JENNI L. WALSH
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Jenni signs second two-book deal with Harper Muse

12/12/2022

 
I am so thrilled to continue to publish with Harper Muse!

Walsh Inks Double at Harper

For six figures, Harper Muse’s Kimberly Carlton bought world rights to two books, including a currently untitled historical novel, from Jenni L. Walsh (The Call of the Wrens). The deal was brokered by Shannon Hassan at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. The historical novel is based on the life of 1930s tennis star Alice Marble, who was also a spy during WWII and edited the Wonder Woman comic in the 1940s. Elaborating, Harper Muse said the book follows “Marble’s determined rise on the tennis court from junior player to Grand Slam champion, her complicated love life, and her foray into espionage to avenge her husband’s death.” The novel is slated for winter 2024.

Sold! A Betting Woman to be published by Alexandra (Hungary)!

12/7/2021

 
Jenni L. Walsh's A Betting Woman, to Alexandra (Hungary) on behalf of Taryn Fagerness Agency and Shannon Hassan at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Out Now: By the Light of Fireflies!

11/1/2021

 
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​Sybil Ludington believes in the legend of fireflies—they appear when you need them most. But it's not until her family is thrust into the dangers of the Revolutionary War, and into George Washington's spy ring, that Sybil fully experiences firefly magic for herself—guiding her through the darkness, empowering her to figure out who she's supposed to be and how strong she really is—as she delivers her imperative message and warns against a British attack. 

By the Light of Fireflies is the captivating tale of a young girl's journey as a daughter, a sister, a friend, a spy, and eventually a war hero, completing a midnight ride that cements her place in history as the "female Paul Revere."
Purchase By the Light of Fireflies
Available in paperback, ebook, and library hardcover!  
 ​Amazon  | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org 
Inspiration Behind By the Light of Fireflies
It was truly an honor to write this novel about Sybil Ludington, a little known Revolutionary War heroine. She's often known as the "female Paul Revere" but she rode twice as far, was half Paul Revere's age, and completed her own midnight ride all by herself. *Mic drop*

This feat was so spectacular and unbelievable that some people believe her ride was nothing more than a story. But I believe that Sybil accomplished something magical, just like the Sybil in my story believes in the magic of fireflies, and that on April 26, 1777 she truly made a daring ride to warn of an attack by the British.

I also had the opportunity to expand on Sybil's story. She was more than the "female Paul Revere." Sybil was a spy (yes, for George Washington!), a sister (sooo many siblings), a daughter, a friend, and someone who broke the mold for young girls of her time. I hope you enjoy Sybil's story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Sold! A Betting Woman to be published by Eksmo

8/1/2021

 
Jenni L. Walsh’s A Betting Woman, to Eksmo (Russian Federation), by Anastasya Markova at Synopsis Agency, on behalf of Taryn Fagerness Agency and Shannon Hassan of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Publishers Weekly Reviews A Betting Woman

7/18/2021

 
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Walsh (Becoming Bonnie) hits the jackpot with an impressive fictionalization of the life of Eleanor Dumont (formerly Simone Jules), a blackjack dealer in the Old West. In 1849 New Orleans, Simone, 19, is happy to be marrying trader David Tobin. But after Simone’s parents and sister die in a fire and David reveals his interest in taking over her father’s jewelry shop, Simone boards a ship bound for San Francisco for a fresh start. With a mind for numbers and memories of her mother playing 21, Simone endears herself to a gruff saloonkeeper when she brings in thousands of dollars at the blackjack tables, using her velvety feminine voice to throw the drunken gold panners off their game. A romance with Black freedman Arthur Reynolds is cut short after a New York merchant named Reuben Withers accuses Simone and Arthur of card sharping, then stabs him to death. Simone tracks Reuben across the West and sets up a gambling club in Nevada City, Calif., where she changes her name to Eleanor, earns the nickname “Madam Moustache,” and wonders if Reuben will show his face. Walsh weaves emotion and suspense with historical details of a woman persevering in the face of inequality as she finds a way to earn a living. Readers will relish Walsh’s fully developed portrait.
​
First reviewed on Publishers Weekly site on 7/14/21: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-948018-95-1

Midwest Book Review reviews By the Light of Fireflies

6/8/2021

 
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Middle grade fiction readers will find By the Light of the Fireflies a fine historical novel based on the life of Colonial girl Sybil Ludington, following Sybil and her family's struggle during the Revolutionary War.
 
The story opens with the Loyalists to the British Crown coming for her father. They are accusing him of being a traitor to England.
 
Sybil believes in her father, and in the magic light of fireflies which (legend has it) appear when you need them most. But can they help her family when war swirls around them and they all are endangered?
 
As Sybil steps into a role she'd never envisioned, young readers receive an action-packed story that captures the environment and atmosphere of the times: "I used my musket to point into the dark forest, my own gaze following the long barrel. I heard Rebecca’s gasp. My gun felt heavy in my hands. I should fire it. It was what Papa told us to do. Fire it and he’d come running. He’d handle the situation, in this case: his capturers. Or worse: his assassins. I quivered. I wouldn’t fire my gun. That felt like hand-delivering a worm to a bird’s nest to be gobbled."
 
Forced to be assertive and proactive beyond her years and experience, Sybil becomes an inadvertent heroine as she struggles to protect everything she loves from the Loyalists and the evolving battle that engulfs her home.
 
Revolutionary War history and motivations on all sides come to life in the course of a survey that does an outstanding job of capturing the political and social sentiments of the times.
 
