E455 - Meredith Ritchie - Author of Poster Girls - A Historical Fiction Focused On Women's Empowerment

Episode 455 - Meredith Ritchie - Author of Poster Girls - A Historical Fiction Focused On Women's Empowerment

Hello, I’m Meredith Ritchie

I’ve lived many places, but Charlotte was the first I called home. After discovering how my hometown forgot its own amazing WWII herstory, it became the perfect setting for my first novel.

I have made a career in business communications and wrote my first novel, Poster Girls, as a cure for acute "empty nest syndrome." I live near the heart of the Queen City with my husband and two cats, who encourage my curiosity of the forgotten triumphs of the spirit, especially those found in our own backyard.

After an unwanted southern migration, an upside-down world in 1943 offers military wife and mother, Maggie Slone, a job at Charlotte’s largest wartime employer––the massive and dangerous Shell Assembly Plant.

Meanwhile, military wife and Alabama native, Kora Bell’s steadfast determination enables her to navigate the challenges she faces as a Black woman seeking employment under Jim Crow. 

A shared love of literature spurs an unlikely friendship between Kora and Maggie, and the two work together to unify the plant’s workforce. Stringent rules are necessary when the air is charged with gun powder and polite society, until Maggie and Kora must break them in order to support their families, end the war, and bring their husbands home.

Told from two perspectives, Poster Girls is driven by the true but forgotten events and accomplishments of a diverse group of ordinary American women, both relevant and necessary to stop modern cycles of misunderstanding.

https://www.meredithritchie.com/