When She Flew
By Jennie Shortridge
Published November 3, 2009 (Paperback) NAL Accent Paperback Original
More Info: Jennie Shortridge
Jennie Shortridge. When I see her name, I feel a smile forming, and sense sweetness. And a song. And really, that’s Jennie. Smiling and sweet, just like her name. I haven’t heard her sing, but I know that’s how she met her husband — singing.
Jennie was on my show today to discuss her latest book When She Flew. I loved the book. Jennie wrote the true story about a vet who four years ago took his pre-teen daughter deep into the woods of Portland’s Forest Park to live there, cloistered away from society — and she fictionalized it. She was able to convince the Portland Police Sergeant who was on the real case to discuss what happened, and she was the only journalist able to get him to open up about it. The sarge became a 38-year old female cop estranged from her daughter, who breaks the law to save the precious father-daughter relationship. Jennie’s story, otherwise, follows the true story.
Once again, Jennie is writing about family relationships. We first met when I interviewed her about her book Riding With the Queen. We hit it off right away. Girls with crazy mothers always find each other.
I say this kindly, not derogatorily.
When we discovered our moms had similar issues, we joked that we are members of the Crazy Mothers Club. We made it up.
We have to joke. It’s painful. My mom cut me off “forever” for the third or fourth or fifth time — more than a decade ago. This is after a childhood and teen years wrought with confusion from her drinking, hospitalizations from suicide attempts and schizophrenia, and, shall we say, neglect, for letting a man mess with me sexually from the time he came on the scene. I was five. But this “forever” split occurred after I changed my name legally back to my birth name, Diana Page Jordan — negating, she thought, my stepfather’s sibilant, multi-syllabic last name. Which, by the way, I wore from age five, even though he didn’t adopt me until I was ten. I was disloyal for changing my name back to my real father’s name, Jordan.
I understand. Forgive. I still ache with the abandonment. Therapy and friends have eased that ancient pain. Jennie’s story with her mom is not mine to tell. She has made peace. Actually, she’s made books.
Jennie is wise, as well as sweet and kind. She explores relationships in her books, making for rich, complex characters. Read deeply. You will find your own stories in her books. This is her best book — hear Jennie read from When She Flew at Powell’s in downtown Portland this Thursday, November 12th and on November 23rd at Annie Bloom’s Books.
Next time I see Jennie, I’ll ask her to sing.
Diana Page Jordan with Jennie Shortridge at PDX.FM
