Contemporary or Historical?
When I started writing Thickness of Blood,
I knew it was set in the past. The girls wore dresses and were told not to run.
A girl might not feel like she could tell her parents everything. A family
might shun a teen for getting pregnant. I put those ideas together and tried to
find a time that would work. I wanted the girls to have some independence, so
that brought me to latter half of the twentieth century. After the fifties, but
not as late as the eighties.
I instantly had a genre problem. Anything
written at the turn of the twentieth century and even a little later (up to the
second world war) would be classified as historical fiction. Anything written
from the nineties and more recently, with ample electronics and technology, is
contemporary. But what about those decades in between?
I did a quick Google search to define the
two genres and found Contemporary History. It's usually listed as a course
title or relating to a thesis in, you guessed it, history. As soon as I saw it,
though, I knew that described my book.
My story took place in the seventies.
Feminism was strong enough that men would crack jokes to make light of it, but
not strong enough that a girl could wear slacks to school. Disposable pregnancy
tests were an innovation. Roe vs Wade was still new, but abortion was a
possibility a young girl might not even know was open to her.
In the midst of all that societal turmoil,
I through a wrench at several young girls, in the form of sexual and physical
abuse. Each girl succeeds or fails by the family she relies on. Indeed, even
the abuser is defined by his family. One family is taxed by having too many
children and has nothing to offer their daughter. Another is wealthy but cold
and distant and won't accept a bastard grandchild. The abuser grows up in a
household of abuse, not surprisingly, and the gruff father is shown to be
callous to survive an abusive wife.
The final family, and the one with ties
stronger than blood, is George's. He loves his wife and daughters dearly and
would spoil them if he had the money. As it is, he spreads himself even thinner
by taking on a fourth daughter that he won't see turned onto the streets. It is
in this family that healing thrives. With such a bleak story, I had to have
some light to give the reader hope. Both Daphne, George's daughter, and Lila,
who he adopts, are able to move past the abuse onto successful lives.
Blurb for Thickness of Blood
George is obsessed with finding the man who raped his
daughter. Searching the southern states in the 1970s, he tracks down
James but also finds Lila, another girl victimized by his daughter’s
rapist.
George holds himself responsible for not getting
there sooner, not preventing Lila from becoming pregnant at fifteen and
exiled by her family. Unable to abandon her, George gives Lila a new
home, a new family. In the process, they both discover that some ties
are thicker than blood.
You can buy Thickness of Blood through Martin Sisters
Publishing.
Born Kimberly Donn Dell, she hated being called Kimmy, but when her Mom called her Kimmydonn, that was okay. Now she is married to Allen Gould and has Lilah, or Delilah, or Delilah Dell if she's misbehaving and Dad catches her. Continuing in her day job as an Environmental Consultant, Kim is also a writer in the time she finds on the sides.
You can find Kimberly Gould at http://kimmydonn.com or on Facebook or twitter (@Kimmydonn).
Thank you so much for stopping by and happy reading! :)
Born Kimberly Donn Dell, she hated being called Kimmy, but when her Mom called her Kimmydonn, that was okay. Now she is married to Allen Gould and has Lilah, or Delilah, or Delilah Dell if she's misbehaving and Dad catches her. Continuing in her day job as an Environmental Consultant, Kim is also a writer in the time she finds on the sides.You can find Kimberly Gould at http://kimmydonn.com or on Facebook or twitter (@Kimmydonn).
Thank you so much for stopping by and happy reading! :)
