Poster Girl: A Jane Benjamin Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Cynical young gossip columnist Jane Benjamin joins FDRs Office of War Information, a propaganda unit, to find a Wendy-the-Welder poster girl to urge more women to the shipyard work essential to Americas winning World War IIand, incidentally, to make herself into the new Hedda Hopper. But somebody doesnt want those women at work.

During a five-day contest to beat the world speed record for building a liberty ship, Jane investigates the lives of the first women welders and learns more about her flyboy former lovers secret postPearl Harbor missionand her cynicism begins to melt. But when inspectors find and publicize a series of flaws in the contest-week welding, the women welders are blamed. Worse, two poster girl candidates are killed.

Are they being sabotaged by a belligerent male shipyard supervisor The industrialist shipyard owner with a history of controlling women Or someone else trying to diminish the success of the US liberty ship program To find out, Jane must choose between her professional ambition and service to the women weldersbefore the murderer harms another girl and Americas best chance of winning the war.

Reviews

Praise for Tomboy:
A wonderful story full of nuance and character.
Sheldon Siegel, NYT and USA Today best-selling author of the Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez series

Praise for Copy Boy:
Smart, lively, and suspenseful, this is Raymond Chandler for feminists.
Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra

Author Bio

Shelley Blanton Stroud grew up in Californias Central Valley. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She also serves as President of the Board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children; serves on the Board of Advisors for the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College; and previously codirected Stories on Stage Sacramento. Poster Girl is her third Jane Benjamin novel, following Copy Boy and Tomboy. Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashvilles Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. Shelley and her husband live in Sacramento, California, surrounded by photos of their out-of-town sons and their wonderful partners, and a lifetime of beloved dogs.