After a career in sales and marketing and raising two boys active in sports, right through the college level, I asked the age-old question, Now what? I didn’t spend long looking for my answer. I found it within the return hits from a genealogy search on my great-great-grandfather, William S. Peirce, Esquire. From FamousAmericans.net: He took an active part in founding the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia.
Inspired by that line, more research ensued, and a story and characters formed. The early graduates of the Woman’s Medical College have remained in the shadows. Their stories needed to be told. With a love of history, I balanced a need for authenticity and details with a flair to create emotional connections to fictional characters.
While my family has roots in Philadelphia, I am a Boston girl through and through, from my accent to the cans of baked beans in my pantry, to the New England Patriots flag that hangs over our driveway every fall. I grew up outside of Boston and remained in Massachusetts, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College, at the time, an all-women’s college. At Wheaton, I developed a fond appreciation of the supportive relationships established between students, faculty, and alumnae and a heightened awareness of female-centric issues. Both directed my writing of The Unlocked Path.
With a plot and themes sketched, I enrolled in a creative writing course sponsored by Wesleyan University to hone my skills. Combining years of extensive research and feedback from writers’ conferences and a series of beta readers, I polished my manuscript and readied it for publication with Black Rose Writing.
Splitting my time between Cape Cod, New Hampshire, Florida and hotels along Route 95, a tablet became my Kindle library and desk, packed into a travel bag for reading and writing wherever I might land. My husband, along with our rescue pup, has willingly, and luckily, also embraced this nomadic lifestyle. More adventures beckon me to document other women in history whose stories need to be discovered. (JanisRDaly.com)
In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza Edwards vows to find ways to help and heal. Rejecting her mother's wishes for her society debut, Eliza enters medical college at a time when only five percent of doctors are female. With the support of a circle of women and driven by a determination to conquer curriculum demands, battle sexism, and overcome doubts, Eliza charts a new life course. Combining science and sympathy, can she triumph to heal others and herself?
The timeline of female doctors is marked by significant milestones in the fight for gender equality in the medical profession. Here is a historical timeline highlighting key events:
1849: Elizabeth Blackwell - First Woman to Receive a Medical Degree:
1865: Rebecca Lee - First African American Woman to Receive a Medical Degree:
1867: Emily Stowe - First Female Doctor in Canada:
1870: Sophia Jex-Blake - Pioneer in Medical Education for Women in the UK:
1873: Susan La Flesche Picotte - First Native American Woman to Earn a Medical Degree:
A History of Present Illness by 
A Country Doctor by 
The Care of Strangers by 
On Rotation by 
First Love, Take Two by 
Westwood Public Library