The Great Depression on the Farm, a guest post by Charlotte Whitney, author of A Tiny Piece of Blue

Today I'm welcoming author Charlotte Whitney, who has a guest essay about the historical background to her new novel, A Tiny Piece of Blue.

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The Great Depression on the Farm

Charlotte Whitney

At its best historical fiction is totally immersive. Readers become so involved in the story that they feel they are right there in the same room with the characters, mentally encouraging them to take a certain path or, conversely, discouraging flawed characters from decisions with disastrous consequences. My readers expect this from me, and I attempt to delight  as well as educate readers regarding a particular period of history.

However, I mentioned the reader being in the same “room” with the characters. Many of the settings in my books are not rooms but a variety of farm locations. A section or chapter might take place in a barn, field, silo, chicken house,  milk house, or hay loft--or a one-room country school, barn dance, or the midway of a county fair. All of these locations have been settings in one or another of my novels which are set in the rural farmland of south-central Michigan during the Great Depression. 

A Tiny Piece of Blue, February 2025

Many readers enjoy the familiarity of the dust storms of the Great Depression touchingly depicted by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939) and more recently by Kristin Hannah in The Four Winds (2021). These are amazing books, and I encourage you to read them. However, because the devastating dust storms didn’t hit southern Michigan with the same ferocity of other plains states, readers tend to be less familiar with my settings. Nevertheless, Michigan was not immune from the vagaries of weather and economics during the depression. Droughts, along with plummeting dairy, beef, pork, and egg prices caused many farm foreclosures. Farmers found themselves homeless and unless they had family willing to take them in, they joined the minions setting out for a better life, often California-bound.

My Childhood Family Farm with Red Barns

I grew up on a farm in Calhoun County, Michigan as did my parents, and both sets of grandparents. Before them were immigrants from England, Ireland, and Germany who all had dreams of a better life. Calhoun County encompasses Battle Creek, Marshall, Albion and some smaller towns and villages. But it was farmland when the immigrants settled, and all my grandparents and great-grandparents were indigent family farmers. My mother remembered the log cabin that was originally the family homestead, long since replaced not once, but subsequently by two houses on the same site. The family stories are rich with both fact and emotion. However, not all stories were passed down, particularly those of failure and heartbreak. No letters were kept, save the missives home from two great-great uncles who were Union soldiers in the Civil War. Nevertheless, when starting my research, I chose to start with those stories closest to my heart—those of my family.

My mother Mary Whitney with her sister and her pet lamb

When a child, my mother had a pet lamb that she loved. It was soft, cuddly and tagged along with her wherever she went. Ironically, my mother’s name was Mary. However, one year during the Depression my grandparents struggled to have enough to eat, and my mom’s precious lamb was slaughtered. From that day on my mother would eat anything that was on the table—some days squirrel, rabbit, or wild boar, but she NEVER ever ate lamb.

Photos of Calhoun County Fair in the 1930s
(courtesy of the Calhoun County Agricultural and Industrial Society)

A Tiny Piece of Blue contains several dramatic scenes from the 1935 Calhoun County Fair. Vernon passes by members of the Pottawatomi tribe selling quill baskets at the entrance to the fair and experiences a wave of regret he never purchased one for Edna. Similarly thirteen-year-old Silstice finds herself at the top of the Ferris Wheel and looks down to see her two younger brothers held hostage and struggling to pull free from their captors. Likewise Vernon observes families picnicking at Fair Lake, formerly named The Duck Pond. The places are authentic and make colorful, dramatic settings.

In one scene of A Tiny Piece of Blue Vernon surprises Silstice and her sister Alberta with a Saturday night barn dance. He mentions that barn dances only happen in June when haylofts are cleared out and before they are filled up again at hay-baling time, usually around the 4th of July. This, of course, is true for Calhoun County, Michigan. The hay season farther south would be earlier and farther north would be later.

I’ve heard from a great number of older Midwestern readers who comment on the “authentic” nature of my historical novels. I strive for that plus a superb story which keeps the reader turning pages, desperate to reach the end, yet never wanting the book to ever end. That paradox remains my goal.

