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The Communist Question
Jeanne The Woman in Red is a work of biographical fiction based on the life of Jeanne Tunica Y Casas, a fiery, uncompromising political activist, feminist, communist, and a woman of courage. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
If I had written a non-fiction account of Jeanne’s life and work, it would have sounded robotic and lacking in truth. Fiction was the only way to delve deep into her life and times. Many people she knew and worked with had passed away or were reluctant to speak or give any information. I understand and respect that, but facts, figures, and exact dates would have been missing. There is not much out there in English, and the work done, predominantly by a New Caledonian historian, provided a solid foundation from which to write. I had access to her articles, tracts, and speeches, and I was able to integrate this into the story as they had been written—typos and all.
I have always been inspired by strong characters in fiction and non-fiction. I was drawn to Jeanne straightaway. I had just arrived in New Caledonia for three years, and I was browsing its history, and I came across Jeanne. I wanted to visit her at the cemetery, pay my respects, but I discovered she had been buried in a common grave. I could not believe it. Disheartened but determined, I contacted the administration and decided that writing the book is only half of it. I wanted her recognised with a plaque. She fought for the rights of exploited peoples, and I wanted to fight for her legacy. Her remains were located, and a plaque now recognises her at a local cemetery. It has been a hard but satisfying journey.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Her relationship with her lover turned husband, Paco. The communist question. How much or how little did she know about Stalin’s atrocities? The right of women to vote. I wanted back-and-forth chapters where her life in the nursing home meets the past.
Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
I was surprised that she had lived in Australia for a while and opened up a restaurant in Sydney. Her continual battle with the authorities. She never gave up. I was also disappointed with a few reactions as if writing about a communist makes the writer a communist. This is not the case, and I could never have placed 2020 eyes on Jeanne’s life and get away with writing her story.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Jeanne The Woman in Red?
That she, like many others, must be remembered for inspiring and encouraging change without violence, and that history, far from being cancelled, should be remembered and studied – the good and the bad and learn the lessons on how to move forward. I am not just talking about feminists and politicians, but people who did not have a public role but were instrumental in shaping future generations.
The book has been translated into French and will soon be released.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Ida Chatfield
The book follows the life of Ida Chatfield and tells her story from childhood on the Missouri River to her disappearance in Aspen in 1886. It mixes historical records with imagined moments that fill in the spaces between the facts. It feels like a full life unfolding, even though her real life ended at only eighteen. The book also weaves in real news articles that reported her missing and later confirmed her death. The mix of truth and imagination gives the whole thing a strange and lingering weight.
While reading, I often felt pulled into Ida’s voice. The writing felt warm at times and then cold in a way that mirrors frontier life. I found myself caring for Ida as if she were someone I’d once known. Her memories of Nebraska and Colorado felt vivid and earthy. The sadness around the deaths in her family hit me harder than I expected, especially the loss of her sister Jennie. The author sits close to Ida’s emotions and lets her tell the story in a plain and honest way. That plainness worked on me. It made the mystery of her final night feel personal.
The book pushes you to think about how people in the past were misunderstood, especially women. It shows how easily a person’s life can be shaped and misshaped by the stories others tell. The newspapers tried to fit Ida into neat explanations that never felt right. Reading those old clippings frustrated me. They felt careless and quick to judge, and it hurt to see how little room she had to define herself. At the same time, the fictional pieces brought her back to life with softness and patience. I loved that contrast because it made me think about how we all want to be remembered for who we were, not for the blur of a headline.
By the end, I felt a quiet ache for Ida and for every forgotten person whose life was cut short or brushed aside. The book works for readers who enjoy historical nonfiction but want more heart in the telling. It also works for readers who crave a mystery that will never be perfectly solved yet still offers something meaningful. I would recommend it to anyone who loves frontier history, family stories, and character-driven tales filled with emotion.
Pages: 280 | ASIN : B0FHJVCV7V
Sousanna: The Lost Daughter
In the aftermath of World War II, the world was in a state of flux. Countries devastated by the war faced the daunting task of rebuilding while their citizens grappled with profound changes in their lives. Greece, in particular, was further battered by the onslaught of a Civil War, compounding the struggle for survival. Amidst this backdrop of turmoil and rebuilding, America emerged as a symbol of hope and prosperity, an idyllic destination promising a life free from hunger and deprivation.
Sousanna: The Lost Daughter delves into this historical context, narrating the poignant tale of a young girl named Sousanna, caught in the crosscurrents of hope and despair. The memoir unfolds with Sousanna’s father, driven by a blend of hope and desperation, making the heart-wrenching decision to send his youngest daughter to America. This decision, born out of a belief in temporary separation, spirals into years of longing and heartache for Sousanna and her family back in Greece. The narrative poignantly captures the family’s clinging to the hope of Sousanna’s well-being, juxtaposed with her struggle to maintain her identity in a foreign land brimming with abundance.
