As a nonfiction author, I especially admire how well Julie brings a turbulent historical period to life with compelling characters, romance, and adventure. I was intrigued by her writing process and the decisions she made about what to include, facts and fiction, in writing this book.

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GROG: Julie, you're a former middle-school language arts teacher and now a children's author. How has your teaching background influenced your writing?

Julie:

I loved teaching literature and writing, my own favorite subjects. In our school, the language arts curriculum was tied to the social studies curriculum: the study of American history. So, in my classes, students were reading and writing about the period of history they were currently studying. This was fun for me, as I’d always enjoyed history. But I noticed that some periods of American history were well-represented in literature, while others, including the American Revolution, were sadly lacking. I was especially disappointed by the lack of good books featuring female characters during that period. I think this lack led me to later research and write the story of Patience Wright and her family.

I think your teaching experiences also led you to write your earlier book, too?

Yes. When we studied WWII, we brought veterans in to talk to the students. One of those vets was Stanley Edwards, whose story of being a young pilot shot down on D-Day captivated me. Mr. Edwards’ health was fading, and I wanted to capture his story for future generations of students. This led to our collaboration on the book D-Day and Beyond: A True Story of Escape and POW Survival, which was my first published work. 

I discovered Patience Wright (Elizabeth's mother) years ago, at the Spy Museum in Washington, DC. In an exhibit on Women Spies, there was just a short paragraph saying she was a wax artist who traveled to London to sculpt Benjamin Franklin, King George III and other notables. She sent spy messages to the Continental Congress inside wax heads shipped to her sister in Philadelphia.

I found the idea of a woman who was both an artist and a spy very intriguing and wanted to know more. At the time, there was far less information on the internet, but I found a 1976 biography of Patience Wright by Charles Coleman Sellers. As I read it, a picture of this woman emerged. Besides being talented, Wright was bold, brash, and outspoken, truly unusual for a woman of her time. In addition, she was a widow who left her three children in America when she went to London. Patience Wright’s story seemed like an intriguing topic for a novel—one that might fill a gap in literature of that period. Thinking of my students, I wondered what it would be like to be Patience Wright’s child. That question became a central theme for the book.