Welcome back! It’s the 20th week of First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday!
*********************************************************
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 . . .
*********************************************************
First Sentence Friday Thoughts
We’ve all had times in our life where we’ve put forth a tremendous amount of work or effort only to have it fail. In times like that it’s not easy to accept a different outcome than anticipated. An example that came to mind was writing an entire book with the expectation of it being sold to a publisher only to have it sit in a drawer. (I’ve got two of these) What if you were to study for a test for weeks on end and flunk it. (done that, too) Maybe you’re trying to lose weight and you go on this rigid diet only to find your weight is the same, or you gained after a few months. What if you were friends with someone, and you’d worked to nurture that relationship and out of nowhere, they stopped taking your calls, and you can’t figure out why.
Ruth is about to experience a setback at the Colony and it’s a major one. In her mind, she’s been going along, cooperating, doing her best to accept her circumstances so she can escape this hell she’s in. Her main nemesis, Baker (Mrs. Maynard, the housemother is a close second) can be very creative with her reform tactics, particularly with the more challenging inmates and she definitely sees Ruth as a challenge. While Ruth’s goal has been to go through the motions as necessary to gain her freedom, it won’t happen at the cost of her dignity, or her sense of what’s fair ( and already she’s of a mind nothing about it is fair). From Day One, she and Baker have had a contentious relationship. Baker has the upper hand, though, as would be expected and she recognizes Ruth’s sketchy/borderline willingness to adhere to Colony rules. When a specific request isn’t met, Baker devises a new disciplinary measure that makes Ruth believe no matter what she does, she will never get out.
(Not saying what it is to keep it spoiler free!)
*********************************************************
Chapter 20
Ruth
Everything she’s gone through since coming to the Colony has been for nothing.
***********************************************************
Question of the week!
Given my examples above, and whether work, family, personal, is there a particular goal or something you’ve worked toward only to not succeed? How did it make you feel? Did you want to start over, try again, or did you give up?
***********************************************************
Free Read! SIGNED Advance Reader Copy!
The winner is announced here Monday a.m.
**************************************************************
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
***************************************************************
Social Media
Last, but not least, don’t forget to:
- Add Women of a Promiscuous Nature to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf
- Share this post with your reader friends
- Follow me on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Bookbub, or my blog!
**************************************************************
Professional ballet dancer, schooled, got a job out of high school, and two years of working myself up the ranks, at a very great professional ballet company, got diagnosed with lupus. Took away my mobility with chronic joint inflammation. To this day I’ve never gotten over it. I never made it to the top like I expected. My entire identity gone. Had nothing but health problems ever since. Still can’t enjoy going to the ballet. Hate hearing the Nutcracker in stores. I worked so hard and invested so much time in shaking my body and psyche and building relationships/networking to have to start over with sub-par existences in the world. Nothing will ever match that experience. I hit my peak in high school and fizzled out. One of those people.
I just typed out this LONG answer to this, and WordPress swallowed it.
What I said in more or less words is this post made my heart hurt. I also wrote that, in some ways I could relate – although my favorite pastime and the way I handled stress isn’t the same as being a professional. So, once I was a runner, but after my cancer diagnosis and 30 rounds of chemo, my bones aren’t the same. I tried to get back into it, happy to just “jog” for three miles if possible. Made it to two, suffered a pelvic fx and that was that.
I disagree with “fizzled out.” Your body went rogue, but your heart, your wish to continue, all of that still existed. Not one of those people – but out of your control.
First sentence question of the week:
My answer is: I have had my degree for 26 years and even after all this time I still can’t get a job in the degree field of study. No one wants to give me the chance to prove I can do the job.
Always the same – do you have experience? Yes. I do. Just not x number of years in one company for the position but I always ask – how did you get your position? Did you have someone that believed in you and gave you a chance because the person felt you was worth the chance?
It’s always the constant battle of its knot what you know – it’s who you know. I have felt that I wasted my time and over 10K to not be given the chance. They skirt around the age barrier when you know full well that is the key reason you are not promoted or the other thing is you don’t look sexy enough or won’t do them favors to be awarded the position.
I have way more self worth, self respect, and integrity to stoop that low to get the position I want. Unless you know someone who knows your work ethnics you are out of luck and money down the drain for college education degree.
I can understand your frustration over this, but good for you in not letting it dictate your terms of employment.
Sometimes life is more about survival than success. I’ve learned, over the course of a lifetime, to accept setbacks as chances to start over, perhaps following a totally different path, but always trying to move forward with grace and gratitude. We aren’t promised tomorrow but we can #seizetheday.
Spoken (written!) with inspiration!
I can definitely relate to this. I think failure is an important teacher. For all sorts of reasons, I had a terrible time getting a job after we moved back to the US and I went back to school and graduated with a desirable masters degree. I finally got some part time work teaching night school classes. Having two little kids, my spouse under the gun for proving himself at his job, and my disabled mother living with us, it was very challenging. Not being able to get a decent job destroyed my self confidence, but I had to keep trying. Those night school classes did help because then I got an opportunity for more part time work at higher quality institutions. Once there, I observed the parts of the organization and learned quite a bit which gave me an idea for a full time position that seemed to be needed. I proposed that to two units of the institution, thinking they could split the funds, create the position and hire me. They did! One of the things I did was to help students find internships and permanent positions, and I coached many students on how to network, as that seems to be the thing that works. So, yes, gutting it out worked in that case. Fast forward to about a year ago when a male relative shared with my spouse that neither he nor his wife could stand me, basically raking me over the coals for a: my personality b: my helpfulness and c: my trying always to be kind to others. (One of them said to me that she didn’t think anyone could be that nice-implying I was either lying or being false). So, in that situation, there was really no way to mediate it or repair the relationship. It is still quite tricky to navigate, but there is really no way I can go back to interacting with them. So, I’d say that in different situations sometimes it is best to tough it out and keep going and other times it’s best to throw in the towel and cut your losses.
Those are two equally important situations and I agree, it depends on what’s going on as to whether or not it’s worth pursuing. Good for you on the job one, and I’m thumbing my nose at the family predicament. (so crazy!)
Hi, Donna:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
And now, my answer to your question follows. On multiple occasions, I have unsuccessfully applied for promotions. If I really was interested in a position, I tended to feel sad, especially earlier in my career.
Fortunately, I kept applying and eventually moved up. Doing so required much greater effort and time than I anticipated, so I try to assist others in their pursuits. 🙂 Workplaces can be challenging!
Regards,
Art
Hi Art,
You’re welcome! Perseverance is the magic for certain situations without a doubt! Kudos to you for helping others, b/c yes, workplaces CAN be very challenging. I was in the corporate environment for about 35 years and it was TOUGH.
One (of many!) setbacks that come to mind is many years ago, I applied for a job that was close to home, (versus the eighty mile round trip of my job at the time). It was a coveted job, and after several interviews, word was out in our small town that I was going to be offered the job (I knew some employees at the place). When the General Manager called and asked me to lunch, driving the 80 mile round trip to my work place to pick me up, I was so excited! Over lunch, he dropped the bomb. Yes, he had planned to hire me, but some other decisions came into play and he changed his mind.
I was devastated! I understood his reasons (too complex to write here), but I didn’t care for my current job, and sure didn’t care for the two hours I spent each day on the road.
Two years later, when the same company was hiring again, I didn’t even apply. Why bother? Well, the GM sought me out, asked me to apply, and this time, I was hired! I ended up retiring from that company after 20-plus years.
kept working until met goal
bn100
A.k.a. perseverance!