Episode 37
Genealogy Research Prompts A Next Chapter
Janis Robinson Daly grew up in Massachusetts and remained there, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College, at the time, an all-women’s college. At Wheaton, she developed an appreciation of the supportive relationships established between women and a heightened awareness of female-centric issues. Both directed her writing of THE UNLOCKED PATH.
With a love of history and plot and themes sketched, Janis enrolled in a creative writing course to hone hery skills. Combining years of extensive research, feedback from writers’ conferences, beta readers, and editors, and with a contract in hand from indie press Black Rose Writing, she published THE UNLOCKED PATH ten weeks after her 60th birthday. My next chapter had begun.
THE UNLOCKED PATH presents a “New Woman” of the 20th century: educated, career-minded, independent Eliza Pearson Edwards. In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza rejects her mother’s wishes for a society debut, and at a time when five percent of doctors are female, she enters a woman’s medical college. With the support of a circle of women and driven by a determination to conquer curriculum demands, battle sexism, and overcome doubts, Eliza charts her new life path. Combining science and sympathy, she triumphs to heal others and herself.
Organic Chemistry may slay her, if the strain of endless study, odoriferous labs, and gruesome surgeries don’t claim her first. As a young intern, she summons a forthright confidence asserting her abilities to those mistrustful of a woman doctor. Through her work with poverty-stricken patients, she defines her version of suffrage work to champion women’s rights for and beyond the right to vote. Love is found, love is lost. During a visit to the fairy-tale-like city of Newport, a new relationship may fulfill her desires. By 1912 Eliza moves to Boston, using her medical skills to assist at settlement houses in the South and West Ends. When global events devolve into chaos with the 1918 influenza pandemic and a world war, Eliza renews her vow to help and heal.
Janis, her husband, and rescue pup now split their time between Cape Cod, NH, FL, and hotels along Route 95. She has spoken at over twenty-five libraries and joined many local book clubs for an author presentation. You can learn more about Janis, her novel, local appearances, and how to book her for an event at www.janisrdaly.com. THE UNLOCKED PATH has recently been showcased as a Top Ten book by the Women's Fiction Writers' Association which celebrates women’s fiction titles that showcase Twentieth Century Historical Fiction (1900 – 1989) and shines a light on the societal barriers women scrambled over on their journey to live and love as fully as possible.
THE UNLOCKED PATH is available through Amazon in paperback, Kindle and Audible and can be ordered through any local indie bookstore or Bookshop.org.
A little about today's host-
Author and musical composer Kathleen Basi is mother to three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her debut novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”
Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing and beauty on her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.
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Transcript
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Kathleen Basi [:Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Kathleen Basi. I'm an award-winning musical composer, a feature writer, essayist, and, of course, storyteller. Let me tell you a little bit about today's guest.
Kathleen Basi [:Today, we welcome Janis Robinson Daly, author of The Unlocked Path, a work of historical fiction. While Janis's family has roots in Philadelphia, she's a Boston girl through and through, from her accent to the cans of baked beans in her pantry to the patriots’ flag that hangs over her driveway. Her writing of The Unlocked Path developed when she began some genealogy research and discovered that her great, great grandfather took an active part in founding the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1850. Inspired by that line, an idea for a novel formed. Janis felt the stories of the early graduates of Women's Medical needed to be told and celebrated. Kirkus Reviews noted that Daly develops Eliza's family ties and shows her passion for social change through her career choices and her opinions, which have a strong feminist element. It results in a work that effectively showcases the power of love, friendship, and faith, both in one's calling and in oneself to create change in the world. An often-riveting fictional testament of a doctor's life at the turn of the 20th century. Welcome, Janis to Author Express.
Janis Daly [:Thank you, Kathleen. So great to be here with you today.
Kathleen Basi [:It's great to have you. I love the fact that this was genealogy research. I love that you know your great, great grandfather. That is just all so cool. Did you find out anything about what his impetus was for wanting to be part of the founding of this college?
Janis Daly [:I really didn't. The only piece of information I found originally was that he was a founder of the school. So, one of the founders, and I really didn't know what that meant. You know, he could have been a benefactor and been considered a founder of the school. But I ultimately found, in addition to his work with the Women's Medical College, before that or at the same time in the 1850s, he was a lawyer in Philadelphia before becoming a judge and was actually an abolitionist lawyer. So, he defended runaway slaves in the 1850s that, of course, Philadelphia was a very strong area for the abolitionist movement, and he defended those runaway slaves. So, he was obviously a gentleman that believed in the rights of others. You know, a right for African-American to have their freedom. And that must have fed well into his belief that women should be educated and they should have the right to enter into a profession that they wanted to and had a desire to study medicine. So, I think that might have gone hand in hand just as to the type of man that he was.
Kathleen Basi [:That's very interesting. So, that's actually a little off of our normal script. I just thought that was so interesting, I wanted to grab it while I could. So, let's dig into our actual questions that we like to always start with the same one, which is tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from.
Janis Daly [:Oh, well, I am from Boston. We are a sports town. I think we have a basketball team still playing. But I absolutely adore it, being from Boston with all of its good and bad, like any city, but you know, so much history. And I'm a history nerd, history lover. So, being able to, you know, walk into any town and discover how it helped shape our country, really. Everything from Plymouth to the birthplace of the American Revolution and all, it's got a lot going on here.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. That's very cool. All right, so let's find out a little bit more about you as a person and not just where you're from. Tell me, what was the last thing that made you laugh really, really hard?
Janis Daly [:Really, really hard? Probably a photo my husband sent out yesterday from work. He is a bartender.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, wow.
Janis Daly [:And it had a shot of himself behind the bar with his local cronies. Anybody remembers the old Cheers show? You know, the local cronies sitting at the bar and solving the world's problems, one Guinness at a time. It's an Irish pub that he bartends at.
