Feathers: Hearts on Display

Note to readers: Our guest author this month, Kimberly Keagan, has a FREE copy of her book, Perfect, for one of you this month. She'll be choosing a recipient from the comments on this post within the next two weeks, so be sure to make her feel welcome on Brushing Wings.

The Book War and a Family Tree

Kimberly Keagan

My friends and family all know that I’m an avid genealogist. Over the years, I’ve not only worked extensively on mine and my husband’s trees but also close to a hundred others as well as a volunteer. One thing I’ve learned: old newspapers are the best resource for genealogical research and writing research.

About six years ago, I was researching a friend’s family tree when I came across a New York Times article about booksellers who’d gathered in Brooklyn in 1895 to protest department stores. This had nothing to do with my friend’s family, but if you’ve ever spent an afternoon reading old newspapers, you know how easy it is to get sidetracked. I kept reading. Eventually, that detour led to my first novel.

The booksellers had good reason to complain. Department stores were selling books at deep discounts to bring shoppers through the doors. A woman might come in for a bargain on a novel and spot a length of silk on her way to the book counter. If she bought both, the store didn’t need to make much on the book. The bookseller down the street couldn’t afford to do the same.

I found more about similar disputes in The Philadelphia Times and the Buffalo Evening News. My favorite suggestion came from the Philadelphia paper: if department stores sold cheap books to get ladies to buy silk, why shouldn’t a bookseller sell silk below cost to get them to buy books? I could almost hear the fellow who came up with that idea, and I rather liked him.

This is what I enjoy about old newspapers. A census record might tell me someone’s great-grandfather was a bookseller. The newspaper gives me a better idea of what he was dealing with. I can imagine him coming home from the shop and telling his wife about the customer who’d gone down the street to save a few pennies. The family records tell me what he did for a living; the newspaper helps me imagine his day.

As I read, I began to picture Ivy King, a young woman watching a grand department store go up down the street from her bookshop. Suppose she recommended a novel to a customer who’d trusted her judgment for years. How would she feel if that customer thanked her, then went to the department store to buy it for less? I didn’t think she’d take it well.

Of course, I write historical romance, so I also wanted to know what sort of man might change Ivy’s mind about the people behind that store. His name turned out to be William Walraven, and I had a lot of fun figuring out how they might handle their seemingly insurmountable obstacle to love.

Their story became Perfect, the first book in my Hearts on Display series. I’m still tickled that a search on behalf of a friend turned up a book war, of all things, and that I got a Christian historical romance out of it.

If you find a relative’s name in an old newspaper, try reading the rest of the page before you move on. See what the neighbors were arguing about or what the corner shop had on sale. Those things were part of your relative’s life, too. And if a search through your own family history has taken an unexpected turn, I’d love to hear what you found.

Kimberly Keagan is a former investor relations analyst and corporate financial writer (not very romantic) who now crafts Gilded Age historical romances filled with strong heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, faith, and a touch of humor.

A spreadsheet enthusiast, she approaches her author business with both creativity and data, proving that numbers and novels can coexist quite happily.

Kimberly lives in Arizona and enjoys baking, vegetable gardening, watching sports, and researching her family tree.

Links:

Website:

https://www.kimberlykeagan.com/

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kimberly-Keagan/author/B0DDJNNK62

BookBub:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kimberly-keagan

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/51478492.Kimberly_Keagan

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/kimberlykeaganwrites