I had never heard of Deeanne Gist before the “Everything Old Is New Again” panel at RT, where she talked about how she had three books set at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and how Tiffany the Stained Glass Guy (son of TIffany the Fancy-pants Jewelry Guy) was making a mosaic chapel for display, and then his glassworkers went on strike and he hired women from art schools to do the glass selection and cutting and this book, Tiffany Girl, was the fictionalized story of one of those girls.  Elyse and I grabbed each other’s hands and went “I NEED TO READ THIS IMMEDIATELY” and then I sorta followed Deeanne around until I ran her to earth at the book fair, where I told her all of that and she declared me to be adorable.

Flossie Jayne is a middle-class girl in New York City- her father is barber, and her mother is a seamstress who makes clothes for such exaulted personages as the Astors, the Rockerfellers, and the Vanderbilts.  Flossie has hung out with the children of the exaulted personages, so she’s not floored by people with ridiculous amounts of money.  Her father has a bit of a gambling problem, and often loses everything his wife made.  Flossie rightfully thinks this is bullshit, especially when these loses means she can no longer take painting classes at the New York School of Applied Design.

Luckily, on her last day, Mr. Tiffany comes in and hires a bunch of women for his glass workshop to replace the striking men.  Women couldn’t join the union, so it’s not scabbing… technically… and Flossie jumps at the chance.  She moves into a boardinghouse closer to the workshop, where her nextdoor neighbor is Reeve Wilder, a newspaper reporter.  Reeve does not approve of the the New Woman who lives on her own and has jobs and starts thinking and changing the world and shit.  He does not approve at all.

The bulk of the story is around Flossie learning to function as her own woman- managing a job, her own finances, dealing with people and men.  The other major part is Reeve reacting to and adapting to the changing world.  He’s not in favor of women’s roles changing mostly because it never occurred to him that they’d want to change, and once they do, he sets his heels and resists, which, as he gets to know Flossie a little bit, becomes a lot of “I’m pretty sure you’re bring about the downfall of ALL OF CIVILIZATION BUT I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR HAIR DAMMIT”

It’s adorable.

Gist talked about her research process a bit during the panel- she writes one book a year, and spends six months researching her topic (in this case the Tiffany Girls, after her mother saw a mention of them in documentary and excitedly told her about it) and six months writing.  Y’all know I love it when the research shows, and every bit is meticulous and layered.  Clothes, methods of getting around New York City, how the Tiffany windows are put together, and even the names of the other women working.  She includes a long author’s note in the back explaining what was real, and where she deviated from history for the sake of the story.  Even if she didn’t specifically use something she learned in the course of her research, the knowledge of it did inform how she painted the world.  That’s true for everyone.  Just because it may only show up in one line doesn’t mean it’s not a part of the foundation for the rest of the book.

When asked how her books rated on a scale of hotness from 1-10 (with ten being smoking), she said it was a 2 – there’s tension, but the door closes and we don’t get to see the hero and the heroine do the actual deed.  That’s an accurate assessment- there’s a LOT of tension once these two doorknobs start to realize they have pants-and-other-feelings for each other, and it gets unbearable at one point, but the curtain is shut on the signed/sealed/delivered.  That’s 100% not a weakness, just a setting of expectations.

One thing I thought was really interesting about Flossie’s relationship with her parents is how she realizes that she thought she had the potential to be a great artist because they always praised her, when in reality she was merely reasonably good.  I almost think this was maybe a commentary on certain generations thinking millennials think they’re awesome because everyone got a trophy or whatever when the reality is, I think, as a member of the generation on the vanguard of the self-esteem crusade,  we KNOW everyone got a trophy and was never criticized so instead we have a lot of anxiety about never having any idea if we’re any good at anything.  (We’re neurotic, not stupid).  It is entirely possible I’m projecting.  I probably am.  But that bit pissed me off a bit.

Ultimately, I loved this and chewed through it like someone was going to take it away from me, and I’m totally going to check out more of Gist’s work.  She writes specifically American historicals, which are kind of sparse on the ground lately, and are a refreshing change of pace from the English historicals.