Anne Elgin

March 2025     One  of  my favorite reasons to post in March is that,  March is Women’s History Month!  Though my historical novels, Dear Kiss,  published in 2020, and the upcoming Annie Elgin, it’s sequel, concern amazing,  fictitious women, I am aware of the actual women of the present who are making history in large and small ways. We see and perhaps follow those  who impact our opinions .However,  we live in communities and should be aware of ideas and actions percolating    close to home. Being part of solutions to even local challenges can be exhilarating! 

     First an update on Annie Elgin, hopefully coming out later this year, an early 20th century romcom! 

     Annie herself is a businesswoman, a milliner by trade, who seeks to expand the market in Ogden Utah, adding a small tearoom to her shop as well as confronting an un foreseen competitor right across the street!  She handles the situation ably as women of her station did at the beginning of the twentieth century. 

     Whether living in the intermountain west or the south, the Midwest or the northeast, other women of her time overcame obstacles and found success. Search in your own family history and you may find a shop owner like Annie, a nurse, a newspaper publisher all the while performing more traditional expectations of an earlier time. I would never have written Annie Elgin without the inspiration of the women of the 19th century and in the process found much to add to my story that was not made up at all but based on fact. 

    However,  Annie is after all a fictional character. I challenge you as my readers to look to your forebears or regions to prove the point that not just in commercial endeavors,   but in the entertainment world, the professions,  whether education or science, law or journalism, women have sought and achieved goals, with ease or at great cost. 

     The choice is before us daily  to pay attention!  Women  at this very moment are making history.  We should research, expand our knowledge and become part of The Women’s Movement which was acknowledged by   H.G. Wells in his novel Ann Veronica. I was struct by the label, “ New Women”, so the idea  is not exactly a new one, the book having been written in 1909 and a  departure from his other works dealing with science fiction. 

     We must make sure that girls and young women are alert to opportunities so  that the history we leave  behind  not only endures, but is worth saving!