As school returns to session, the Oneida County Library is ready for a busy fall and winter.  Coming up next week is a visit from award-winning novelist Carla Kelly.  October will see the return of Ghost Night with John Olsen and Elizabeth Kent on October 23 at 6:30 p.m., November will feature a Recipe Exchange on November 20 at 6:00 p.m., and December will give people a chance to wrap gifts while the kids are in school from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.  More events are likely to be announced, so keep an ear out for announcements.  

Preschool story time has been changed from 12:30 to 11:30 for the foreseeable future every Tuesday.

Novelist Carla Kelly will be speaking in the library Wednesday, September 11 at 6:30 p.m.  A familiar face for the last twelve years—give or take a pandemic—at the Malad Valley Welsh Festival, Carla sells her novels and short stories at the annual event, and also her homemade hand cream, called “Mrs. Jelly’s Novel Hand Cream.”

“My husband named my hand cream,” Carla says.  “I may have written a lot of books, but I am not great at titles.  Thank goodness Martin is better, and it just so happens to be the perfect label.”

Carla’s major emphasis for this library visit will be what is probably the primary question that novelists are asked: “Where do you get your ideas?”

The primary question?  Really?  She’ll admit that this is one of her totally non-scientific, maybe tongue-in-cheek polls taken through the years when she gets together with other novelists.  “Usually when we’re asked that, we just hem and haw and say something feeble like ‘Well, doesn’t everyone think like this?’” she says.

She also admits that the question used to bother her, because it’s so hard to answer.  Lately, however, she’s been giving the question a lot of thought, and has revised her opinion.  “It really is a good question.  The answer varies, but it’s given me some insight into my own weird author-mind.  Where do ideas come from?”  

Mixed in with that topic is another element of writing historical fiction that Carla has become known for.  She writes what readers have dubbed “dukeless Regencies.”

For more than two centuries, romance readers have been fixated on stories set mainly in England or country estates (think Pride and Prejudice).  The timeframe was after the beheading of France’s King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, and the subsequent French Revolution that led to the rise of Napoleon, conqueror of Europe.  

According to Carla, most romance writers of earlier eras and this one have written about the exploits and loves of dukes and marquesses and earls.  She prefers to write about ordinary people.  “There are more of them, and in my opinion, so-called commoners led more interesting lives,” she says.  A result is that her novels are peopled with country folk, doctors, soldiers, sailors and educators: England’s middle class.  This happened to be a time of war, which also figures in her writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

Carla has also written a fair share of novels and short stories set in the United States, centering mostly on ranch life at the turn of the twentieth century, and now World War II, a recent venture.  One memorable 1900 novel and its sequel featured Welsh miners who dug coal not too far from Oneida County in neighboring Utah.  A notable series involved ranching in America’s southwest, when Spain still ruled.  

Whatever the historical subject, Carla is well-known among readers for something else: her history is accurate.  “I’m a historian by education, employment and inclination,” she says.  “It matters to me that I don’t mess up too often.  Oh, I have, though.  No one regrets it more than I do!”

In addition to her talk, Carla will also have a number of her books available to purchase.  As for Mrs. Kelly’s Novel Hand Cream, there might be some of that, too, especially since she knows she disappointed some of her customers this summer by skipping out on the Welsh Festival for the first time in a long time.

Drop by the library on September 11.  Carla always encourages questions, and conversation.  For more information, contact librarian Kathy Kent at 208-766-2229.

Stay tuned for updates or changes to any of the scheduled events, but plan to visit the library each month for a great time!