This issue features an interview with N.J. Mastro, author of Solitary Walker, and your first look at my new work in progress.

Relive the early days of the personal computer industry in the 1980s in Amiga. Laura must face a past she wants to forget to deal with problems in her present. AuthorsReading.com said, "Stern creates a protagonist who has the wherewithal to handle the personal, social, and technical problems of her era, portraying a woman of astonishing powers.” Get your copy of Amiga at your favorite bookstore or on Kindle Unlimited. 

Last month, I told you about the novel I started and why I sent the one I was working on to the boneyard. It gets embarrassing talking up a novel only to shelve it. However, it's important to have enthusiasm for a project because we'll be spending a long time writing, editing, publishing, and promoting it. That's why I'm sharing some bits about my new project.

It stars a technical writer.

In a recent post, I talked about why AI art is still poor art and not usable for promotion and book covers. However, it is useful for creating reference images. This is one of them.

Meet Julie Rubin. She's a technical writer. She doesn't get the recognition she deserves at work, but her knowledge of classic video games may save her and her coworkers when they find themselves having to play a dangerous real-life recreation of a game from the 1990s.

The Commodore Amiga is back!

And what does she play those classic video games on? A Commodore Amiga, of course. In this case, it's the Amiga 500 I had in the late 1980s. In this story, Julie's father bought the Amiga when he started working as a game developer in the late 1980s. He would meet the woman who became his wife (and Julie's mother) while working for that video game company. When Julie's father suddenly died, she inherited that Amiga and the crucial video game knowledge that might save her.

Here is an excerpt from my novel as it appears in WordPerfect, the word processor I used on my Amiga 500.

It will be first person.

Adventures are usually in third-person to give readers a cinematic overview of everything that happens. I chose first person because I wanted to go more in-depth with Julie's personality, her reactions to the others on this adventure, and the past experiences that shape her actions in the story. I can also describe the physical sensations of thirst, hunger, exhaustion, discomfort, and pain. Readers can experience the roller coaster of physical and emotional challenges with Julie. 

There will be action and suspense, but relationships are the key.

Think about your favorite adventure book or movie. Sure, there's suspense, dangerous situations, and plenty of action, but the characters make the story worthwhile. Without James Bond, it would be another spy thriller. Without the camaraderie at the heart of the Lord of the Rings, it would be another epic fantasy.

Initially, Julie and her coworkers are distrustful of each other, especially because of conflicts they had during a recent software release. As they face dangers, they must work out their differences and learn to trust each other.  These relationships come to a head when Julie must make a fateful decision to save the others.

What's next?

I'm still in my first draft. The fun thing about first drafts is you're telling yourself the story. And it surprises me, as I'm sure it will my readers. So far, I'm really loving this story.

I plan to send the first section to a writing group I belong to for their review. As my story gets further along, I'll send you excerpts to read. Stay tuned, and tell your friends to subscribe to my newsletter so they can stay updated too.

N.J. Mastro is the author of Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft. A book blogger who publishes Herstory Revisited, she is dedicated to promoting biographical novels about audacious women from the past. Mastro has a master’s degree and a doctorate in educational leadership and spent nearly four decades in public education. Besides being an experienced public speaker, she is an avid reader, master cook, and wine enthusiast. Originally from Minnesota, she retired to South Carolina to write full time, where she lives with her husband.

Your novel Solitary Walker is about Mary Wollstonecraft. Tell us a little about her and what attracted you to write about her.

I wrote about Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th century writer and philosopher widely known as the mother of feminism, because too few people today know about her. A woman of her magnitude deserves continued recognition. More than any other individual in history, Wollstonecraft laid the foundation for societies to finally regard women as men’s intellectual equals. 

Wollstonecraft wasn’t the first woman to advocate for her sex, but her writing was the first to reach an international audience. And her words have had lasting power. During the 19th century women’s suffrage movement and the women’s rights movement in the 20th century, activists turned to her groundbreaking political treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), for inspiration. Wollstonecraft gave them the moral foundation and a persuasive set of arguments to use in making the case for women’s equality. One fun fact is that Susan B. Anthony had a portrait of Wollstonecraft in her house. She also donated her personal copy of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to the Library of Congress in 1904. In it she inscribed a note, stating, “Presented to the Library of Congress by a great admirer of this earliest word for women’s Right to Equality of rights ever penned by a woman.” 

