What was the research process like for the book?
Before We Were Yours had the most unexpected kind of beginning.
I was up late one night working on materials for a different story when I happened upon a rerun episode of a true crime program about women. Onscreen were images of an old mansion, filled with bassinettes and babies. I immediately became fascinated by the bizarre, tragic, and startling history of Georgia Tann and her corrupt system of orphanages. One of the most shocking things about the story was how recent it was. Georgia Tann’s nefarious adoptions-for-profit system operated through 1950. After watching the show, I couldn’t stop wondering about the thousands of children who had been victimized by Tann’s system, stolen from poor families, only to be brokered into shady adoptions, often to woefully unvetted homes. What became of those children? Where were they now?
Researching and writing Before We Were Yours was a means of answering those questions.
What are you hoping the reader will take away from reading your book?
I hope readers take away the message that we need not be defined by our pasts. In the story, Rill faces that battle as she matures. As an old woman, she advises thirty-year-old Avery, “A woman’s past need not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. Her own music. To hear it, she must only stop talking. To herself, I mean. We’re always trying to persuade ourselves of things.”
I also hope that, in a broader sense, the story of Rill and the Foss children serves to document all the families whose lives were destroyed by Georgia Tann’s unregulated system and the political corruption that supported it. Only by remembering history are we reminded not to repeat it.
Does the creative process get easier for you with each book?
Yes and no. To keep a writing career fresh and engaging, you must constantly be reaching for something new. In that way, it’s always an uncertain journey. Sometimes old ideas must be released or left to simmer to make room for new ideas. I think the advantage of being a long-time writer is that you do realize there’s life on the other side of an idea that falls apart. It’s easier to trust the journey.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
The most challenging part was taking in the facts of the Georgia Tann case, itself. I was shocked by the scope of her network, the fact that she affected over five thousand children, and the tragic consequences of her cruelty and greed. I wondered what could motivate such an individual? How could so many others – law enforcement officials, welfare workers, court workers, caretakers – take part in or turn a blind eye to kidnapping and abuse? How could as many as five-hundred children have simply vanished with no investigation of their whereabouts and probable deaths? No one is left to answer those questions, but they’re haunting to contemplate.
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