Mary Dezember · Author · edited almost 5 years ago

Thank you, Brian! You are such a great advocate for good novels!

Brian Fitzpatrick · Reader · edited almost 5 years ago · 1 like

Congratulations, Mary. Wild Conviction is going to be amazing. Looking forward to the release.

Deborah A Turner · Reader · added almost 5 years ago

Art and stories can help us deal with difficult topics, even as they move us to think and dream of different ways to be. Thanks for Mary for this Wild Conviction that takes up this important tradition. Here’s to getting it into the world for all read, teach from, discuss, and help shape our visions of a better way all while remembering from where we can.

Mary Dezember · Author · added almost 5 years ago

Wow, thanks so much, Megan, for your great comments, observations and enthusiasm about Wild Conviction! I would love to time-and-place travel, so that’s one reason I enjoyed writing this novel. I’m so glad you are doing that travel! I agree, as you say, "Let’s get this baby published."

Megan Baldrige · Reader · added almost 5 years ago

The first chapter is pulling me. I can feel a strong tug. Is he really going to renounce his profession? How and will she prevail? It’s the end of chapter 1 and I’m time- and place-traveling. I want to get to know Twilight. Why is she so close to her grandmother and not to her mother and sisters...Let’s get this baby published so we all can get lost in a good story.

Mary Dezember · Author · added almost 5 years ago

Hi Elene, thank you for your great observation. Twilight choosing to boycott cotton products is an important element to the beginning of the novel, a first action that shows her sincerity.

Boycotting can be effective, but it does take figuring out how to replace what has been made most available by profit-churning industry, some that are inhumane and profit on atrocities and crimes against humanity, like the American industries built on the lives and work of the enslaved.

Lucretia Mott and her husband, as the novel points out, did successfully figure out how to replace slave-labor goods for their entire family and for his business.

And, you also found the place that highlights another character, Jackson, the son of a plantation owner -- an unlikely person to point out to Twilight the words and actions of Lucretia Mott. By doing so, Jackson reveals his conflicted character to Twilight (and thereby also to us, the readers), another aspect that is developed in the plot. Thanks again for reading and contributing to the discussion!

Elene Gusch · Reader · edited almost 5 years ago · 1 like

I was particularly struck by the conundrum of having to avoid wearing cotton in order to avoid goods produced by slave labor. That would be difficult, wouldn’t it, with cotton being so prevalent.

Mary Dezember · Author · added almost 5 years ago

Thanks, Denise, for your review, and I can’t wait to get the novel finished and into readers’ hands!!

Mary Dezember · Author · added almost 5 years ago

Thanks, Elizabeth, for your support and lovely review and recommendation!

Mary Dezember · Author · added almost 5 years ago

Marietta, thank you for your wonderful review and recommendation!