{"id":4228,"date":"2024-06-10T09:41:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T13:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=4228"},"modified":"2024-06-10T09:41:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T13:41:59","slug":"carol-baldwin-and-her-ya-novel-set-in-charlotte-during-the-1950s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2024\/06\/10\/carol-baldwin-and-her-ya-novel-set-in-charlotte-during-the-1950s\/","title":{"rendered":"Carol Baldwin and Her YA Novel Set in Charlotte During the 1950s\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

About a month ago, an email popped up in my inbox from Carol Baldwin.\u00a0\u00a0The Re message read, \u201cIntroducing myself and my book.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In her email message, she told me about her forthcoming debut novel titled\u00a0Half-Truths<\/em>, her historical novel intended for young adults. She mentioned that she is a Charlotte writer and that her novel is set in Charlotte during the 1950s.\u00a0\u00a0Intrigued, I asked her for more information about her novel and how she came to write it.\u00a0\u00a0Here is what she sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1950, 15-year-old Kate Dinsmore wants to go to college to become a journalist but her tobacco-farming father can only afford to send her brother\u2014not her. She moves from Tabor City, NC, to her grandparents\u2019 mansion in Myers Park to gain a better education and a hoped-for college fund. In her new society-conscious home, she wants to please her grandmother even if it means becoming a debutante. She meets Lillian Bridges, the Black maid who works for her grandmother and they bond over finding a cure for Kate\u2019s goat that has ringworm. At the same time, family secrets are unearthed and the girls discover that they share a great-grandfather. Kate faces a choice. Will she overcome her fears, society\u2019s constraints, and the power of family secrets to make her voice heard?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1986 I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Pennsylvania when I married a widower and became a step-mother. I published several articles but I was itching to write a book. A writer friend encouraged me to find the story in my own back yard. I decided to find out what life was like \u201cback in the day\u201d in Charlotte. In a city that has a reputation for tearing down buildings and paving over history, I dug for stories. What events led up to the civil rights movement? Where were the old plantations and graveyards? What did it feel like to see a \u201cWhite\u2019s Only\u201d sign over a drinking fountain? I looked for Charlotte\u2019s forgotten history.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I began to imagine a story about a White girl and a Black girl, the connection they would forge, and how their friendship would be tested. As a part of my research, I visited several African American sites including the old Rosenwald School that is now the <\/em>Grier Heights Community Center<\/em><\/a>. During a <\/em>conversation<\/em><\/a> with two former students, I gathered story ideas. I interviewed Whites and Blacks who had gone to AG Junior High and Second Ward High School. I met Vermelle Ely who has been the backbone of the Second Ward Alumni Association for many years; Theresea Elder who was the first Black public health nurse in Charlotte; Sally Robinson who was a debutante in 1951; and George Snyder whose grandfather was a vice-president in the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Each person I interviewed helped me broaden my understanding of the period and the setting for <\/em>Half-Truths<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the book isn\u2019t autobiographical, it wasn\u2019t until after I had read my first draft that I realized Half-Truths is also about me. On the outside, I am a transplanted Yankee who was a fish out of water when I moved to Charlotte and acquired a new hometown and a new family. On the inside, <\/em>Half-Truths is about a young woman who finds her voice. I didn\u2019t set out to write about myself. But writers often write what they know. I didn\u2019t know that was what I was doing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 17 years of writing, revising, and finding a publisher, I am pleased to announce that\u00a0<\/em>Half-Truths\u00a0is coming out on April 2, 2025, from\u00a0<\/em>Monarch Educational Services<\/em><\/a>. You can learn more about me on my\u00a0<\/em>website<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and follow me on\u00a0<\/em>social media<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I congratulate Carol on completing\u00a0Half-Truths,\u00a0<\/em>and I am looking forward to its publication. When the book comes out in the spring of 2025, it will join a cluster of other books that also deal with the experience of growing up in the Charlotte area during the mid-twentieth century.\u00a0\u00a0These books include Avery Caswell\u2019s\u00a0Salvation,\u00a0<\/em>Judy Goldman\u2019s\u00a0Child: A Memoir,\u00a0<\/em>Anna Jean Mayhew\u2019s\u00a0The Dry Grass of August,\u00a0<\/em>and Dori Sanders\u2019s Clover.<\/em>\u00a0Like Carol\u2019s\u00a0Half-Truths<\/em>, these other books explore the connections between childhood and the changing nature of race relations in the South between the 1950s and the 1970s. We are fortunate that Carol and these other authors have provided us with insights into what it was like to grow up in Storied Charlotte back in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, an email popped up in my inbox from Carol Baldwin.\u00a0\u00a0The Re message read, \u201cIntroducing myself and my book.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In her email message, she told me about her forthcoming debut novel titled\u00a0Half-Truths, her historical novel intended for young adults. She mentioned that she is a Charlotte writer and that her novel is set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[226,291],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-historical-fiction","tag-ya-novel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4231,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions\/4231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}