Michelle Ule wrote a sequel: The Sunbonnet Bride.
As a sequel toThe Yuletide Bride, The Sunbonnet Bride revisits the community of Fairhope, Nebraska during the summer of 1875.
The characters remain the same, except for the new seamstress in town, Sally, and her family and neighbors from nearby farms.
While Kate and Ewan from The Yuletide Bride settled down into married life together, Kate’s brother Malcolm struggled to find peace of mind. He’s working as a teamster, has finally mastered basic math skills, but feels large and awkward around the beautiful new seamstress in town: Sally Martin.
Sally moved to Fairhope in a tizzy of joy. A larger community, clothes, and hats to make, people to meet, a church to attend. Life looks glamorous compared to the farm eight miles away where she lived with her father and younger sister.
Her father understood the odds and wanted the best for his girls. He sent Sally to work in town to pave the way for a brighter future than farm life.
Meeting the townspeople!
Sally’s clever needle, vivacious charm, and earnestness attracted Malcolm, but also banker Josiah Finch, returned to town to take over his father’s bank.
The polished, comparatively urbane Josiah painted a pretty picture for Sally of making hats and dressing the local townswomen from her own shop.
She liked the idea of her own business, but she needed to earn money first.
Things came to a head when a tornado swept through the farmlands and her father and neighbors lost their home and barns.
While Malcolm harnessed his horses and headed out with Ewan to help, Josiah trailed behind on his fine stallion.
Only one man got his hands dirty.
As Fairhope rallied to help those in need, Sally and her father saw the difference between the men’s hearts.
But were they so different in their desire to help or in their ways to help?
Josiah put the question best: “Do you want to marry a man who gets his hands dirty or one who uses his brain?”
Is it a sin to make a profit on someone else’s fundraiser?
Will Ewan and Fairhope ever really love the bagpipes?
All this and more, including an incident with a blackberry pie, await readers of The Sunbonnet Bride.
Inspiration for Michelle Ule
Inspiration for The Sunbonnet Bride came from several areas.
Michelle Ule had been thinking about how a community comes together to help those in need and how that played out in a prairie setting. She took her inspiration from events in the Little House books as well as movies.
Malcolm’s fear of finding leeches on his legs while helping Sally cut reed, came directly from Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s On the Banks of Plum Creek. The pie contest and dancing scenes come from two of Michelle’s favorite movie musicals: Oklahoma and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
While she originally planned to use the infamous grasshopper invasion for the natural calamity, a 15,000-word novella wasn’t long enough to explore the idea well. A trip to an IMAX film about natural disasters convinced her a tornado would serve the purpose much better.
She also explored the morality of making a profit.
She’s had a number of friends start businesses undercapitalized. She wanted to encourage anyone thinking about starting a business to think through some of the questions both Josiah and Malcolm ask the aspiring shop owner, Sally.
The two stories, The Yuletide Bride and The Sunbonnet Bride, provide fun bookends for two seasons of the year.
Michelle Ule: Where to go for more information
You can also follow Michelle on
There’s a Pinterest board for The Sunbonnet Bride here.
Tweetables
A strong teamster or a pristine banker. How’s a girl to choose? Click to Tweet
Sunbonnet Bride–a tornado, leeches, music, romance, and fun! Click to Tweet
Is it a sin to make a profit on someone else’s fundraiser? Click to Tweet
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