Illustration by Hugh Thomson
One true story I perhaps shouldn’t admit:
The original title for my first novel, The Language of Light, was “Emma.” My dear friend and mentor Madeleine Mysko – whose early support gave me confidence to keep going on the novel – suggested at one point that of course I couldn’t call it “Emma,” that was just a working title, right?
My response: Why not?
That was my introduction to Jane Austen.
In fairness, I came of age in the feminist 1970s, when Austen and her happily-married endings for women were out of favor. My conversation with Madeleine occurred in 1992, years before the Ang Lee production of Sense and Sensibility put Austen back on American readers’ radar scopes.
I learned a few years later about one of my two all-time favorite novels, Middlemarch, during a conversation with a fellow chess parent as we waited for our children to play one of their tournament rounds. And the other contender, To Kill a Mockingbird, was put in my hands by a librarian when I was young.
I know word-of-mouth is how thousands of readers have come to The Wednesday Sisters, too, because they’ve told me. And I’ve signed a delightfully large quantity of books inscribed as gifts for mothers, daughters, and friends. So I have a small thank you for readers who helped The Wednesday Sisters find its way onto the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as to Beautiful Day author Elin Hilderbrand for her enthusiastic “I never wanted it to end” words about the sequel, The Wednesday Daughters, in the form of a book giveaway.
I’ve found the best ideas for what I’d like to read next come from my friends, and I expect yours do, too. So thanks for helping spread the Wednesday word!
Warmly,
Meg
