The Pen and Brush Celebrate Opening of Full Circle Exhibit

by Diane Saarinen

Art lovers crowded into the Pen and Brush for the opening of “Full Circle: A Tribute to the Cultural Diversity of Women’s Art.”

Heavy rain and thundershowers could not hold back the crowd from visiting the Pen and Brush, New York on March 8, where awards were announced for the latest exhibition, “Full Circle: A Tribute to the Cultural Diversity of Women’s Art.”

Hunter Clarke of Ardencroft, Delaware took first prize with her work “Parental Instinct 3, Watercolor on paper, 12 x 16″, 2006″ part of the Bestiarius series featuring half-animal, half-human images of pregnancy. Other award-winners included Lynn Miller and Barbara Seewald, with honorable mentions going to Israeli artist Dafna Grossman and Kathryn Wagner.Clarke, who attended the ceremony with her family, said her work was “inspired by being pregnant, and the bizarre, animalistic nature of the experience of having a life grow inside oneself. I felt a kinship with predators who hunt and kill to find food for their young, and with those animals having a strong parental instinct.”

The parent-child bond was also explored in the works of Leah Kornfield Friedman and Susan Friedman Schrott. This mother and daughter pair each entered their images “Jewish Sisters” and “Autumn Gypsy Rose” to be juried, coincidentally and unbeknownst to each other. The images represent each artist’s interpretation of Rose Wander Kornfield, Leah’s mother and grandmother to Susan.

The show was wildly popular, with Pen and Brush reporting the largest turn-out of visitors yet for an artists’ reception. Approximately 280 art lovers attended.

Full list of winners:
First Place: Hunter Clarke, “Bestiarium: Parental Instincts 3″
Second Place: Lynne Miller, “American Still Life”
Third Place: Barbara Seewald, “Silent Knight”
Honorable Mention: Dafna Grossman, “Untitled - 01 Right”
Honorable Mention: Kathryn Wagner, “Curtain (2005)”

Don’t forget to visit the “Full Circle: A Tribute to the Cultural Diversity of Women’s Art” virtual exhibit, going on now in Studio HCE.

Images by Diane Saarinen and Peter Fusco.

Fifth Annual Women’s Show at VARGA

by Lynn Alexander

The VARGA Gallery of Woodstock, New York, recently concluded the annual Women’s Show–an event showcasing more than thirty artists of diverse styles and themes. The show featured a solo exhibition by surrealist visionary Cristine Cambrea and Corinne Dolle, (a.k.a. Coco), whose pin-ups have appeared in The Village Voice and The New York Times. In addition the show also featured workshops and opportunities for audience participation, all elements that make the Women’s Show and the VARGA Gallery must-see features of Woodstock.

Cristine Cambrea is a Vermont-based artist and self-described surrealist visionary. In 2007 she sold-out a six-week solo show in NYC’s Meatpacking District. She has upcoming exhibits in New York City and London, and opened The Cambrea Stone Gallery in Vermont with her husband, independent filmmaker Drew Stone. Her paintings are “a map of experiences, feelings and energy and the relationship between their physical, emotional and energetic environments.

VARGA, owned by Christina Varga, is not your mother’s gallery. In addition to providing a creative outlet for emerging artists, Christina’s vision includes representation of “outsider” artists, self taught artists, and artists who are often overlooked by the so-called mainstream art establishment because they lack the credentials or formal training often seen as necessary to the successful execution of creative work. Of equal concern to Varga is the rather exclusive nature of the art world and the traditional lack of female representation. Angered by what she describes as “disdain” for such artists, she became committed to an inclusive vision for her own gallery.

“There is certainly a greater respect for outsider and self-taught artists now than 10 years ago, but I was turned off from approaching galleries from a few experiences…and being treated with disdain. It’s the disdain that chaps my ass. I can’t stand it. So when I opened my gallery I knew that I did not have the “credentials” to decide which art was acceptable in the art world’s eyes and which art was credible and salable. I never had aspirations to be exclusive, as in to exclude people. Obviously I make some decisions as to what I find  aesthetic, but more important to me is nurturing the creative spirit in artists, especially self-taught, outsider and visionary artists. These kinds of artists are VISIONARIES.”

