HISTORICAL FICTION
Fiona Weston, an Iowa horsewoman in work boots and trousers, sails to India in 1906 to discover her journey is not the quest for which she had yearned, nor th
e escape from those who ridicule her unconventional ways.
Her uncle offers Fiona and her brother a chance for adventure, to sell the quarter horses to the British Indian army to breed with their Manipuri horse for polo. The San Francisco earthquake takes the life of her brother. Jacob, the shipping agent, hired to handle the horses, sale and quarantine, works alongside Fiona. Confined below deck to her quarters by the captain, the adventure of sailing evades her, but an attraction smolders.
In India, everything she encounters rubs up against previous experiences. Her Indian host and mentor, Ameera, introduces her to religions, the caste system, British Imperialism, and the ways of men and women. Fiona will choose between two men: the engaging shipping agent, and an intellectually intriguing missionary who needs a wife. More importantly, she will choose herself above all others.
In this historical fiction, Song of Herself, Fiona experiences a journey fraught with obstacles that creates a sturdy sense of self, in which she learns to accept irreconcilable differences and still sing her song of self.
You will find a group discussion guide for Song of Herself here.
“… Wiley-Jones packs her narrative with a plethora of captivating themes and images that expose Fiona and readers to India’s cultures, religions, and styles (Women “wrapped their silhouettes with sarees in every color from ruby red to sapphire blue, and marigold to lemon yellow”) as well as the building Indian resentment toward British imperialism. Then there is the chaos of Calcutta, which the author describes in vivid detail, capturing the city’s history, topography, sounds, smells, and foods. Fiona is a complex character who repeatedly turns to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass for inspiration and guidance in her search for her own center. … An engaging period drama overflowing with historical tidbits.”
You can purchase Song of Herself at Amazon in Kindle or paperback.
Then write a review, please.
Rhonda would be over-the-moon, if you did.
MEMOIR (Nonfiction)
Wiley-Jones’ coming-of-age travel memoir tracks her transition from a conservative religious upbringing to a more transcendent spiritual experience. As a young girl, she savors various worlds through mission studies and missionaries, who visit her church.
Ironically, her religious upbringing and unconventional mission experiences expand rather than narrow her views of the world. Wiley-Jones’ mother, wise beyond her own experience, launches Rhonda into the world, discerning that travel is fundamental to growing up with options.
A train trip across Arkansas alone at age fourteen, an excursion to the 7th Baptist Youth World Conference in Europe at fifteen, summer missionary service in Hawaii at seventeen, and a volunteer Baptist Student Union director in Salt Lake City as a college sophomore, each whet an appetite for learning more about people, culture, and travel.
Rhonda’s childhood forms a self- and religious-identity. Over time, adventures in different cultures create a
skeptical relationship with her church and generate an appraisal from a more discerning view.
At age twenty-seven, she pulls on a backpack to explore the United Kingdom and Ireland, solo. Travel has shown her the way of being her own “agent,” developing “agency,” of how to take the reins of her life. This final declaration of independence coincides with her departure from the denomination in which she grew up and served, but not her Christian faith.
You will find a group discussion guide for the book here.
Read recommendations for this book.
You can purchase the book, At Home in the World, on Amazon.
Then, please, write a review.
It would tickle her pink, if you did.
ANTHOLOGIES
Wiley-Jones has written essays and creative nonfiction, fictional stories and poetry in several different anthologies. As a member of the Story Circle Network (SCN), she is published in these SCN books, each a colloection of short, two- to five-page stories, poems, and narrative essays. All three would make terrific gifts. Think birthdays, holidays, thank you gifts or special celebratory occasions. A lovely, meaningful gift for that special someone in your life.
In this 2023 publication, Real Women Write: Mothers and Mentors: The Art of Nurturing, you will find short fiction, essays, poetry, all storytelling by, for, and about women on the topic of nurturing.
Wiley-Jones’ creative nonfiction in a “hermit crab” essay follows the birth process of bringing a 16-year-old foster daughter into their home in 1990. Those stages of giving birth include: conception, gestation, active labor, delivery, and passing the placenta. As you might imagine, it’s an especially close-to-her-heart story.
In this 2022 publication, Real Women Write: Seeing Through Their Eyes, you will find short fiction, essays, and poetry, which is story telling by, for, and about women on the topic of empathy. Her two essays are “Paying to Pee” and “A Letter to our Insolent Server,” both of which are travel stories.
In this 2017 book,Inside and Out: Women’s Truths, Women’s Stories, you will find stories, both fiction and nonfiction for, by, and about women’s lives. Her essay here is entitled, “Ugly Duckling to Howling Wolf.”