How I Met A Dead Woman
Sarah Ettritch lives in Toronto, Ontario with her lovely partner and their four cats. Sarah is the author of the Rymellan series, The Salbine Sisters , and a romantic fantasy just released in July, Threaded Through Time.
In addition to writing, Sarah enjoys reading, playing computer games, watching TV on DVD, and following publishing news.
She belongs to several organizations related to writing and publishing, including EPIC, Broad Universe, andĀ The Golden Crown Literary Society.
Sarah can also be found on her blog, www.sarahettritch.com/blog
Readers often ask me how I get my ideas. Iāve always said that when it comes to inspiration, my subconscious mind does all the heavy lifting, but I didnāt fully appreciate the truth of that statement until I worked on my romantic fantasy novel Threaded Through Time. Pam, one of the main characters, inadvertently sucks Margaret and Jasper, a newly-engaged couple from 1910, into 2010. Pam falls for Jasper, Margaret falls for Pamās roommate Robin, and the story is about what happens to the two time-crossed couples.
After Iād started to write Threaded Through Time, I suddenly remembered a journal that a friend had given to me about 15 years ago. Sheād handed me the decrepit brown book with āDaily Reminder 1911ā on its cover and said, āWhen I saw it, I thought of you.ā Iād forced a smile, said, āThank you,ā and wondered, āWhy did she think of me?ā At the time, I wasnāt interested in history and figured that I would have been the last person to come to mind.
I flipped through the journal of a woman I didnāt know, shelved it, and forgot about it. It moved several times with meāpacked, unpacked, shelved, and packed again. When I remembered its existence earlier this year, all I had to do was spin my chair around and slide the journal from the bookcase behind me. It had sat within arms-reach for seven years. I thought, āHmm, and here I am, writing a time travel story with the past set in 1910…ā
Who was the woman whoād recorded her daily activities in 1911? How had her journal ended up in a second-hand bookstore in Toronto? Hadnāt her relatives wanted it? Perhaps not. Visit eBay and youāll find all sorts of personal papers and journals on offer to the highest bidder. A friend who used to run a mail order book business from home told me that it wasnāt uncommon for people to give him the identification papers, letters, and diaries of those whoād passed away.
One day he was sipping his morning tea when a car squealed away from the front of his house. The driver had stopped long enough to leave behind several boxes. Someoneās life history was in those boxes, not to be cherished and passed down from generation to generation, but dumped at the end of a strangerās driveway.
Now I was the stranger with a womanās journal in my hands. Older, and maybe a teeny bit wiser, I read the journal more carefully this time. Some entries were interesting. Others were mundane, but Kate, as Iāll call her, hadnāt anticipated that a stranger would read through her journal entries 100 years after sheād written them. If sheād known, perhaps she would have embellished a little.
In 1911, Kate was 24 and working on her B.A. at university. She apparently belonged to a large and well-off family. She graduated that year and started a teaching position at a girls school in Quebec. Through reading about a year in her life, I came to know her, her mother, her siblings, and her boyfriend C., as she referred to him. I also learned interesting tidbits about life in 1911. For example, washing a ladyās hair was a big deal and wasnāt done very often.
My second reading of the journal didnāt result in any major changes to what Iād already written for Threaded Through Time, but I did tweak some dialogue, and I was able to give Margaret and Jasper a more authentic 1910 worldview. What better reference than a journal written by a woman native to that time period? When my editor sent the query, āDid they really call a car āa motorā back then?ā I was able to say, āYes, they 
absolutely, definitely did call a car āa motorā!ā
I researched Kate and found out that she married C., they had at least one daughter, and that she unfortunately passed away at the young age of 45. Records only tell us about the joys (births, marriages) and the tragedies (deaths). The rest of Kateās life is lost. I hope it was a happy one.
I also found out that Kate is buried in Ottawa, Canadaās capital city. When my partner and I were there in July for Canada Day, we went to the cemetery and found only grass where Kate, C., and their daughter were laid to rest. Everyone else in her large family had tombstones. The writer in me says that there has to be a story there. Iāll never hear the actual story (if there is one), but if I find myself spinning a yarn about unmarked graves at some point, I wonāt be surprised.
When my friend handed me Kateās journal and I thought āWhy me?ā I didnāt know that Iād have to wait 15 years to discover an answer. Kate definitely informed the character of Margaret and, to a lesser extent, Jasper. In that small way, sheāll live on through them. Since Margaret falls in love with a woman, perhaps Kate would have preferred that her journal hadnāt ended up with me. But it did, and Iād like to think that if she were to read Threaded Through Time, sheād grudgingly approve.
Earlier this year, I wrote a series of blog posts about Kate and her journal. You can read the series, which includes excerpts from the journal, here:
http://www.sarahettritch.com/category/1911-journal/
Thank you for hosting me today, Lelia.
September 16, 2011
Posted in: Guest Blogs
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9 Responses
Hi, Sarah,
I had a similar reaction when I first read THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. The words written by real women long dead reach out and connect us to them.
What a lovely story and such an important connection to you! Thanks for sharing. Terrific cover and best wishes on your release. I love time travel stories!
What a fascinating story, Sarah. I have the collected diaries of my grandparents (both born in the 1880s. I was struck when I noticed that most of the entries are simply the facts. There is very little emotion recorded in those pages.
When my grandmother lost her beloved 2-year-old daughter–the third time she’d lost a child–she simply worte, “The angels came for Geonette last night.” She gave up writing her diariues shortly after that, but my grandfather continued his until the end of his life.
Grandma’s hair, by the way, was so long she could stand on it. She washed it once a year in rain water that washed off the old tin roof and was collected in a big rain barrel.
@Jacqueline: Youāre right; words are powerful and can reach through time. Kateās journal has touched me in ways I didnāt anticipate. Iāve started to research my family tree, something I wasnāt interested in doing before.
@Donnell: Thank you for the kind words! Iāll pass your comment about the cover along to the cover designer, Patty Henderson.
@Fran: What a wonderful treasure you have! Many of Kateās entries were also unemotional. She expressed irritation more than anything else. Two exceptions off the top of my head: she was remorseful after arguing with C. on his birthday, and she was chuffed when she graduated from university. I wonder if your grandmother gave up writing her diaries because she didnāt want to record any more painful times. Losing three childrenā¦
Fascinating information about your grandmotherās hair. Kateās journal contained a photo of her. Her hair was *big*, but I doubt it was long enough to stand on.
Great post – I just visited Amazon and downloaded your book. Sounds like my kind of reading. Thanks, Lelia, for hosting Sarah. It was nice to meet her.
How interesting! Thanks for sharing this! I am sure the book will be great.
I am curious whether you will scan and offer copies of the original diary to an archive in Quebec for researchers and potential relatives of hers to find or if you give more of her name in your book. I was able to read a typescript of a great-great-great uncle’s Civil War memoir thanks to the person (in his case a grandson) who gave copies to the major universities and the state archive in his area.
@Allene: Thanks for checking out my book. It’s nice to meet you, too!
@Brenda: The journal is in pretty bad shape. I wouldn’t risk scanning it, but I’ve manually produced a digital copy by typing it into a Word file. Reading your great-great-great uncle’s memoir must have been an interesting experience. Thanks for the suggestion about giving copies of Kate’s journal to universities and archives for research purposes: food for thought. I haven’t revealed Kate’s real name anywhere.
Sarah, you’ve got a real treasure there and I appreciate your sharing bits of the journal with us. Thank you so much for being here today
Thank you for allowing me to visit, Lelia!
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