Kathy's Novel - Perfection - is now available!

Perfection is now available to order!!

My new novel, Perfection, is a coming-of-age love story set in the 1960’s.  The main character, Maggie Walsh, is a young woman who enters a Cincinnati convent in 1960. Post-war peace and prosperity are giving way to civil unrest, protests, and Church upheaval. Can convent walls protect Maggie from the world outside?

The Sixties in America were turbulent times: race riots; a Church turned on its head by Pope John XXIII’s call for change and renewal; an explosive political home front, punctuated by civil-rights marches, anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, and assassinations that rock the nation. It’s not a stretch to draw parallels between the 1960’s and current national unrest.

Perfection is an uncanny blend of local and national history and tender love story. I've published non-fiction and poetry, but this is my first full-length work of fiction. 

Please join me for a book-signing celebration:  Saturday, April 28, 2-4 pm, at Women Writing for (a) Change in Cincinnati

How to get your copy of Perfection:

Available at these online Book Stores:

Amazon.com  (https://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Wade/e/B004APLFFK.)

BarnesandNoble.com

And at these local Book Stores:

Joseph-Beth Booksellers

The Booksellers on Fountain Square

The Bookshelf Inc., Madeira

 What critics are saying about PERFECTION:

"This well written book kept me turning the pages! I loved the unfolding story and the complexity of its layers. Now a “recovering” Roman Catholic, with a childhood education filled with Sisters, I loved the inside stories of monastic/religious life, especially through the big transitions of the 1960’s and 70’s - a time when I watched, with young eyes, the transformation of my teachers and the women and men of my own Catholic family."

“I just finished this novel, and I couldn’t put it down. I loved the themes of Maggie’s search for her calling, search for ‘perfect love’, and her questioning and seeking within her religious and personal life. The characters’ lives are woven within the tumultuous context of the 1960’s and 70’s, touching on the Vietnam War, civil rights, and Vatican II. A great read!"

"Honest and searching, Perfection is one young woman's surprising spiritual adventure into her life's true work. Wade's richly observed characters and intelligent storytelling charm and inspire.”  ~ Karen Novak, author of Innocence

Synopsis of Perfection:

Maggie Walsh has entered the convent. Her brother thinks she’s wasting her life. Her sister doubts she has what it takes. Her mother is heartbroken; her father is happy. Her boyfriend pledges to wait until she “gets it out of her system.”

Abandoning her dreams to be an actress or a writer, Maggie embraces Church teaching that says the convent is the path to perfection. She sets out to prove – to herself and her family – that she can do it. She’ll follow her higher calling, no matter what. 

It is 1960. Church reform is a few years away, but when it comes, radical changes unfold swiftly. Maggie embraces that change. Her brother, Jack, who tries at every turn to get Maggie to come to her senses, involves her in civil-rights and anti-war activities – forcing her into conflict with her superiors. Should she keep the peace in the convent or follow her conscience?

A charismatic fellow teacher, Will, captures Maggie’s time and attention. Then her first love, Stan, returns home from a Navy tour. Seeking perfection seemed so simple; now, it is anything but. Maggie must choose: A solitary life with God or the exclusive love of another person?

 

Why Did I Write Perfection?

Six weeks before my eighteenth birthday I entered a convent. I left when I was twenty-nine. I kept silent about my years as a nun. It was hard to explain. Why would I leave my family and friends – seclude myself from the world – cover myself in a religious habit – just as the turbulent 1960’s were unfolding?

We didn’t celebrate birthdays in the convent. When I left I wasn’t sure how old I was. I lacked the life experiences most normal thirty-year-olds enjoy: college life, sexual awareness, finding and holding a job, financial independence. I had to start from scratch.

For years I buried those years as a nun. I didn’t want to admit I’d missed the Sixties. No matter where I went or what I did, someone always found out. Cincinnati is a small town. People’s reactions fit a pattern: disbelief, then curiosity, then the inevitable questions: Why enter a convent – you seem so normal! What was it like? Why did you leave?

To answer those questions, I wrote. First, for myself, eventually sharing my stories with a few trusted listeners. I wrote about the light and darkness, the joy and pain. A good writer tells the truth. The more I wrote, the more I became conscious of voices other than my own, demanding to be heard. I rarely wrote fiction – mostly poetry and non-fiction – but I couldn’t silence the voices of other characters. Tell my story! they shouted.

Margaret Ann Walsh (Maggie) emerged in my imagination, along with her brother Jack. Maggie’s high-school sweetheart, Stan, appeared, then other members of her family. 

Maggie’s is a coming-of-age story. Jack’s is about his passion for civil rights and his opposition to the Vietnam War – including anti-war demonstrations and violence that marked the 1960’s. 

When an entire colony of characters took over, I welcomed them! While I’ve based this novel – PERFECTION – on some of my own experiences, it’s now the property of my characters. 

There’s Mother Loretta, a harsh and exacting Novice Mistress, who is fighting her own secret demons.  There’s her replacement, Mother Vivian, more in tune with the radical changes happening in the Church as a result of Vatican II. 

During Maggie’s years as a novice, she stifles her love for Stan, believing, trusting that God alone will satisfy her. Then Will, a shy and handsome seminarian, appears out of nowhere, capturing her imagination – and her dreams.  

I wrote to show readers what it takes for a young woman to be true to her vocation, no matter the cost. How does someone like Maggie deal with a heart divided between loyalty to her own self as a loving human being, and her public profession of devotion to God alone?  

I wanted readers who hadn’t lived through the 1960’s – and even those who did – to relive the generational conflicts caused by Church reform, the civil rights movement, and opposition to the Vietnam War. To understand the despair that flooded the nation – including Maggie and her friends – following the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

After you’ve read PERFECTION, you’ll understand more why the 1960’s in American history caused divisions within the family, the church, and the nation. If you did live through that decade, this book will resonate with you even more.

Maggie’s choices, trials, decisions, relationships – her strong and loving character – are not mine – I wish I were more like her. Once you’ve read PERFECTION, I trust you’ll be able to answer these troubling questions: Why did Maggie (and others like her) enter a convent in 1960? What was it like? Why would she leave?

About the Author...

I've enjoyed a thirty-year teaching career, then served for ten years as writer, teacher, facilitator and Executive Director of Women Writing for (a) Change, a writing community for women, girls and men in Cincinnati. Most recently I served as Director of leadership-development programs for women religious and their associates. 

My full-length, non-fiction book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, features the lives of lay people who are associates of religious communities. I was a member of a religious community of sisters for over a decade. 

Contact me if you'd like me to visit your book club or writing group! I'd love to use the novel Perfection as a stepping-off point for discussion. The novel is not only a tender love story, but it's also a inside view of a life style and spirituality that has long been hidden. In addition, Perfection is a close-up view of the turbulent 1960's in America and in particular, Cincinnati, Ohio.