Episode 112: Jenni L. Walsh, author of The Call of the Wrens
Jenni L. Walsh talks about her latest historical novel, THE CALL OF THE WRENS, a little-known story about a group of women who were assigned to train and deliver carrier pigeons to the front line of World War II.
Jenni talks about the difference between writing about real, well-known women in history versus telling true stories through the eyes of fictional characters, why she writes both middle grade and adult novels, and how she first heard about the Women’s Royal Naval Service—the Wrens.
Find book club questions, food ideas, and Jenni’s recipe for a delicious 3 ingredient (vegan) chocolate mousse at Book Club Bites!
Books Mentioned:
The Call of the Wrens by Jenni L. Walsh (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **
Ashley Hasty 0:00
Jenni, thank you so much for joining me on this podcast. I did a little poking around in my email archive. And do you know that we first connected all the way back in 2017. So this ship is five years in the making, holding out hope will get the opportunity to meet in real life one of these days one of these days.
Jenni L. Walsh 0:21
Well, thank you for having me,
Ashley Hasty 0:22
Longtime readers of my blog. No, I've been an enthusiastic fan of yours since I read becoming Barney. Well, I've read every adult book you've written since then. And for me, each one is better than the last year to discuss your latest novel. Let's start off if you wouldn't mind by telling
Jenni L. Walsh 0:41
the call the rents is a wartime novel which I know some people are cheering and can't get enough of. And and there's others who you know, have read it and see World War Two and are like, Yeah, I've been there done that. So with both of those mindsets in mind, I tried to create something that's never been done before. And in doing so I was highlighting a group of women called the wrens, which is a nickname for the women's Royal Naval Service. And there's been like mentions of them and other books, and there's some nonfiction books, but this is the first time that they're getting their whole full showcase in a novel. So when I saw that it had never been done before. I like talked to my agent about it. We're like, really, no, this is new. We're like, let's do it. So we're so excited and so happy that HarperCollins and have reviews are ready to do it with me. So again, it's about the Rennes. And there's two storylines, and one starts in the First World War and the second starts in the Second World War. The First World War is Marian story. Mary Ann's a special character. I really enjoyed writing her. She grew up as an orphan and she saw the wrens away to have this identity, this belonging of family and she also had no choice because she was aging at the orphanage and she had to do something so she's like, Okay, well, I am joining the Rennes motorcycle dispatch riders, which is one of the many many many things that the women did as part of the Rennes and then even carrier pigeons. Like I haven't read too much about carrier pigeons. Even within all of the research I did they seem to be a bit of a mystery people were like, oh, yeah, we know that they were there, like they delivered messages, but we don't know how they were trained, who drained them the ins and outs of like how they function. So it was so fun to be able to learn that first of all, and then have Marian train these pigeons and then put them on her back in a cage and drive them to the front line. So there's so many fun elements there that Marian gets to be a part of. Then we have the second storyline, which is Evelyn and so different than Marian her storyline begins in the Second World War. And Evelyn is very posh, she's high society, very sheltered existence. Part of that was because she was very wealthy, but also because she was born with a clubfoot. So her mom basically treated her like a porcelain doll. So when the Rennes came along as an opportunity, she jumped at it as this way to seek freedom. And Her story's a little bit more coming of age. So we go back and forth between the two women throughout the novel. And then there's a point where both of their stories come together and secrets revealed and then everything changes. We're both women. So it was very fun to write.
Ashley Hasty 3:20
Well, this is your fourth adult novel, of historical fiction. what initially drew you to write in the historical fiction genre?
Jenni L. Walsh 3:29
Well, my husband's a very big history buff. So he's kind of fun to bounce ideas off of II does so much about World War Two. But it was really fun with this novel to I would ask him to fact check something. And he was like, Oh, I don't know. I've never seen that before. And I was like, Yes, that was awesome. I found something you didn't know. So I think I've just really inspired intrigued by things that came before us and how it shaped us today. And how could shape the future and how history repeats itself, sometimes good, sometimes bad. And I love finding those little nuggets that haven't been done before. So like, like becoming Bonnie mentioned, as my first book there. So that one's about Bonnie Parker, and her story had never been told from her perspective was always Clive's perspective or looking at them from the outside in. So what's good to give her a voice or interesting to give her voice? And in this case, it was very interesting to find a story that wasn't told and tell it.
Ashley Hasty 4:21
You also write middle grade novels. How do you approach a novel differently if it's for an adult audience versus a middle grade audience?
