Bee: Hi Jamie, Welcome tobookpleasures.com!
Bee: How long haveyou been writing? And second when did you realize this was what youwanted to do professionally?
Jamie: I have been writingsince I could write. I had parents and an elementary school teacherwho were very encouraging about my writing. I wrote poems and storiesthroughout my elementary and secondary education. In college, I wonthe University of Denver Creative Writing Award for a short story.During my thirties I had an article, and two short stories published.I liked to write but was not convinced that I would get beyond what Ihad achieved until I finished the manuscript that became my firstnovel, Unbroken. At the time I was consulting with Beverly SwerlingMartin, a historical fiction author, may her memory be for ablessing. She directed me on how to put focus and drive into mymanuscript and with that, Unbroken became a success, launching myprofessional writing career.
Bee: Tell us a littleabout ‘Sunny Gale' and why we should read it.
Jamie: Sunny Gale is basedon the history of female rodeo performers of the early twentiethcentury. For two generations beginning around 1898, dozens of womenperformed in rodeo doing many of the events now thought of as men’sevents, namely saddle bronc riding and steer roping. They also raced,in long skirts, or pants made to look like skirts. Many of them alsowere trick riders. This is not a niche history. These women performedat all the major rodeos, including Madison Square Garden in New YorkCity. One year when an exhibition rodeo was staged in London forBritish royalty, women saddle bronc riders were also included.
And I want to remind yourreaders that most of this history occurred when women had little tono civil rights. Professional women’s rodeo ended in the 1930’s,likely because of two fatalities in women’s bronc riding. Womenwere allowed to return a decade later, beginning as rodeo queens.Only in the last year has professional rodeo allowed women’s broncriders back in the arena.
I wanted to spotlight thishistory, first because it has been elided from narratives about theWest for reasons I still don’t know or understand. The focusof Western narratives has been the exploits, achievements or tragicendings of white men. The fact that women competed and were championsin one of the most dangerous sports of that era demonstrates thatbrute strength, ambition, grit, determination and resilience are notthe province of white men alone.
Then too, when Idiscovered the extent of this history and learned the stories of someof the participants, for me it changed the conversation about whatwomanhood is or should be. Assumptions of what women should do withtheir lives and how they should behave persist on into the currentera, even though women have attained the rights they didn’t have ahundred years ago. The question I hope readers take away from SunnyGale is should we continue to tolerate the existence of theseassumptions? In my own investigation, I concluded that gender is nota boundary-line to any human endeavor, nor should any gender beassigned a specific destiny.
Bee: I am sure that youhave heard this question before; how do you come up with your ideas?
Jamie: My ideas havearisen in the context of where I was mentally at the time I startedthe work. In the case of Unbroken, my first award-winning novel, Ihad been out of Wyoming and ranching for ten years and I wanted to goback, not just to the land, but to the people I loved so much in myranching years. I originally started Unbroken with the idea that itwas a vehicle for going home and as I invented Gwen Swan and the restof the characters they became as real to me as the people I hadknown. I will never forget how sad I felt when the last page of thenovel had been written because it was the end of going home.
The Widow Smalls, thetitle story to my award-winning collection of short stories, TheWidow Smalls & Other Stories came out of my idea to turn thethemes from Unbroken on their head and have a little fun in theprocess. In the place of women determined to persevere in ranching, Icreated Leah Smalls, who inherits her ranch but has never been out ofher house in decades and knows absolutely nothing about her ranch. Tosee how Leah would grow, or not, when destiny blew open her frontdoor, was a growing experience for me.
In writing Eden, my secondnovel, I had become determined to write about North Carolina, mysecond home, as a challenge because I had none of the background tofall back on the way I had in the first two books. Eden grew out ofmy travels in the early 2000’s to isolated rural communities inNorth Carolina and out of what I learned about poor families in thisstate, both Black and White. I set the novel in the 1950’s whenracial bias was overt, but in my own travels, I discovered that theroots of racial and class bias endure. They haven’t been pulledfrom this earth.
Bee: Is there a favoritescene of yours within ‘Sunny Gale’ or a part you enjoyed writingthe most?
Jamie: There were manyscenes that I enjoyed writing, but I am going to talk about the oneyou quoted in your review because that scene touched so deeply on oneof my themes.
Much of Sunny Gale askswhat the heroine’s relationship is ultimately going to be withhorses. By extension, I wanted to explore what the human relationshipis with horses. These were wild animals, and in many cases, stillare, that we domesticated and molded for our own uses, originallysurvival uses and then recreation, sport, and entertainment uses. Iwanted to spotlight the tension that exists between the wild animalwith its own agency and the animal as used for our needs, desires orwhims.
In the scene you quoted,the heroine is looking from her upstairs apartment across therailroad tracks to a pen of horses destined for slaughter. She notestheir colors, their ages and behaviors. She imagines herself crossingthe railroad tracks and unlatching the gate. She imagines the horsesrunning loose through the snowy streets back out into the wild withthe one wild horse she had known, Zephira, the horse she thinks of asher own.
Yes, it was a greatpleasure to craft that scene.
Bee: Tell us your mostrewarding experience since being published?
Jamie: That’s hard toanswer since my professional writing has been so well rewarded forwhich I am very grateful. If I could distill the rewards I havereceived to their essence, I would say that the most rewardingexperience is receiving feedback from a reader or readers which tellsme that my message resonated. Writing fiction is a form ofcommunication and to hear a reader articulate an idea or emotion thatI was trying to invoke is as if someone pulled a message from abottle that I had set on the ocean.
Having said that, I amoverwhelmed by the reception Sunny Gale has received. To see so manyreaders connect with this novel is certainly one of the highlights ofmy career. To read words in reviews such as yours is among the greatblessings of my life.
Bee: Can you tell readersthat are just coming across you today a little about yourself?
Jamie: I grew up on ourfamily ranch in Laramie, Wyoming. We lived in the Little LaramieRiver Valley, which was an amazing privilege. Like many ranchchildren, I spent much of my time outdoors. After I graduated fromcollege and married, my husband and I returned to the ranch where weworked and raised our family for another fifteen years. Althoughranching is a difficult occupation, I loved being outside observingand being a part of our changing seasons. My own attachment forhorses developed during my ranching years. I rescued a horse that wasa little wild and over the years, the two us became quite bonded.
After the ranch was soldin 1993, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. I started out as aparalegal and later obtained my law degree and passed the NorthCarolina bar in 2001. I still live and write in North Carolina. Ihave two horses, both of whom are very loved. My own relationshipwith horses has enriched my life.
Follow Here To Read Bee's Review of Sunny Gale