Courage and Intrigue in Wartime San Francisco
Historical Fiction
Date Published: December 10, 2024
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
When bombs fall on Pearl Harbor, the trajectory of Faye Baxter’s midwestern life takes an unexpected detour. Her fiancĂ© Steve Connor enlists in the Army, and Faye follows him to California for a spur-of-the-moment wedding just days before he ships out.
Eager to contribute to the war effort, Faye joins the workforce in San Francisco, a city awash with jobs, handsome soldiers, cheap cocktails, and nefarious secrets. When she is recruited to serve as a courier for a government intelligence agency, the assignment leads her into a web of misogyny, deception, and espionage.
Will she learn to trust her instincts, value her own opinions, and raise her voice against injustice? Or are the risks too great?
Interview with Lynn Marie Jackson
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
I was quite young when I first experienced the power of the written language. I remember it vividly to this day. The novel was the children’s classic Heidi, by Johanna Spyri. When Heidi goes to stay with the Alm Uncle, I was transported. The scent of the mountain air, the gentle clang of the sheep bells, the taste of cheese roasted over the open fire—it was all so different than my experience in Sacramento, California. This is something I always try to do in my writing: to transport the reader to a different time, place and/or point of view.
How do you select the names of your characters?
I selected names that are appropriate to the character, time and place.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Not purposefully, but certainly. As all writing is based on personal experiences, there are certain character traits in Unexpected Detour that are based on people from my life. For example, the relationship of Faye and Pops is described as “more tutor/student than father/child,” a trait that mirrors that of my husband and daughter. It’s something only they would recognize.
What was your hardest scene to write?
I find it challenging to write intimate scenes without being cliché. In my first draft, I treated the sex scenes as flashbacks and was reprimanded by my editor for depriving my readers of experiencing these moments in real time. So, I took a deep breath and really focused on the actions and thoughts rather than emotional descriptions.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
My debut novel, Unexpected Detour, is a stand-alone work. But because I am interested in the experiences of women during World War II, there are overlaps with my second book.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
Most War II novels take place in Europe, where the war was fought. But the war also impacted almost every aspect of life for every resident of the United States. I wanted to give readers a deep dive into the challenges of the war years from the perspective of the American home front.
What inspired you to write Unexpected Detour?
In the late 1980s I learned that my mother-in-law and two girlfriends came out to San Francisco from Michigan during the war, married their boyfriends on a furlough weekend, then stayed in the city and worked while their husbands served in the Pacific. This little snippet of information rattled around in my brain for decades and became the inspiration for my novel.
Can you tell us a little bit about your next book?
My next novel is about the displaced persons experience at the end of World War II. I met a woman when I was in graduate school who had immigrated from Estonia after the war. Her accounts of that time were haunting. Some 20,000 Estonians were deported Siberia, another 70,000+ escaped to the west ahead of the Soviet takeover. So many lives were disrupted. So many stories remain untold.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Unexpected Detour?
The protagonist, Faye Baxter, forms relationships with several women who were fun characters to write. Midge Swanson is a brash, boy-crazy fellow Midwesterner who takes a job in the Richmond Shipyards. Helen Beach and Evie South are work friends who become housemates. Hannah Goldman is a pampered daughter of a Hollywood attorney who opens Faye’s eyes to the plight of Europe’s Jews. Madeline Chu is an ambitious newspaper reporter who helps Faye uncover a subversive plot.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
The most enjoyable aspect of writing Unexpected Detour was the research, which was also the most time-consuming. To keep the story authentic to World War II, I spent many hours in the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library scrolling through newspapers to create a timeline for the years 1942-1945. I also listened to dozens of oral histories compiled by UC Berkeley. These resources provided a context of historic events, as well as a sense of public sentiment, concerns and diversions of the day.
About the Author
Lynn Marie Jackson has spent many years engaged in the creative process working as a marketing strategist, copywriter, podcast producer, blogger, and novelist. Raised in California and Washington, DC, she is a long-time San Francisco Bay Area resident. When not writing, she’s on the hunt for inspiration; she can be found visiting museums, hiking new trails, or exploring any place well outside her comfort zone.
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5 comments:
This sounds like a really good story. I like the cover. Looks great.
I would think that writing sex scenes would be difficult. Nice interview. Thanks.
This looks like a great read. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful cover!
looks like a fun one
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