Set between the 1950s and 1970s, the novel offers a compelling exploration of the complexities surrounding international adoptions, particularly from economically challenged countries. It insightfully presents the perspectives of the biological family, the adoptive family, and most crucially, the child at the heart of these life-altering decisions. The book sheds light on the controversial practices that led to the adoption of thousands of Greek children by American families, often under dubious circumstances.
Sousanna: The Lost Daughter, by Sousanna Stratmann, is a thought-provoking and relevant exploration of themes that resonate as much today as they did in the mid-20th century. The narrative is a testament to the enduring human spirit and the quest for identity in the face of overwhelming odds. This book is highly recommended for its insightful portrayal of a little-known chapter of history and its moving reflection on the human experience.
Pages: 272 | ASIN : B07JKBN66Y
Interior Demons
The Reluctant Womb is an emotional novel about three women whose lives are shaped by love, loss, and the brutal lack of reproductive freedom in the decades before Roe v. Wade. This seems like a very personal story for you. How hard was it to put this story out in the world for people to read?
It wasn’t hard at all. It just seemed the right story to tell. Roe v. Wade had just been overturned, and women were facing the same problem today that women faced when the events in this story took place. One of the women, on whom the character of Thea is based, had recently sent me copies of the letters she’d received from Chris in 1963, and I felt compelled to include some of them in the story, so Chris’s actual voice could be heard. I began to see parallels—how the three women’s (“girls” in those days) own birth stories influenced who they became as young women, and the choices they made. The actual stimulus for writing it came from someone in a movie group I belong to. We’d just watched a film about a 17-year-old girl who seeks an abortion. One woman thought it was unoriginal. I began telling her the story of my two friends who got pregnant in 1963, and by the time I’d told her a few facts about their situation, the woman broke in saying, “Now that’s a movie I’d love to see!” I couldn’t write a script, but I could tell the story, fictionalized. That’s actually what pushed me to begin writing. Most of the story is fiction, built around facts and educated guesses.
There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?
The most important thing for me was to get right was how much these three women cared about each other. After that, I wanted to distinguish them by other characteristics—the type of family they grew up in, what they looked like, their values, their various strengths, their interior demons. Having known them both, this wasn’t difficult.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Obviously, the main theme is the difficulty of unwanted pregnancy presented for women pre-Roe v. Wade. But also the central themes facing young adults in the 1960s: the Bomb, Civil Rights and interracial relationships, the Vietnam War, and the widespread appearance of drugs. Also, the Pill, which presented a struggle for many young women who’d been taught to remain a virgin until their wedding night.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from The Reluctant Womb?
I think the one thing I want readers to take away is that, although abortion should be legal, it is not a simple solution. And neither is adoption. I tried to show this in the character of Chris, who was tormented by not knowing who her birth parents were and choosing abortion to end her pregnancy rather than having her child adopted. With Thea, I tried to show it with the daughter she reunites with nearly fifty years later, when she hears her daughter’s story. But primarily, I tried to show it when Cilla learns she was nearly aborted (which is my own story), and has to struggle with her pro-choice stance and the fact that she helped Chris through her abortion. It brings home to Cilla that her life would have been destroyed if her mother had succeeded. This is, in my opinion, the moral core of the story. Her resolution, that, because it’s impossible to choose between the rights of the mother and those of the fetus, that neither has more “rights”—means that the government has no business making a law making abortion illegal. But this also means that, if fully realized, it’s the most painful decision a pregnant woman will ever make. My more grandiose hope, I suppose, is that this book will help to narrow the chasm between those rigidly opposed to abortion and those who feel it is a woman’s right to choose.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Kirkus | Website | Amazon
In 1963, three college friends at the University of Michigan are on the cusp of adulthood, full of dreams and discovering their place in the world. But when two of them become pregnant, they face an impossible reality: abortion is illegal, birth control is hard to come by, and society is quick to judge.
Set in the years before Roe v. Wade, The Reluctant Womb follows these young women as they grapple with love, shame, secrecy, and the consequences of choices no one should be forced to make alone. Against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, shifting gender roles, and political unrest, their stories illuminate the emotional and societal weight of unplanned pregnancy in a time when women had little agency over their own bodies.
Based on true events and written by one of the women who lived them, Pamela Blair’s novel is both a poignant coming-of-age story and a timely reminder of how much—and how little—has changed.
For readers of historical fiction, women’s fiction, and memoir-style novels, The Reluctant Womb is an unforgettable story of resilience, friendship, and the fight for reproductive freedom.
A CHOICE THAT WASN’T A CHOICE
LITERARY TITAN 