Deborah Rafferty Oswald

I'm a self published author and elementary school teacher. I'm so very excited for the debut of my first YA novel, The Girls of Haviland. I love nothing more than researching women's history. I am particularly drawn to the history of the Hudson Valley Region in New York, the Women's Suffrage Movement, and the World War One years.

The idea for The Girls of Haviland came to me when I saw a picture of students at a private girls' school taken at the turn of the twentieth century in Carmel, New York. I used this picture and archival articles from a local newspaper to create a historical fiction story that examines issues which will resonate with contemporary readers.

One interesting thing about me is my ability to remember exact dates and details. My friends laugh when I remind them of an outfit they were wearing on a particular day in high school almost forty years ago! I may not remember where I put my glasses this morning, but I can tell you what my brothers and I were served for dinner during the blackout of 1977!

I am currently writing a sequel to The Girls of Haviland, which will send my protagonist, Jay, on an undercover mission to expose dangerous working conditions for women and immigrants.

I am happiest when writing or reading women's historical fiction outdoors, whether I'm on my front porch or at a beach on the Jersey Shore. I live with my husband, Chuck, and our spoiled Boston Terrier in Putnam County, New York. We have three grown daughters.