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With a name like that, don't you have to be a writer?
Judalon discovered her passion for history when she was ten. She opened her great-grandfather’s old hump-backed trunk and found a law book and a Texas history from the 1850s. It was love. That same year, she discovered her passion for writing. Her grandmother introduced her to a Bronte family biography that described Charlotte and her siblings creating tiny books written in miniscule script. Dozens of miniature Bronte-esque creations followed.
Where did her name originate? With THE IRON MISTRESS, a book by Paul Wellman made into a 1952 film starring Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo. The not-so-loveable love interest of Alamo hero Jim Bowie, Judalon de Bornay had a name that captivated about a dozen or so daring young romantics, like her parents, during the baby boom. There’s a street named Judalon in her home town of Houston, Texas.
As a teenager, Judalon heard a number of people suggest she become a writer. Uncle Gene, her best friend Penny’s father, and her math teacher stand out because she admired them. “With a name like that, don’t you have to be?”
Judalon learned about Julia and Richard while developing a unit on US vice-presidents for her advanced history students. “Someone should make this into a novel!” she told her husband, author Christopher Manes. “That someone should be you,” he suggested. This work is dedicated to him.
"I wish I could give this book at least 6 stars. This is fictionalized biography worthy of Hilary Mantel. The writing is absolutely superb, and the style is in keeping with early 19th century, which is important to me. I can’t help but love a writer who uses the word ‘passel’. It’s tightly edited, and there are no wasted words; every one is a jewel. The characterisation is gorgeous. The little details of everyday life—the newness and fragility of the American political system, the feuds and duels between the Founding Fathers, the precariousness of life during warfare, the tremendous ordeal of childbirth—fully transport you into the period. "
Susie Helme
author of The Lost Wisdom of the Magi
"I felt instantly transported to the past. De Bornay’s attention to the details of everyday life in late 18th- and early 19th--century America is impressive. The book is full of vivid and often beautiful descriptions…this is no fictional story, but a history-based work, full of the range of the human experience, including unwise choices, the joy of love, and the darkness of slavery, abuse, and war.
I would encourage anyone to give Great Crossing a read, especially anyone who loves beautiful writing, history (very much including the fascinating details of everyday life in the past), and complex subjects and relationships that raise more questions than you might expect."
Alysa Salzberg
Author of Hearts at Dawn