As I come down the revision home stretch, I would like to remind you, and welcome new readers, of how I came to write Rain Dodging:
In 2006, researching for my last literature paper at Oxford, I stumbled onto the late 17th-century court of Queen Mary of Modena, consort to James II. I was intrigued because she had so many female authors in her court—rare for the 17th century! Before heading back to the states, I met with my professor, Peter McCullough, to discuss a book idea stemming from that research. Peter had stunned me with his compliment of my paper—“One of the most beautiful Bread Loaf papers I’ve read . . . The work of an artist by an artist.” He was encouraging about my book idea (and later agreed to be one of my Beta readers). True to his MO, Peter dashed to his computer and gathered up a beginning bibliography for me to pursue.
Maria Beatrice Anna Margherita Isabella of Modena was an educated, artistic princess growing up in a matriarchy of strong, prominent women, exposed to powerful women all of her young life. Nevertheless, in 1673, Mary was powerless, a 14-year-old, unwilling political pawn, instructed to marry James II, then still the Duke of York, by proxy. She refused more than once, insisting that she needed to live a life of study in religious seclusion, It was not unusual for girls to marry this young, even younger, in the 17th century. Eventually, family pressure intervened. In a handwritten note, heavily leaning on Maria’s devotion to Church, Pope Clement himself convinced the young princess of her duty to spread Catholicism across the British Channel.
Maria left home on her 15th birthday, after two days and nights of tears and anguish. Imagine saying goodbye to family, possibly forever, at 15 years of age, then departing to a foreign country, trading a dazzling sun-draped palace for “one of the largest and dirtiest houses in the world,” in an assuredly bleak, damp climate. Hers was a treacherous 2-month journey over the Alps, up the Loire, and on to the dreary French port of Calais. There, they began a stormy, perilous ten-hour English Channel crossing to Dover.
Just in time, after its first year of existence, I was awarded a travel fellowship by my employer, the illustrious University School of Nashville: That summer, six years after my meeting with Peter, I returned to Oxford, continuing my study of the complexity of Mary’s court culture and uncovering as much as I could about these women authors and their unique literary and artistic accomplishments, so unusual for the seventeenth century.
In 17th-century Christian tradition, “Woman (were) seen as distractors, temptresses who beckoned from the realm of nature, personifying Original Sin and luring man to evil . . . Woman was not fully a human being, not endowed with a soul and not created in the image of God, who after all, was male.” However, Mary of Modena provided a model of female patronage of women artists. She offered a world where women exchanged various genres of writing. As Duchess of York, Mary created a place where women’s education and women’s imagination were taken seriously.
Rain Dodging follows my quest for a sense of Mary’s spaces, to breathe the same air, to imagine their lives, visiting palaces and manor houses in England and Scotland and exploring their sublime back roads. Rain Dodging is a kaleidoscope of memoir and mystery, a collage of images and events. As I travel through Britain, I take you on a journey through my life and into a 17th-century royal court. You’ll watch the connections unfold, from tales of a troubled childhood to wild days of college and young adulthood, the music scenes in Los Angeles & Nashville, and to my growth as mother, teacher, lover, writer, and solo traveler.
Rousham Manor 
Garden at Eastwell, Kent 
My day in Calais 
On the way to Greenwich
Soon you will Rain Dodge with me?
Feature photo: © David Iliff/WikiCommons
