Janet Oakley, writing as JL Oakley, writes award-winning historical fiction that spans the mid-19th century to WW II. Her characters, who come from all walks of life, stand up for something in their own time and place: the Pacific NW and WWII in Norway.
When not writing, she enjoys delving into local history, looking for little surprises that tell a larger story of the area and the nation’s past, fodder far more novels or non-fiction pieces. She loves to garden, weave, and demonstrate 19th century folkways. She can churn some pretty mean butter.
Why do I write historical fiction? It would be easy to say out of curiosity, but I know the seeds of my passion began with my mom introducing me to her favorite historical novels, The Prince of Paupers and Captain from Castile—all played by heartthrob Tyrone Power in 1940s movies—and most importantly, family stories that reach back to the founding of my country. I was twelve when we took my 82 year-old Nana to Newburyport, MA to visit the 1670 tavern her direct ancestor had run in the seventeenth century. Seeing that ancient building, visiting the village green that celebrates the arrival of the ship that brought him in 1638, and seeing the grand home of his grandson built in 1702, left a deep impression on me. Here was the timeline of my family history that led down to the present, yet I wondered how my ancestors lived in those times.
My Nana’s own story of pioneering in the West in the late 19th century was a living embodiment to me. I hung on her stories that she sent to me in letters and told me in person. In elementary school, inspired by The Little House on the Prairie series, I began to write my own historical stories. While pursuing a degree in American History years later, I was honored to be an intern and later, a volunteer in the Smithsonian’s Anthropology Archives. One of my first assignments was to search early 19th century publications’ depictions of Native Americans. I was successful, finding the oldest one from the 1820s (an authentic portrayal), but as I was searching, I found scandals (Swill’s Dairy in 1850s D.C.), first account of Yellowstone in the 1830s, and terrible poetry and jokes, which I collected. My exposure to these early magazines and newspapers such as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News, increased my curiosity and made me ask, “Why didn’t I know this?”
So why do I write historical fiction? I believe it’s to tell untold or lost stories. Though last year was the 90th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps, FDR’s wonderful program that saved millions of young men and their families and built our state and national parks, few knew enough to celebrate the anniversary. Yet, the impact that program had on people during the Great Depression of the 1930s continued on into World II. Without young men learning to work together in squads to accomplish difficult tasks, America would have been six months or more behind getting our soldiers ready to fight. Tree Soldier, my novel about a young man struggling to redeem himself in the CCC in the Pacific NW, shows how the program operated and how it affected a local, mountain community. Timber Rose is about women climbing mountains in skirts in the same locale in 1907. More than half of the major mountain climbing clubs were made of women. They were part of the early environmental movement.
One of my favorite untold stories are about Hawaiians in the Pacific NW, in particular on the San Juan Island, working as shepherds and laborers for the Hudson Bay’s Company during the 1850s and 1860s. Their contribution to the building of what would become Washington State should not be overlooked. Mist-chi-mas: A Novel of Captivity explores the dynamics of Hawaiians, called Kanakas, Coast Salish, English Royal Marines and the US Army when the island was under military occupation. The novel also explores society’s pressure on what a woman could and could not do. “Mist-chi-mas” means captive in Chinook Wawa.
In the last recent years, my focus on untold stories has been on Norway in WWII. When I first started to research my novel, The Jøssing Affair, many years ago, I was surprised how often American magazines such as Newsweek and Times reported on events happening in German-occupied Norway. Yet, all the WWII novels recently published seemed to be about the resistance and horrible events on the continent or the Homefront in the UK. Who knew that up 400,000 soldiers were deployed to Norway, a country of three million (Berlin’s population in 1940)? That there were concentration camps in Norway and killing fields? How ordinary people resisted against Nazifying of their churches and schools? The destruction of Telavåg, “The Lidice of the North.” I was fascinated by the leader of the Deaf Church’s role in the Resistance and the hearty fishermen on the West Coast who smuggled agents into the country and refugees out to Shetland. The psychopathic Henry Oliver Rinnan, a Norwegian who was Norway’s number two war criminal after Quisling. All untold stories. I am happy to learn that people visiting Bergen are now taking the time to go out to the wonderful museum in Telavåg because they read about it my novels.
This is why I write historical fiction.
Find out more about Janet an her books on her website: https://www.jloakleyauthor.com/
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