Jenni L. Walsh 4:29
So middle grade, I love both age groups, and I have young children so it's fun for me to write books that I know that they'll be reading now and not when they're adults. And I have to wait quite a while my daughter is nine as she always asked me when she can start reading my adult books. And I'm like, well, let's just start with the middle grade ones first, but middle grade is unique in that it really just cuts to the quick like those stories are shorter, but they still pack as much of a punch. So you kind of just like jump in and then just like For for school adrenaline, the whole book, whereas with my adult novels, I feel like I can, I still want a great pace, I still want to entertain, but I feel like I can really let us sit there and feel and relate it to our own lives. And there's so many scenes when I'm writing that. It's obviously not my life, but I'm able to relate it in some adjacent way to my life. So
Ashley Hasty 5:21
all of your books, the adult and middle grade are centered around real people, primarily women in history. What is it that you like about writing about real people as opposed to completely fictional ones?
Jenni L. Walsh 5:34
The two and rents are fictional, I will say that, but I pulled from various real life, women in the rents. And I love doing that, because I can read diary entries, I could read memoirs. And it kind of just like, here is a whole lot of research that you don't then have to make up. So it makes my job easier in some senses, because here's the information. But it also makes it harder, because you don't want to just say exactly what you've read, because it's been done before. And then it's also just a big puzzle piece to fit it all together. So because Marian and Evelyn are probably like 15 Different women all in two different packages. It was fun to take information and see how it could fit into their personalities of which ones didn't fit. And it's a big puzzle. It's fun. Yeah, that is interesting.
Ashley Hasty 6:21
It hadn't occurred to me that that is your first adult novel. And I'm trying to remember your middle grade. I think it might be your first novel where it wasn't entirely about a real person. Were you it was more of like a conglomeration of real people and new characters. Your latest two novels are budding woman. And of course, the call of the wrens are about little known women in history. Of course, Bonnie, never I mean, Clyde, it would be hard to make it far in this world without having heard her name. But these women I had never heard of, and I do quite a bit of historical reading and research. The most fascinating stories so do you remember the first time you heard about their stories
Jenni L. Walsh 7:06
and a betting woman? So that's about a woman whose nickname was Madame mustache, and I came across her and I'm trying to remember what book I was working on, and I can't recall. You know, I mean, you're ready you know that, like we write these books, and then they don't come out for like, years later. So I'm like really going back in my brain here. But I came across Eleanor's name while I was researching, oh, you know what it was I was working on promotions for becoming bunny and side by side My Bonnie Parker books. And someone asked me to put together a list of outlaws. And I came across Eleanor Dumont, which is nicknamed Madame mustache. So I feel like all of my ideas like kind of relate like even the one of the book I'm working on now, which hasn't been titled yet, but it's about a woman who survives three maritime disasters like she survives, Titanic, Titanic, and the epic I like bring back Percy was in the other ends in this next book. So I love when my stories overlap and like the call from each other storylines, and it makes it fun for me.
Ashley Hasty 8:12
That's so fun. I know, the called urens is not even yet out, as we are recording by now. But I'm excited about reading your next one I read is coming out in 2023. Is that right?
Jenni L. Walsh 8:23
I think it's November of 2023. So I'm working on that one now and getting it over to my editor soon.
Ashley Hasty 8:30
I imagine researching for relatively unknown women differed quite a bit from researching Bonnie and Clyde who I think everyone has heard of what has your research process been like? And how have they differed or your process differed with each novel? Well, so
Jenni L. Walsh 8:47
with someone like Barney and becoming a bunny, that one made me nervous, because like you said, they are very well known. They're very iconic. There's so many ways you can get it wrong, and people will let you know when you get it wrong. So it's always a bit nerve racking. But the one thing I like about historical fiction is that since it happened so long in the past, and documentation is different, maybe not as great back in the 1920s. There are situations where something would happen to Bonnie Parker, and there's like four or five different eyewitnesses and they each have a different story. And so it kind of gives you a little bit leeway to be like okay, maybe that's not how you think it happened, but someone else that it did happen that way. So it does kind of create this like little element of peace in me that I can that I can tell and not get crucified but with a call the friends reading these fictional characters, it was very freeing to be able to just create whatever storyline that I wanted to so that was a nice change from let's say, like in becoming Barney, almost having these like touch points that I did to and then filling it in between each touch. This was just one big touch point that I do whatever I went to
Ashley Hasty 9:56
school for five years I've been watching your career and I am I'm inspired by what you've done. And although we've corresponded quite a bit in the time, I don't think I've ever asked you for advice. So I'm going to take advantage of this podcast platform and ask what advice you have for writers, either those who are newly published, or those hoping to land an agent or publishing contract?
