Oswald, a fifth grade teacher in North Salem, has been writing her whole life. She started what became The Girls of Haviland back in 1995 as a short story.
“I just kept at it,” she said. “I kept researching and writing. I have a profound interest in history – women’s history –and I’m particularly drawn to the World War I era.”
Before the days of the Internet, Oswald spent many an hour at her local library, going through microfiche of the now-defunct Brewster Standard newspaper editions from 1918 to 1919. She made note of articles from events that she found fascinating and incorporated them into her short stories – many of which were published in local magazines.
In fact, that’s how The Girls of Haviland began.
“My book was inspired by an archival photo in a local newspaper that showed a group of girls at the Drew Seminary for Ladies in Carmel, N.Y. I was drawn to one girl, the one face that looked far younger than the rest. I wondered what her story was and decided to invent one; she became Jay McKenna,” said Oswald.
Jay McKenna is the heroine of Oswald’s novel, a student at the Haviland School for Girls, loosely modeled on the Drew Seminary.
Even the mystery at the center of her story is based on a true event found in microfiche: the suicide by jumping out of a plane of a student at the Drew Seminary for Ladies.
“My understanding is that was the first documented case of suicide by plane,” said Oswald.
After reading contemporary news articles about a girl driven to suicide by cyberbullying, she decided to incorporate that into her story as well.
“So I started my book with a suicide by plane of a girl who is bullied,” said Oswald.
“The horror today of teen suicide, of even younger children being cyber-bullied to death, left an impression on me.”
Oswald spends vacations and summers writing and is currently working on a sequel.
For more information visit Oswald’s website at deborahraffertyoswaldhistoricalfictionwriter.com.
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