Her desire to create an outlet for showcasing female artists remains a driving force behind the highly successful Women’s Show, which has enjoyed tremendous popularity for more than five years. Yet Varga maintains that she is not interested in propagating separation along gender lines, but rather in working together to find common ground while cultivating shared creative spaces. In her support of self taught and outsider artists, Varga expresses a specific interest in the work of those she refers to as “visionary” individuals, whose contributions she feels are necessary to achieve societal transformation and transcendence of cultural barriers. She believes that every major leap in understanding has been accompanied by creative work, and that the nurturing of this work is an essential part of what it means to support art as an aspect of social change.

“I believe we are in a transformative period in our consciousness,” says Varga, “ and the growing pangs of evolution come through most readily in the creative processes of humankind. Every major leap in understanding and consciousness is accompanied by art and creativity and I seek to support the conscious leap from dark and churlish war-ridden fear mongering to an acceptance and understanding that each and every one of us are connected, speak a universal language and that art transcends all communication barriers. Upon seeing, or in the case of blind or visually impaired people, feeling, we are communicating with others. Specifically, I feel a need to support women artists because I know through the years it has not been easy for them to come up through the oppressively male dominated art world.”

The Women’s Show featured selections from the travelling art exhibit called “1 in 8: The Torso Project” founded by Pam Roberts.

In selecting work for the Women’s Show at VARGA, the goal was to include work with a message, but also to allow the exhibits to stand on their own, imparting the artist’s intentions. While many do center on a particular issue, such as selections from the “1 in 8 Torso Project” about survivors of breast cancer, Varga refrains from trying to characterize women’s art as limited in scope or content. She does not try to define what women’s art “should be,” but rather aims to support expression as it is and as defined by the artists themselves. (Interview Questions, Christina Varga)

“I don’t think women’s art should be anything in particular. I am often surprised by the work women create, and a lot of it can be quite dark. But on an intuitive level I think that women are very sensitive to emotional context; their works are packed with feeling and they stand on their own.”

This emphasis on the voice of the artist, whether established or emerging, is an aspect of Varga’s vision that resonates with many women, who are tired of the obligatory characterizations or defiance of notions about what women’s art is “supposed” to focus on. Many women might also respond to her message about the validity of the self-taught artist, and the convergence of our history with grassroots communities in response to creative and political marginalization. While it is true that acceptance for outsider art has grown tremendously and that the participation of women in the arts has increased, there is still an aspect of rebellion and self determination to these movements that form a part of an honored legacy for which galleries like VARGA continue to pay tribute.

Single Parent Soldier Woman: From communal support in Boudicca’s time to harassment and standing alone in present day America

Single parenting, with or without non-custodial parent/grandparent support and cooperation, is difficult in itself, never mind when the pressures of war are thrown into the mix. Similarly, war on its own, without the responsibility of taking care of a child or children, is also difficult to handle. Combine the two and one can but imagine the compounding stress arising from such a situation.

In “The soldier-parent dilemma” (Newsweek, 1990), Kantrowitz spoke of how parents like Army Sgt. Terrie Cortez, who planned on leaving her baby with her parents while on tour, end up with general discharges when faced with the reality that there is no one to take care of their children in their absence. Other women seeing battle in places like Iraq face not only rape by their male counterparts and suicide, but also death in battle and, if they return to America alive, denied child custody. Granted, men also face these issues while doing military service, but unlike women, they aren’t treated as physically inferior or denied their own voices. Sure, women like Teresa Broadwell and Misty Frazier receive medals for combat bravery, but they receive none of the attention that women presented in the media as the damsel-in-distress stereotypes (i.e. Jessica Lynch) do.

