Author Bio
Dorothy lives with her cat Chitty in Massachusetts, where she likes to walk on the beach looking for inspiration for her next book. Her previous works include a memoir, Kwa Heri Means Goodbye: Memories of Kenya 1957-1959; a YA novel, A Door Just Opened; a post-WW2 story, Willow Run; and her latest memoir, Africa Calling Me Back. Many of her articles, essays, and travel pieces have appeared in a number of national magazines and newspapers.
My Books
Kwa Heri Means Goodbye
When the “greatest generation” came home from World War II, many of the men returned to college on the GI Bill, a saga that has been the subject of numerous books and movies. But the story of their wives, also part of that greatest generation, has seldom been told. Kate McIntosh, the young mother of a toddler and a newborn, struggles with the challenges of being isolated in barracks-like World War II housing in Willow Run Village, with no car, little money, and a mostly absent husband., Mark, her husband, attends classes at the university during the day and works on the assembly line at the nearby auto plant at night. He is rarely home. When she and Mark meet with other graduate students, Kate feels awkward and excluded, with nothing to talk about but diapers and pureed carrots.
Africa Calling Me Back
Africa Calling Me Back tells the story of Dorothy Stephens’s return to Kenya with her husband after a lapse of thirty years. They find that in Nairobi much has changed. Kenya is in flux. Political corruption, poverty, unemployment, and petty crime are rampant. Nevertheless, they are greeted warmly by old friends and rediscover the magnificence of the Kenya landscape. They attend an African style baby shower and a Kikuyu 1st birthday celebration, camp in the Maasai Mara, go on safari to Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Baringo, campaign with their friend Doc Kiano who is running for a seat in Parliament, and spend their 50th wedding anniversary with African friends, eating roasted goat intestines on the slopes of Mount Kenya. A last chapter documents their final visit to Kenya in 1996, after the tragic loss of their daughter Kelly. It is an odyssey tinged with sadness; still, they are heartened to find signs that Kenya may be headed toward a more peaceful and prosperous future. They can only hope it succeeds.
Willow Run
When the “greatest generation” came home from World War II, many of the men returned to college on the GI Bill, a saga that has been the subject of numerous books and movies. But the story of their wives, also part of that greatest generation, has seldom been told. Kate McIntyre, the young mother of a toddler and a newborn, struggles with the challenges of being isolated in barracks-like World War II housing in Willow Run Village, with no car, little money, and a mostly absent husband. Mark, her husband, attends classes at the university during the day and works on the assembly line at the nearby auto plant at night. He is rarely home. When she and Mark meet with other graduate students, Kate feels awkward and excluded, with nothing to talk about but diapers and pureed carrots.
A Door Just Opened
Thirteen-year-old Anna’s passionate dream is to go to high school, the first girl from her tiny farm community back in 1910 to do so. She is determined not to stay at home like her older sister, Mary Ellen, helping their mother and waiting to marry a local farmer. But there is no money to send her to River Heights, seven miles away, and anyway, her mother needs her. When sixteen-year-old Mary Ellen is sexually assaulted by a local boy from a well-to-do family, the situation gets worse. No one suspects Mary Ellen is pregnant until she gives birth to the illegitimate baby.
The surprise birth threatens to ruin the family’s standing in the community and Mary Ellen’s reputation. Anna wrestles with helping her parents and sister while still striving to escape the boundaries that have been set for her and make her burning desire to go to high school a reality. Meanwhile she becomes involved in solving the mystery of a missing ring, and in stopping another attack by the boy who assaulted her sister. The climax comes when some unexpected developments change the course of Anna’s life.