Ask the Author: Jamie Lisa Forbes
Answered Questions (8)
Jamie Lisa Forbes
Right now I am reading Jacqueline Woodson's book, "Another Brooklyn." A New York Times Bestseller book is normally the last book I will pick to read, but the poetry in this book movingly evokes an entire world. Its style is similar to "Far Enough--A Western in Fragments", written by Joe Wilkins which was last year's winner of the High Plains Book Awards. Both books anchor the reader in the poetry of a distinct moment. I plan to read "The Refugees" by Viet Thanh Nguyen. I personally have worked with Asian immigrants for over a decade and it was those experiences that prompted me to pick that books for this summer's reading. Thanks for asking.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
Throughout southeast Wyoming, you can find the scattered homesteads of those from an earlier era who had hope and ambition, but whose dreams were snatched away by our rough, relentless winds.
One such gentleman was E.J. Bell, who tried farming and raising sheep, both tough prospects at our altitude of over 7000 feet. I remember the furrows in the prairie ground from his plows. He built an impressive 2 story Victorian house, next to a reservoir. The cotton wood tree he planted is still there today. I still have pictures of the house and Mr. Bell himself, hopeful in his suit and tie.
E. J. Bell's section was later bought by C.J. Arnold who consolidated it with larger parcels and then all of Mr. Arnold's property was bought by my grandfather. When I was a young child, E.J. Bell's lovely house still stood, lonely, but stout, there on the prairie.
One winter night when all the roads were blocked with snow, my parents woke me and told me the Bell house was burning. I was six or seven. It was clearly visible from my window. With the deep snow, no one could get to it to save it. All that remained after the fire was its skeleton, which itself became the subject of many photographs because of the empty landscape around it, and its suggestion of those who have come and gone on the high plains.
We later discovered that our neighbor had burned down the house. He had taken his Caterpillar tractor out in the middle of the night, driven over the snow a mile or more to the house and set it on fire. He had to have been passionate about the matter, because, as always, the wind was blowing that night and the temperature would have been close to zero. Had he been angry at Mr. Bell? Or at us? It seems he could have just as easily gotten up in the middle of the night and set fire to our houses and barns. Why the Bell house?
There is a plot in there somewhere.
One such gentleman was E.J. Bell, who tried farming and raising sheep, both tough prospects at our altitude of over 7000 feet. I remember the furrows in the prairie ground from his plows. He built an impressive 2 story Victorian house, next to a reservoir. The cotton wood tree he planted is still there today. I still have pictures of the house and Mr. Bell himself, hopeful in his suit and tie.
E. J. Bell's section was later bought by C.J. Arnold who consolidated it with larger parcels and then all of Mr. Arnold's property was bought by my grandfather. When I was a young child, E.J. Bell's lovely house still stood, lonely, but stout, there on the prairie.
One winter night when all the roads were blocked with snow, my parents woke me and told me the Bell house was burning. I was six or seven. It was clearly visible from my window. With the deep snow, no one could get to it to save it. All that remained after the fire was its skeleton, which itself became the subject of many photographs because of the empty landscape around it, and its suggestion of those who have come and gone on the high plains.
We later discovered that our neighbor had burned down the house. He had taken his Caterpillar tractor out in the middle of the night, driven over the snow a mile or more to the house and set it on fire. He had to have been passionate about the matter, because, as always, the wind was blowing that night and the temperature would have been close to zero. Had he been angry at Mr. Bell? Or at us? It seems he could have just as easily gotten up in the middle of the night and set fire to our houses and barns. Why the Bell house?
There is a plot in there somewhere.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
Wow, that is a very good question, especially when I have written about so many couples. Thanks for thinking of it.
To me, the best writer of couples was Edith Wharton. She was brilliant in exploring the ebbs and flows between couples, the nuances of relationships and the factors that work to pull people apart. Some of this spills into my own fiction, but certainly she was the master at picking apart how couples work. Or not. Given this view, my favorite couple is Ethan and Mattie in Edith Wharton's novella "Ethan Fromme." This is the story of a doomed couple, but so much of what happens to them is both an exemplar and a cautionary tale of all couples.
Thanks for your question.
To me, the best writer of couples was Edith Wharton. She was brilliant in exploring the ebbs and flows between couples, the nuances of relationships and the factors that work to pull people apart. Some of this spills into my own fiction, but certainly she was the master at picking apart how couples work. Or not. Given this view, my favorite couple is Ethan and Mattie in Edith Wharton's novella "Ethan Fromme." This is the story of a doomed couple, but so much of what happens to them is both an exemplar and a cautionary tale of all couples.
Thanks for your question.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
I am going to answer this for my short story collection, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, which comes out October 20. The stories in the collection were written over my life-time. The title novella, The Widow Smalls, was the last story to be written. Thinking about the characters in my novel, Unbroken, I wanted to create a heroine that was the opposite of those women. I wanted to create a woman stuck on a ranch who hated ranch life and see how I could get her to grow. That was the idea behind The Widow Smalls.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
Inspiration does not strike me all at once. That happens rarely, although it did happen for the story "Ramona Dietz" which will be coming out in my short story collection, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories. Otherwise, I find certain images and experiences linger my mind over a long time, usually years, until I find I want to turn them into stories.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
My short story collection, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, is due out from Pronghorn Press on October 20 of this year. I am also working on a novel about the rural South.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
The advice that was given to me is the advice I would give everyone else. First, read all the time. And second, don't stop writing.
Jamie Lisa Forbes
Writing fiction is very difficult. I am partial to the comment by Ernest Hemingway that a writer bangs his head against the typewriter until to the blood pours out. The satisfying component to writing is creating a work that has the ability to move people.
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