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Charlotte Whitney’s next book, A Tiny Piece of Blue, will be released February 18, 2025. It can be pre-ordered here: https://charlottewhitney.com/pre-order

A tangled web of mysteries in Candace Robb's medieval-set A Snake in the Barley

Tom Merchet, brewer of some of the finest ale in York in 1377, has failed to return home for days, and his beloved wife, Bess, can’t hide her concern. Tom’s disappearance is out of character for the kindly taverner, but he had been acting perturbed for weeks beforehand. He spoke little about his life before his marriage, even to Bess herself, and she wasn’t one to pry.

A Snake in the Barley, 15th of Robb’s Owen Archer books, delves into the troubled history of this recurrent series figure, exploring where he came from and how it shaped him, especially now that it seems shady characters from his past have resurfaced.

Owen Archer—the captain of the City of York and spy for Joan of Kent, widow of King Edward’s eldest son—is determined to find what happened to his close friend. Owen’s first lead has him investigating the real identity of the “Widow Cobb,” a disabled woman living in a tenement that Tom had been seen entering. It’s unlikely Tom would have been unfaithful, but what was she to him? Owen also receives visits from two of the Duke of Lancaster’s men who traveled north to find two men who incited violence in London.

The atmosphere is tense and dark, the plot complicated and winding, with every solution opening up more mysteries. The loving relationship between Owen and wife Lucie, and the interactions among their children and friends, warms up the otherwise somber tone of this well-researched medieval crime novel, which offers vivid scenes across York and the nearby sanctuary town of Beverley. One caveat: readers who haven’t followed this series in order may feel like outsiders looking in on the many characters and their relationships, since some of the plot builds on backstory from earlier volumes.

Candace Robb's A Snake in the Barley appeared from Severn House in December (I reviewed it for the Historical Novels Review originally). The first in the Owen Archer series, The Apothecary Rose, was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1993, which is when I read it. Midway through the series, it moved over to a new publisher, Severn House, which republished all the earlier volumes with beautiful new covers in 2024.  Having twice visited York, I highly recommend a trip there, in either contemporary or medieval times via this series (preferably both!).

Takeaways from Day 1 of The History Quill's 2025 convention, covering the state of historical fiction today

I spent yesterday at The History Quill’s 2025 virtual convention, which I first heard about on Instagram. It’s a writers’ conference for historical novelists and, although I don’t write fiction, the program was of great interest to me. Day 1 was all about the state of historical fiction in 2025: trends, marketing tips, career planning for authors amidst industry changes, and so forth. The day – it was a very long day – was planned well for attendees across various time zones, spanning from 5am to 8pm in US Central Time, and the sessions were mostly spaced at least an hour apart. This was incredibly helpful in preventing Zoom fatigue and allowing time for meals and breaks. The conference continues today and tomorrow with workshops on writing craft, and I didn’t sign up for those.

My day began at 7am with four British historical novelists (moderator Louise Hare, Louise Fein, Eleni Kyriacou, and Frances Quinn), who have at least three books out apiece, on maintaining a career in historical fiction. This was excellent, a very friendly, open conversation about the practicalities of writing historicals today, with the following points made and often agreed upon by panelists:

- Editors and agents agree that authors should write what they like, but not all ideas are saleable, so it’s good to have multiple concepts in mind.

- For your first published novel, make sure it’s in a style or period you want to stick with, because readers/editors will want “the same, but different” for future books.

- The panelists named writers whose work they especially admired: Sarah Waters, Kate Quinn, Kate Atkinson, and Kate Mosse. Even though they move between settings and styles, their books share commonalities, such as high writing quality (Atkinson) and themes of female agency and friendship (Quinn), for example. Sarah Waters' Fingersmith was praised for having the best plot twist ever.

- Historical novels are getting shorter. Where 120K words was possible once, editors now expect closer to 100K.

- Writing courses are good for establishing discipline and forming a community, but after a point, having a reliable writing group to bounce problems/ideas off of is more helpful.

At 9am, one US literary agent, one UK agent, and a UK-based commissioning editor spoke about the HF book market in 2025. Jane Chun (Transatlantic Agency), Olivia Davies (United Agents), and Craig Lye (Canelo) had a wide-ranging discussion about trending subgenres, reader preferences, and the like. Some takeaways:

- Currently popular are genre-blends (R. F. Kuang’s Babel), since they have a crossover readership; this includes historical mysteries, thrillers, and horror. Over a third of current NYT bestsellers are historicals (Jane Chun). This was echoed by Olivia Davies, who spoke about the growth of historical horror and speculative HF, citing Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, which “uses the past to open up the present.” Craig Lye mentioned the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII in 2025 and that other anniversary tie-ins lead to increased interest in the public psyche. He saw an interest in historical crime featuring famous figures, Greek myth retellings (ongoing), and Arctic exploration. 