The current western view of women as worthless burdens, especially in times of war (and in, well, any profession, at any time) stems partly from the Roman Empire. One feminist reaction to the deeply engrained societal marginalization of women appears in the retooling of the Boudica woman warrior story. From the Libertines’ lyrics (“The Good Old Days”) that sing of Boudica’s spirit living on through the generations, to Manda Scott’s Dreaming the Bull and women who led armies, the argument that women are not useless cannot be quieted. Cwmfen (pronounced “Koom-ven”) fights in battle with her infant daughter and the babe’s father because she has no other choice.

Boudica herself is able to lead the resistance against Rome because her unplanned daughter, Graine, stays on the isle of Mona under the protection of the priestesses. There is no custody fight over her “best interest”—the community acknowledges and accepts Boudica as Graine’s mother and anticipate her return. 1rst century Celtic children are raised by everyone, not just the lone legal guardian.

The book compares the Celtic community to the spiritless Roman exaltation of the free adult male. Rome’s army is made up entirely of males who love each other physically and mentally. Women aren’t needed beyond breeding or ornamentation in show of wealth. Children do not matter unless they are boys. Boudica’s half brother Bán, a.k.a. Valerius, loves several men including his commanding officer. Outwardly, he only acknowledges women and children when he kills or hangs them during duty. The Roman male-centered community does not work, however, for Valerius is plagued by the ghosts of his family—women included.

The Roman military remains the ideal for many men in the American forces today. Women are systematically denied acknowledgement. The approach does not work even in fictionalized legend. Emperor Claudius’ wife, Agrippina, is not allowed at meetings because she is a lowly woman, but she reigns victorious over her husband in the end by poisoning him and supplanting her own son, Nero, on the Emperor’s seat.

The solution for modern day single parent women in the military, who face more than their fair share of issues, isn’t to poison the men who constantly suppress them, but to band together. The communal life of old, like anything else, has its drawbacks, but the advantages, especially for women and children—and even misogynistic men–far outweigh the negatives.

Notable Quotables

Erica Jong, author
“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”

Anne Frank, writer Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Parents can only give good advice or put them[children] on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”

Dolores Huerta, activist
“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”

Maya Angelou, poet, educator
“It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself, which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.”

Golda Meir, first female Prime Minister of Israel
“Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.”

Why offer you this selection of quotes on this day?

Through the course of the last two weeks in my run up to the publication date of my novel, I have been reviewed and critiqued, buoyed by some words and bruised by others. Fair enough. These are the accessories that come with putting any writing out into the universe. Or any art. Or any opinion, for that matter. If you are like me, you have learned it takes courage to do so.

So, wherever you happen to be when you read the quotes above, I hope they encourage you as they have done for me as well.

Now, go and create what you are meant to create today. And take strength from all the great women who have gone before you.

Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY

Rape in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon and the Modern American Military

by Nicolette Westfall

In Ravens of Avalon, a fictionalized account of historical first century Celtic Queen Boudica, rape is displayed and handled in several different ways. First, there is the marriage bed. Boudica, is raped by her warrior husband, Prasutagos, after he sniffs out the scent of another man (Pollio). Boudica’s confidant, priestess Lhiannon, glosses over the fact of rape by attempting to figure out whether he has been violent or is simply guilty of mishandling Boudica (165, 168). Of course, Boudica and Prasutagos make up in a Beltane ceremony (192) and enjoy years of peace until he dies of illness.

Men were legally able to rape their wives in pre-industrial times and so we have slight acknowledgement to it in Ravens. In the current era, it is not legal. It was not until 1993 that marital rape became a crime in all 50 states of America. The U.S. is certainly not alone in previously upholding the view that wives consented to their husbands sexual advances at all times simply through the act of becoming men’s property in marriage; Countries such as England and Wales did not make marital rape a crime until 1991. Married women have not gained much ground at all since Boudica’s period in history.

