Who are you?

Jacquie Clarke, Novelist

What is your project?

My Dream is to write novels. For the past six months on Brainstorm Road, I have been refining my writer’s process, as I write my second novel.

The Story is about two women, who due to unlikely circumstances are pulled together during their time of need. Madeleine wants to leave her home and go to university, instead of marriage. She is the first woman of her family to want to seek a career and has no role model or support. Eleanor, after her husband passed away, discovers evidence of how he kept aspects of his life from her. Blindsided, she questions all that she thought she knew. The story, set in 1968, explores woman’s theme of duty to family and being true to self.

Can we see some photos?

A link to your work:

You can follow my writing on Substack: https://accompanied.substack.com/

A glimpse of your work:

Here is an excerpt from the opening scene of the novel.
This is a very rough draft, work in progress.

A Woman’s Duty
A novel by Jacquie Clarke

“Who don’t I owe these days?” Eleanor complained out loud to herself. Then she straightened her back and shook her head. Time to snap out of this sour mood. The grumblings she had were not the fault of other people. Jean-Paul had always been gracious. He had come from an esteemed family in their hometown in France. He was brought up to be a gentleman. Decorum was always the topmost concern for him. Without him to hold herself to a higher standard, her manners had slipped. She owed him more.

After the funeral, Therese had tried to convince Eleanor to move into Johnny’s house. She had the spare room setup; it would be simpler. Their house was not as crowded as it had been in the earlier years. Eleanor agreed it was simpler for them. She, however, was not ready to move from her large family home to a single small bedroom in her son’s house.

Eleanor didn’t know if she could tolerate living under Johnny’s rule. There she went again, speaking uncharitably about her son. Eleanor evoked her husband, “Oh Jean-Paul, Johnny seems so lost without you. The two of you were so connected when running the business. He relied on your good opinion to the very end. The rapport with others isn’t there. We all miss you, why did you have to leave us?”

The new girl, Madeleine, was an odd choice. Therese had surprised Eleanor by finding a helper. Hiring an aide was a delay tactic so that Johnny would not insist on selling the old family house just yet. Eleanor sighed. It was inevitable, she knew. Eleanor was being selfish to insist on staying here alone.