Sparrow’s Song is a sweeping, intimate novel about resilience and belonging, rooted in the real history of wartime federal nursing education and the evolving landscape of modern American nursing. At its heart is a young immigrant woman pushing herself toward the advantages she’s convinced education will unlock, even as that drive pulls her away from the people and heritage she loves.
Tell us about your latest book
Sparrow’s Song spans two world wars and follows one woman’s search for equal advantage in a country that doesn’t always welcome her. Rooted in the early twentieth century German from Russia immigrant experience and set against the federal nursing education programs of World War I and World War II, the novel explores resilience, belonging, and the cost of ambition.
In 1917 Nebraska, Kathryn Scheibel wants what every young woman hopes for: a fair chance at a future. As a German from Russia immigrant, she believes education is the only path to opportunity for herself and her family. When she reaches beyond the cigar making floor, her ambitions unsettle those closest to her. To Kathryn, her hopes are simply the means of gaining the same advantages native born families enjoy.
Joining the Army School of Nursing brings her closer to the life she imagines and farther from the family she loves. At Walter Reed, she faces open hostility from classmates who target her social status and her ancestry. As the years pass, Kathryn must decide whether she gave up too much in her quest to gain equal advantage and what it might take to reclaim the parts she never meant to lose.
What is your preferred writing routine?
I wrote Sparrow’s Song while I was still teaching undergraduate nursing students at a mid sized Midwestern Jesuit university. Evenings were often spent grading papers or preparing lectures, so I wrote when I could, mostly on weekends. I have been retired for the past two years, and now most of my days are devoted to writing and writing adjacent activities.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
I learned so much about the writing craft, first by reading craft books. This was well before the internet. By the time the internet was commonplace I started taking advantage of mostly free online webinars as well.
I’ve attended every Historical Novel Society biennial convention since 2015, either in person or virtually. If you can afford it, I recommend attending at least one conference each year. Early in your career, a craft heavy conference that focuses on your genre can be especially helpful.
Critique groups can be valuable if you find the right one, and thanks to the internet, networking with other writers is easier than ever and also recommended.
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
I’ve been doing as much speaking as possible. My protagonist was inspired by members of the community of Germans from Russia who immigrated to Hastings, Nebraska, early in the twentieth century. I’ve been a nurse since 1985 but I first worked as a nurse’s aide in our local hospital beginning in 1979 and cared for some of these individuals as they neared the ends of their lives. My nursing work and my protagonist’s background have influenced my speaking opportunities.
I presented about our local community of Germans from Russia at our county historical society’s annual meeting to an audience of more than one hundred people and tied their story to my novel. I also gave a presentation at our local library during Nurses Week, sharing how Sparrow’s Song highlights important nursing reforms of the early twentieth century. I recently spoke to the class of 1986 at the former hospital affiliated diploma nursing program that operated in our community from 1915 to 1988. And on October 1, I’ll present a program titled “Beyond Florence: The Value of Knowing Our History and How Fiction Can Help” for the Nebraska Nurses Association’s annual convention.
Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research
Because I’m a nurse, I’m especially drawn to medical and nursing history. Part of my novel takes place in 1943, when my protagonist is teaching in a hospital affiliated school of nursing participating in the Cadet Nurse Corps. At that time, penicillin was beginning to be used by the U.S. military to treat venereal disease, especially syphilis.
Aqueous penicillin has a short duration of action and had to be injected every four hours, which was not practical in wartime. To prolong its effect, it was suspended in peanut oil and beeswax. Because beeswax is solid at room temperature, the mixture had to be heated before injection. I found a detailed description of how this was done and intended to use it in my story, but a computer crash erased my source. I couldn’t relocate it, and I no longer remembered whether the heating was done in a warm water bath or in some type of incubator or warming oven. My memory leaned toward a warm water bath, so in my author note I explained that this was one of the few historical details I wasn’t entirely certain about, but I didn’t want to exclude it because it was too interesting.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
No single scene stands out as harder than the others, but I write lean, and reaching standard word count expectations for my genre was difficult.
What are you planning to write next?
My next story, my work in progress, is about ninety seven percent ready to send to my publisher. It’s set in 1927 Omaha. My main character is a young Irish immigrant who came to Nebraska with his parents a few years earlier and now works under the direction of the real jazz musician who led the Boys Town traveling band, Daniel Desdunes. He repairs and maintains the band’s uniforms and brass instruments, and I’ve learned a great deal about dent repair, soldering, and brass instrument maintenance.
To earn extra money and help his father, who is a down and out homeless alcoholic musician, my main character milks for a young widowed neighbor woman on the adjacent farm. He is beginning to have feelings for her. My work in progress is not a romance, but there are some romantic elements. The central conflict is his responsibility to his father set against his hope for a life of his own, a life he doubts he deserves and isn’t sure he has the strength to sustain alongside his father’s needs.
My debut novel Sparrow’s Song took place between 1917 and 1943, so I had plenty of room to stretch events out. My newest story, working title Leo but likely changing to A Measure of Cream and Flux, occurs over the summer of 1927, and much of the action happens on weekends. I needed to make sure I hadn’t inadvertently placed seven Saturdays in July and that I had room for everything I included. There is also a scene I need to rework, and I have two elderly Jewish immigrant men who serve as mentors to my young Irish protagonist. I need to make sure the scenes involving those two men respect their religious traditions for observing Shabbos.
Marilee Aufdenkamp
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About the Author
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