Writers are often told to write what we know, and so it’s not surprising that readers want to know how much of a book is based on fact and how much is pure fiction. Echoes of Sunrise is a novel, a work of fiction, and yet I wouldn’t call it “pure” fiction, since some elements in it have their roots in real places and real events. I would actually go so far as to say that there’s no such thing as “pure” fiction, but that could be the subject of a whole other post. Today we’re talking about Echoes of Sunrise and the facts that are part of it. Let’s start with the most important part of any novel: the characters.
the characters
Sophia and Gideon and the supporting characters are all fictional. Do they have some things in common with me or people I know? Of course they do. It’s no coincidence that Sophia and Gideon met in Poitiers, the French city where I spent a semester as a sophomore in college. The four months that I lived there were life-changing, not in the same way that Gideon and Sophia’s lives were changed, but the experience of living in a different country was an important one and one that I wanted to have my characters share.
That leads me to the next point, Mrs. Marshall’s Academy for the Refinement of Young Ladies. As far as I know, there was no such thing, but maybe there should have been. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, wealthy English young men took was called the Grand Tour, a multiyear trip to the capitals and major cities of the Continent during which they learned about everything from painting and music to fencing. By the late nineteenth century, the Grand Tour had fallen out of favor, replaced by train travel, but during the Gilded Age, some Americans – both men and women – went on their own Grand Tour.
Since I’d seen the benefit of living in a lesser-known French city, I decided that Mrs. Marshall would offer the dozen women who were part of her inaugural academy class the opportunity to spend four months each in a smaller city in England, France, and Germany. You already know that the French city was Poitiers, but in case you’re curious, I chose Manchester, England (for reasons that will be apparent when you read Whispers in the Valley, the second of the Sisters of the Heart book) and Stuttgart, Germany for the other cities.
The American Locations
Carr Valley, where the majority of Echoes of Sunrise takes place, is a fictional town in the Texas Hill Country; however, some of the places Sophia and Gideon visit, including Austin, Fredericksburg, Stonewall, and South Grape Creek Community (now called Luckenbach) are real. You’ll also note that I included a trip to one of my other fictional Hill Country towns and references to another. Those towns are so real to me that I couldn’t resist the opportunity to revisit them and give cameo appearances to some of the characters from earlier books.
Carr Valley’s Buildings – One of my fellow students in Poitiers was an architecture student. Although I don’t know whether he incorporated some of the designs he saw there in his own buildings, I decided that Gideon would be inspired by actual buildings in Poitiers and would use some of the most interesting features in the buildings he designed for Carr Valley.
The Hôtel Jehan-Beaussé, or the J-B as Sophia and Gideon referred to it, was one of my favorite buildings in Poitiers, so of course I had to give it a prominent role in Echoes of Sunrise. If you’d like to see the staircase that so intrigued me (and my characters), here’s a link: https://bit.ly/3FexeZW.
While the Hôtel Fumé isn’t as distinctive as the J-B, it’s still a beautiful building and one that helped inspire Gideon. This link includes a number of pictures of various aspects of the building. Gideon would have appreciated them. https://bit.ly/4it3oPw
Poitiers is home to a number of historic churches and a Gothic cathedral, but its most famous church is Notre-Dame la Grande. Considered an outstanding example of Romanesque architecture, it’s one of the most celebrated buildings in Poitiers.
This was the best site I found for views of both the interior and the exterior. Unless you’re fluent in French, you’ll probably want to click on the translate button. https://visitpoitiers.fr/activite/eglise-notre-dame-la-grande-poitiers/ And so, as you can see, while Echoes of Sunrise is a work of fiction, real life places and events were instrumental in its creation.
A Sneak Peek
A baby to protect. A town to save. Is a marriage of convenience the only answer?
Sophia Carr knows her recurring dreams of an identical twin sister are just that – dreams. She also knows that eventually she will inherit the hotel her grandfather built. When a fire at the hotel kills her mother, Sophia returns to Carr Valley to rebuild and ensure that a planned railroad line chooses a route that will keep the town alive. But her grandfather’s will states that she must be married to inherit, and the only man she can imagine marrying seems to have forgotten her.
Up-and coming architect Gideon Spencer couldn’t say no when his dying friend begged him to marry his widow and raise their baby as his own rather than let a cruel grandfather gain custody. But when the young mother dies, leaving Gideon a single parent, the grandfather poses a new threat unless Gideon manages to marry again. Sadly, the only woman he’s interested in is the one he’s ignored for six months: Sophia.
Knowing he needs to protect the baby, Gideon heads to Carr Valley. When he discovers that Sophia needs a husband as much as he needs a wife, he proposes a six-month marriage of convenience. Sophia agrees but adds a stipulation of her own, one that will test his resolve, even as their wedding day reveals that Sophia’s dreams of a twin sister might be more than dreams.
As Sophia and Gideon join forces, the stakes couldn’t be higher: a baby’s life, a town’s future, and love.
amanda cabot
Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of more than forty books and a variety of novellas. Her books have been honored with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and have been finalists for the ACFW Carol Award, the HOLT Medallion, and the Booksellers’ Best.
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