Wollstonecraft also led a very unconventional life, which is the basis of my novel. I love her fiery spirit. She was a force, a woman well ahead of her time. In a world with few options for women, she made up her own rules. But the consequences were mighty, and she faced many of the same challenges women today face when they break norms meant to keep women subordinate to men.

What was the most interesting thing you learned about her?

People are always fascinated and surprised to hear that Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Shelley, the famous author of Frankenstein. But I already knew that about Wollstonecraft. The most interesting thing I learned about her in my research was her involvement with an international shipping scandal that remains a topic of interest today in Scandinavia. In 1795 she traveled to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark on a solo journey in search of her lover’s missing ship, the Liberté, which carried silver stolen from the French Government. 

I portray her incredible journey in Solitary Walker, though I would have liked to have gone into much more detail than space allowed. The French Revolution was underway, and Wollstonecraft had been living in Paris when she met Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. Imlay, it turns out, was a smuggler. The degree to which Mary knew of the scope of her lover’s clandestine affairs remains unclear, but she seems to have inadvertently been party to some of his dealings. Mary was deeply in love with Imlay. When he asked her to travel to Scandinavia to find the ship and the silver, she agreed. Her decision would almost kill her.

What was the greatest challenge in writing this book?

The greatest challenge in writing Solitary Walker was not writing about Mary Wollstonecraft’s entire life. I wanted readers to know everything about her, including her fascinating early years, which forged her into the revolutionary woman she would become. 

Wollstonecraft grew up at the hand of an abusive father, a wealthy gentleman who squandered the family fortune. Her mother was a broken shell of a woman. Both forced Wollstonecraft into the role of surrogate mother to her younger siblings. They also made her wary of the institution of marriage. Wollstonecraft decided at a young age to never subject herself to a man’s rule. This, of course, required her to make her own way in the world. She held an array of jobs before finally becoming a writer, enduring hardship and heartache. But my initial draft was over 200K words, an unwieldy length for a debut novel. I had to pare it down. I eventually chose to focus on when she moved to London to become a writer at 28. 

What is something about the late 1700s that people should know about today?

The late 1700s were a time of instability in Europe. America had just won its War of Independence, and the French Revolution had toppled a centuries-old monarchy. The British monarchy and Parliament were on high alert as rumblings of discontent spread on its own soil. The authorities clamped down on writers and artists like Wollstonecraft and her contemporaries who were willing to challenge England’s status quo. At the same time, the British Empire was expanding its reach to India and the Caribbean, which drew greater resistance to the slave trade, and the ideals of the Enlightenment were still prevalent. But on its heels was the start of the Romantic Period.

What advice would you give to authors who want to write historical fiction?

If you’re hearing historical fiction is a hard sell right now to publishers, don’t believe it. Twelve of the past fifteen Pulitzer winners for fiction were historical. Some even say historical fiction is more popular than ever. Even so, it shouldn’t matter what’s selling and what’s not. Write what you are passionate about writing. You’re going to spend years with that manuscript; you’d better love it. And if you write to trends, you will always be one step behind. What sells one year is dead the next. Historical fiction is and will always remain a timeless genre. 

Where can readers learn more about you?

I invite you to sign up for my monthly newsletter Novel Journeys at njmastro.com. In it I share a little about my writing journey, because that’s what writers do, and I recommend historical novels I’ve enjoyed, because that’s what book lovers do—they spread the good word! 

I’m also eager to interact with book clubs. If interested in inviting me to yours to discuss Solitary Walker, check out my book club resources, which include a salon kit designed in the fashion of a 1700s salon. Salons were the precursor to the modern book club, and Mary Wollstonecraft took part in salons in England and in France. You’ll also find a gallery of historical figures and art included in the novel, of which there were many, podcasts and interviews regarding Solitary Walker, and my list of works consulted in writing the novel. 

Otherwise, look for me in all the usual places, including Facebook, Instagram, and Substack. 

My next event will be the Local Author Fair at the Fullerton Library on August 23. Get caught up with your summer reading at this event featuring authors from throughout Orange County. We will be at the Fullerton Library from 12–4 pm. In the meantime, you can watch my reading at the 2023 event on YouTube.

If you are an author who wants to be interviewed, send me an email to admin@matthewarnoldstern.com with the following information:

• Your name.
• A brief bio (100 words or less).
• Your books.
• What you would like to talk about in your interview.

By supporting each other, we can all grow!

I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to email me at admin@matthewarnoldstern.com. 

If there is someone who you think would enjoy this newsletter, pass it along and encourage them to subscribe. A simple subscription form is on my website.

I'll be in touch again next month with more news and content.