The Story I Was Writing Became Eerily Current: A Guest Post by Kerri Maher
When Kerri Maher (The Paris Bookseller) set out to write her latest novel, All You Have to Do Is Call, she thought it would only be concerned with historical events — not contemporary ones. Dive into the books, movies and music that accompanied Maher through her writing process and discover the real-life inspiration behind her new book, down below.
Paperback $19.00
All You Have to Do Is Call
All You Have to Do Is Call
By Kerri Maher
In Stock Online
Paperback $19.00
Kerri Maher’s latest historical novel is about the brave women of Chicago’s Jane Collective in the early 1970s. This is a nuanced story that examines the issue of choice through the stories of a diverse group of women on either side of the issue. This is perfect book club fiction, sure to start conversations.
Kerri Maher’s latest historical novel is about the brave women of Chicago’s Jane Collective in the early 1970s. This is a nuanced story that examines the issue of choice through the stories of a diverse group of women on either side of the issue. This is perfect book club fiction, sure to start conversations.
It’s a strange experience to be writing a historical novel one day and to realize it could easily be a contemporary novel the next, which is what happened with All You Have to Do Is Call. The book had quite a journey from idea to publication. I first learned of the real-life Jane Collective in 2018, from an NPR story that described a group of young women activists in Chicago before Roe vs Wade who formed an underground reproductive health clinic. They offered safe, affordable abortion care as well as Pap smears, STD testing, and birth control counseling. Wow, I thought, I really want to write about them.
Then in 2022, the story I was writing became eerily current. Dobbs came down from the Supreme Court, and abortion would soon become illegal in 14 states. I wondered if there were already Janes in those states and felt even more committed to illuminating the stories of these women and how relevant their experiences still are today.
When I started working on the novel, I knew that my story would be entirely fictional and only loosely based on the women of Jane, but I wanted to ensure my characters were authentic feminists of the early 1970s. I read some of the seminal literature of the time, like Our Bodies, Ourselves, The Feminist Mystique, and work by Angela Davis and Audre Lorde. I also read two first-hand accounts by women in the collective: The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan, and Hello. This Is Jane. by Judith Arcana.
For the groove of the period, I loved the documentaries 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything, and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry. I had no idea so many amazing songs we still love came out in the early 70s! “Tiny Dancer,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” and of course “You’ve Got a Friend” all made it into the book.
While I love research in all its forms, it’s walking miles in the shoes of my characters that makes the biggest impact on my books. For The Girl in White Gloves about Grace Kelly, my trips to Philadelphia and Monaco were revelatory, and for The Paris Bookseller, spending a week in the 5th and 6th arrondissements where the expat writers of the 1920s ate, drank, and wrote helped me bring the original Shakespeare and Company to life.
For All You Have to Do Is Call, I went to Chicago so I could bring the stories of Veronica, Patty, and Margaret to life. I had always wanted to visit this great midwestern city, and it was as exciting as Monaco and Paris. I was knocked over by its size, by the beaches lining the eastern edge of the city, and by the massive, gleaming skyscrapers. I stayed with my friend and fellow writer Renée Rosen, visited the Art Institute, ate Italian beef sandwiches and Chicago style pizza (of course!), and got a tour of the University of Chicago by a former professor. So I could show off the city with the same starry eyes that I had, I let Margaret, a newcomer to Chicago, give most of the descriptions.
I always want readers to imagine themselves in the action of my novels, and it’s the research that makes this possible. Whether it’s the gargoyles at the entrance to the University of Chicago campus or the records characters listen to while cooking in the kitchen, it’s these details that bring a time and place to life.