in the heart of Appalachia felt like coming home.

Though THE WIDOWS is fully a story of my imagination, its threads include not just the inspiration of Maude, but the inspiration of these deep roots. Writing it, in many ways, feels like finally coming home.


For Jess, that dried-apple stack cake evoked a sense of "home." What food, person, or activity most evokes home for you?

About the Book: Set in the coal-mining town of Kinship, Ohio in 1925, The Widows is about two women from different worlds, whose lives collide when the man they both love is found murdered. When Lily Ross learns that her husband, Daniel Ross, Kinship’s widely respected sheriff, has been killed while transporting a prisoner, she is devastated and vows to avenge his death.  Hours after his funeral, a stranger appears at her door.  Marvena Whitcomb, a hardscrabble coal miner’s widow, is unaware that Daniel has been killed, and begs to speak with him about her missing daughter. In the course of their encounter, these two women—who live only miles apart but come from entirely different worlds—realize that Daniel was not the man they believed him to be—and that his murder is far more complex than either of them could have imagined. In order to uncover the truth, Lily and Marvena must work together and eventually learn to trust one another if they are going to find Daniel’s killer—and save their community.  While The Widows is a work of fiction, the plot was inspired by the true stories of two women: Maude Collins, the first female sheriff in the state of Ohio, whose husband died in the line of duty under mysterious circumstances in 1925, and by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, the prominent labor and community organizer. The Widows explores the dangers of coal mining, the history of unionization, and the struggle for women’s rights.

THE WIDOWS (writing as Jess Montgomery), published by Minotaur Books, January 8, 2019
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