The problem of protecting women from their own husbands highlights the seriousness and prevalence of sexual assault against women. It is no wonder that women face the same danger in their military lives. From recruitment to military colleges and Iraq, sexual misconduct is something that the American DOD simply hasn’t methodically confronted yet. While the military gradually makes progress in dealing with it, cases continue to make headlines. Army specialist Suzanne Swift went AWOL in early 2006 after what she reported as sexual harassment at the hands of her immediate military supervisors. One of the more recent stories involves Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who was visibly pregnant at the time of her disappearance in December 2007. Her body was found in January and the fellow Marine she claimed had raped her has been charged by authorities with murder.

Lance Cpl. Sally Griffiths reported rape (by a fellow Marine) in 1993 and accidentally found out that the soldier admitted to the crime. The Marine responsible never received any consequences. More recently, Sgt. Robert Shackelford was acquitted of raping a female soldier and convicted of indecent assault, because forensics could only prove sexual assault, not actual rape; besides, the male witnesses provided a solid fraternity front with inconsistent testimony.

In most situations, the cultural norm of blaming the victim, coupled with the “he did serve his country” mentality, makes it almost impossible for victims to even consider pursuing charges.

Unlike the U.S. military, there are no instances of fellow soldiers raping their female counterparts (not wives) in Ravens. There are plenty of images of enemy soldiers (Romans and traitors), raping Celtic women and even Boudica’s daughters. The Roman men throw “dice” in order to decide who gets to gang bang the young girls first (292). Boudica’s rage fuels her people into a walking army that fights against Roman colonization. The rape of royalty is intolerable in the community (298). Boudica’s men, however, are not immune to using rape as a measure of control against Roman women or Celtic women who have, along with their husbands, chosen Rome’s side. Boudica is conflicted because she is both their leader and a woman. Her inner conflict is reconciled by the idea that her men would simply desert the cause if she forbade them from raping the women (335). She remains silent as they violently carry out the task and the victimized women scream.

Through the centuries, little has changed regarding reactions and solutions to rape in the martial bed and on the war front. Ravens and recent media attention to rape cases indicate that rape is a frequent and normal element of humanity that shows no signs of disappearing any time soon; it is so systematic and deeply embedded that outlawing rape and instituting military policies such as never going out alone or making sure you go to the washroom with another female soldier are only band-aid solutions.

Cited Works:

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. Ravens of Avalon. Viking: Toronto, 2007

Thoughts on National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

by Martha M. 

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, February 24 to March 1 is Eating Disorders Awareness Week. My own story comes to mind. Rather than go into personal detail, I would like to share what I learned in the process of recovery after 13 years of bulimarexia.

There will always be enough for me, whether it be food or love. I can say “No” to dessert or requests that demand too much of me. I can say “Yes” to dessert if I have room in my stomach, if it looks good, and if I WANT some. I do not consider that a sin. Nor do I consider it a sin to say “Yes” and do someone a favor, if I find it acceptable or within my means. Good eating is about three meals a day — a regular thing. It is not about diets or fasts. I feed my body regularly. It has come to depend on me for nurturing. In return, it gives me strength, energy, determination and the ability to pursue my dreams. I consider that a fair deal.

I have learned that eating is not about will power or discipline, neither of which I claim to have. It is about taking time for myself. I eat slowly and chew thoroughly. That allows me to enjoy food, prevents indigestion, and gives my body plenty of time to send the “satisfied” signal. Afterwards I feel good and can devote myself to other activities.

I admitted that I didn’t know how to eat, or what hunger and satiation felt like. I wanted to recover and enjoy life. In the process of recovery, it helped me to set up a basic food plan and commit myself to eating “normally” for six months, no matter what. That is a realistic alternative to the quick-fix mentality of this day and age. It doesn’t mean someone will lose a certain amount of weight in ten days, but rather, that they nourish their body and let it find its own ideal weight where it can function best. This long-term approach is life enhancing.

