#256 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Jenny Knipfer’s HARVEST MOON

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? The title of what I feel is my most emotional novel is Harvest Moon. I hit on that title right away. It had to have “moon” in the titles, as the series is named, By the Light of the Moon. Also, all the other titles in the series include the word, moon. Harvest Moon represents the idea that a harvest of good things can come from a planting of pain. 

What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I started writing Harvest Moon in April of 2019 and had it ready for my editor (Sara Litchfield) in three months. 

https://www.saralitchfield.com/

Sara Litchfield web logo photo.

Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work?  And please describe in detail.  And can you please include a photo? There are various locations around my home that I write in. I write on my iPad, so it’s easy to go from spot to spot. I like to sit outside and deck and write when the weather is nice. Mostly, I write in my bedroom in my old blue wingback chair, often at night. I seem to think best at night. The ideas and words roll around in my head, begging to be let out. 

Credit and Copyright by Jenny Knipfer.

What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I don’t typically eat anything when I write. However, I often have a cozy cup of herbal tea by my side. 

I don’t like listening to music when I write. It distracts me. I prefer a relatively quiet atmosphere. 

As I said in the previous question, I write on my iPad. Because I have nerve damage on my right side from MS, my strength and motor skills are impaired. I can no longer write by hand, and even a traditional computer keyboard is difficult for me to use. Thus, the iPad. I tap the story out with a few fingers on my left hand. When my hand or arm tires, I either take a break or dictate. Dictation requires going back and fixing a lot of things, so I don’t go that route very often. 

credit and copyright by Jenny Knipfer

Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference.  This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.

Prologue

September 8th, 1862
Red Rock Reservation, Ontario

My mother always said that one day I’d get ripped open by my stubbornness, and she was right.

It’s my fool, stubborn heart which led to Ignacio’s banishment and will most likely lead to mine.

A harvest moon of orange glows in the evening sky like a pumpkin guiding my steps. My feet squash down the mounded soil as I walk through the corn in the field. I hope I have not been followed. I turn my head to watch, but I see no one in the shadows. Some spidery strands of corn silk cling to my hide dress. Tufts of silk spring from the corn ears, brown and brittle like an old woman’s hair.

I walk deeper into the maze of stalks. Wide, curved leaves as big as my arm cling to me as I pass. Most are dry and they crunch as I wade into them. They are reluctant to see me go. Perhaps the corn wonders when I will ripen.

Soon. Soon.

My hand finds the curve of my belly under my doeskin dress. I wear the traditional clothes of my clan with pride. They were forbidden at school, but I’m no longer a girl. I will not go to the white man’s place of learning anymore.

With the white man came his ways. They want to make the Anishinaabe white, but we are not. The Black Robes say they teach us civilized ways, but they are the ones who are not civilized. It is the white men who need to be taught this, for they are sick with greed. What grows inside me springs from such a place.

I can still feel his greedy hands on me.


“Ah!”


A knife-like pain suddenly presses against my back. I stop in the shelter of the last row of corn. A warm stream runs down my legs.

It’s time.

I look up at the moon and groan. It is time for the harvest to come. Time to bear the sin of a needy man . . . a man I thought I could trust.

“Errr. . .”

I pant and crouch down. Fear rises in my throat like bile. A heat rushes down my back. My legs tremble.

Should I have rid myself of this seed?

The thought rolls in my mind like the waves of Gitchi-gami. Wiineta-gikendan told me to. But she did not say why. She is as her name, which means: Only she knows. She is a Medawin woman, my teacher, and she knows many things. She wanted me to take an infusion of wild parsley and pennyroyal to flush this seed out months ago, but I could not. Gitchi-manidoo stopped me, spoke to me. I trust him. He is bigger than man and his lust. He will take this dirty seed and make him clean. He will make me clean.

“Rrrr . . .”

I pant and wait for the right moment, as I have seen done. The time comes when I can no longer resist. It pulls at me. It threatens to tear me apart. Finally, I can stand it no longer.

I push forth a child—a son. With shaky hands, I cut the cord with my foraging knife and tie the stump off with a piece of leather fringe from my dress. I cradle him in my arms, not caring that he is slick with the life of my womb.

He wails, and I join him. I cry for what I have lost—my innocence and the man that I love.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harvest-moon-jenny-knipfer/1138354587

Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write?  And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? This excerpt is the prologue to Harvest Moon, which is written in first and third person in a split timeline. When I write in a split timeline, I write one of the most or the most critical scenes in the book first and then write the story around it. This scene contains the emotional pain of past abuse, bitterness about the changes in her way of life as an Ojibwe woman and what the white European culture brought, and yet hope that what is birthed in pain can be transformed into something brighter. 

Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I did not have any major scene alterations in this book, only minor shifts. Because I don’t write by hand, I don’t make any handwritten notes or mark a physical document up. 

I do keep character profiles and an outline of the timeline, but after I publish the book I delete those files as they are not needed any longer. 

Jenny Knipfer Web Page.
Far Right: This 1920s photo is of Jenny Knipfer’s grandmother Lorraine, who was Sioux.

All of the Inside The Emotion of Fiction LIVE LINKS can be found at the very end of the below feature:

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html

The images in this specific piece are granted copyright: Public Domain, GNU Free Documentation Licenses, Fair Use Under The United States Copyright Law.

The other images are granted copyright permission by the copyright holder, which is identified beneath each photo.

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