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Where I Got the Crazy Idea for Jewelweed Station & Other Tidbits
I loved the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel when I read it as a teen. I wanted to write an American version of that novel, only I wanted the Scarlet Pimpernel character to be a woman. I also liked the idea that this Pimpernel-like character thought she knew more than she actually did. A young inexperienced woman seemed like that best candidate to be the main character for Jewelweed Station, so Calantha Carter came into being.
Then I had to figure out who in our society needed help. What was our version of the Reign of Terror? The institution of slavery and the slaves, of course. In the beginning, I wanted Jewelweed Station to be a fun adventure novel. That was naive of me! Slavery wasn't fun or an adventure for the slaves. Of course I knew that, but I became especially aware of how horrific slavery was when I started writing about it for this book. I tried to write about this time in our history realistically even though this story is fictional and in many ways it is an adventure story for Callie. Although there is no evidence of the existence of the Underground Railroad this far south, I'm hoping it existed but was so secret that no one found out—until now.
There were many brave people working to help slaves escape or working to end slavery during this time in our history: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and so many nameless others. The people who are working against slavery become Callie Carter's heroes and mentors in Jewelweed Station as she struggles to find her place in a new world after her parents are killed in a carriage accident.
Wholly Inadequate Description of This Book from the Cover Blurb
When her beloved parents die in a carriage accident near their plantation in Virginia, 17-year-old Callie Carter comes home from France to discover her loathsome aunt and uncle have taken up residence in her home and are now her legal guardians. They treat her like a fool, so she plays the part until she can figure out how to save her home, herself, and the slaves who are now her responsibility. Everyone around Callie seems to be harboring secrets, and she cannot tell who is friend or foe—including her childhood friend, the mysterious Dr. Benjamin Sawyer. One day she discovers a secret passage in her family mansion, and she offers her home as a stop on the underground railroad. Can she outsmart her nefarious relatives or will one more family secret destroy Callie and everything she knows and loves?
Jewelweed Station is the literary grandchild of Gone With the Wind and The Scarlet Pimpernel with Scarlet O’Hara and the Scarlet Pimpernel both embodied in Callie Carter who becomes a hero for her time—and ours.
AUDIENCE: ADULTS AND TEENS
