Seven Things I’d Like My Readers to Know About Me By Barbara Josselsohn

1. I have an ancestor who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln.

At least, that’s the family lore! My mother has often recounted how her grandfather immigrated from  Germany in the mid-1800s and fought in the American Civil War. Badly injured in battle, he was brought to a field hospital and treated. It’s well known that Abraham Lincoln liked to visit hospitals to cheer up the wounded soldiers, and that’s how the encounter occurred. Years later, when he was in his sixties, my great-grandfather sent back to his homeland for a wife—and a feisty, redheaded young woman crossed the ocean by herself to fill the role. That was my great-grandmother!

2. My mother gave me a beautiful gift that I’ll never forget.

That gift is her voice! I have such wonderful memories of my mother singing me to sleep with renditions of beautiful songs from her favorite movies and Broadway musicals. When I was young, I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world because she decided to be my mom instead of becoming a singing star! Music is a big part of my novels – and I’m sure that’s because I remember how special it was to listen to her sing. I also sang my own children to sleep—although my voice was nowhere as beautiful as hers!

3.  I have an unusual collection.

I love collecting things when I travel—and my favorite type of souvenir is a notebook. Notebooks are pretty, inspirational, affordable, and functional! We took a family trip to London last winter, and I added notebooks from the Globe Theater, the Notting Hill Bookshop, and Harrod’s to my collection. I pick a fresh notebook from my shelf to fill with thoughts and ideas whenever I start a new novel, and the memories connected to the notebook always give me a jolt of inspiration!

4.  My dog may sound scary but he’s really a sweetheart.

Poor Albie was a rescue dog who was found on the streets of Texas and saved by a wonderful organization called Hearts & Bones Rescue. We don’t know what kind of abuse he suffered, but we think it must have been pretty severe, as he’s wildly afraid of strangers and barks his head off if someone he doesn’t know simply looks at him. It takes a long time for him to trust someone new. Our hearts break when we think about what he must have gone through, so we try to give him extra love to put those bad memories behind him. And he returns that love tenfold. We often joke that we didn’t rescue him—he rescued us!

5.  I am returning home—finally!

I grew up on Long Island, and spent nearly my whole life at or near the beach. I love the ocean so much! Life, though, pushes you in unexpected ways, and for a variety of reasons, my adult life has been spent in landlocked locations. But my husband promised me long ago that one day we would return to Long Island—and we are now looking to find our next house there. So many of my novels revolve around characters who are searching for a place they can truly feel at home—I think that’s because I’ve been waiting very long to finally return home myself!

6.  I love classic movies.

Put me in front of a television playing movies from the 1930s and 1940s, and I’m not budging! I love looking at the clothes, the hairdos, the cars, the houses, and the furniture. I guess it’s no surprise that I became a writer of historical fiction. Watching an old movie or reading a book about long ago—to me, it’s almost as good as having an actual time machine.

7.  My most prized possession is…

An early edition of LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott. No, it’s not a first edition, but its more than 100 years old! The publication date is 1917, and its route to my bookshelf involved stops with several relatives over multiple generations. The spine is broken, the cover illustration is almost completely worn off, the pages are brown and flaking… but I just love that it’s there on my bookshelf, infused with energy and imaginations of all the people who lost themselves inside of it for so many decades past!