You know you've hit the big time when you are interviewed by The Scranton Times. Seriously, I am thrilled, especially since it's my only newspaper interview. The main character in Pemberley Remembered is Maggie Joyce who grew up in Minooka in the 1930s and '40s. My cousin, who still lives in Minooka (now a part of Scranton), gave a copy of my book to a friend of hers at The Times, who, in turn, gave it to Jeremy Burton who writes a personal-interest column called "Around the Towns." I was really pleased when Jeremy called to interview me because I wanted people from my parents' hometown to know that I had written a book that, I hoped, reflected the hard work and struggles of my parents and their parents and grandparents. It was a rough coal-mining town in the heart of the Pocono Mountains, but it produced a hearty people, many of whom rose to prominence despite having grown up in the Depression. Here is the article:
"Mary Simonsen didn't grow up in the Minooka section of Scranton, but Maggie Joyce sure did. Maggie is the protagonist in Ms. Simonsen's first book, Pemberley Remembered, which follows the story of a young woman from a coal town in Pennsylvania who gets wrapped up in romance and mystery in post-war England.
For inspiration, Ms. Simonsen drew from her family's deep roots around Scranton, which stretch back to before the Civil War. By the time Ms. Simonsen was born, her parents, Paul Lydon and Hannah Mahady, had moved to suburban New Jersey, but Minooka was still the family home. She remembers visiting the graves of ancestors at St. Joseph's and listening to stories from her grandmother.
The character of Maggie is a composite of Ms. Simonsen's mother and her aunts. Maggie is very much defined by her Irish Catholic ties and the close-knit life of Minooka before World War II.
Ms. Simonsen said in a way the novel allowed her to preserve a piece of her family's history in the voice of Maggie. The book is available from amazon.com."
Monday, September 29, 2008
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