Writing Across Social Divides - Leigh Shalloway - The RV Book Fair 2025

My debut novel, Journey Back to You, explores many themes, but one stands out: writing across social divides. The relationship that develops between Kathleen and Jase, the heroine and hero, meaningfully explores this topic.

How a Company Town Sets the Stakes

Here in the United States, there are clear divides, the most notable being the haves and the have-nots. In Journey Back to You this divide is even stronger. Hilltown is a company town. There are the steel mill employees and the small businesses that support them, and there are the business leaders in positions of power and influence who serve on the mill’s board of directors. Kathleen’s father, Jonathan Hill, owns and runs the steel mill, the largest employer. Kathleen is her father’s most important “project.” He intends for her to take over the mill with a husband in the near future.

It soon becomes obvious that these two groups rarely interact. Jonathan has an iron grip on the people of Hilltown. He can fire or demote his employees on a whim.

In Journey Back to You the group of “haves” send their children to a nearby private school; they date exclusively inside their social circle; and Park City—a small, wealthy community near Hilltown—and Pittsburgh become the places where these fellow students, like Kathleen at the beginning of the book, hang out for fun. Kathleen has just graduated high school and chooses to attend Northwestern because no one in her social circle will be joining her. Intuitively, she doesn’t like the box she’s living in.

Cracks in the Wall: Volunteering Opens a Door

Then something happens that blurs the social divide. Kathleen volunteers at the Hilltown Retirement Home as part of a civics class. The home is where most of the mill workers live upon retirement. Surprisingly, Kathleen learns that all of her father’s warnings about becoming friends with “the townies” and their supposed “low class” don’t fit the stereotype. The people are bright, genuine, and always excited to see her. She even finds a “grandmother,” Sadie. The “social divide” is cracking. Sadie helps Kathleen expand into a more empathetic, competent individual.

A Secret Summer: Kathleen and Jase

Then there is Jase Thompson. He’s known by everyone because he’s one of the best managers at the mill, and he is also the best-looking man in Hilltown.

Kathleen sees him at the retirement home and is shocked to discover that he volunteers there too. They eventually become the leaders of Thursday afternoon bingo, which leads to a friendship and then a passionate romantic relationship—“for the rest of the summer only.” Jase is willing to be with Kathleen, but only for a limited time and in secret. It’s clear that bridging the established social rules is dangerous. Jase knows that if their love affair became public, he would be fired and his family would suffer.

Testing Allegiances at The Mill

Kathleen decides to “intern” at the mill. Initially, Jase is furious; he never thought Kathleen would want to know about his world. Eventually, Kathleen gets Jase to agree to take her on as his intern and to help her learn more about the town. She comes to respect those who live and work at the mill. Kathleen embraces her new life and new friends—the townies. But the summer is almost over.

Jase makes a startling decision: he tells Kathleen that he might move to Chicago in a few months so they can have a more normal relationship. Kathleen panics and slips back into her “safe” role of pampered princess. She announces to Jase that, instead, she will see him only on her breaks. This ruptures the relationship. The social divide returns. Kathleen tries to talk to Jase before she leaves, but it is too late. Jase has disappeared on a remote camping trip. Kathleen leaves Hilltown angry and broken-hearted and begins college.

College and Conformity

At college, Kathleen joins a sorority and majors in business, as her father demands. In her sophomore year she begins a relationship with the BMOC, Richard Sumners. Like her father, Richard begins to dominate Kathleen’s choices in almost everything, even how she dresses and what she eats. The strong woman she became with Jase goes back into hibernation.

Craft Takeaways: Writing Across Social Divides

Writing across social divides isn’t easy. Our characters can be fickle. They can be from one social class, learn and become identified with another “class,” only to return to where they came from. The social divide is controlled by the rich and entitled. Usually, those farther down on the social ladder have less money and fewer career opportunities.

But our characters can surprise us. Kathleen wakes up and remembers that she is more at home with her friends at the mill—Jase’s world. The social divide becomes less important than the shared similarities Kathleen has with the blue-collar workers at the mill. Make the common ground your footing; the rest will follow.

Leigh Shalloway has a Psychology Degree from Emory University and earned a Master of Arts degree in Counseling and School Psychology from Seattle University.

Following graduation, she interned at the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and worked as a Psychologist for Sammamish schools. She is also a holistic care practitioner who trained other practitioners and taught hospice volunteers various methodologies for helping their patients.

Leigh lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and four grown children. Journey Back to You is the first novel in the Hilltown Trilogy.

Learn more at https://www.hilltownseries.com.

Article published in The Relatable Voice Magazine - December 2025 as part of The RV Book Fair 2025. Downolad the full magazine at https://www.relatable-media.com/the-relatable-voice-magazine