Jenni L. Walsh is especially adept at capturing the Sybil's first-person observations and emotions: "I pushed us north, toward the hamlet of Stormville. That’d be the point where I turned us south again. I yearned for Stormville. I wanted nothing more than to see that strip of homes. My hands were red. They burned from the cold, from where I gripped the reins and my stick. My jawline hurt, where my teeth had clenched for so long. My legs and back and torso ached from keeping beat with Star. My stomach felt hollow and grumbled for food. My eyeballs even felt as if they’d been rattled to the point of pain."
 
These drive a story line that personalizes the history in a manner that makes it understandable, realistic, and quite accessible.
 
Middle grade readers who normally eschew fact-laden historical fiction will find the emotional driving force particularly strong in By the Light of the Fireflies. This approach strengthens the compelling story of a young girl's trials, which forces her into the unexpected role of becoming a female war hero in times where girls and women normally are staid.
 
A concluding note from the author reinforces the real historical events that receive such evocative, personalized attention in the plot.
​
--Midwest Book Review

Reviewed June 2021

A Betting Woman is Now On Sale!

6/1/2021

 
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Born Simone Jules, reinvented as Eleanor Dumont, and largely remembered as Madame Moustache, A Betting Woman is a historical novel inspired by the tumultuous life, times, and loves of America’s first professional croupier of modern-day blackjack, bringing to life an intrepid and entrepreneurial real-life woman who paved her own way in a man's world.

At times I want to pinch myself because I had the best time telling this story. Also, some really awesome people had some pretty awesome things to say about Eleanor's story -- and I'm feeling very grateful!
​

"A fabulously entertaining story about a remarkable woman..." — Historical Novel Society

"A rollicking ride of a story.” —  New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis

"An enjoyable search-for-identity tale with a strong female protagonist." — Kirkus

"A Betting Woman is a winner!” — USA Today bestselling author Heather Webb

"Bold, pioneering, romantic, and intriguing.” — bestselling author Camille Di Maio

“Engaging and empathetic" — Elise Hooper, author of The Other Alcott and Learning to See

"Walsh has written a fast-paced, original tale of the Gold Rush" — Amy Poeppel, author of Small Admissions, Limelight, and Musical Chairs

"An engrossing story, very well done and hard to put down... It's very highly recommended reading." — Midwest Book Review

I hope you'll check out Eleanor's story! 

Available Now
in Paperback, eBook, and on Kindle Unlimited

Amazon  | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org  

Historical Novel Society reviews A Betting Woman!

5/6/2021

 
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From its enticing cover to the turn of the last page, this novel is engrossing. A fabulously entertaining story about a remarkable woman who just wanted to be herself.

WRITTEN BY JENNI L. WALSH
REVIEW BY FIONA ALISON

From its enticing cover to the turn of the last page, this novel is engrossing. Alongside other historical women way ahead of their time, Simone Jules was the first female professional croupier. Her tale dabbles in love and revenge, but her game of choice? Vingt-et-un, which she introduced to the West in 1849.

After a family tragedy overtakes her life, Simone arrives in San Francisco, determined to reinvent herself, no longer a daughter or twin sister or fiancée. The miners flock to her table to spend their gold. Simone is striking, intoxicating, with a feminine allure, made even more so by her silky French accent, which she uses to advantage. She is well-mannered, intelligent, and business-savvy. She never allows a client to touch her. Her gambling houses are respectable—no cussing, no brawling—and she doesn’t hire girls! After another tragedy, she joins a mule train for a few years, reinvents herself as Eleanor Dumont, and sets up Madame Dumont’s with her own hard-earned money. Until the inevitable happens and the miners move on again, drawn to the seductive whispers of gold.

Simone is a drifter, a very successful one, a survivor with the will to overcome anything life throws at her. She sets up in many places from San Francisco to Kootenay, always dealing vingt-et-un, her specialty. We experience her wanderings, her hardships, and loneliness with her. The commotion and cacophony of noise in a place being built from the ground up and the subsequent quiet of the foothills are exactingly rendered. Many memorable characters come and go, but what stands out is Simone’s autonomy, her self-reliance, her freedom to go where she likes and do what she likes. A fabulously entertaining story about a remarkable woman who just wanted to be herself.


First published on the HNS Website (May 6, 2021): https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/a-betting-woman-a-novel-of-madame-moustache/

Jenni signs two-book deal with Harper Muse!

4/27/2021

 
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A New Middle Grade Book About Sybil Ludington!

1/22/2021

 
Author of I AM DEFIANCE Jenni L. Walsh’s BY THE LIGHT OF FIREFLIES, based on the true story of a hidden Revolutionary War hero, Sybil Ludington, dubbed the “female Paul Revere,” and following a teen girl who braves a perilous midnight ride to warn the troops, with the believed magic of the fireflies to light her way, to Nancy Cleary at Wyatt-MacKenzie, for publication in early November 2021, by Shannon Hassan at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (world English).
More information coming soon!

Add on Goodreads here.
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  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Adult >
      • Unsinkable
      • The Call of the Wrens
      • A Betting Woman: A Novel of Madame Moustache
      • Side by Side: A Novel of Bonnie and Clyde
      • Becoming Bonnie: A Novel
      • Untitled 2024
      • Untitled 2025
    • Middle Grade >
      • Over and Out
      • By the Light of Fireflies: A Novel of War Hero Sybil Ludington
      • I Am Defiance: A Novel of World War II
      • Hettie and the London Blitz: A World War II Survival Story
      • She Dared books
  • News
  • School Visits
  • Events
  • Contact