Recently I encountered some recovery myths in a conversation. I would like to set things straight. Now that I am healthy, I still get sad, feel lonely, screw things up, get tired, act like a child when I’m angry, don’t know everything, make mistakes. I get irritable when I’m hungry, have undesirable habits, and am still rather untidy. My marriage did not improve as drastically in the long run as I’d hoped. But I also often feel happy, enjoy spending time with people, actively pursue my hobbies and derive great pleasure through them, enjoy my children, feel energetic, enjoy a good meal, love to listen to music and read. In other words, many of the less enviable qualities have remained, but health has enriched my life incredibly. 2008 is my 20th year of health.

Last summer I published my story as told by my journals, which I have kept from the age of ten until the present. There is no one patent recipe for recovery, but through telling my story I hope to convey that full recovery is possible, and to encourage fellow sufferers to embark on their own unique path of recovery. My story is told in Diary of a Recovered Bulimic.

Martha M. grew up in upstate New York and moved to New York City and then to Europe, where she eventually recovered from bulimia, married, and started a family. She earned her master’s degree in psychology at a renowned European University. A poet and songwriter, she gives occasional concerts.

Here’s A Riddle For You

by Karen Harrington

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many pictures would it take to represent almost 80,000 words?

The answer: Only an artist could say for sure. But in my experience, it takes a powerful 2.54 minutes of heart-pounding video to display a pictoral representation of my novel.

In other words, I now have a book trailer.

A book trailer aims to convey the same hook and lure movie trailers attempt for a film. It is quickly becoming vogue in the world of publishing. Not only do publishers produce print ads to sell books; now they add image, movement and music to the mix and create what this writer believes is one of the most compelling innovations in the publishing industry in decades.

Author Brenda Coulter disagrees however saying that most trailers are simple slideshows with a soundtrack. She also dislikes that so many of the trailers cannot be viewed by a huge percentage of Americans due to slow dial-up connection. Now, to be fair, Ms. Coulter wrote her opinion two years ago. The method has come a long way, baby!

The trailer for Ann Patchett’s latest novel Run shows an aqueous blue background with bubbles continuously floating over images of people, houses on the rich/poor ends of the spectrum and selected descriptive passages from the novel. The singular piano accompaniment to this trailer creates an inviting, if not subtle, undercurrent of mystery and secrets. You could probably view this trailer in a library.

By contrast author Caro Ramsey’s book trailer for Absolution comes at the viewer full stop, with ominous images of knives and crosses bouncing across the screen in a shaky hand-held camera style, all set to an eerie single violin Silence of the Lambs-esque piece that would likely get you summarily shushed by a librarian.

This art form is not limited to fiction. Photojournalist Jim Lo Scalzo’s Evidence of My Existence views like a mini-documentary of the lens through which he photographed the world, with a bend toward the compassion he has for his subjects. I’m not certain if I wouldn’t rather view his book as a PBS special than actually read the book. Still, I am intrigued.

I am intrigued by the very way images, music and ideas come together in less than five minutes to give a potential reader a sense of the book. And this new view into book trailers made me wonder: would we choose books the same way we choose movies – from a two-minute glimpse? Would you rather go into Barnes & Noble and scan several short videos to make your selection? Or do you prefer to scan the New Release table and thumb through the pages in hand?

Much like the current political environment where the key slogan of the day is “You Decide,” you can decide for yourself by viewing the trailers above, or even the one created for Janeology – which is filled with water imagery, dark family secrets, hints at a black sheep legacy, all scored with music that vibrates on a background heartbeat until your neck hairs stand at attention. (Fortunate author that I am, this trailer was created by one of THE inventors of the novel trailer art form, Kam Wai Yu, who has been perfecting this art since the 1980s.)

And if you do view these trailers, I’d like to know what you think. Feel free to reply to this post or drop me a line at kharrin2003@yahoo.com.

Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife’s sudden descent into madness and murder.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com

HCE Welcomes New Books Editor

Please help me in welcoming Christine Hamm as our new Books Editor.

