Dear Reader,
As I prepare for the launch of Quinn’s Return in the SoR series at the end of this month. I had already known that September’s feature would be a book not produced by WHM. I had it in my mind to feature a different book from Some Melodious Sonnet, However, circumstances kept me from being able to finish it, and I confess, it was not the direction the Holy Spirit was leading. I prayed earnestly over the debacle, and as the deadline loomed to choose a book, I remembered that I had read Mrs. Hunt’s story back in February. I also remembered that I loved it.
It checked every box White Harvest Media hopes to curate in its featured reads. As a matter of fact, this story was so well told that I gave it five stars.
You must understand, I do not give books five stars simply because they are enjoyable. Not even my own. For a book to receive five stars from me, it must be so well written and so well told that I am left with only one or two quibbles.
Such was Some Melodious Sonnet, written by Jennifer Q. Hunt.
The book tells the story of Cairstine Mackay and Jeremiah Harrison, set in Georgia during the Cherokee land disputes. The depth of historical research introduced me to a period in our nation’s history in which I was not well versed, and the author never once claimed authority over the feelings and motivations of real historical people. That is a point I very much appreciate as a reader of fiction.
The disputes were real. The legal battle was heartbreaking. And the questions the narrative raises have roots in issues we still wrestle with today.
This is why I wholeheartedly endorse this featured read to my fellow bookworms and readers. Mrs. Hunt has a good grasp of her craft, a love of story, and an understanding of the soul behind her work.
I encourage you to use one of the links to get a copy and read it for yourself.
I was privileged to get in contact with Mrs. Hunt some weeks ago in preparation for this feature, and she graciously gave me a lovely interview about the story behind the Eyes to the Hills series, as well as her own choices in crafting and telling this particular story.
I have included it below in its full, unedited length.
A special thank-you to Mrs. Hunt for taking the time to answer my questions while she is in the middle of preparing to launch the sequel to Some Melodious Sonnet.
More on that later.
The story behind the story
Jennifer: In my short Christmas novel The Unbroken Song, the main character’s grandmother is a Cherokee woman who escaped the Trail of Tears through a loveless marriage. In one scene, she shares her story with her granddaughter, and it was in the course of researching for this scene that I providentially encountered the story of Samuel Worcester. I was floored. I had grown up in Georgia, going to Christian school and then in very conservative homeschool circles, but I had never heard of this hero of the faith. I knew then that I wanted to write a story set around the events of Rev. Worcester’s ministry in Georgia, in particular his decision to face arrest and imprisonment by the state to enable the Cherokee cause to reach the United States Supreme Court.
The Lord clearly told me “not yet” on that story idea, so instead I wrote the Wisteria House trilogy. One of the main characters in that book is the great-grandson of the main characters is Some Melodious Sonnet, so his backstory helped me figure out their story. In the meantime, my family moved from metro Atlanta to North Georgia, placing me just 45 minutes from New Echota. When it was time to begin this series, I was blessed to visit the site where much of the story takes place, including touring the Worcesters’ home. Later, I went back with the finished book and took some celebratory photos.
The time I spent learning about Samuel and Ann Worcester and their dedication to the Lord, their faithful endurance under trials, their patience and joy in difficulty, was truly impactful. It was an absolute honor and a sacred trust to share their story, now mostly forgotten, with a new generation of believers.
Jessica: One choice I particularly appreciated was your decision to place fictional protagonists alongside Samuel and Ann Worcester rather than making the Worcesters themselves the protagonists. What led you to that choice, and how do you decide where you have freedom to imagine versus where you need to stay anchored to the historical record when writing real people?”
Jennifer: Great question. Honestly, just having the Worcesters as secondary characters felt like a huge weight of responsibility. I didn’t want to portray them wrong, and I often thought, who am I to be attempting this at all? There’s always more research you can do. Those who write fiction where they make an actual person the main character often spend 5, 10 years in the research to try to get into that person’s head as much as possible. Besides not having the time to do that, I kind of feel that if I’m going to spend that much time researching someone, I should just write a biography. When a modern author writes from “inside the head” of an actual historic person, they have to assume a lot about their motives and feelings, about the inner workings of their marriage and the nuances of their faith and values. I don’t feel comfortable with that level of faux-authority. It’s one reason I prefer biblical fiction in the vein of Connilyn Cossette over those who tell stories where the biblical person is the main character. While the Worcesters’ interactions with the fictional protagonists was, of course, fiction, I did my best to write in keeping with their character as revealed in other documented interactions.
Jessica: Was there anything you discovered during your research that changed the story you originally thought you were going to tell? And when dealing with a history that contains both profound injustice and remarkable Christian faithfulness, were there aspects you found particularly difficult to portray without either softening the history or allowing it to overwhelm the story?
Jennifer: One thing that has been driven home to me in writing both books of this series is how incredibly complex history is. The further away we get, the more we have a tendency to say, “These are the good guys, and these are the bad guys. This was right, and this was wrong.” But an honest person knows that’s not how the world works. We instinctively know issues like the war in Iran or immigration are incredibly complex, nuanced issues that can’t be neatly summarized in a paragraph. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, when the issues of the past are just that complex and nuanced. When good people, who love Jesus, have legitimately different opinions.
What stayed with you:
Jessica: After spending so much time researching Samuel and Ann Worcester, what aspect of their faith or character has stayed with you personally?
Jennifer: Love this question and there are many things I could answer with. One thing about Samuel Worcester that people who knew him noted, and that comes through in his writings, is that he was a James 1 “count it all joy” guy. The missionaries get arrested and really are mistreated as they are being taken to the prison, and he’s praying and singing and noting God’s goodness along the way. There’s this guard who just lights into them with the most awful language and Samuel’s like, “Isn’t it great that our testimonies are such that he knew that this is what would be offensive to us?” They get to the state penitentiary and it’s not like “Ah, we’re off the clock as missionaries because we got removed from our mission field.” No, they immediately start holding church services and daily Bible study for the other prisoners. This attitude permeates his whole life, so that even when he is dying, he’s suffering constantly and has to lie on his stomach most of the time, and he says, I’d keep on like this for years if I could finish translating the Cherokee Bible. None of this is my natural tendency and I find it incredibly challenging and convicting. It’s one thing to be faithful to what God has called me to do, and next level to do it with a good attitude!
Mrs. Hunt’s sequel Raise My Ebenezer continues the saga of the Cherokee, Georgia, the Worchesters, through the eyes of Leelah, who also happens to be Cherokee. That book drops on September 29, and is available for pre-order now.
For more on White Harvest’s vision and purpose see the linked articles below.