March is National Women’s History Month and March 8th is International Women's Day - an annual commemoration to celebrate women's achievements throughout history and across nations. I’ve listed links to a few resources you might find interesting during this month, including an article depicting the life of the seemingly fearless pioneer of investigative journalism, Nellie Bly.
But first, I wanted to let you know about my International Women’s Day gift for you and why it is timely. As one author/reader said of Sharay, the main character in Carry on the Flame:
“If you have ever felt you have a calling or
a mission in life that you resisted or if you are experiencing the challenges
of stepping up to meet that call, Sharay's journey is yours. If you feel you
are not listening to your most authentic heart and want to, Sharay's bumpy
journey is yours.” ~Alissa Lukara, author of Riding Grace.
Thank you, Alissa, because Sharay’s journey is indeed the
initiatory journey of the sacred feminine; the journey of all women. In honor
of women’s journeys, I am offering Carry
on the Flame for free on Kindle
for a limited time. Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call is free March 10th-14th. If you
were thinking of downloading a copy to your Kindle, now is your time! (You can
download the free app if you don’t own a Kindle).
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When
I first heard the news
about the latest assault on women’s character and women’s health rights, I
thought of an empowering quote from Elizabeth Cunningham’s novel, Magdalen Rising, where the mother
of the Celtic born Maeve/Magdalene speaks:
"Tir na mBan stands
for the sovereignty of women," concluded Fand. "If it exists nowhere
else in the world, it exists there. Remember that, Maeve. Sovereignty is your
birthright and your inheritance. Next to sovereignty, gold torques and brooches
are mere trinkets. Never surrender your sovereignty, Maeve. Carry it with you
wherever you go." ~ From Elizabeth’s blog, (called Elizabeth and Maeve) 2/26/12
I, for one, will embrace my sovereignty!
During National
Women’s History Month, I pay homage to
a fascinating woman writer. I hope you enjoy the following article about Nellie
Bly who pioneered the field of investigative journalism. She did some
pretty amazing things. The article is from the Goddess of the Gypsy Moon March 2012 newsletter.
Herstory/Ancient Wisdom:
Pink as a young woman around 1880
With few options for an uneducated woman, she helped her
mother in the running of a boarding house in Pittsburgh. In 1885, at age
21, after reading an article entitled "What Girls Are Good For."
by the popular columnist "Quiet Observer" in the Pittsburgh
Dispatch, in which he wrote that working women are "a monstrosity",
(and further stating that women belonged at home performing domestic tasks,
such as sewing, cleaning, cooking and tending to the children), Pink became so
enraged that she wrote an anonymous letter to the editor, signed "Lonely
Orphan Girl". Little did she know that this letter would lead to the
beginning of a journalist career.
The editor upon reading her letter was so impressed with her
spirit that he placed an ad in the Sunday paper asking that the writer reveal
himself. When she did, she was given the pen name "Nellie Bly"
(women did not write publically in those days) and offered her a
full time position, with the chance to write a rebuttal to Wilson's 'sexist'
piece on a 'woman's place'. She jumped at the
opportunity. Boldly, she wrote on the current issues of women,
including an article on the plight of poor working women; and one calling
for the reform of the states divorce laws. Ever daring, she even went
undercover as a factory worker and wrote an investigative series on the
mistreatment and dire working conditions of factory girls. In response to
threats and to prevent shop owners from pulling their advertising, the editor
relegated her to the Women's page and assigned her to stories about fashion,
flower shows and garden parties. After nine months of utter boredom, she was
craving excitement and adventure and decided to vacation in Mexico.
While there she reported on poverty and political corruption until Mexico sent
her packing.
SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO by Nellie Bly
SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO by Nellie Bly
Upon returning to the United States, she went to New York
and after great determination and persistence, she obtained
an audience with the managing editor of the New York World and
convinced him to hire her. On September 22,1887 she was given her
first assignment: to go undercover to investigate the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island
and “Write up things as you find them, good or bad, give praise or
blame as you think best, and truth all the time.” Taking this assignment
seriously, she concocted a plan and moved into the Temporary Home for
Females, No. 84 Second Avenue (a boarding house for working women) under
the name of Nellie Brown with the intention of setting all the women there so
ill at ease by 'acting crazy' (“they would never rest until I was
out of their reach and in secure quarters.”N.B.), thereby convincing everyone, but especially the police and the courts that she was
insane. It worked and she was committed to the asylum for
five days of observation. While there, she befriended many sane women, and
witnessed and even experienced many atrocities. She was so convincing in
her role that the doctors did not want to free her; it took ten days of
pleading her sanity before the attorney for the newspaper was
able to prove her sanity and get her released.
"Could I pass a week in the insane ward at
Blackwell's Island? I said I could and I would. And I did." --
Nellie Bly.
Once released she was said to have taken a relaxing 2 hour
bath before sitting down to pen her findings. Due to her
daring, unconventional and investigatory style of reporting
huge changes were made in the processing and treatment of the in-firmed
and incarcerated.
10 Days in a Mad HouseEver brave and adventurous, Nellie threatened to quit the paper upon hearing a male reporter was given the sensational assignment to enact Jules Verne's fictional hero Phileas Foggs' trip "Around the World in Eighty Days.". She demanded the opportunity and purposed to beat his record! To spite the conventional rules, she surprised everyone as she stepped unescorted onto the ocean liner, the Augusta Victoria. And further, in an era where women were known for traveling with excessive baggage, steamer trunks, etc, she arrived with only two small satchels! On November 14, 1889, she began her whirl wind trip around the world. Heading east from New York, she traveled (by ship, train and burro) to England, Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan before returning to San Francisco where famed publisher Joseph Pulitzer arranged a special train to meet her and deliver her to New York, 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes later! She beat the record. She was an instant celebrity, and was surprised to be greeted with fireworks, gun salutes, brass bands and a parade on Broadway.
She quit the World upon her return when she wasn't given a
bonus, though later was convinced by a new editor to return, and on September
17, 1893 'Nellie Bly Again" appeared on the front page. She worked
there for the following three years reporting on the social ills of her day,
including police corruption and women's issues; she even interviewed noted
suffragist Susan B.Anthony, among others. Nellie Bly was known for
siding with the poor and disenfranchised and in1894 she went to
Chicago to cover the violet Pullman Railroad strike, and remarkably, she was
the only reporter to report from the strikers perspective.
"It is only after one is in trouble that one
realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.” -
Nellie Bly
Elizabeth Cochran Seaman
At age 30 she married 70-year-old industrialist,
Robert Seaman and lived as a wealthy matron in New York City until his death,
ten years later in 1904. She then took over his business and became the world's
leading female industrialist until 1914 when she had to declare bankruptcy due
to poor management and fraud within the company. Wanting a vacation, she
planned a trip to Europe to visit a friend in Austria, but the outbreak of WWI
ended her vacation. She spent the next five years on a tour of duty
reporting for the Hearst newspaper The New York Evening Journal of
her experiences from the front lines as America's first female war
correspondent.
By 1919 she was back in New York writing her own column for The Evening Journal until she died of pneumonia at age 57, on January 27, 1922. The next day The Evening Journal gave tribute declaring Nellie Bly: "The Best Reporter In America.". She was truly an amazing woman: born during the Civil war, doing a 'mans job' during a time when women couldn't even vote, before the Statue of Liberty was even dedicated to America, before Colorado, Montana, and Washington were even states and before the first motion picture!
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Please enjoy a four minute excerpt of me reading
from Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call,
taken from Chapter One. I am in good author company, being one of six novelists
reading short snippets from their books. You can listen at the Book Eternity
blog here.
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If you are
interested in earth based spirituality, you can read an interview on how I
weave the spirituality of the divine feminine, divine masculine, and
their sacred union into my visionary fiction novels here. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jodine Turner is the visionary fiction and fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about young priestesses who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today. www.jodineturner.com
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