Book Story

THE STRONG WOMAN’S PENDANT

Imagine, if you will, a city of steel and wind, where the El rattles overhead and the sidewalks shimmer with stories. Now imagine a woman—young, blonde, bleeding—but not broken. She is Lily Lerner. She is you. She is all of us.

This is not just a pendant. This is a revolution in silver.
Forged in the crucible of trauma, tempered by science, and polished by the hands of love, this piece is the result of a collaboration between a grieving father (a porcine pathologist, no less), a brilliant Indian postdoc with a punk haircut, and her wife, a jeweler with hands like poetry.

Inside this pendant: a secret.
A mycotoxin, born of spoiled pig feed and Midwestern humidity, married to lemon-scented disinfectant. Together, they create a non-lethal, vomit-inducing mist that says: “Not today, asshole.” Flick. Then press. That’s all it takes.

Worn by teachers, nurses, nannies, and exotic dancers.
Tested on stalkers, creeps, and Royce Diamond (you’ll hate him too).
Endorsed by Mitzi Solomon, the silver-haired matriarch of SWIC (Strong Women in Chicago), who built an empire of empowerment and left it in the hands of the next generation before cancer could take her down.

This is not jewelry.
This is armor.
This is legacy.
This is the story of women who refuse to be afraid.

One size fits all. Courage included.
Refills available. No prescription necessary.

From the Back Cover

There are substances called mycotoxins that cause illness in people. There are also molds in feed-grain called vomitoxins (really!) which can cause a severe antiperistaltic reaction in animals. Pigs are the most sensitive species. Dr. Howard Lerner is a veterinary scientist whose family is shattered following the violent attack on his daughter Lily in a public bathroom in Chicago. Months after the assault, Dr. Lerner, a researcher in porcine diseases, discovers a substance that condenses a mycotoxin and serendipitously creates a weapon which can be used for self-defense. Strong Women in Chicago is a funny, feminist version of the classic movie Death Wish. Here too, the police (in this case a female officer assigned to Lily Lerner following the attack) eventually figure out how a growing number of women are protecting themselves using a very unusual method of self-defense. SWIC (Strong Women in Chicago) is a chain of women’s exercise facilities owned by wealthy Mitzi Solomon. It is she who helps create a place that women have only dreamed of: a place where they are safe from dangerous men.

About the Author

Fern Kupfer taught creative writing at Iowa State University for over thirty years and is the author of three novels and two memoirs: Surviving the Seasons (Delacorte), No Regrets (Viking), Love Lies (Simon and Schuster) and Leaving Long Island (Culicidae Press). Before and After Zachariah, a story about family life with a severely disabled child, is in its third edition (Chicago Review Press). Her essays and articles have appeared in Newsweek, Newsday, Redbook, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, The Women’s Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Parents, Cosmopolitan, and The Des Moines Register. Collections include: Nice Jewish Girls (Plume/Penguin), The Secret Lives of Lawfully Wedded Wives and Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers on Fairytales (Anchor/Doubleday). Fern Kupfer lives in Ames, Iowa with her husband Joseph Geha. Together they are part of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative and write the substack: Fern and Joe.