Hi! Welcome to Day 4 of the Wordcrafter “The French Winemaker’s Daughter” Book Blog Tour. Today we have a guest post by the author, Loretta Ellsworth. I haven’t had the chance to read Loretta’s book yet. I plan to read and review it soon.
Here is Loretta’s guest post.
About The French Winemaker’s Daughter
Set during World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, family, and loyalty told in in the voices of two women, generations apart, who find themselves connected by a mysterious and valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis.
1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt’s address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris.
But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her.
1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual—and very valuable—bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . .
A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker’s Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth’s evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/French-Winemakers-Daughter-Novel-ebook/dp/B0D3CJYP5Y
About Loretta Ellsworth
Loretta earned a master’s degree in Writing for Children from Hamline University. She’s the author of four young adult novels: THE SHROUDING WOMAN, a Rebecca Caudill nominee; IN SEARCH OF MOCKINGBIRD, which won the Midwest Bookseller’s Choice Honor Award, was a Teen’s Top Ten finalist, an IRA Notable, and was named to the New York Library’s List of Books for the Teen Age; IN A HEARTBEAT, which was named a spring Midwest Connection’s Pick and an ALA Notable; and UNFORGETTABLE, which was a Kirkus Pick of the Month. Her debut adult novel STARS OVER CLEAR LAKE, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2017. Her debut picture book, Tangle-Knot, will be published by Page Street Kids in 2023. A former Spanish teacher, she lives with her family in Minnesota.
Visit her website at: http://www.lorettaellsworth.com
and follow her on Twitter http://@lellsworth
Instagram – Lorettaellsworth_author
Facebook – Loretta Ellsworth Author Page
How Rabbit Holes Inspire Me
By Loretta Ellsworth
For me, part of the thrill of going down rabbit holes while doing research is discovering people and places I didn’t know existed. One such place I discovered while writing my novel The French Winemaker’s Daughter was Hotel Drouot, one of the oldest auction houses in the world. Located in the ninth arrondissement of Paris, it opened in 1852. Van Gogh would often stroll through its numerous rooms spread over three floors to look at the art. But it’s not only art that you will find there. As my character Charlotte enters the building, she discovers “a hodgepodge of items that reminded me more of a garage sale than an auction house.” You can find almost anything there: During my visit there I saw statues, vases, clocks, musical instruments, and a room full of rifles. One of the most notable finds was a red Moroccan leather portfolio that was auctioned off for $500. Inside was the bill of sale for the Louisiana Purchase, which made it worth at least $50,000.
Hotel Drouot also has a complicated history. In addition to sacred relics and artifacts that have been sold there, during the German occupation of WWII when my novel takes place, artwork and collections were auctioned off that had been owned by Jews, who were forbidden from attending the auctions. And years later, many of those items were still being sold by the heirs of German aristocrats who came to own them illegally. The rare bottle of wine that my character ends up with is one such item.
The auction house was renovated from 1976 to 1980. I visited Hotel Drouot two years ago, and found it to be more modern in some ways than I imagined it to be, with sleek escalators and overhead lights, but still possessing the atmosphere of the past with red velvet wall coverings, its numerous collections, and the fact that it’s free for anyone to attend.
It was in reading about this famous auction house that funneled my creative juices and led to plot points that I wouldn’t have thought of before. And while many rabbit holes of research don’t lead to advances in plot, many of them do provide us with knowledge that helps us understand our story better. So, even though we often feel that time would be better spent writing, that research may strengthen our stories more than we know.
Tour Schedule
Mon. 12-16: Writing to be Read – Opening day – Interview
Tues. 12-17: Carla Reads – Guest Post
Wed. 12-18: Kyrosmagica – Guest Post
Thurs. 12-19: Book Places –Guest Post by Loretta Ellsworth
Fri. 12-20: Writing to be Read – Closing day – Book Review
Thanks for visiting! Feel free to leave a comment.
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Kaye Lynne Booth
December 19, 2024 at 7:56 amThank you, Kay, for hosting this stop on the tour. You did a wonderful job in your presentation. 🙂
Loretta, you are so right about rabbit holes. I’m always getting lost in them, finding such interesting things. I often have to pull myself away to get back to the story I’m working on. Like you, many of my stories have developed from rabbit holes, but I have to finish the story that I’m working on first. 🙂
Carla
December 19, 2024 at 1:05 pmEven as a reader, I find myself going down rabbit holes often when I search for a place, event or character. It’s interesting to see that authors do this and find another dimension to their story or another book to write.
Kay Castaneda
December 20, 2024 at 11:35 amThanks for visiting my blog, Carla. I appreciate your comments. 🙂