Ever since I was a little girl and read my first Little House on the Prairie book, I had a fascination with the 19th Century. I don't know if it was the fact that people lived more simply back then, or the whole idea of eking out a life on a prairie from scratch that drew me in. As I aged, I delved more into researching the era and became intrigued by the whole mail-order bride possibility. How could a woman answer an advertisement, choosing to leave all she'd known in order to take a chance on love and find a new path in life? How did she choose to leave the familiar and step into the unknown with someone she'd never met?

The more I studied stories and clippings from the past, the more my mind kept spinning with ideas. What would happen if a pastor was dictated by his congregation that if he wanted to keep his job, he had to find a wife by a certain time? What if the wife he advertised for was completely different than what he expected? How would he handle it? That nugget of an idea is what spurred the inspiration for Taming Julia.

By Jodie Wolfe