Today, I am making final adjustments and uploading my next book, Eleanor, onto Amazon. For this post, I hope to accomplish that task, upload a post that will entertain as well as educate, and spark an interest that might prompt readers to choose to read my book set in this often overlooked place (Anchorage, Alaska) and era (1925).
I personally enjoy reading books with chapter headers—whether they be scripture verses, quotes from famous people, or insights into the thinking of the book’s characters. Eleanor is my first book to use such headers. Those for the chapters written to show Eleanor’s point-of-view are in the form of newsy letters to “Mom and Dad.” For them, I hope you decide to read the book.
My hero, known as Frankie Perry to most people outside of his Portuguese-American community, is not a big letter-writer. Starting with his time in the U.S. Navy, which began when he was old enough to enlist not long after the end of the Great War , he developed a habit of buying picture postcards and using them to send short messages home. After his enlistment ended, and he returned home for a short time, he decided it was time to leave again and do some serious soul-searching. He still sent postcards to home.
The chapters from Frankie Perry’s point-of-view are the only ones with headers that refer to postcards. With the exception of one photograph that easily could have been a postcard, I based those headers on actual postcards from the 1920s era.
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| Anchorage, Alaska, in 1920s |
The first chapter does not refer to a postcard message but a verbal statement:
“Tell Papai and Mamãe their Franco might be done sailing the high seas, but I’m spending the summer working along the coast with Paulo. After all, they don’t need me. Edmundo is doing a good job running the crew. On second thought, don’t tell them nothing. I’ll drop them a postcard wherever I decide to jump ship.”
Francisco Pereira to former crewmate, Afonso.
The snippet below is from a conversation between Frankie and Paulo in that same chapter:
“…How long you think before we get to San Francisco?” Frankie felt more than ready to change the subject. “I promised the parentes I would drop them a postcard. Assuming Fonse passed my message along, they’ll be looking for one.”
“Should have mailed one from San Pedro—or even Santa Barbara.”
“Wasn’t ready yet.” Frankie pursed his lips, and then huffed out a breath through his nostrils. “Besides, San Francisco is flashier. A família will think it’s swell getting a postcard from San Francisco.”
Although no particular postcard was mentioned, I think, especially since Frankie would probably have stayed close to where they docked Paulo’s boat, he might have chosen this postcard of the San Francisco Ferry Building:
A família,
I’m in Seattle, across Puget Sound from the naval shipyard. This postcard shows U.S.S. New York in dry dock, same like when the ship I was on was being retrofitted. Paulo doesn’t want to deal with salmon fishing here, so we are going farther north—maybe to Juneau in Alaska, maybe past that. They have halibut up there, too, and that’s what he is really after.
Your Franco
This postcard will beat Paulo home. He found someone wanting to get back to Los Angeles who knows boats and was willing to share expenses plus the deckhand work. The picture shows the salmon cannery along Ship Creek near Anchorage where I’m steaming fish after it’s packed into cans and sealed. Isn’t the greatest job but pays good and lasts until maybe October. I like Alaska so far. I’ll see how things look when winter gets closer. Miss everyone and the California beaches.
Your Franco
A família,
Thought you’d like this postcard of a bald eagle. The birds are thick here, along with bears and other critters because of the salmon running. Had a problem with the cannery equipment and the mechanic quit, so I changed jobs. Met this blonde dish in Seattle. Paulo saw her. She’s in Anchorage now. We’ve met up a couple times.
Your Franco
A família,
Proof Anchorage is civilized. Postcard shows the one business street in Anchorage with concrete sidewalks. Everywhere else there’s mud or snow most of year. Weather 60-65°, not even as warm as home in winter. Sky not blue as often as it was when I first got here. Overcast, like our June, locals say it’s like that until fall. Nights never get fully dark now. It’s hard to get used to. Met up with Eleanor on July 4th. Anchorage didn’t bother much with fireworks. We saw a swell sunset during a break in the clouds.
Your Franco
A família,
Postcard is of Yukon 2-3 decades ago, but log building in front looks like large version of joint where I live. Our plumbing and heating 2-3 decades old, too. Rustic, but better than the honeymoon shack where Papai stored nets and equipment before Melina and Eduardo took it over to live in when they first married. King salmon run is over for the year, but the coho still running, keeping me busy at the cannery. Boss says this isn’t the year for pinks, so salmon season over about end of September. Not sure where your Franco will go after that.
I hope these postcard messages from Eleanor have caught your interest in Alaska after the era of the big gold rushes. There might have been electricity, telephones, and automobiles around in 1925, but Anchorage, Alaska—like most of the territory—was still bordering on being frontier. As you read, I hope these images will help you better visualize what is described in the postcard chapter headings.
Book description for Eleanor:
As a teenager, unlike her older brother, Eleanor Daley survived the Spanish Flu pandemic. Only a few years away from voting age when women in her state finally won the right to vote, she proudly voted in the 1924 election. In 1925, Eleanor breaks free of her overbearing, over-protective parents and moves to Anchorage, Alaska, where men greatly outnumber women. She accepts a job as a switchboard operator. She is an independent woman, in charge of her own life! But, will she give up some of that independence for the love of a man?
Frankie Perry, unwilling to settle down in the family business just yet, joins a friend to work for the summer in the Anchorage salmon cannery. He meets a firecracker of a woman whose adventurous spirit matches his own. The decision he must make when salmon season ends is, will he stay in Alaska or head back for the lower forty-eight?
Will Eleanor and Frankie’s love stay warm and bright like the July sun on Independence Day? Or, will it grow cold and dark like the Alaskan winter?
Eleanor, Book 15 in The Switchboard Sisterhood series, is still on pre-order and will be released on July 14, 2023. To find the purchase options, please CLICK HERE.
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