My story, A Fairy-Tale
Bride, is set just after the Civil War in the make-believe town of Cuento,
Texas. Nora, the main character, is a Southern war widow who has lost her
husband, her home, and her land. She is impoverished and has no means to
support herself. The only respectable option she has is to become a mail-order
bride.
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As I researched the story I wanted to write for this
collection, I found it was very common for war widows, especially those from
the South, to enter into such marriages of convenience. Most of them had lost
everything during the conflict. Some of the surviving Confederate soldiers left
the Southeast to begin new lives in the cotton fields of Texas. This air of
familiarity helped with their transition back into civilian life.
The Texas cotton industry boomed around this time. With
their former homes and crops razed and slaves gone, many men turned to Texas as
a place to start fresh. The land was fertile, crops were good, and they were
able to tap into the now-freed slaves as a work force familiar with growing
cotton. Texas quickly became one of the leading producers of cotton in the
nation. With the new plantation owners thriving, it was natural for the
Southern war widows to go to Texas to enter into new marriages and to start new
families.
While I considered not having the sharecroppers appear in
the story because of the oftentimes unsavory aspects of the institution, in the
end, I decided to show them because sharecropping was a way of life in the
South after the war. The hero and his friend would not have been able to
sustain their large plantations without this means of getting workers. Neither
of the characters is unkind to the sharecroppers, and I don’t dwell on it
because the characters wouldn’t have. It was part of daily life.
As I researched this book, I learned so much about what life
was like for some Southerners following the Civil War. When you read it, I hope
you learn a little something too.
Passionate might best describe Liz Tolsma. She loves
writing, research, and editing. Her passion shone through in her first novel
which was a double award finalist. On any given day, you might find her pulling
weeds in her perennial garden, walking her hyperactive dog, or curled up with a
good book. Nothing means more to her than her family. She’s married her
high-school sweetheart twenty-eight years ago. Get her talking about
international adoption, and you might never get her to stop. She and her husband
adopted three children, including a son who is a U.S. Marine, and two
daughters.
What do you like best about Historical books?
with love and prayers,
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