By P.A. Kane

As Moxie Gardiner will tell you, she is a writer, dreamer and schemer who likes the smell of warm wood, the sound of insects and islands that cruise ships don’t visit. In another life she was a speech writer and journalist with dozens of magazine bylines. She also is from the West Side of Buffalo, and has written the first installment of a planned trilogy called Virgin Snow.

Virgin Snow is a coming-of-age novel set on the West Side of Buffalo in the late 1960s and chronicles the tumultuous teenage years of Cosi McCarthy. After her father dies, Cosi receives a murky vision from a statue of the Virgin Mary she has in her room. Her larger-than-life domineering mother, Big Ange, insists this is a sign that Cosi must become a bride of Christ as a nun. Though bright and devout, Cosi had other ideas for her life and as the novel unfolds, she finds the people that she relied on for guidance are unreliable and filled with contradictions. Virgin Snow is a fine ride through Catholic dogma, 1960s culture and a precocious girl trying to make sense of it all. We talked to Moxie Gardiner about her novel, Catholic guilt and what exactly is a baloney bomber.   

PAK—What is your process as a writer and what were some of the local resources you used to make sure the facts about late ’60s, early ’70s Buffalo were correct?

MG—I love history, especially the history of Buffalo, so writing historical fiction set in Buffalo is something I’ve dreamed of doing for a long time. If I have one problem, it’s that I enjoy doing the research so much I have to force myself to stop and start writing! Before I put pen to paper, I spent hours at the Buffalo and Erie County Library, the Buffalo History Museum, read a number of nonfiction books about Buffalo, read old editions of Buffalo newspapers and made “field trips” to places all over Buffalo and especially the West Side to refresh my memory and immerse myself in that setting once again. I asked beta readers in Buffalo to check my facts and recollections, and had an excellent editor factcheck me again, once the manuscript was in its final stages. Archivist Cynthia Van Ness at the History Museum was particularly helpful in pointing me toward useful research material.

PAK—The primary reason for most authors to have a blog or website is to push product. But your site, moxiegardiner.com is a mix of entries about Virgin Snow, your Buffalo roots, and most interesting, a bunch of beautiful posts about the natural world. As noted in your bio, you are a master gardener and naturalist. How did a West Side girl find her way to being a master gardener and naturalist, and what exactly is the kind of work a naturalist does?

MG—Writing the blog each month is a form of discipline for me, an exercise in creativity outside of writing books that is also great fun. Unlike fiction, I get to blog about factual things that I’m passionate about. Growing up, I loved spending Saturdays at the Buffalo Museum of Science and was drawn to displays of the natural world. I also had a thumb-worn book about explorers who traveled to exotic places and discovered new species, which I imagine spawned my interest in both travel and love of nature. As far as becoming a master gardener or naturalist is concerned, the key to the program is volunteer work, and a willingness to share what you’ve learned with others. Writing is one way I do that, but I also work in the field. A naturalist could work in many areas, but I tend to focus on preservation of native species and public lands, so that future generations will not be deprived of them.

PAK—Virgin Snow traces the ups and downs of Cosi, her family and events of the 1960s, like Vietnam and the birth of the woman’s movement. However, one of the main themes of the novel is the oversized role the church played in the family and the power of Catholic guilt. As a Catholic who grew up in that era, I found your portrayal to be remarkably accurate. Why were you drawn to write about the church and the hold it had on people? 

MG—When I made the decision to write about the late 1960s, I wanted to explore themes beyond the ones normally associated with that timeframe, and one of those was the upheaval within the Catholic Church. It would be impossible to write about the West Side of Buffalo in that era without talking about the church, which affected every aspect of life, from the food we ate (fish on Fridays) to the way we dressed (school uniforms that fell below the knee) to the way we viewed our transgressions (confession on Saturday). Vatican II changed many of the practices Catholics had become used to, and while this was embraced by some, it upset many others. For example, I remember when nuns stopped wearing the habit, changed their names and became more socially active. In the book, how young Cosi reacts to these changes, and how her mother reacts, are quite different.

PAK—Beyond the religious visions and superstitions, there was the corno or the curse, which Big Ange placed on her sister Rosa. The corno came with specific application and removal rules. Was there still belief among the Sicilians in the U.S. about such superstitions as late as 1969?

MG—Based on my personal experience, there certainly was. When I worked at Tops Supermarket on Niagara Street, at least two people that I worked with wore the corno to work every day. They never said why they wore it, only that it was given to them by their parents. Whether or not there were still such beliefs in the late 1960s had a lot to do with when your Sicilian ancestors arrived in the US. Cosi’s fictional grandparents arrived in the early 1900s (along with many others from Sicily), never learned to speak English and brought many of the old customs and superstitions with them. Big Ange (Cosi’s mother) and her sisters were born in the U.S. but grew up with parents still steeped in the old beliefs. Cosi’s generation was fully Americanized, of course, but in the book you see how deftly Cosi has to work around her mother’s and grandmother’s superstitions, acknowledging their beliefs although personally finding them questionable.

