About the book:
What is the book about?
It is about a woman whose husband abandons her and their five-year-old child the Nebraska winter of 1873. Freezing and starved, they must leave their sod house and find a way to survive, but how?
How long did it take you to write it?
I’m a real slow writer, so it has been years. The book started out as part of a larger novel, but didn’t work in it. I struggled with that for some time as well.
Where did you get the idea from?
I’m an appreciator of art. I was caught by the image from an artist I had never heard of: Robert Henri. When I looked further into Henri’s story, I was blown away with his work, his dramatic story, and his incredible importance to the art world of the turn of the last century. The Seasons of Doubt is set in the small Nebraska town of Henri”s youth.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
YES! I couldn’t believe the absolute lack of power women had at that time; married women had no right to anything, not their earnings, not their clothes, their homes, not even their children. How then could an abandoned mother survive? I struggled with that. It became the central theme of the story.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
Mary, her son and one or two characters in the story are fictitious. The rest, all are real people taken from historical record. I hadn’t written historical fiction before; I found it both grounding and confining.
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
My writing process is really messy. I have tried to organize, to outline and draw character sketches, but that sort of thing absolutely crimps the characters for me. I rarely have any idea about structure other than where the story is likely to start, and where it might end. So, every morning I sit at the computer and write what the characters are telling me. I have learned to trust them; they know what they’re doing, but they can be messy at times.
About You
Where did you grow up?
On a farm in Northeast Oregon’s wheat country
Where do you live now?
In Portland.
What would you like readers to know about you?
I am a person who needs solitude in order to create, no phones, no emails, no music. I encourage those who need creativity in order to feel alive, to be sure to find space for it in your life.
Did you have a career before you started writing?
I was a business owner and in corporate Human Resources
On Writing
Which living writer do you most admire?
Probably Craig Lesley, noted novelist and my first writing teacher.
Who are your favorite authors?
How do you pare them down? I’d have to include Wallace Stegner, Elizabeth Strout, Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, Harry Bingham, Donna Leon, but there are a whole lot more, for sure.
What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
Probably Crossing to Safety, My name is Lucy Barton, Gilead, To Kill a Mockingbird, The God of Small Things
Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
Read anything. Read everything. Know that writing is hard work; it takes stamina, courage, and persistence, persistence, persistence. (Sorry, that’s three sentences.)