AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVELS discussion

Beginning Sunday, October 7th, we welcome guest host Joy Jordan-Lake.

Please tell us about yourself!

Hi, I’m Joy Jordan-Lake, and happy to be hosting this week! I was born in Washington D.C in the very heart of the city but spent most of my growing up years in the mountains of East Tennessee. As a child, my friends and I never had any interest in dolls, but instead spent time with horses and dogs and books. I loved historical fiction from as far back as I can remember. And because I was sick quite a bit in elementary school, I made my way through many the stack of great novels that I technically shouldn’t have had time to read if I’d been at a desk in the classroom instead of curled up in bed with a sore throat. Honestly, it was a great childhood.



For college, I majored in English at Furman University at felt perpetually guilty that I got to spend so much time reading under willow trees by the lake when my pre-med friends were holed up in labs (though they seem to be just fine now in their careers). I first earned a masters at a theological seminary and worked with homeless women and families in Boston, but I missed studying literature, so I went back and got a masters and a Ph.D. in English Lit. with an emphasis on 19th Century American (up pops that interest in history again!). All along the way, I was working as a freelance writer, too.

I’ve published seven books now, with an eighth in progress. And I’m grateful to have three kids, ranging in age from 14 to 23. I’ve lived all over the eastern half of the United States from Texas to Masschusetts to North Carolina, but currently reside just south of Nashville, where I write full time, though occasionally teach as an adjunct professor at a nearby university.

Please tell us more about your book.



Thanks for asking! Here’s the Amazon summary of the book, since the publisher often words a synopsis better than I might:

Told in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness.

After the sudden death of her troubled mother, struggling Harvard grad student Kate Drayton walks out on her lecture—and her entire New England life. Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt—the subject of her mother’s own research.

Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the noose and protect the woman he loves.
Kate’s attempts to discover what drove her mother’s dangerous obsession with Charleston’s tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world.

If you could meet the your protagonist, what would you ask her about her life?

Ah, fun question! I’d ask her how she was getting over her grief and adjusting to her new life and new family situation. I’d want to know how she managed to keep on searching when all her early clues to her family’s secrets seemed to go nowhere, or lead only to more questions. I’d want to know what she was thinking about which way her career was going now, since she seemed to have come to a fork in the rode with finishing her doctorate or going more the artist route—or is she managing to navigate both. And how is that relationship coming along that began budding in Charleston with the young man she’d been determined not to get involved with?

Tell us about some of your writing highlights this year!

The writing life can be pretty solitary, which is the hardest part for me since I’m pretty extroverted—okay, I fall of the E end of the Myers-Briggs spectrum for extroverts. So it can be torture doing what writers have to do: sitting alone with a laptop and crafting stories from out of your own darn head. And doing research, also often alone, in archives and museums and trekking around in cities. But now that my kids have gotten older, I’ve begun to feel more free to attend more writers’ conferences and book festivals, and that’s been marvelous—and it’s made me more productive on a day-to-day basis when I do simply need to hide in my attic office and write all day with no living creatures around but my two dogs. Sometimes my husband and my one daughter still living at home get to travel with me for research, and that’s fabulous, too.

I was recently part of a collection of stories along with more than a dozen other writers called A Thousand Doors: An Anthology of Many Lives and it releases Nov. 5. It was a blast to work on, and plays with the What Ifs of life: What if I’d gone into a different career; what if I’d married someone else, or not married at all, or gotten married when I chose to stay single; what if I’d made a different choice about kids or ethics or money or friendships… A friend of mine was the genius and editor behind the premise, and I think it’ll be a really fun book for readers.

Recently, I’ve been approached about making a television series or possible feature film of A Tangled Mercy. While it’s decidedly far from a done deal and still in the gathering-a-team phase—so could end up getting shelved like so many TV and film projects—it’s been exciting to talk over and dream about. While I was writing, I kept hearing Morgan Freeman’s voice in the role of chair of Harvard’s history department and the protagonist’s mentor, so if anyone reading this happens to be his close personal friend…

What are you working on next?
I’m about halfway done (I hope!) with a novel set in the 1890s at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, a kind of American “Downton Abbey.” I’m especially intrigued with all the enormous social changes going on in this country at the time, including ferocious debates over immigration and women’s roles and the growing gap between the tremendously wealthy, such as George Vanderbilt who owned Biltmore, and the rest of the country. I love reading mysteries, so I’m wanting it to unfold like an historical mystery, with lots of storylines based in actual events, lots of suspense, some romantic entanglements, plenty of heartbreak as well as humor, and loads of memorable characters.

Please let our readers know how to stay in touch with you!

I love to be in touch with readers! My Facebook Author page is a good place to join in a discussion or leave a comment any time, https://www.facebook.com/joyjordanlak...

Or on Instagram @joyjordanlake_books or on Twitter @joyjordanlake

My website is www.joyjordanlake.com and there is a Contact tab there as well as a chance to sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter, or you can email me at joyjordanlake@gmail.com

I love connecting with other writers and readers, and I do a good number of giveaways on social media and especially through my newsletter, so by all means, sign up or give a shout anytime!

Great interview! I’m looking forward to learning more about you and your books!
(I love Morgan Freeman’s voice too - lol)

I love Charleston and books of this era. Hope the movie comes to fruition.

Loved your interview. I can't wait to hear more💖

Debbie wrote: "Great interview! I’m looking forward to learning more about you and your books!
(I love Morgan Freeman’s voice too - lol)"
How kind, Debbie--thanks! (And, yeah, if Morgan Freeman could just narrate my day, it would all seem so much more interesting, right?)

Stella wrote: "I love Charleston and books of this era. Hope the movie comes to fruition."

Thanks of the good wishes! I love Charleston, too. Have you been to visit, Stella? My family accused me of not really working on a novel but just creating excuses for us to keep needing to go back there. But I didn't hear them complaining once we were there, come to think of it... Such a fascinating place.

Angela wrote: "Loved your interview. I can't wait to hear more💖"
How kind, Angela! What historical novels have you read lately?

Morgan Freeman must be rich! I wonder how many movies and etc. that he has been in! I like true stories or those weaved around them. I just read The Warrior Leader by Bobby Welch. It was interesting to me; especially since he is from Fort Payne, Alabama. The brutal things that people endure can be mind boggling!!!!

Dyana, I'm not familiar with The Warrior Leader and so glad to be told about it!

Yes, Joy, I was actually born in Charleston. My father was in the Navy so we weren't there long. My daughter lives in Wilmington NC so whenever I visit her we take a road trip. Such a beautiful city with so much history.

Indeed, such a beautiful city. I hope your daughter in Wilmington is okay after so much flooding...