This historical fiction book about women’s rights, abolition and temperance set along a quiet canal is Georgia Ann Mullen’s first novel in the Canal Tales series.

As editor of a regional publication that ran articles on the Erie Canal and local history, Georgia visited Seneca Falls, New York to prepare a magazine story on the town and its unique women’s rights heritage.

A tour of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home, peppered with funny stories about her yellow floors and absent husband, sparked the germ of a plot for A Shocking & Unnatural Incident. More inspiring were a walk along the Cayuga-Seneca Canal towpath as well as visits to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and the remains of the Wesleyan Chapel, now a monument to the First Woman’s Rights Convention.

Georgia graduated from Ohio University with a degree in journalism. She was a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor in western New York and also managing editor of a trade publication near Boston.

Georgia and her husband, George, live in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she is working on her second historical fiction book in the Canal Tales series. She enjoys gardening, kayaking, playing the ukulele and reading on the beach with her feet in the water.