Kathleen Basi [:That's fun. That’s fun.
Janis Daly [:So, he made me laugh for a good many years.
Kathleen Basi [:Well, that's lovely. That's so nice. Just being able to laugh together is, like, the thing that makes it all work, I think.
Janis Daly [:Yeah.
Kathleen Basi [:So, tell me, what's your favorite vacation that you've ever taken?
Janis Daly [:There's been a lot of family vacations, of course, with my two sons and my husband. And one fabulous one was we went to California as a family and we did the Triangle of San Francisco down to Yosemite, up to Tahoe via Napa. Made the wrong choice. We should have waited till one of the kids was old enough to drive. So, my husband and I could really enjoy Napa.
Kathleen Basi [:I honeymooned in Napa, so I totally sympathize with that. You have to be careful.
Janis Daly [:Yeah. So that was a fabulous trip. Lots of family time. And I actually am just back from vacation about ten days ago. I spent five days just myself and my college roommate together down in the Caribbean.
Kathleen Basi [:Wow.
Janis Daly [:That was amazing. Yeah.
Kathleen Basi [:That sounds very cool.
Janis Daly [:Just totally unplugged.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. Let's move into talking a little bit about your book. Tell us the name of it again.
Janis Daly [:So, The Unlocked Path is a novel, historical fiction, and it does talk about and celebrate the graduates of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, which was the first and longest running women's only medical school for 120 years.
Kathleen Basi [:So, you have multiple characters, multiple women in this novel. Which one of them did you root for the most while you were writing?
Janis Daly [:Well, of course, you know, our, the main protagonist is always who we want to root for, right? And my main character, Eliza Edwards, is a fictional composite character. So, she's based on a lot of the research that I did of women I read about that had attended the school and went on to study and practice medicine. So, we always want to root for Eliza. But her best friend and classmate, Olga Pavinsky, is one that I'm always drawn to just because she's got a lot of spunk. She's a real character herself.
Kathleen Basi [:It's always good to have a character with spunk in your books.
Janis Daly [:Oh, yeah. You know, a little bit of comic relief here and there, but also someone that shoots straight from the hip, you know, and keeps Eliza on track. Olga is based on a real person. A real graduate of the school that came from Lithuania in 1897, and I had read one little tidbit about her that made me think, oh, she does have spunk, so I'm going to play off of that.
Kathleen Basi [:So, this Olga is herself. She's not based on, like, an idea. You didn't make her up. She is actually a historical character.
Janis Daly [:She's based on a real graduate. Olga Pavinsky.
Kathleen Basi [:Very cool.
Janis Daly [:I did fictionalize her backstory a little bit just to make it a little bit more interesting. That's what we can do with fiction. But a lot of it is true to who she was, where she came from.
Kathleen Basi [:Very, very cool. As you think about the writing process and, you know, as you move forward, you love historical fiction. Where do you see yourself ten years from now? In terms of writing?
Janis Daly [:I hope to be on at least book number five, maybe by then. I know. Well, we'll see. Ten years from now, one every two years, I guess. Not too bad pacing.
Kathleen Basi [:No, not at all.
Janis Daly [:And have quit the day job so I can focus. More time.
Kathleen Basi [:This is now you have quit, or are you saying in ten years?
Janis Daly [:No, in ten years I will quit. I better have quit. I’m not going to, yeah.
Kathleen Basi [:My day job is my kids. In ten years, they should all be out of the house. So, we'll see.
Janis Daly [:Well, there you go. I've been that life too.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. Very cool. And so, tell me, what do you want to tell others who dream about writing a book?
Janis Daly [:You know, just go for it. There's so much encouragement out there now. There are so many avenues for publishing that folks have greater access and greater access to resources to help you along the way. I found incredible support communities within Women's Fiction Writers Association, from my publisher, just other authors that write within my genre that have been so supportive. So, if you've got an idea and you believe in that idea and you think it would make a good story, go for it.
Kathleen Basi [:Awesome. That's great advice. Okay, so tell me, where's the best place for people to find you if they want to go looking for you, or The Unlocked Path?
Janis Daly [:Sure. So, I do have a pretty robust website, which is just Janis, J-A-N-I-S-R Daly, D-A-L-Y.com and that has plenty of information about the book, inspiration for the book, where to buy the book, links and all.
Kathleen Basi [:All the things you need.
Janis Daly [:All the good things. But I've got some other content on there. I've done a lot of work with book clubs and so, I have not just how you could book me to join your book club for an author chat, but recommendations, suggested titles. I've got a curated list of book club titles, tips and ideas how to make your book clubs, you know, more interesting and fun. So, there's a lot of information. Of course, you can sign up for my newsletter through the website too.
Kathleen Basi [:That sounds fantastic. What a good service to put on your website and a way to think about your readers as well. Awesome. So, as we close today, tell me what book or story inspires you the most? Is it one of those on your recommended reading list?
Janis Daly [:So, I'm going to go way back to a book I read in high school, probably over the summer because it's close to a thousand pages. Gone with the Wind.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, yeah.
Janis Daly [:By Margaret Mitchell. And that was probably my first introduction to historical fiction and the story of a very strong female protagonist, you know, coming of age, overcoming a lot. And the book is so much deeper than what the movie portrays. So, I encourage folks that have the wherewithal to tackle a 1000-page book to pick up that classic and dive into it.
Kathleen Basi [:Very good. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of your great books and we look forward to talking to you in the future.
Janis Daly [:Thank you so much, Kathleen.
Kathleen Basi [:Thanks for joining us today. We hope you'll take a second to give us some stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. We'll be back next Wednesday, and in the meantime, follow us on Instagram, @AuthorExpresspodcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express but keep it interesting.
