James Randall Chumbley

Creating Art in Life Series
Putting the spotlight on artist and writers of our times.

By Theodore Chester


Alabama Snow
By James R. Chumbley



This book is an honest, yet loving tribute from a son to his mother. Alabama Snow is the story of Mary Ellen Rushing Chumbley, a woman who traveled a painful path in her life. The son, author James Randall Chumbley, is a gifted writer and talented artist. Perhaps that's the reason why his words paint such incredible mental pictures, drawing the reader into the moment. 
Readers are able to visualize, and to feel this story. Chumbley reaches into the depths of his family dynamic and pulls out his" DNA demons" with amazing courage. No pity party about family dysfunction, mental illness, and sexuality, Alabama Snow is about the direction we have taken in our lives. It's about death, yet it teaches us so much about love and life.

I sat down with author and artist, James Randall Chumbley to talk about his book, Alabama Snow. When I review a book, I try to keep myself at a distance from the material at hand. But, Chumbley has a trick up his sleeve when it comes to pulling the reader into the pages of his books.

“All I can say is, WOW, Mr. Chumbley.”
“Please call me Randy. And, I hope the wow part is a good thing.”
“It is. Why did you write this story?”
“I had never plan on writing Alabama Snow. But, after my mother died, I was settling her affairs with my sister and found so many things she had kept, and I was going through them, her life, as I knew it, just flashed before my eyes. I knew then that I had to tell her story for her and all the women like her that gave up so much of their lives and dreams for their children. It was a different time then. I just wanted people do know who Mary Ellen Rushing Chumbley was.”
“Well, Randy. Tell me. I mean. Tell me who she was.”
“That’s a big question. She was an amazing woman. So beautiful, but so troubled at the same time. She was once a young girl growing up in rural Alabama on a cotton farm. Her father, my grandfather, was a sharecropper. She hated the cotton. She loved school, which was a brief escape from the hard life she was forced to live by her birthright.”
“Earlier, you stated that she gave up her dreams for her children. What do you mean.”?
My mother was a beautiful young woman. She wanted to go to college and move to California, or perhaps New York City and become a singer and an actress.”
“What stopped her, Mr. Chumbley? I mean, Randy.”
It’s a long story. I understand we only have any hour for this interview. But I will give you the short version. If you want to know more, or your readers rather, perhaps they will read the book.”
“Okay. Tell me as much as you feel we have time for.”
“My mother fell in love with the wrong man. He made her big promises and then kept her a prisoner. He was too afraid that someone would take her away from him because of her beauty. But let me clarify. She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. I’m like her in many ways; I could never see the beauty I’d inherited from her until many years later. Our lives were a battlefield and we lived a war raged by my father.
My mother struggled with a long list of mental disorders. And then, to try to deaden the emotion pain, she took to the bottle and became an alcoholic as my father was. He was a brutal man. And a very mean drunk.
“How did you mother cope with her life?’
“She drank a lot. Especially after she found my father dead in the living room of our house. He shot himself and left himself for her to find him. It was his final cruel act on her. He could have gone anywhere to end his life, but he chose to do it so she would have to suffer more. I have mixed feelings about it. Maybe he just needed her to be there. Maybe he still loved her in his own warped way. But, it was the last nail in her coffen, if you will. After that she struggled more with mental illness and alcholism. I don’t blame her. I understand. She lived out the rest of her life in great emotional pain. But, she is my hero. Despite had bad things gotten for her, she lived on hope. Eventually, she ended up in the State Mental Hospital for three years. I write about all this in the book. I hope she is proud of me. Proud of me for telling her story.”
“Now that the book is finished and has been out for awhile. What are your plans?”
“I hope to set up a scholership in her name to send a young girl to college every year to honor my mother from her small high school in Fayette, Alabama. I know she would want me to do that.”
“What about for you?”
“I have my own ball of stuff. I’ve been dealing with the betrayal of someone I loved very. Someone I trusted with my life. The relationship ended by him lying and cheating on me. I ended my life because of what he did. Not just the break up. Leaving me that is, but what he did afterwards. I’m writing my fourth book, The Boy in the Bird Bath about the story, and about life.”
“What do you hope to accomplished with this new book, Randy?”
“I hope it will give others strength that have been where I was. I hope it will keep someone from ending their life, as I did.”
“You ended your life?”
“Yes. I was brought back after five hours on an operating table.”
“Tell me more.”
“I think at this time, I need to finish the book. And then the story is out there and I can stop telling the story. I want to finish this book and go on with my life. I want to fulfill my dreams; for me and for my mother.”

You can read more about this amazing artist and writer by visiting his websites: jamesrandallchumbley.com and jrchumbleyart.com.
I have to say, in all my interviews, I have never been so intrigued by someone I sense that has so much heart as soul. I’m looking forward to Mr. Chumbley finishing this fourth writing project. I want to know more about this amazing person, as you should.

You can email Theodore Chester at: creatingartinlife@yahoo.com.