Jenni L. Walsh 10:20
Well, I feel like this one's been said before, but it doesn't make it any less true. And it's just to read, like read within your genre, read outside of your genre, I am so inspired by the books that I read, like the content and it could spark an idea or even just the way that other authors put together a sentence, you're like, Wow, that was amazing. I want to emulate that. I was just reading the marriage contract by Samantha Hastings. And it's a novella, and it's a regency novella. And it actually sparked a middle grade contemporary idea. So couldn't be any different. We have an adult novella that set Regency and it sparked like a middle grade idea that set now so you just never know what you're going to come across that just lights up something in your brain?
Ashley Hasty 11:07
Well, that's a great segue into my next question, because I love asking authors what they're doing. And I think they always have the best book recommendations, too. So tell us a bit more about your reading world. What books have you enjoyed lately?
Jenni L. Walsh 11:20
Well, I'm very influenced by what I say. If there's a book all over Instagram, chances are, I will buy it. So it works. I'm right now so I'm reading an ebook of the ways we Hi Kristina McMorris, I just started it. So I don't know too much about it. And I sometimes I don't like reading the summary, because I don't want any idea of what's to come. But I did see somebody post a picture with a Monopoly board behind it. So I'm like, ooh, that's very intriguing, because I didn't know that some people use board games during the Second World War to like, get information to disperse information. So I'm excited to see what happens there. And then I read an early copy of the matchmakers gift. I read an E galley and I loved it so much that I had to get a copy for my shelf. So just finished school. I actually read it. So I just read, read that one. And then this one was my favorite October Book of the Month pick. I think all of my months blend together, but I haven't started yet. But I'm excited to read pester. So those are the three that I'm kind of on my radar or have read recently.
Ashley Hasty 12:25
I love that you don't read the synopsis. I'm missing. I don't read reviews and I don't read the synopsis. I basically just base it off of the author of the title. One sentence blurb is all good.
Jenni L. Walsh 12:38
I love I will so if there's like something in bold at the top. I'll read that because generally that's like what they really want you to hit home with with the hook.
Ashley Hasty
Of course, I want to share how people can find you. So would you mind telling us your website and where you prefer to hang out on social media? Sure. So
Jenni L. Walsh 0:07
I'm Jenny l wash.com. I spell my name differently and and I and my social media is just Jenni l wash. No matter where you go. That's where I am and make it easy on everybody. I hang up on Instagram a lot. She's so pretty. And like I said, I'm greatly influenced by what everyone posts.
Ashley Hasty 0:25
Before we wrap up. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about that we haven't covered yet?
Jenni L. Walsh 0:29
Well, I can mention the next book that I briefly mentioned. I'm working on it now. And it's a story about a woman named Violet Jessa. And she survived like a three disaster at sea. And of first the Olympic then Titanic and then per tannic, and she was a stewardess. And she was also a nurse during the First World War. And because she survived all three of these disasters, she earned the nickname of Miss unsinkable. She has a memoir that I read, which I said I love memoirs because they give you all the information. So I'm working on telling her story. And then I thought it would be fun if I introduced a second storyline of a fictional character. So violets story, you know, is based on her real life and then a fictional character, who was kind of her own Miss unsinkable. And she'll be involved in the Second World War as a special operative executive, as an SAE agents so that it's been so fun to research and I love telling those stories where, you know, the one storyline, the second storyline, and they kind of come together and things get interesting.
Ashley Hasty 1:36
I can't decide if she had epically bad luck for being part of three disasters or epically Good luck for having survived all three. Well,
Jenni L. Walsh 1:46
it's funny you say that, because I just wrote a scene where violets love interest is like, I don't know if I should tell you to stay away from the sea. Because don't go there. Or if you should just keep doing what you're doing because you clearly have amazing luck.
Ashley Hasty 2:01
I love it. Well, it was a pleasure chatting with you today. I can't thank you enough for coming on this podcast and sharing a bit about your books and background and it's really nice to be able to chat with you again.
Jenni L. Walsh 2:13
Yes, thank you so much for having me.