The Unveiling of Polly Forrest - Book Tour + Giveaway

The Unveiling of Polly Forrest

by Charlotte Whitney

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GENRE: Historical Mystery

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BLURB:

Rural Michigan, 1934.

During the throes of the Great Depression Polly marries for money. After her husband Sam dies in a bizarre farm accident, new bride Polly assumes she is set to pursue her dream of opening a hat-making business. Instead, she becomes the prime suspect in Sam’s murder. Secrets abound and even Polly’s family can’t figure out the truth.

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EXCERPT

Reverend Wesley Johnson

Sunday, June 24, 1934

This morning, finding myself at the pulpit I looked down at the congregation, I no longer felt rancor about our family’s current situation. I told Willard’s story veiled in anonymity, his mother being too ill to attend church, anyway. I mentioned the problems in my own family and the unknowns we are facing. Somewhere in the sermon I recited the list of sick members and the fact that right now almost all of us were facing challenges we’d never anticipated. 

I remarked how we all wanted to be facing decisions about whether to electrify our houses and put in an indoor bathroom. Instead, we were facing decisions about how long we could hold on, and whether we’d lose our crops if rain didn’t come, what we’d eat this winter if our gardens didn’t produce and what we’d do if we lost our farms. I don’t think anyone expected me to be this specific about our collective worries.

“Lord, lift these worries from us. Lift them high above us. Lord, lift these worries from us.”

Next I asked everyone to take a minute and count their blessings. 

 “Instead of focusing on what we don’t have this morning, think about what we do have and be thankful. What are you happy about today?” 

“I need an hour,” my friend John Newson piped up. Everyone laughed.

 By the time we started our last hymn, “Joyful, Joyful,” there was a smile on every face, including mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author Interview Q: What does your main character do that makes her special
A: Polly Forrest loves to make hats. It’s 1934 and women wear hats all the time—to go shopping, to go to social gatherings, and particularly to go to church. Polly has a dramatic flair and adds feathers, buttons, and ribbons to her creations. Also she loves veils. She studies the hats that movie stars wear from Greta Garbo to Joan Crawford to Claudette Colbert. She can identify cloches from turbans from bowlers from slouches. However, the reader must question when Polly’s husband dies suddenly from a bizarre farm accident and Polly already has a sweeping black hat with a long black veil in her closet, all set for his funeral.

Q: Where do you get your best ideas?
A: When I’m doing research I get ideas. Maybe I’m interviewing an older person who has memories of the Great Depression and she’ll mention something about a ferocious bull—and voila, I have an idea for a story.  Or perhaps I’ll be reading about FDR’s New Deal policies and I’ll decide to add something from the Agricultural Adjustment Act into the story. Or I’ll add a scene with the farm wife darning socks, because no one and, I mean no one, threw out good socks. They got darned over and over and over again.

Q: How would you spend ten thousand bucks?
A: I love to travel. Hmm. The following destinations are on my bucket list: China, Cambodia, The Galapagos Islands, Iceland, Prague, Budapest, and the Christmas Markets in Bavaria. I don’t live far from the Grand Canyon or that would be on my list, too. The pandemic has kept so many of us from traveling, so we’re all clamoring, whether it be a big buck trip or simply a car trip to a nearby city.

Q: What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
A:  I’m so happy to have such a wonderful circle of family and friends. I can’t pin down one thing. Just this week, a friend of a friend wrote a wonderful article about me in my local hometown paper. I’m getting such nice responses from long-lost acquaintances.  Then, another friend of mine is making the decorations for my book launch party. She’s so creative, clever, and generous. I may be the luckiest person on earth to have so many nice friends doing generous things. I remind myself all the time to pay it forward

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Charlotte Whitney is the author of historical fiction set during the Great Depression in the rural Midwest. Her most recent work, The Unveiling of Polly Forrest, a stand-alone historical mystery follows her groundbreaking novel, Threads A Depression-Era Tale, which was met with both critical acclaim and commercial success. She received a master’s degree in English at the University of Michigan, and after a short stint of teaching at two community colleges, worked at the University of Michigan where she was an associate director of the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts. Currently living in Arizona with her husband and two dogs she enjoys hiking, bicycling, swimming, and yoga. 

Author’s website:  https://www.charlottewhitney.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Whitney/e/B001KCTFWQ

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/CWhitneyAuthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-whitney-8235463a/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CWhitneyAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottewhitney65/

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Unveiling-Polly-Forrest-Mystery/dp/B09SNSGWJ3/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

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