- Since the WWII market is saturated, we need new perspectives and less familiar settings (Chun). I think readers would agree with this too.

- On the political climate’s impact on the genre: readers are looking for escapism, but also novels that engage with political unrest in historical times (Davies); Chun agreed, saying children’s lit was more responsive to current events but was also subject to calls for banning. Lye said that politically focused novels needed to be backed by strong research and insight. One recent acquisition about the Ukraine war did well, but direct tie-ins to today’s politics can be a gamble. 

- Multiple-timeline novels require extra work by their authors and need justification for why this format is needed (Chun). She receives many manuscripts of this type, some of which have so many characters and timelines that they’re hard to follow. I found this interesting since I often hear that adding a contemporary narrative to a historical novel can increase its audience. However, readers do notice if the parallel storylines aren’t well integrated and don’t carry equal weight, so Chun’s remarks are apt. 

- Interest in unheard voices and underrepresented viewpoints continues to be strong. There was a (very predictable) question in the chat relating to cultural appropriation. Every time this question comes up in a panel discussion, which is a lot, the answer is the same, but the panelists made their points well. The consensus: authors have the freedom to write what they want, but make sure the research is sound, and ask themselves if they’re the right people to be telling the story. 

- Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits, set during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish vernacular, was mentioned both in this session (by Davies) and another one as noteworthy due to its strong voice and how well the mashup worked.

For the keynote session at noon, Amy Durant (co-founder and editorial director at Sapere Books), Vaseem Khan (historical crime novelist and Chair, Crime Writers’ Association), and Orna Ross (novelist and founder, Alliance of Independent Authors) spoke about the current state and future of historical fiction. Another valuable session. Some highlights:

- The increasing importance of publishing in multiple formats simultaneously (Durant), the growth of audiobooks, especially among indie authors (Ross), and comments on how the experience of reading dictates the format chosen; Khan explained how listening to Wolf Hall on audio was a completely different experience than reading the text. Ross spoke about the growth of deluxe hardback editions, even if readers had previously purchased a book in a different format. 

- Author newsletters are important since while social media platforms change, email isn’t going away. It’s critical not to overpromote on social media.

- Specific niches are where authors are finding success (Ross), and these can be hard to predict. The romantasy trend was originally indie-led. 

- It’s hard to chase trends because publishing lead-time is so long that trends can be over by the time a new book comes out (Durant). She is seeing the rise of fantastical elements in historical fiction – a point made on the earlier panel – plus mid-century settings.

- Per Khan, authors should build relationships with readers that go “beyond the book,” such as newsletter and blogs, both of which he maintains. Blogging is back, and authors should bring their storytelling skills to their blogs (Ross). 

- AI can provide affordable options but is ethically controversial. The use of AI for audiobooks is an individual decision (Ross), and authors should be aware that many readers are against AI-created cover designs (Durant). There was a later session on AI in storytelling and publishing which I did not attend, but I may watch the recording.

I attended Sandra Beckwith’s “How to Market Historical Fiction in 2025,” which was a mixed bag. Maybe those who are newbies to marketing and promotion got more out of it. Much of the content was more broadly focused than just the HF genre, and I found the suggestions about the usefulness of generative AI for world-building and research assistance questionable (going by comments in the chat, I’m not alone). I’ve tested ChatGPT extensively for research questions and found the results inconsistent and unreliable. She did have useful tips for getting an Amazon author page up to speed before starting to promote a novel, and the importance of keeping an email list rather than relying on specific social media platforms.

