Q&A with Ann E. Lowry

 

 

 

Ann E. Lowry is the author of the new novel The Blue Trunk. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

 

Q: How did your family history affect the creation of The Blue Trunk?

A: I have two main characters: Rachel (current day) and Marit (early 1900s).

Marit was my great-great aunt and I inherited the blue travel trunk that she brought with her when she immigrated from Norway to Wisconsin in the late 1800s. I was told that she “went insane” shortly after her arrival.

 

I always wondered what had happened to her so three years ago I began doing genealogical research. Sadly, I met many dead ends and thus concluded that she likely spent her entire life in an insane asylum (what they were called in the early 1900s) and is probably buried in an “unknown” grave in a cemetery in my hometown.

 

This was disturbing, especially after I read about asylums in the early 1900s and discovered the horrific treatments that patients, especially women, received. At that point, I decided to reclaim her life in historical fiction.

Rachel is fictitious, but like me, she loses a sister at a young age and is forced to deal with the ramifications of traumatic childhood loss and how it extends into adulthood. Her story mirrors Marit’s as both she and Marit are trying to break free from the bonds that constrain them.

Blake is more of a minor character, but their story is an important part of the book. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, my personal story somewhat impacted how I approached Blake's character arc.

Q: What did you see as the right balance between history and fiction as you worked on the novel?

A: History gives us the facts about events and the actions of people, but fiction allows us to enter into the inner realms of the human psyche to speculate about the motivations of those actions.

In The Blue Trunk, I did intensive research to ensure that the facts were accurate as I didn’t want to mislead readers and blur the lines between what actually happened and what was occurring in my imagination.

 

For instance, the treatments Marit experiences in the novel are, in fact, actually treatments in asylums in the early 1900s. However, how she responds to her situation and how Rachel responds to her situation is a fabrication of what I would have wanted my characters to do.

Q: In the novel, you tell the stories of Rachel and Marit--did you focus more on one character before turning to the other, or did you write the book in the order in which it appears?

A: I wrote both simultaneously, often working on each story for a period of days. But since I wanted to ensure that their narratives were intertwined, I never left one side for two long.

The bigger challenge was fitting them together in the end to make sure the readers didn’t get confused. I worked hard to create a different tone for the two narratives and wrote the current day Rachel chapters in first person and the Marit chapters in third person close.

When I was done with the first draft, I used post-it notes to organize the chapters. My goal was to keep sections of each story together before jumping to the other story. Of course there was a lot of rearranging.

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

A: I began my research on Marit with genealogy websites looking for census data and a death certificate, but quickly discovered that institutionalized individuals were not named in the census and often weren’t issued death certificates.

Then I discovered The Old Orchard Cemetery (AKA The Cemetery of the Unknown) in my hometown. I had no idea it existed, even though I was born and raised there.

 

I also learned about asylums in the early 1900s and hysteria diagnoses and the unfair institutionalization and treatment of women. All of this shocked me.

Most of my research was online with reputable sites (historical societies), but I did talk to a few reference librarians. My research also included learning about John Dillinger (he had some redeeming qualities!), gangster life in St. Paul, Minnesota, tuberculosis asylums and treatment in the early part of the 1900s, train schedules, current-day behavioral health units, and some geographic research.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have two book ideas. One is about the women pilots who shuttled bombers across the US during WWII. My aunt was a WASP (Women’s Air Service Pilot) and not only were these women amazing and brave, but they also lived without any veteran’s benefits for decades after their service ended. My aunt received the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously.

My second idea is to write about Margaret Brown (aka the unsinkable Molly Brown). People know of her experience on the Titanic, but few are aware of the many ways she worked for social justice and equality. Biographies have been written about her, but I am trying to determine how I could craft historical fiction about her while retaining integrity to her true story. Hers is a story that needs to be retold, I believe.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I am a dog lover and my fur baby, Loki, and I do pet therapy with hospice patients. He and our work keep me balanced, reminding me of what is important in this very short but beautiful life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb