Synopsis
In 1865 in New York City, wives were the property of their husbands, prostitutes were rich, and famous men were often frauds. Escaping an abusive marriage in Illinois, Daniella Maysfield find herself at the Mission for the Rescue of Fallen Women, where a savvy prostitute becomes her best friend. Inspired by real events—the speeches of Victoria Woodhull in her efforts to amend the Marriage Laws, the trial of spirit photographer William H. Mumler, and P. T. Barnum’s American Museum—Free Spirits is the story of a woman’s straggle for independence. Free Spirits is a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Prize in Historical Fiction, 2023.
Synopsis
See Library Life Episode 163, Interview with Mary Hutchings Reed, March, 2015
On Writing Teacher Fred Shafer, “Getting the Words Right,” by Tom Benz, Evanston Roundtable, August 15, 2016
Synopsis
For a small-town conservative mayor and his liberal activist wife, politics, principles and personalities collide when the Blessed Virgin Mary appears on an underpass, a farmer wants to build an “exact replica” of Noah’s Ark across from the State Forest, and their daughter makes a startling, life-altering decision.
Who is safer, a 23-year-old woman who plays the glass harmonica on the streets of New Orleans and lives in a commune-style house with other free spirits, con artists and petty thieves like herself, or a rising television weathercaster who resides in a luxury high rise in Chicago with her emotionally volatile husband? When Nevaeh Thera gives up her street life to live with her cousin, star meteorologist Dawn Ann McKnight and her photographer husband, Derek Baldwin, a life-threatening truth is exposed and both women learn that you can’t start over, but you can start again.
Approaching forty, unemployed but well-off, talented but unknown, functional but depressed, former musical actress Cecilia Morrison reluctantly starts therapy, hoping for a change in her life, but ultimately it’s a runaway teenager who cons her out of sixty bucks, not therapy, that gives her the inspiration she’s looking for.
Courting Kathleen Hannigan is based on Mary Hutchings Reed’s (Yale Law, ’76) personal knowledge of what goes on behind those beautifully veneered law firm doors. Kathleen Hannigan shrewdly plays the partnership game with her whole heart until she is called to testify in a sex discrimination suit and is forced to choose between her partners and her principles.
At a time when there are many different paths to both traditional and independent publication, Book Law for Authors is an essential reference for writers who need to know the basics of copyright law, publishing contracts, defamation, and more. This volume in Lawyers for the Creative Arts’ 40th Anniversary series of Law Guides in the various disciplines offers practical information for authors that will help clients identify their needs for legal counsel and better utilize the pro bono assistance available to them through LCA, a nonprofit legal services organization based in Chicago.