Debra Borchert’s evening presentation, “Making Authentic Connections with Readers in Today’s Market,” was very good. Like many of you, I’ve watched countless author presentations, and I appreciate seeing new and unique content. Borchert writes a series about women during the French Revolutionary period, but this session wasn’t a self-promotion exercise. Instead, she spoke about how authors can discover new marketing opportunities and readerships by introducing themselves to venues based around their novels’ topics and themes. As an example, she has a passion for cooking soups and includes this within her storylines, along with recipes within her books; this has led to articles and other mentions in national publications and TV appearances. Not all pitches are successful, and the impact on sales wasn’t always directly observed, but they help establish personal branding and authority on a subject. By the end, the audience was very curious to learn more about her books, so it worked.

Lola Jaye’s session on weaving contemporary issues into historical novels was too early for me (5am!), so I’ll watch from the recording. I recommend her novel Orphan Sisters, which I reviewed in 2017.

In all, Day 1 of The History Quill convention was a worthwhile event, and I’m glad I took the day off work to attend. If you're interested in keeping up with the genre, I recommend checking it out next year.

Sisterhood, ghosts, and the meaning of freedom in Erin Crosby Eckstine's Junie, set in 1860s Alabama

The narrative voice in Junie sounds so assured that you wouldn’t realize it was a debut. The title character, just sixteen in 1860, has lived her whole life on Bellereine Plantation in rural central Alabama, as “property” of the McQueen family. Junie has hopes and dreams like any young woman, and her interior life is fully and richly described.

Although she shares household duties with her family—including her loving grandparents, Auntie Marilla, and cousin Bess—she primarily acts as companion to her white master’s daughter, Violet, who taught her to read. The teenagers share confidences and thoughts on literature; Junie has a fondness for British poetry, while her relatives worry that her head’s too much in the clouds.

Junie’s world is about to change. Already in financial distress due to the master’s alcoholism and irresponsibility, the McQueens are becoming nervous about potential war. When Mr. Beauregard Taylor, a wealthy suitor for Violet’s hand, arrives to stay at Bellereine, Junie—fearful of what Violet’s marriage will mean for her—undertakes a daring nighttime excursion that awakens the spirit of her late sister, Minnie, who had died after saving Junie from drowning. Minnie has several demands for Junie to accomplish on her behalf, and fulfilling them unearths terrible truths about life at Bellereine.

The eeriness of the ghostly visitations stands in effective contrast with the verdant beauty of the woods that Junie loves. The plotting is superb, with many unforeseen twists, and Junie is a compelling creation. Her growing closeness to the Taylors’ coachman, Caleb, is depicted with tender realism. Knowing that enslaved people’s futures aren’t their own, both hesitate to become too close. Still innocent in many ways as the novel begins, Junie is repeatedly tested, and she recalibrates the meaning of friendship, freedom, and sisterhood with every shocking revelation.

Erin Crosby Eckstine's Junie was published yesterday by Ballantine. This review was written for the Historical Novels Review's February issue. I was glad to see online, afterward, that Junie was picked up for the Good Morning America book club; it's their February pick.

Historical fiction winners from the 2025 American Library Association Book and Media Awards

The American Library Association and its RUSA division recently announced the winners in their annual Book and Media Awards. I always like hearing about these because the judging is done by librarians, and there are few national awards just for historical fiction. And because historical novels cross over into other genres (you’ve heard me discuss this before), the winners fall into multiple categories as well. This post focuses on fiction for adults.

On the Reading List, the ALA's annual awards in eight genre fiction categories, the award for Historical Fiction was won by The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, about women’s friendship in the politically volatile world of 1950s Iran.

The shortlist of Honor Titles for historical fiction includes:

All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore (1830s Philadelphia)
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (1950s Washington, DC)
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (18th-century Maine)
Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi (15th-century West Africa)

Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar, Jewish-themed historical fantasy set in Renaissance-era Madrid, won in the Fantasy category, and the multi-period Kristin Perrin’s How to Solve Your Own Murder was rated tops in the Mystery category. The Romance category winner was Cat Sebastian’s You Should Be So Lucky, a gay sports-themed romance set in 1960s NYC.

The 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction went to Percival Everett’s James, his retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the character Jim’s perspective.

On the Listen List for excellence in audiobook narration:

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James. Narrated by Lee Osorio. A “magic realism western.”
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Narrated by Jane Oppenheimer.
James by Percival Everett. Narrated by Dominic Hoffman.

