(Radio Iowa) – A writer of historical fiction from the West Coast will make several appearances in Iowa this week to launch her latest novel, which takes place in eastern Iowa more than a century ago. Rachel Fordham, who lives in Washington state, has set many or her books in Iowa. “Beyond Ivy Walls” follows a young woman in 1903 who lives in the town of Monticello and works in a feather duster plant, which Fordham says was a real factory at that time. She says extensive research is key. “I started reading the old newspapers in hopes of finding more about the factory, and while doing that, I read about miracle cures, you know, there’s an advertisement for all kinds of home remedies,” Fordham says. “So that played into the story, as well as roller skating and other things that were relevant to that time period.”

Helpful folks at the Monticello library were able to connect Fordham with a descendant of the factory’s owners, and others, who knew a wealth of information about the town’s history. While she’s only been in the state once before, Fordham says she adores Iowa as the setting for her work. “My first novel featured the orphan trains, and so I picked a state that was a popular destination for the orphan trains to end in, and kind of fell in love with Iowa,” Fordham says. “I liked the idea of being able to have them be standalone novels, but still have little nods to each other in them, and so I wrote several books in Iowa for that reason.”

Rachel Fordham

Historical fiction isn’t just about the past, Fordham says, but there are many tie-ins with modern day, which is part of why she says the genre continues to be popular. “Obviously, people kind of love jumping back in time and getting to experience what it might have been like for their ancestors and people who came before them,” Fordham says. “As far as our feelings and our emotions and things like that, those are really universal, so being able to feel this like connection, this story may have taken place in the past, but I see myself in it, I think keeps drawing people back again and again.”

Fordham says she did not meet with her publishers or publicist to determine where to launch the book in order to boost sales, calling this week’s trip to Iowa a “heart project.” “I really loved my research experience with these people. I loved setting my book in Monticello. I want to go there. That’s where I want the book launch to take place. I want to meet these people. I want to walk on these streets,” Fordham says. “It will be rewarding for me, and it will be a fun experience for the people who have this unique and special connection to the book.”