Local author pens internationally acclaimed novel

Cinnamon, a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom authored by Northwest Philadelphia resident Janet Mason, was recently published by Adelaide Books (located in New York and Lisbon.) Cinnamon is being featured at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

Whoever heard of a talking cow? Meet Cinnamon, who in Cinnamon: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom, tells us about the joys and sorrows of her life.

Mason wrote the novel five years ago when first going to a plant-based diet after a medical emergency (she had to have emergency surgery for kidney stones) and an infection that if left untreated would have led to sepsis, which shuts down the organs and can be deadly. She went vegan on the advice of her acupuncturist.

“Soon after going vegan, I experienced a consciousness-raising about the animals and the planet. Now five years later, I feel great in my body. Now it seems obvious—that of course, what we eat affects our health; of course, the animals deserve at the least not to be eaten; of course, we should be concerned about the planet's future.”

Cinnamon is fiction, but the details are true to life. Mason and her partner were part of a group that rescued several cows from the dairy farm of a local agricultural high school (where they were treated badly as are other dairy cows—with forced impregnation so the cows can produce milk and sent to slaughter for cheaper cuts of meat and hamburger) and sent to live at The Cow Sanctuary in Bridgeton New Jersey, about an hour away from Philadelphia, where they could live out the remainders of their natural lives. Dairy cows are routinely slaughtered after five years but their natural lifespans can be twenty years or longer.

“I feel so much better it’s unbelievable. The ethical issues of being a vegan, of being kind and not being involved in the industry of suffering, are what keep me on the path,” she explains.

Mason wrote other published novels before this but says Cinnamon: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom is critical because it represents a turning point in her life.

Cinnamon is Janet Mason’s third novel from Adelaide Books. Her novels THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders and The Unicorn, The Mystery were published by Adelaide Books in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Her book Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters (Bella Books; 2012) was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 Over the Rainbow List. Her novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage was published by Thorned Heart Press in 2022. She is a lay minister for the Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia and her talk which includes an excerpt from Cinnamon and was given on International Pig Day can be found at Pig Day Revisited — #GoVeganForLent or just #GoVegan #amreading Janet Mason, author (wordpress.com).

One of the narrators, Cinnamon, the talking dairy cow, has difficulty warming up to the farmer who “owns” her. Cinnamon reflects that “everybody knows that humans eat cows,” but overcomes her trust issues to pursue a friendship with Jody the farmer. Cinnamon trusts that it will somehow help her to become friends with the farmer and she is right. Cinnamon gets to know the farmer by spying on her through the kitchen window.

Cinnamon's special cow friend Spice has a health emergency, which jolts the farmer into awareness. She is nursing Spice back to health only so that she can be sent to slaughter, with the other dairy cows, in a few years. As Spice recovers, she and Cinnamon have lively conversations in the field: What is money – and what does it have to do with them?

Cinnamon, the cow, and Jody, the farmer, become friends and by loving Cinnamon, Jody (nicknamed Sunflower by Cinnamon) discovers she can no longer eat animal products. Meanwhile, she finds that by eliminating animal products from her diet, she is able to heal her own health issues. As her previous unhappiness disappears, Jody concocts a plan to turn her small farm into an animal sanctuary where Cinnamon, along with her special cow friend Spice, and the others can live out their natural lives in peace and harmony.

Published in 2024 by Adelaide Books (Lisbon/ New York) 2024, Cinnamon, a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom is available at your local bookstore or library and where books are sold online. To read an excerpt from Cinnamon, click here: What’s Money? A cow’s perspective —reading from a #newnovel #lgbt #intersectional #amreading | Janet Mason, author (wordpress.com)

You can order Cinnamon at the following link: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books