On the Notable Books List, which includes nonfiction and literary fiction, we have:

James by Percival Everett
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (multigenerational epic about trauma inflicted on Native Americans)
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor (coming of age on a Welsh island in the 1930s)
Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp (a decades-spanning story about an American family’s proximity to violence)

Congrats to the winners!

The Diamond and the Duke, a Napoleonic-era romance with a Beauty-and-the-Beast subplot

Lady Eleanor “Ellie” Balfour has loved Wesley Audley, illegitimate son of the Duke of Bentley, ever since he saw her practicing swordplay on her family’s Leeds estate as a teenager. He won her heart with his honesty, a refreshing change from her older brothers’ platitudes and her late father’s physical cruelty.

Several years later, Captain Audley returns from the Belgian battlefields injured and broken, not realizing that the lovingly supportive letters he’d received overseas had secretly been penned by Ellie, rather than the old girlfriend whose name Ellie had carefully signed. When Ellie looks at Wesley, she sees a kindred spirit and strives to heal him, if only he can bring his walls down. In truth, she’s in desperate need of healing herself.

This emotionally rich mixture of "Beauty and the Beast," Cyrano, and Bridgerton-style saga, set in the early 19th century, offers a multiplicity of romance tropes, which feels overcrowded at times, especially when the fake-relationship subplot appears. But Caldwell strikes a good balance between the serious theme of abuse recovery and the flirtatious hubbub of a pre-Regency London Season, and the couple’s visit to a female bonesetter adds originality. It’s a complicated road, but these wounded characters well deserve their happy ending.

The Diamond and the Duke was published by Berkley in 2024, and I covered it for the Historical Novels Review initially.

Caldwell is an impressively prolific Regency author. I receive many pitches for reviewing historical romances, and it's been interesting to see, in recent years, how readers and publishers have been leaning into romance tropes and denoting the specific plot pattern(s) the novel fits into. Examples include forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, fake relationships, and so forth. One Amazon review describes this book as a "wounded warrior" romance, so there's another trope right there. Then, knowing what to expect, readers get to look forward to how these scenarios play out with each couple and setting. When an author tries to squeeze many of these tropes into a single book, as happened here, it gets to be a little much, but I did appreciate the original touches Caldwell added.

The past echoes through the present in Charmaine Wilkerson's multi-period Good Dirt

Ranging across time and distance, Charmaine Wilkerson’s second novel (after the highly acclaimed Black Cake) stitches together a meaningful collection of stories about a proud American family and their most cherished heirloom, an oversized stone jar crafted by an enslaved potter in the early 19th century.

The premise reminded me of Tiya Miles’ All That She Carried, the National Book Award-winning historical narrative that traces the journey from slavery to freedom through a cotton sack passed down through generations, and I mentally nodded to see it mentioned as an influence in Wilkerson’s afterword.

In 2019, after her white fiancé fails to show at their wedding, Ebby Freeman takes off to rural France for a respite stay as caretaker for a friend’s rental cottage. The Freemans, well-off African Americans from New England, have a long, storied history involving the Tuskegee airmen and an early female physician, among others. The tragic and shocking murder of Ebby’s older brother Baz during a home invasion in 2000, which ten-year-old Ebby witnessed, turned an uncomfortable spotlight on the family during their grieving. The stone jug, called “Old Mo” for the initials (MO) carved into its side, had been broken during the crime.

Ebby’s failed relationship feels like an addition to their horrible luck, and when her ex, Henry, turns up to rent the French cottage (not as coincidental as this makes it sound) with his new girlfriend, Ebby has an overwhelming urge to run – but she doesn’t. Episodes from Old Mo’s history reveal themselves as Ebby turns her writing talents to retelling the “jug stories” she learned in childhood.

Good Dirt is mostly contemporary and offers the strongest narrative continuity in these sections. The historical segments, which grow more prominent after the midpoint, introduce a collection of important figures from the Freemans’ past: their foremother Kandia, captured in Africa; her son Moses, who inherits her pottery talents; and his artisan brother-in-law Willis, who flees the South Carolina backcountry for Massachusetts and adopts a new name; and a diversity of other people, Black, Native, and white.

The plot has ample surprises, including an unfolding mystery. It all adds up to a multi-voiced journey into American history, the forces that bend and shape us, and the courage in embarking on a new life.

Good Dirt will be published by Ballantine next week, and I read it from a NetGalley copy.