Guest Post by Judy Alter author of The Gilded Cage

Research After the Fact

For the last ten years, give or take a little, I worked on a historical novel about Chicago. It was my “big” project, often set aside for shorter, less puzzling work. But I’m a believer in letting things simmer in the back of your mind—and I was convinced this was simmering. In between other projects, I’d go back and fiddle with the manuscript I then called “Potter’s Wife.” I’d change the point of view—Potter Palmer, Cissy Palmer, omniscient third-person, Most of all I’d research.

I ordered books on interlibrary loan as if there were a desperate hurry and the service would not be available the next day. I read everything I could find about Chicago history, Potter and Bertha (Cissy) Honoré Potter, the Columbian Exposition, the Great Fire of Chicago, architecture. I spent hours online.

I’d write, put it aside, rewrite, go on to a mystery, etc. One of my big breakthroughs came when a first line popped into my head. “The smell. He’d never forget the smell.” I had the tone I wanted, and the actual writing came fairly easily. Satisfied that I had followed all loose threads and tied them up, I sent “Potter’s Wife” to my editor. Somewhere along the way it became “The Gilded Cage.” I sent it to a formatter and hired a dear friend to do the jacket design (original art now hangs, framed, in my cottage).

Mid-May last spring, the book went live on Amazon in trade paper and ebook, garnering mostly five-star reviews, sales that for me were good, and flattering comments from those who read it immediately. Then I discovered a whole new research source I had no idea about and now wonder how I missed.

Author Bio

An award-winning novelist, Judy Alter is the author of several fictional biographies of women of the American West. In The Gilded Cage she has turned her attention to the late nineteenth century in her home town, Chicago, to tell the story of the lives of Potter and Cissy Palmer, a high society couple with differing views on philanthropy and workers’ right. She is also the author of six books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series. With the 2014 publication of The Perfect Coed, she introduced the Oak Grove Mysteries.

Her work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame. http://judyalter.com/

Blog URL: http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/judy.alter

Skype: juju1938

Buy link for The Gilded Cage

http://www.amazon.com/Gilded-Cage-Judy-Alter/dp/0996013121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460738028&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gilded+cage+alter

Linda and Mary by Molly Rainier

Genre: Adult, Realistic Fiction

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads

A cave woman appears on a fire escape in Brooklyn in 1967, a time when nothing seen on the street or in the news is surprising anymore. It's a time of sit ins and love ins, of mini skirts, tie dyes and Afros. The Vietnam war. As Mary Polleti, housewife, watches a storm rolling in over Flatbush, she sees the woman huddled outside her kitchen window and reaches out to her. This is the beginning of an unlikely, tender friendship between two women and the opportunity that opens up to Mary that she could never have imagined possible. With Linda as catalyst, the story carries on to an unexpected resolution. Sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, it's a story about women, and for women. 

My Thoughts

The book was well written. However, it was not a book that I really enjoyed. I know there are those out there who will enjoy it. I had trouble following the storyline. I understood that this was a look at how women were viewed in the 60s. I felt that in a way it was a little degrading of men.  Mary seemed to be quite a bit like her mother. I felt the book was a little depressing and negative. That may be why I didn’t care for it. Would I recommend it? Yes, I know there is an audience out there. This was just not the book for me.   I do believe the author is a great future in front of her. She writes well.

Nefertiti the Spidernaut: The Jumping Spider Who Learned to Hunt in Space by Darcy Pattison

Genre: Children's Picture Book, Nonfiction
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Darcy Pattison has written a wonderful and informative story about a spider who went to space.
Nefertiti was a Johnson Jumping Spider. She was chosen because she was the largest of her siblings. They wanted to see if she could adapt to zero gravity to hunt in space. They sent along a food supply of fruit flies.   She not only learned to hunt in space, but when she returned to Earth, she needed to learn to change her hunting methods. I never realized how smart spiders  were until I read this true story. I believe, like all of Darcy’s books, this is another great book that should be in all classrooms.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.