Synkroniciti is chuffed to welcome writer Julie Dron, based in Taiwan, with An Unremarkable Woman, a short historical fiction piece about the first meeting between Currer Bell, better known as Charlotte Brontë, and Mr. Smith, a publisher eager to share a brilliant new novel with the world. They’ve been corresponding for months, and Mr. Smith is excited, perhaps even a bit nervous, to meet the author in person.
“Mr. Smith rose from his office desk to stretch his legs and peer through his window. He noticed a small woman attempting to cross the busy cobbled street. She obviously wasn’t used to London and he wondered what her business was. She was very plain, a woman he would normally not have noticed if he hadn’t been amused by her mad dashes between horses and vendors. She was not pleasing to look at, someone who would never find a husband, he mused, and would no doubt be relegated to menial work for the rest of her life. An unremarkable woman, he concluded, experiencing a sliver of pity for this stranger.”
This “unremarkable” woman will change literary history forever. Her name lives on while the publisher’s fades; her novel appears on reading lists across the globe, translated into countless languages, its influence steady through generations. The audacity of refusing to remain in the shadows, of tending and sharing her creative fire despite every assumption made about her, has been richly rewarded. Julie’s characterization of the author, “timid yet bold,” and the gatekeeping publisher, “shocked to his very core,” reminds us how often brilliance arrives disguised, and how creative genius can illuminate the world long after those who doubted it have been forgotten.
Read “An Unremarkable Woman” in Synkroniciti’s Audacity issue, Vol. 8, No. 1, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Julie Dron is originally from Liverpool, UK but currently lives in Taiwan. Her main hobby is writing, especially during summers of extreme heat and heavy rain. She has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies including Synkroniciti, Inkd Publishing, Jayhenge Publishing, and Jerry Jazz Musician. Her first horror novella will be published this year in Dark Holme Publisher’s Thirteenth Floor trilogy.