Welcome back! It’s the 19th week of First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday!
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About Women of a Promiscuous Nature
Accused of “promiscuity” in 1940s North Carolina, a young woman unjustly incarcerated and subjected to involuntary medical treatment at The State Industrial Farm Colony for Women decides to fight back in this powerful, shockingly timely novel based on the long-buried history of the American Plan, the government program designed to regulate women’s bodies and sexuality throughout the first half of the 20th century.
The day Ruth Foster’s life changes begins the same way as many others—with a walk through her North Carolina hometown toward the diner where she works. But on this day, Ruth is stopped by the local sheriff, who insists that she accompany him to a health clinic. Women like Ruth—young, unmarried, living alone—must undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease.
Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Some, like 15-year-old Stella Temple, are brought in at their family’s request. For Stella, even the Colony’s hardships seem like a respite from her nightmarish home life.
Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide by Mrs. Baker’s rule book or face the consequences—solitary confinement, grueling work assignments, and worse.
But some refuse to be cowed. Against Mrs. Baker’s dogged efforts and the punishing weight of authority, Ruth and other inmates find ways to fight back, resolved to regain their freedom at any cost . . .
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First Sentence Friday Thoughts
Oftentimes I’m asked at events and here online if there’s any part of me in the characters I create. The one thing I do my best to avoid relates to how my characters think, or react in any given situation. This stems from not only not wanting to inject my beliefs, but to also portray a character as realistically and honestly as I can. It’s hard, but one way I get around this is to spend a lot of time looking for the opinions of the day. A good example is in When the Jessamine Grows. I read a lot of letters that went between husbands and wives, sons and mothers, mothers and daughters, etc. Doing this was truly helpful. For Women of a Promiscuous Nature, I read the two resource books I’ve mentioned (Bad Girls at Samarcand and The Trials of Nina McCall) and online sources, too.
If there’s anything of me in my stories it’s more relative to personality traits, habits, or maybe the little quirks of a character.
In this week’s sentence something of me is there. I’m a clock watcher. If I’m told, for instance, that someone is coming to the house at x time, I expect them to be there. If I make an appointment and it’s at x time, I expect my name to be called at that time or soon thereafter. The more time that goes by, the more worried/irritated I get. This, coming from an individual who used to be notoriously late back in the day when I was first entering the workforce. I learned my lessons the hard way and it taught me that punctuality is important, and most of all, shows that you respect the other person’s time.
Enter Dorothy Baker. She too, is a stickler for punctuality. She expects nothing less from those who work around her and from the inmates. It’s mentioned in the book that there are numerous clocks at the Colony and they’re there for this very reason, so inmates are aware of time – always. Dorothy Baker’s personality is prickly and for the most part, uncompromising. It becomes especially so when someone is late.
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Chapter 19
Baker
Baker’s irritation grows with every tick, tick, tick of the second hand of the clock in her office.
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Question of the week!
Back to my lesson learned . . . when I was working at a company called ITT in the late 70s, early 80s, I always seemed to be late, at least once or twice a week. At that time I was a single mother, had a baby and a toddler to get up, get ready, drop off, and then fight traffic. It didn’t matter what time I left, something usually went wrong. I came in one morning and my boss was standing in the lobby and motioned for me to follow him. My knees went weak. This was it. My time was up, I was going to be fired. This would have presented all sorts of financial challenges for me. He showed me the Human Resources paperwork he’d filled out – ready to send me out the door. He gave me a break, and said, “Next time, it’s the pink slip.” I don’t know what I changed about my routine after that, but I got better at time management. I wasn’t always on time, but I improved – dramatically. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
What is the worst situation you’ve ever found yourself in because you showed up late?
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Free Read! SIGNED Advance Reader Copy!
The winner is announced here Monday a.m.
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PRE-ORDER Information
Pre-orders gauge the interest and signal to the publisher readers are eager for an author’s next work. If you’re holding out because you might win an ARC or a finished copy from First Sentence Friday, remember you can always give away the extra as a gift to a reader friend. 😉
Pre-order links for your convenience:
- Bookshop.org
- Kensington Publishing Corporation
- Barnes & Noble
- Books-A-Million
- Amazon
- Hudson Booksellers
- Target
- Walmart
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Social Media
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- Add Women of a Promiscuous Nature to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf
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I will always recall how my oldest daughter struggled when she transitioned to preschool. It was only a half day but every morning when I would walk her in to prek, she would want to cry or think of a way to delay me leaving. Like most kids, within 10 minutes of me leaving, she would be fine but I would worry all morning. Lots of days, this would cause me to be running late to work. That horrible worry about her, plus the worry that I was going to be in trouble for running late for work, was the worst situation being late has ever put me in.
It’s hard to leave a sad little face! And that does put a lot of stress on anyone who’s been there, done that. From worrying about the children to worrying about being late = nerve wracking!
I used to work all weekends and had Monday and Tuesday off which was nice to get your appointments done. we’ll I had an appointment and set my clock but then I forgot to reset to my work wake up time. And I was late for work. I didn’t get in trouble because I was always on time but it seemed to really mess up my day because I felt so bad.
Teresa Bawa
It’s true – when you know how you are as an individual, responsible, on time, etc., it can make you feel so guilty and upset when something out of the norm happens like that.
I hate being late!! I usually arrive at places way before I need to be there—I’m usually the first person to arrive if I’m meeting friends for lunch or something. I get so nervous and my anxiety is high!
That’s certainly how I am now – I prefer to be early than late. Too bad I couldn’t tell my 20-something self that! 😏
show up early
bn100
I do now! And I feel better for it, too.
I’m usually early or on time so being late is usually tied to unforeseen traffic, etc. for me. I don’t like to feel rushed, and I do remember getting to a running race late and feeling rushed to prepare myself (hydration, bathroom, etc.) before the race gun went off. I really had to talk myself down from the stress ledge in those first minutes of the race so my anxiety at running late didn’t wreck the “fun” of the race.
Oh, and last year, I misread the time on a party invitation and missed happy hour. That was a bummer! 🙂
That was always my excuse back then – or one of the kids was sick. Or . . . whatever I could think of I hadn’t used.
I used to run road races all the time. Since I had my health issue, I’ve not been able to do that and I miss it. I have to say, I was always at those races early – but even so, it didn’t help with the nerves, so I can’t imagine how it felt to be running late – particularly with, as you mention, needing to use the bathroom, have enough to drink, etc.
As to the party – hopefully you made up for lost time. 😉
It has always been hard for me to get going in the morning but easy for me to stay up late, especially with a good book. The years of working and/or raising kids are behind me now, but time seems to move faster than ever. I can’t recall a specific incident which got me in trouble for being late b/c I always forced myself to watch the clock. And I’m married to a man who has a military mindset and believes in leaving early “just in case.”