Book Spotlight & Excerpt: A Wolff in the Family by Francine Falk-Allen

Award-winning author Francine Falk-Allen’s two acclaimed memoirs have been featured by Buzzfeed and PopSugar, and have received a Kirkus star. A fan of genealogy research, Francine enjoyed uncovering her family’s history, and traced both her maternal and paternal ancestors back to the 1600s. She never imagined that one day she’d discover a jaw-dropping family secret.

Based on a true story, Falk-Allen’s, A Wolff in the Family (She Writes Press, Oct. 1, 2024), is a riveting saga of prejudice, passion, and revenge, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds. What mysterious scandals led a father to abandon his five youngest children—and the elder siblings to keep their shame a secret for eighty years?

More about the book: Railroad engineer Frank Wolff and Kansas farmgirl Naomi Sims were happily married in 1908. Naomi was excited to take up her role as wife and mother and make a life with Frank in thriving Ogden, Utah. Despite Frank’s almost-constant absence due to his job riding the rails, their romantic relationship resulted in fourteen children. The young mother’s life was consumed with caring for her brood, who became helpers as soon as they could fold a diaper. Affection and conflict endured side by side in the humble house, but the marriage ultimately faced insurmountable challenges—just before the Depression took hold of the nation.

EXCERPT

A Wolff in the Family  

Chapter 21                   

 

Naomi was sick to death of arguing with Frank. It seemed like every time he came back from Evanston, they had an argument. She couldn’t imagine why that town seemed to set him on edge.

            When he had come in from his last run, she’d rushed to hug him and had detected perfume. It was that new one, “My Sin.” Ha! Pretty funny. She recognized it because Frances liked it and had bought a tiny bottle of it. And she wasn’t going to ignore it.

            “What’s that perfume I smell?” she asked as she pulled away from him.

            “Perfume? Ha! You’re imagining things. It’s probably yours from the last time I left.”

            “It’s definitely not mine,” Naomi responded, a chill in her voice. Hers was cheap, besides.

            “Well, I have no idea how it got there, if it’s even there at all. Maybe one of the maids at one of the boardinghouses had a lot on and moved my jacket or something.”

            Naomi decided to let sleeping dogs lie—for now, in any case. She couldn’t prove it, but she was suspicious and decided to be on her guard the next time he came home.

The thing was, men did this kind of thing. He may have gone to a dance with a woman or something. But he wouldn’t have worn his denim jacket to a dance, she reasoned. And he doesn’t even like to dance!

She had heard women at church gossiping about how railroad men had a floozy in every town where they stayed overnight. Would Frank sleep with another woman, though? Naomi just didn’t have the time or energy to worry about that. She didn’t like it, though.

            “Well, if you’re out there doing things you ought not to, I will never know for sure,” she said flippantly. “But that isn’t my perfume. Frances wears that—but you haven’t seen her today, have you?”

            “Matter of fact, I was by Mrs. Birch’s on my way here and Frances and I had a hug. It was on my way home, so I stopped in to say hello.”

            Naomi bit a fingernail and looked at the floor, then back at Frank. “Well, you’re gettin’ off easy this time, Mister,” she said, and forced a smile. She didn’t want to spend the few days he was home in a snit.

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FRANCINE FALK-ALLEN: was born in Los Angeles and has lived nearly all of her life in northern California. She had polio in 1951, and has lived her life as a disabled person making an effort to be a “normie.” 

Falk-Allen was originally an art major and later completed her BA in Managerial Accounting, running her own business for over thirty years. She has always sought creative outlets, such as painting, singing, and writing. She began doing extensive family genealogy research in 1999, and has traced both her maternal and paternal ancestors back to the 1600s.

Her first book, “Not a Poster Child: Living Well with a Disability,” won gold and silver awards and was on several best books lists in 2018 and 2019, including Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018, PopSugar and BuzzFeed, and was nominated to 25 Women Making a Difference in 2019 by Conversations Magazine.

Her second book, “No Spring Chicken: Stories and Advice from a Wild Handicapper,” received a Kirkus star, given to “books of exceptional merit” by Kirkus Reviews, and was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of August 2021. “No Spring Chicken” was also a finalist in Foreword Reviews’ Indie Awards in 2021.

Her third book, “A Wolff in the Family” is a riveting early twentieth century saga set in the western United States and based on scandalous family history.