Christine is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Drew University. She worked as a social worker for 12 years, concentrating on the mentally ill and addicted before teaching courses in both composition and poetry writing at Rutgers University and York College.

Christine served on the editorial board of several literary journals, including Vernacular: A Women‘s Literary Journal, published by Women‘s Studio Center of Queens. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and once for “The Best of the Web,” her full-length book of poems, The Transparent Dinner, was published by Mayapple Press in October 2006. In 2007, she was a runner up to the Queens’ Poet Laureate. She is author of three chapbooks, Children Having Trouble with Meat (MiPoesias), The Animal Husband (Dancing Girl Press), and The Salt Daughter (Little Poem Press).

Welcome Christine!

Woman Worthless, Never Mind Female Support Networks: From a Reworking of the Arthurian Legend to Present Day India

I first decided to write up a piece about my frustration with the competitive and catty nature of many women in North American society, who try to tear each other down—all in the bid for hollow male approval, instead of banding together to rip apart the male-centric system. I thought about applying the example of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s overtly critical statement of the Christian hierarchy in The Mists of Avalon to argue that women need to come together and support each other; they are potentially half of the solution to misogyny. As I began to reread the book, however, the age-old theme of the patriarch placing value only on the male child/heir kept cropping up. As long as people think a pregnant woman is going to give birth to a male, there is hope; when a girl child comes into being, disappointment infiltrates all levels of Arthur’s realm. Bradley’s pro-feminist reinterpretation of a legend that is open to countless possibilities still cannot erase the fact that girl babies are less than equal to their male counterparts.

Bradley presents the devaluation of the female child in a tempered manner, through both sexes, which is highlighted through Morgaine’s character, who oft laments society’s repulsion to girl children. The story is a fantasy that allows Morgaine’s mother, Igraine, to keep and nurse her girl child despite her husband, Gorlois’ righteous need for a male heir. Of course, Gorlois has bastard sons with other women—women who Igraine treats with indifference, rather than as allies in the suppressive atmosphere. Although it is not Igraine’s fault she does not bear him a son (he’s very likely impotent, as a result of various reasons including age), he punishes her physically for her failure. Christian men simply don’t value inferior fetuses (girls).

The medieval European view of male worth compared to female burden, partly a consequence of male property rights, has not gone away, despite feminist movements in various parts of the world. The situation has gotten worse in some areas. India has received much press for the rising trend in sex selective abortions, often termed “miscarriages” to cover up the discriminate termination of female fetuses. Expensive dowries for burdensome women (never mind that women still perform the majority of housework and child raising) are deterrents for having girls and so many parents are opting for illegal ultrasounds (banned in 1994) in the second trimester to determine the sex of the unborn. Other influences like preference for boys (which are not specific to India) add to the growing numbers of sex-selective abortion, decided in the majority of cases not by the individual pregnant woman, but her family. The termination of female fetuses is so successful that there are approximately 800 girls born for every 1,000 boys in areas such as Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat. The issue isn’t whether abortion itself should be allowed as a choice, but that it may turn into female genocide.

When discussing the discrimination against female fetuses, the non-abortive ratio of male to female births must be included. In general populations, for example, in Canada, the ratio is not too distorted in favour of females (one study found a 0.2% decrease in male births from 1970 to 1990) when taking into account external variables. Dodd suggests that light variances in the sex ration do naturally balance out. The birth rate of female children does, however, outstrip that of males in polluted environments. One such case study involves the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, located on a heavily polluted reserve near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The birth ratio of this Chippewa nation is two girls for every one boy. Excluding cases of environmentally influenced male foetus termination, the willful removal of unborn females in India is the modern culmination of the medieval devaluation of women before they are even born.

The transition from communal medieval disappointment in female offspring to removal of female fetuses is a warning; sex-selective abortions do not lead to treatment of the female body as a worthy prized specimen for coveted breeding. The contrary is already being experienced in some regions in India, where women are sold, forced into polyandry, and abandoned or killed because they don’t produce sons. People on an international level must stand up and call for an end to the deadly discrimination. What happens in India is not only physical manifestation of the lack of female power within a patriarch, but also a call for global social justice intervention.

