May Alcott and Me

I’m in full dream-come-true mode as I announce that LITTLE WOMAN IN BLUE: A NOVEL OF MAY ALCOTT will be published by She Writes Press in fall 2015.

My fascination with the youngest Alcott sister began when I was a girl playing Little Women with two friends and my older sister, who claimed the role of Jo March. I also wanted to get my hands ink-stained and eat apples in a garret, but I didn’t see what was so wrong with liking clothes or handsome boys, too. As years passed and I learned about point of view, I wondered how much the portrait of May changed to Amy in Little Women was developed from the lens of an older sister, who might have been jealous of an independent girl who didn’t feel as strong a need to please their parents.

The many writers of nineteenth century Concord gave me plenty of material to research. I walked on cobblestones and through woods, imagining my way into the sister, daughter, artist, and lover of romance. I swam in Walden Pond, where May also swam, though in a flannel gown. I rewrote the novel multiple times: just ask my writing group, who patiently and thoughtfully read through revisions of revisions. I could tell you long stories about the manuscript finding its way on and off the desks of agents and editors, but at last it found a happy home at She Writes Press, a hybrid press that is creating innovative ways to put women’s books into the world at a time when the old ways don’t always work well. The people I’ve begun working with have been warm, straightforward, smart, and respectful, making the publishing experience – fun!

I’m excited that more people will get to cheer for May Alcott, someone I came to love the more I learned and wrote. She was inspired by Michelangelo, and while never matching his extraordinary talent, May courageously worked among people who said women couldn’t paint a masterpiece. Despite what she was told, and many kinds of setbacks, she kept doing what she loved. In my eyes, that makes her great.

A portrait of May painted in Paris by her friend Rose Peckham, displayed at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House.

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