Questions for Paulette Jiles [ Edited ]

[Amanda_R]

Hi All:

What a treat to have author Paulette Jiles joining us! She'll officially be joining our discussion on Monday, June 4th.

I'm sure that you have plenty of thoughtful and compelling questions for her -- so please post them here so that she's sure to see them and respond.

Many thanks, and have fun!

Amanda

Message Edited by Amanda_R on 06-06-2007 10:37 AM

[DavidEdgewood]

I was immediately pulled into the lives of the Stoddards. I didn't think of Jack Stoddard as a bad person. He seemed to be a product of the times, his environment. I suppose to a small degree his love for Jeanine overshadowed his bad-boy nature. Not to defend him but he was doing what he thought was best in that time. It seems people back then just overlooked those types of flaws in a man. If he were in the 21st century I'm sure we would consider him an addicted bum.

In your research did you find many stories of people like Jack Stoddard?

[sis]

Hi I love this book. What is a windlass? Sis in Texas.

[pkjiles]

Remember that Jack was overcome with sour gas (s2S) and this affected his thinking. He was always a gambler and a party animal but the sour gas affected his brain and all restraints left him.

[pkjiles]

A windlass is a kind of crank with which the girls cranked up the bucket from deep in the well.

[pkjiles]

As to the second part of your question, yes I found many people like him in my research and there are of course just as many people like him today.

He's a trickster. Tricksters don't always make good parents.

[jd]

Ms Jiles - Are you drawn to one character more than another? I felt your adult experience were the older women. Bea is very special and a writer. She is very precocious and I am wondering if that is based on you or someone you know as a child???? did you write at an early age? - jd

[pkjiles]

Yes, Bea is very much like I was at thirteen-fourteen, only I was also a tomboy like Jeanine and probably a bit of a romantic like Mayme. We all have various aspects to our personalities and these are sort of psychological structures we can draw on to create characters. But Bea's expereinces are similar to mine in that I was writing 'western' stories at a time when I was about to enter a new high school, and suddenly found that 'western' stories were considered slightly trashy. Of course I gave them up in order to fit in but the quest theme kept coming back to me over the years as they type of narrative I was most interested in. I spoke about this on the video.

By the way I just recieved a letter today from someone here in the area where I live, and she writes of living through the drought of the 1950's, which was as severe as that of the 30's here in Texas, and she notes the similiarities of her life and that of the Stoddard girls. She also writes;

"But most of all my father had a passion for a fast horse and raised and ran some of the fastest horses in South Texas at the time...my sister Joan won the Texas State All-Around Cowgirl championship on a beautiful black gelding named Smokey Joe. Smokey was from Joe Hancock lineage and was kept a stallion until he got so mean Daddy was afraid he would hurt us."

I love getting letters like that.

[bookluver196]

At the end of the novel, I felt so sad that I wouldn't be able to read more about the lives of the Stoddard's, in particular Jeanine's future life with Ross. How does it feel for you - as the author - to leave your characters behind? Do you ever consider writing a sequel to any of your novels? What are you presently working on?

Laurie

[bentley]

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Amanda_R wrote:
Hi All:

What a treat to have author Paulette Jiles joining us! She'll officially be joining our discussion on Monday, June 4th.

I'm sure that you have plenty of thoughtful and compelling questions for her -- so please post them here so that she's sure to see them and respond.

Many thanks, and have fun!

Amanda

Message Edited by Amanda_R on 06-06-2007 10:37 AM

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Hello Ms. Jiles,

I noticed on your dedication page that you wrote: "For Mayme and Maxie, who were there when I came into this world and have been there ever since.". This struck me because you named one of the sisters Mayme. Who are the Mayme and Maxie on the dedication page and was the character of Mayme named for one of these individuals?

Thank you,

Bentley

[pkjiles]

Answers to two questions;

Did it feel sad to leave Jeanine behind, facing the hard life of a ranch wife?

