Under the Gallus Frame

by Darlene Matule

Under the Gallus Frame is the story of Marija, who is forced to leave her sweetheart Gus in Croatia in 1889 to marry a selfish, violent man in the rough-and-ready mining town of Butte, Montana. She transforms herself from an illiterate immigrant to owner, with a re-emerged Gus, of a thriving business and Matriarch of the Bartolji family. Her four children become leaders in The Company, The Miners' Union, The Church - and a hopeless drunk.

520 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

I spent my childhood in Glasgow, Montana, a town of 5000 (some say that number includes the dogs and cats), a town so safe a pubescent girl could walk home alone at 11 p.m. after seeing a movie with a friend. With no fear of abduction—or worse. So inept at sports that I was always the last one chosen to play a compulsory game of playground baseball, to my credit I could beat little-old-ladies in a no-holds-barred game of whist. And did. For ten years I took piano lessons from an elegant woman with a name that emotes talent—Florence Fennessey Friedland. However. after a decade of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, my musical talent is a life-long love of Gershwin, especially Rhapsody in Blue, with excellent keyboard skills thrown in as an aside.

Sewing and 4-H were my vehicles to success. After college (majored in home economics and minored in journalism), I married the love-of-my-life, Steve, had two daughters and, until my youngest was in 4th grade, was a stay-at-home-mom. I joined too many women’s organizations to mention, looking for fulfillment. Bored, one October Friday, I took a one-day, five-dollar-an-hour job because I “didn’t have any plans that day.” I found business was more fun than staying at home.

Until—on a trip to (then) Yugoslavia—I became a writer. One day I sat in a 19th century farmhouse kitchen in the heart of Croatia drinking the potent plum brandy called sljivovica and eating bread fresh from the corner brick oven and asked myself, “What if?” I've set my novels (Under the Gallus Frame and the sequel Framework of a Family) in places I know from two trips to Yugoslavia/Croatia and a lifetime of learning about the “Mining Capital of the World”— Butte Montana.

After years of working in the business world, I am now a full-time author, part-time volunteer, and dedicated reader. I find researching and/or writing books to be fulfilling and fun. I also enjoy my daughters and three grandsons, getting dirt under my fingernails working in the garden, and traveling with my husband, Steve.

Reviews

[Kevin Giles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary storytelling. Beautifully crafted, solidly researched with characters that stick with you. The novel insightfully (and accurately) takes the reader on a journey into the early mining history of hell-roaring Butte, Montana. This historical fiction reminds me of the works of Anna Petken.