Francine spends a significant amount of time managing the effects of post-polio. She facilitates a polio survivors’ group as well as a writing group, and volunteers on her town’s Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Committee. She loves the outdoors, swimming, gardening, movies, well-written literature, being with friends and sharing British tea and a little champagne now and then. She resides in San Rafael, California, with her husband. Learn more at: https://francinefalk-allen.com 

Guest Blogger: Is Social Protest Literature Dead? by Nell Walton, Author of The Bone Trail

Today's special guest is Nell Walton, author of the mystery thriller, The Bone Trail.

Inspired by actual events, The Bone Trail is the story of investigative journalist and horsewoman, Kate Wyndham, who is sent to northern Nevada to do a story on the disappearance of two wild horse advocates. When Wyndham attempts to gain information from the FBI and local authorities she is stonewalled.

She turns to Jim Ludlow, a local rancher who lives on an Indian Reservation near where the advocates disappeared. Ludlow, a Shoshone Indian horse “whisperer” agrees to try to help Wyndham and they begin a search for answers that may cost them everything the hold dear – it may even cost them their lives.

Is Social Protest Literature Dead? by Nell Walton

One of the many things that made the fiction of Charles Dickens remarkable was his fearlessness in addressing the multiple social issues that were endemic in England in the early 19th Century. Dickens was extremely familiar with the problems at a personal level. His father was imprisoned for debt when Dickens was 12 years old and during this time he had to leave school and work in a shoe-dying factory that utilized child labor. Working in these horrible conditions was the worst time of Dickens’ life, but it was also here that the seed of Dickens’ ideas for social reform were sown. Many experts attribute the improvements in debtor’s prisons, child workhouses that were enacted during Dickens’ life directly to Dickens’ writings as well as his stage performances.

Over the years many writers have written social protest literature that has had a fundamental change on society as a whole. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe being one example, among others are The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

Currently, it seems that social issues are rarely addressed in modern fiction, and, more and more rarely in non-fiction. I’ve often wondered if it is just a cycle that publishing companies go through, or if people just don’t care anymore.

I have a hard time believing the latter, because people and society have not really changed that much in the last two centuries. Certainly, we are bombarded with more information via the Internet and 24x7 news media. There is more competition for our time, attention and certainly our money. The constant influx of negative information probably contributes to a certain amount of hopelessness as well as compassion fatigue in many people. But, I think that at a basic level, people DO care about social issues and are willing to take steps to help make positive changes as long as they are clear on what it is they can do to help. The outpouring of caring support by people all around the world during Hurricane Katrina is an excellent example, the current massive support that people are providing for relief for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief is another.

In my book, The Bone Trail, I DO tackle social issues. Environmental destruction, alcoholism and rehabilitation in Native populations in the US, the mismanagement of the wild horses in the American West, and child abuse are all central to the plot of the book. From a writer’s perspective I will say that when you do include these types of plot elements it can limit your flexibility as far as pacing vs. character development. For example, in order to fully address the Native alcoholism and rehabilitation issue, I had to stop the plot and flip to a couple of chapters of backstory about one-third into the book. I worried about it, because generally I prefer to fold backstory in with the plot, but there was really no way to do that effectively with such a sensitive subject.

Surprisingly enough, it actually has worked out well, and gave a great depth to a character that I feel is the heart of the book. My editor loved the transition, and I have gotten excellent feedback from readers also.

So, while I did make the decision to break a rule as far as plot pacing, it has paid off as far as giving one of the central characters air and life.

So, I don’t believe that social protest literature is dead, or there is a lack of interest by any means. And, if you have to break a pacing rule to thoroughly address an issue effectively, it can pay off with your readership.

I hope one day we will see more authors making the effort to address social issues in modern fiction, and readers taking such an avid interest as they did in the 19th Century.

Nell Walton is an avid horsewoman and also owns two wild horses, both of which came from a herd near Elko, NV. She is also the founder and managing editor of the online equestrian news magazine, The AllHorses Post (www.allpetspost.org/allhorsespost). She has degrees in journalism and biology from the University of Arkansas, spent many years as a professional journalist and worked as an intern for former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. She lives in East Tennessee on a small horse farm with her husband, four horses, one donkey, two cats and two dogs. The Bone Trail is her first novel.


www.allpetspost.org/AllHorsesPost
www.allpetspost.org/TheBoneTrail
Twitter: @nellwal
Facebook: AllHorses Post http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-AllHorses-Post-Fan-Page/114209878634737

This book is also available in a Kindle edition!