Jeanine has changed by the end of the novel. She has moved to another level of life altogether, and there the novel ends because it is about Jeanine as her father's daughter. She knows she will become a wife and mother and that is another story. World War 2 is another story.

As for the aunts the book is dedicated to --- my mother was one of three sisters. My mother passed away in 1983, and her sister Maxie died three weeks ago, a terrible loss for all of our family.

Mayme is still living and is 95 and quite spry.

The three sisters were always close and in some ways the book is based on them --- but a literary character is never a true 'portrait' but has to work on its own.

[bentley]

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pkjiles wrote:
Answers to two questions;

Did it feel sad to leave Jeanine behind, facing the hard life of a ranch wife?

Jeanine has changed by the end of the novel. She has moved to another level of life altogether, and there the novel ends because it is about Jeanine as her father's daughter. She knows she will become a wife and mother and that is another story. World War 2 is another story.

As for the aunts the book is dedicated to --- my mother was one of three sisters. My mother passed away in 1983, and her sister Maxie died three weeks ago, a terrible loss for all of our family.

Mayme is still living and is 95 and quite spry.

The three sisters were always close and in some ways the book is based on them --- but a literary character is never a true 'portrait' but has to work on its own.

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Thank you Ms. Jiles for your wonderful answers.

Regarding your first answer; I look forward to a sequel if there is one (smile). This is the first novel of yours that I have had the pleasure of reading; but I now plan not to stop with Stormy Weather.

Regarding the question that I posed about the book's dedication: First, Mayme since she is quite spry must be very proud of you and so pleased that your book was dedicated to her and to her sister. Better still that the eldest sister in the novel was named after her. Was Mayme the eldest of the three aunts and in what order were your mother and Maxie?

I am sorry about your mother and aunt's passing in the same year and so close. My mother passed away not so long ago and it is a terrible loss for everyone. It is almost as if the family feels adrift and doesn't realize how much steering their mother actually did for everyone.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.

Bentley

[pkjiles]

Yes, Mayme was the oldest. She was ten years older than the next girl, who was my mother.

If you look at the video, you will see a photograph of the three girls, with my mother in the middle Maxie to the left and Mayme to the right.

Thank you for your kind condolences.

Mayme as a character has red hair, that was something I used to distinguish her from the 'real' Mayme (her hair is an ordinary brown -- or was)and to make sure she became an independent character on her own. You will see that the symbolism around Mayme in the book is always red. For her good cheer and hopefulness.

[Fozzie]

Paulette, I was especially intrigued by some of the information on the Comanche, dogs, and horses in Chapter 25.

"Other tribes ate dog but the Comanche would not, even if they were starving. And so the dogs that nodded and wagged at the edges of their campfires were grateful, and after many centuries of arrogant starvation and suffereing on the part of the Comanche, the dogs grought to them a gift: horses."

Is this an Indian legend?

[pkjiles]

The information about the Comanche history and culture is from T.R. Fehrenbach's 'Comanche: The Destruction Of A People'. They would not eat dog, which most tribes regarded as a food source. However the part about the dogs bringing them horses in gratitude is something I made up. It fitted, and it works as a metaphor, it comes around to an ending as the dogs then take back the horses where actually it was MacKenzie of the US Army who shot all their horses in Palo Pinto Canyon and at last vanquished them and sent them back to the reservatiuon in OK. I.e., 'the dogs, gray as bullets, at last took back their gift of horses'.

The gray, wolf-like dogs turn into bullets.

[jd]

Ms Jiles - summer has caught up with me and I must sign off, but I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your wonderful book and having this online chat with you. One of the things BN gets right is having authors discuss their work here with the readers and I really enjoy it. Hope you did also - jd

[bentley]

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jd wrote:
Ms Jiles - summer has caught up with me and I must sign off, but I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your wonderful book and having this online chat with you. One of the things BN gets right is having authors discuss their work here with the readers and I really enjoy it. Hope you did also - jd

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I have to echo jd's note and also wanted to say thank you for your participation in this online chat. Your book is indeed wonderful and beautifully written.

Again, thank you.

Bentley