PAK—Though you describe the physical appearance of Big Ange in some detail, the image I see of her comes more from the no-nonsense, direct way she speaks—her distinct cadence and tone. Is she derived from a real person or maybe a collective of voices from the women of your childhood?

MG—I love Big Ange because I believe she truly embodies the complex, larger-than-life personalities I knew (and still know) on the West Side of Buffalo. I could easily identify a dozen or more women who exhibit some of Big Ange’s more memorable traits, but as you guessed, she is an amalgam of many different people I’ve met over the years. What I wanted to illustrate through Big Ange’s character was a woman who was shaped by that particular time, place and circumstances. As a widow with three children, living in a working class neighborhood with no skills other than her ability to sew, she becomes fiercely protective of her brood and overly controlling of their behavior, while morally ambivalent about her own actions, especially when it comes to money. She doesn’t have time to waste on pleasantries, isn’t a warm and fuzzy mom, but she loves her children more than her own life.

PAK—Some of the contradictions you point out are amusing. Uncle Danny McCarthy berates his wife, Joanie, for pledging her vote to Bobby Kennedy because he’s good looking. Yet, Danny is going to vote for him because he’s Irish. Big Ange, who has no medical training whatsoever berates a no-nothing doctor in the hospital during her sister’s medical crisis. Would you say, in some sense, Cosi’s biggest obstacle and struggle is to make smart, rational choices in a world where the people and events around her are totally irrational?  

MG—I chuckled when I read this question, because many if not most young people growing up in the late 1960s believed this—that all adults were irrational and leading them and the country down a path of destruction. Through Cosi, I wanted to represent a generation that became disillusioned with everything they once believe in—their parents, the government, the mental health system, even their faith. I wanted the story to suggest that this early disillusionment shaped this particular generation, leading them to become highly skeptical of authority in ways previous generations were not. In Cosi’s case, she was a young girl who until age 13 blindly followed whatever she was told and went wherever she was led. By the end of the book, after a series of letdowns and personal tragedies, she realizes she must develop self-reliance in order to survive. In a way, those disillusionments freed her to become her own person, with a sense of purpose and a belief system she developed on her own.

PAK—Food plays a significant role in the novel, from caponata to gardoons to Sunday sauce. But what caught my eye was on the way to the public swimming pool in the summer, Cosi stopped at Ganci’s and got a Wink and a baloney bomber. Was that real or fiction, and what exactly is a baloney bomber composed of?

MG—What a great question! I have to begin by saying Ganci’s Deli was a real place that played an outsized role in the lives of those living in this section of the West Side. Like many of the old corner markets, it offered fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, as well as sandwiches and snackable items for kids heading to the Massachusetts swimming pool or Butler Mitchell Boys Club across the street. The whole Ganci family worked there and they were loved by all. Wink was a popular soft drink at the time, and the baloney bombers—what many would call a “sub” today—were made from an entire loaf of Italian bread sliced lengthwise, filled with baloney and mustard. Teenagers loved them. Cathy Ganci-Sunderlin recently told me they sold 300 a week during the summer months. So all of that is true. Did I ever eat a baloney bomber? No, I’m afraid not. I had my fill of baloney at home.

PAK—Sister Valentine was a product of Vatican II. As Cosi’s mentor she provides more questions about life than answers. Why did you want to write about those socially engaged nuns like Sister Valentine, who aligned themselves with labor movements and civil rights causes in working-class settings that came from Vatican II? 

MG—Sister Valentine is my example of a “modern” nun, one who embraced the changes that came with Vatican II. By way of contrast, the story also includes Sister Agatha, one of Cosi’s teachers, who has not changed her name, has resisted wearing even a modified habit, and in many other ways has refused to adapt to the changing world around her. Both nuns vie to shape Cosi’s future in ways they feel are important, but leave Cosi confused about the type of nun she is to become. She throws in her lot with the charismatic Sister Valentine, of course, and dips her toe in the world of social activism, only to feel betrayed once again when she learns Sister Valentine has also been keeping a secret from her. Nonetheless, what she learns from Sister Valentine is empathy, and a strong desire to right the wrongs of the world.

PAK—Virgin Snow is a planned trilogy. I read on your blog that you’re presently finishing up drafts for book two. Book one concluded at the tail end of Cosi’s high school years. When will we see book two? And without giving away any spoilers, what years does it cover in Cosi’s life?

MG—I hope to finish—and with any luck publish—Book Two before Christmas. Not all of that is within my control however, so fingers crossed. My publisher, NFB Publishing, has been great to work with, but they have some say in the publication schedule, and until final approval I dare not give away the title in case it changes! I can tell you that in Book Two you will see Cosi tackle new dilemmas, of the type faced by a young woman in her twenties with an unrelenting conscience. I’ve gotten wonderful feedback from many readers who have enjoyed Virgin Snow, and they’ve inspired me to continue writing about Cosi’s life, as well as that of the City of Buffalo, while both go through extraordinary generational changes.