Las Vegas author Amanda Skenandore leaned on some of the medical knowledge she gained in her previous life as a registered nurse for a successful run in a very specific genre: historical medical fiction.
Her sixth and latest novel, “When No One Else Will,” is set against the backdrop of an illegal women’s clinic in 1939 Chicago.
Neon: What is your connection to Las Vegas?
Amanda Skenandore: I first came to Las Vegas for college. I didn’t study nursing or writing — the two things that would become my careers. But I had a wonderful time, made lifelong friends and met my husband. Afterward, I returned to Colorado, where I’m from. But Vegas has a way of pulling you back, and after I got my nursing degree and my husband completed graduate school, we returned. Slowly we settled in and found a great community. … Eighteen years later, Vegas definitely feels like home. I spent countless hours at Grouchy John’s writing my first novel. The Writer’s Block hosted my first book event. I’ve fangirled with lines of other readers over the literary superstars at the Las Vegas Book Festival. I even hope to write a story set in Las Vegas someday.
What was your path to becoming a published author?
I’ve always loved creative writing, but in college I decided I should study something practical, so I chose nursing. Even then, when I had a few rare moments of downtime at the hospital, my mind would spin stories. When I turned 30, I decided I wanted to give writing a real shot. Since I’m a huge fan of history and love reading historical fiction, that’s the genre I chose to try myself. I wrote a novel, then another. After five years editing that second book, I finally found a literary agent and a publisher. It took another two years before “Between Earth and Sky” finally made it onto bookshelves. During those early years, I did everything I could to learn and improve my craft. I joined a local writers group, attended conferences and workshops, found a group of talented critique partners with whom I could share early drafts of my novels. That made a big difference for me.
Can you talk about the niche you’ve carved out with your novels?
In addition to being an author, I also worked for 16 years as a registered nurse. My second novel, “The Undertaker’s Assistant,” has elements of medical history, and I found I loved that part of the research. Since then, all my books have some connection to medical history. It’s fascinating to learn about and imagine what life was like before anesthesia or antibiotics or germ theory. For most of human history, it wasn’t heart disease or cancer killing people, but infectious diseases. The more I delve into that part of history, the more appreciative I am of the medical advancements we enjoy today. At the same time, there are countless parallels to the present.
I’m also drawn to learning about early nurses and physicians. Hundreds of years ago, these professions looked quite different from how they do today. Bloodletting and purgatives were go-to remedies. Hospitals were seen as places of death, not healing. The nurses there were often untrained and illiterate. Women were excluded from all but the most menial roles. Slowly, all that began to change, and those are the moments in history I’m most interested in.
What should potential readers know about “When No One Else Will”?
My latest novel is based on the true story of an illegal women’s clinic that was raided by the police and became the center of a high-profile trial in 1940s Chicago. I wrote it because I was surprised to learn that clinics like this — with skilled, conscientious practitioners — existed for a time in the pre-Roe era, not only in Chicago but in cities across the U.S. As part of my research, I read dozens of newspaper articles and over 800 pages of court transcripts. It was an eye-opening and sometimes heart-wrenching glimpse into our past and something that seemed to have great relevance to our present.
That’s something I hope for in all my stories — that readers will learn something of a previous era that has meaning for them today. The clinic and the trial are the backdrop of the story, but at its core, it’s about a family’s struggle during The Depression and a woman discovering her identity beyond wife and mother, who must find the courage to stand up for her principles even when it could cost her everything.
What’s next for you?
I’m always thinking up new story ideas. Usually, they grow out of a piece of history that surprises me in some way — a piece of history I knew nothing about, an event or person left out of our traditional narratives about the past. Right now, I’m working on a book set in 1920s Hollywood. On the surface, it’s a mystery about a small-town girl in search of her missing friend. But it’s also an exploration of the origins of modern diet culture and the early days of cosmetic surgery.
Book signing
Amanda Skenandore will sign copies of “When No One Else Will” from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Mad Red Books, 9480 S. Eastern Ave.