Write What You Know with Julia Brewer Daily

Write what you know or want to know.

I know about adoption because I’m an adoptee from a maternity home in New Orleans. Growing up, I was curious about where I came from, and often my imagination ran wild. Was I stolen from the Cherokee Nation, or was I the love child of a mistress with my adoptive father? Either of those scenarios seemed likely because of my coloring, high cheekbones, and I looked just like my adoptive father.

When I was 22 years old, I searched for my birth mother. Not because I wanted another family. My adoptive family is the one I would have chosen had I been given a chance. But I was pregnant with my own child and wanted to know about health issues in my birth family. Unfortunately, I had no medical records, and I was always asked, “Do you have heart disease, diabetes, or cancer in your family?” I always answered, “I don’t know. I’m adopted.”

Most states have closed records, and an adoptee cannot access them. When I began my search, there was a Napoleonic law still on the books in Louisiana that stated, “An adopted child can inherit from their natural parents.” Well, you cannot inherit from someone you don’t know, so that became the loophole that finally allowed me my original birth certificate. When you are adopted, the Bureau of Records seals the original birth certificates, and they create new ones to reflect the adoptive parents as the ones who gave birth. It’s why many adoptions are kept secret from children for many years.

When DNA commercial kits became available, I wanted to find my birth father, and through a matching program, I found his family.

So, when I decided to write a story, I had the seed for the book. Although my debut novel is fictional, a thread of my memoir runs through it. For example, one of the adoptees in the story has several occurrences that happened in my childhood.

“No Names to Be Given” launched in August 2021 and has become a fan favorite with book clubs discussing the complex topic of adoption, including current issues of same-sex adoptive parents, closed/open record states, international adoption versus in-country adoption, and adopting out of the culture.

My favorite part of this writing journey is the stories told me from the adoption community. Birth mothers who have grieved for years since relinquishing their child, other adoptees, and adoptive parents reached out to me to commend me for “telling their stories.” One birth mother from California emailed me to tell me she gave birth to her son in the same maternity home where I was born. It’s a small world, but the adoption world is quite large. More than 100 million Americans have adoption in their immediate families.

So, when you are looking for a tale to spin, look no farther than your own backyard or DNA kit!

If you would like to learn more about me and my writing, visit me at www.juliadaily.com. You can also order No Names to Be Given, my historical debut novel, on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998426172, Bookshop.org, https://bookshop.org/books/no-names-to-be-given/9780998426174

and wherever fine books are sold. My second novel launches in August 2022.

***

Julia Brewer Daily is a Texan with a southern accent. She taught at every level from kindergarten to university and even shadowed Martha Stewart. She is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas, the Women Fiction Writers’ Association, the San Antonio Writers’ Guild, and the Women’s National Book Association. Daily is an adopted child from a maternity home in New Orleans and searched and found her birth mother and, through DNA results, her father’s family, as well. She and her husband live on a ranch with their Labradors, Memphis Belle, and Texas Star.

Please find more about Julia Daily on her website https://www.juliadaily.com  

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/JBDailyAuthor

Follow her on Instagram https://instagram.com/JuliaDailyAuthor

Follow her on Facebook https://facebook.com/JuliaDailyAuthor

No Names to Be Given by Julia Brewer Daily

“A gorgeous, thrilling, and important novel! These strong women will capture your heart.”—Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas

1965. Sandy runs away from home to escape her mother’s abusive boyfriend. Becca falls in love with the wrong man. And Faith suffers a devastating attack. With no support and no other options, these three young, unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans where they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired. 

But such a life-altering event can never be forgotten, and no secret remains buried forever. Twenty-five years later, the women are reunited by a blackmailer, who threatens to expose their secrets and destroy the lives they’ve built. That shattering revelation would shake their very foundations—and reverberate all the way to the White House.

Told from the three women’s perspectives in alternating chapters, this mesmerizing story is based on actual experiences of women in the 1960s who found themselves pregnant but unmarried, pressured by family and society to make horrific decisions. How that inconceivable act changed women forever is the story of No Names to Be Given, a heartbreaking but uplifting novel of family and redemption. 

Leave a comment on Julia’s post and go in the draw to win an Amazon gift card.

Winner chosen at random. Offer ends Wednesday March 30