Constance Hays Matsumoto in Conversation With Betsy Small
About this Event
About the Authors
Constance Hays Matsumoto
Constance Hays Matsumoto is the author of the award-winning historical novel, Of White Ashes (Apprentice House Press 2023) and Fact & Fiction: How to Write a Novel Inspired by Family and History (How2Conquer Press 2026). An active literary citizen, Connie is a member of the Eastern Shore Writer’s Association, and Historical Novel Society. She’s the Maryland Writer’s Association past Communications Chair and Baltimore President and is the President of the Women’s National Book Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter.
About the Book
This simple and encouraging guide offers a relatable story map for writers who are sitting on a historical fiction story but don’t know where to start.
Constance Hays Matsumoto was that person — until she wasn’t. With no MFA, no background in creative writing, not even a journal to her name, she wrote Of White Ashes, an award-winning novel inspired by her family’s remarkable World War II stories.
With delightful candor, Connie shares how she embraced novel writing by learning the craft, creating helpful techniques, and asking repeatedly, “Wait, how do you do that?” Offering personal story, practical writing advice, visuals, and a healthy dose of humility, Connie shows how she turned confusion into confidence and how you can, too.
Your story and voice matter. Let’s dive in, get messy, and bring the novel only you can write to life!
Betsy Small
Betsy Small served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone (1984-1987). For more than three decades she has worked with divided communities in the US and abroad, which inspired her to write Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone. Betsy is the former Executive Director of global peacebuilding organizations collaborating with teams of peacebuilders in west Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland.
About the Book
Sierra Leone has often been sensationalized as a place of extreme violence and suffering — child soldiers, Ebola, environmental catastrophes, and alarmingly high maternal and infant mortality rates. Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone captures daily life in a different country, one that author Betsy Small first encountered as a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer in the country’s diamond district between 1984 and 1987 and then reconnected with decades later.
Living in Tokpombu, a remote rainforest community of forty rice-farming families, Betsy faced struggles that changed her forever as she witnessed growing tensions between the young and the old, the timeless traditions valued by the elders, and the allure of the diamond mines to the younger generation.
Before Before offers a unique portrait of everyday lives, with a particular emphasis on women and girls before the brutal conflict of 1991 tore the country apart. Betsy invites reflection on the complicated landscape in this sometimes overlooked West African nation.
The story of Before Before spans three decades. Readers learn that the hunger to forge connection persists — a powerful antidote to indifference, intolerance, and even violence.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