What a Good Character Will Do

by Karen Harrington 

My publication due date is fast approaching. I’m in the final trimester, as it were, with only about six weeks before the ideas and characters that were in my head are printed en masse and clothed inside a hardcover. It’s almost unreal.

So the other day, a friend asked me what Jane, the pivotal character of the book, would say about me if she could. About me?! This struck me as a rather unique idea. I had to pause to consider how she would view the portrait I had drawn of her. In thinking about this, I jotted down several more questions about her and attempted to answer them. Know what I discovered? I thought I had considered Jane from every angle, having known her for almost five years. But some of the answers surprised me. But then, that’s what a good character will do.

Is Jane the heroine of JANEOLOGY?

She is actually an anti-heroine if you consider that she commits the murder that sets the story in motion. But like many stories, you may find that though you cannot excuse her actions, you have sympathy for her because of the life that created her.

Why did you pick that name for her?

I don’t actually recall how it came to be. But when I was thinking up various titles for the book, I remember thinking how I could use Jane for Jane-e-ology (which rhymes with genealogy) as an apt description of the book – the story is the history or study of Jane.

What does Jane look like?

She is from Texas so her hair is always naturally highlighted, especially around her face. Her eyes are blue, clear and confident. In many other ways, she is your typical pretty American mother who looks worn out at Wal-Mart, but who cleans up to a nine if she’s going to a party.

What is her occupation?

She was an ER nurse before she had her kids. Then she had the toughest job in the world: a stay-at-home mom.

Who does she love? Why?

Jane loves her husband, Tom. That is certain. He has drawn out her softer side, which wasn’t really nurtured in her childhood. I think this is why she was attracted to him.

Does this person love her?

Immensely. This is the heartbreak of the story – loving someone whose mind is no longer her own. How do you love someone who doesn’t really exist anymore? This is what her husband grapples with.

Tell us about her family.

This question makes me smile. Why? Because it is the heartbeat of the book. JANEOLOGY is the story of Jane’s family. The chapters alternate through past and present and reveal eight of her ancestors. Who they were, what they did and how they were raised all trickled down into Jane’s DNA. To say anymore is to begin writing the story for you. Suffice to say, ask yourself about your own family. You would have a story about your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather and so forth. These are the stories that make up JANEOLOGY.

Where is she from?

She is from Texas, born and raised. And it shows. There’s a certain can-do moxie about her spirit. This spirit propels her in both good and bad directions.

Does her hometown affect her attitude?

Perhaps. Texans have a certain wide open attitude. That there is enough room – physically and mentally – to do things in a big way. So, yes, I think that living in Texas must have affected her worldview.

What would she say that she wants out of life?

To be known. To have one person really understand her.

What’s her biggest secret?

Like most people, she has two secrets: one from childhood and one from adulthood. Her childhood secret is that her mother once abandoned her at a grocery store. And her adult secret is that she had murderous/post-partum impulses before she acted upon them.

Did you write more than one story about her?

Actually, yes. I wrote Jane from several perspectives and ages. One of those – Jane at age nine – appears in the novel. And it is one my favorite chapters in the entire book because of the way her innocence begins to bend.

How would she describe you?

If she were to describe my day job as a stay-at-home mom she would say, “I completely understand what a tough job it is. Call me if you want to go garage-saling next weekend.”
If she were to describe my job as a novelist she would say, “You are too sympathetic to my husband. Do you realize all the things you DIDN’T see about him? Don’t ever call me.”

What else should readers know about Jane?

Jane is a complex, dark, hurting individual. She surfaced in my writing because of all the tragic stories I have heard about mothers who kill and my quest to understand why and how this was possible. I believe I gleaned a few answers to this question by knowing her.

Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s struggle to understand his wife Jane’s sudden descent into madness.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com

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