The timing of this historical romantic mystery is appropriate-because in 2020 with the worldwide pandemic heavy on our minds, it's good to have a place to escape to where people can enjoy dinner together and gather innocently over tea and fresh-baked cookies and tarts-and sing songs with a family member playing the piano, and enjoy old card games next to a blazing woodstove.This novel, though fiction, is based on the real stories Marjorie Boice grew up with as a child. Marjorie was born in South Dakota, the eldest of her family. The storytelling tradition in San Dakota is well known. And Marjorie's father was one of the masters. He embellished many fables about his mother, her grandmother. These stories impressed Marjorie that her grandmother, who she never met in person, was such an accomplished and persistent person. Marjorie Boice's book encompasses the romance, hard work, and congeniality of the farm folk in South Dakota during 1900 and 1901 in the form of a fictionalized diary that Marjorie imagined her grandmother could have written.Marjorie's father was the oldest of nine children and was only 18 years old when his mother passed away a few days after the birth of her ninth child, Mary. This means that Marjorie's grandmother had passed long before she was born-but because of her father's vivid tales, you'll feel you know her after reading the book.These riveting tales demonstrate the love and admiration for an exceptional woman in her day-a teacher, a photographer, a musician, and a community leader. Her father often compared Marjorie to his mother-noting their identical long necks and abundant artistic abilities.Marjorie's grandmother had a darkroom where she developed photos she took with her Kodak box camera-and where she colored them by hand with the oil colors of the day-those special translucent colors that make enhanced photographs from that era so enchanting.Marjorie's grandmother also knew about music and played the piano skillfully. She learned on her parents' piano and taught her children how to play-encouraging her offspring to learn other musical instruments as well. Music, including piano playing and singing, played a central role in the book-and the entertainment of most South Dakotans at that time and still does today. Marjorie Boice became inspired to write this book in 2007 in a writing class she joined as a way to enrich her retirement. The memories of her father's stories and her grandmother's vivacity seemed to float up from her memories and were expanded with her imagination. Her writing colleagues, intrigued about the stories of romance and adventure she relayed about her grandmother, challenged her to write this novel, which has finally left the file cabinet and become a fully published book. Marjorie's hope is you'll appreciate this woman she came to know in spirit, if not in fact.As a point of verity, the book covers 1900 through 1901, two years before Marjorie's actual grandmother did marry her grandfather, Frank, in 1903. The goal: Be true to her memory and to the stories her father instilled about her grandmother's time, skills and passions. In some ways, it was a simpler and more romantic time-but certainly not easier. If you've ever lived through a winter storm on a farm in South Dakota, as Marjorie and her grandmother did, you'll understand. This is Marjorie Boice's first book published with Manor Publishing Collective-a new venture for writers over 65 years old, founded by author (now publisher) Sunny Baker.