Josephine Baker, the star of my novel JOSEPHINE BAKER'S LAST DANCE, now rests in the Panthéon in Paris, the burial place reserved for France's most revered and highly respected citizens including Voltaire, Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie, and other luminaries. Her 2021 induction made her the first black woman to receive this honor. She would have been thrilled!
Known as the dancer in the banana skirt, Josephine Baker was so much more: a talented singer, a World War II Resistance spy; a noted Civil Rights Activist. She changed the world, making it a more equitable place for all -- even when it cost her her castle. In 1963 she was the only woman to speak at Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington.
Josephine Baker is only the latest of kick-ass women in history whose stories I've told in my fiction. Others include:
Heloise d'Argenteuil, the Parisian scholar and celebrated abbess who, as a young woman, had a passionate and tragic love affair with Abelard, the world's most famous philosopher in 12th-century Paris, in THE SHARP HOOK OF LOVE;
The four sisters from Provence -- Marguerite, Eleonore, Sanchia, and Beatrice -- who became queens of France, England, Germany, and Italy in the 13th century, and whose "sibling rivalry on a royal scale" determined the fates of nations, in FOUR SISTERS, ALL QUEENS;
Blanche de Castile, the "White Queen of France," whose husband's untimely death in the early 13th century left her ruling the country on her own and ruthlessly defending the throne for her son, Louis IX, against a long string of suitors whom she refused to marry (WHITE HEART); and
A'isha bint Abi Bakr, the youngest and most beloved wife of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, an international best-seller) and political advisor to his successors as well as warrior, poet, and religious leader (THE SWORD OF MEDINA, also an international best-seller).
My next novel, in progress, tells the story of transgender jazz musician Billy Tipton and his five wives, many of whom never knew that he was biologically female. He dressed as a man in 1934 to audition for a gig with a jazz band after being turned down as a female -- and got the job. Billy led a music- and passion-filled life for the next 55 years, but the stresses and anxieties over having his secret discovered took their toll in tragic ways.
Billy's story, like all the stories I've written, explore women's struggles through the ages to realize our dreams and reach our full potential and power in a patriarchal world. It's a battle I fight daily for myself, my sisters, and all our daughters -- as well as our sons, who also suffer as a result of the toxic masculinity patriarchy imposes on them.
Originally from North Carolina, then Philadelphia, then Montana, I now live in Spokane, Washington where I love to cook, play classical piano (not very well), drink champagne, dance with friends, and read great fiction. Visit my website, authorsherryjones.com,. and find me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
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