Today I’m thrilled to have Barbara Andrews author of Hetty’s Song, The Death of the Skylark with me in the Blue Rose Writing Room.
Welcome Barbara!
Tell, us, how long have you been writing?
Writing has been in my roots for well over twenty-five years. In business, I learned a great deal imitating vocabulary, style and structure. I found transcribing shorthand a boot camp for writing reports, legislative bills, curricula, and technical writing. Then, I discovered the “muse”– that phenomena in our head that creates concepts and ideas and molds them into a story. I’ve been writing fiction for over nine years.
What’s one place you absolutely want to visit before you die?
Singer’s Glen, Virginia, and Sherrills Ford, North Carolina by all means. I would like to walk in the steps of two of my women heroines from my books.
Oh, I love that idea! Why did you choose to write in this genre? Have you ever written any other genre? Do you plan on doing so in the future?
A number of years ago, my family identified a few direct ancestors that we collectively knew about. Over the next five years, I built a database of over 19,000 kin, and through research, discovered a number of interesting people—even a smuggler and a horse thief. Bits of stories emerged and I wanted to go to the next level and tell their stories combining what happened with what could have happened (fiction). For my future writing, I haven’t yet exhausted my “interesting” kin.
That’s absolutely fascinating. What historical figure do you wish you could have met?
I would like to meet two of my favorite characters: Bonnie Kate Sherrill Sevier, who could ride faster and shoot further than anyone west of the Allegheny mountains. She married John Sevier, the Indian fighter turned Governor of the Lost State of Franklin and the State of Tennessee, and is credited with being one of the most influential ladies in Tennessee history. Most important, I would like to go with my friends to a concert and hear the remarkable Hetty, the shy Brethren girl who became a famous classical singer.
Tell us one unusual, weird, or curious fact you discovered while researching this book.
Most surprising was growing up unaware of my family history and finding through research that I had Quaker, Mennonite, and Brethren ancestors from Wales and Switzerland. My horse-thief cousin didn’t surprise me.
Chuckling here! What are you most proud of about your writing?
Finding exceptional people, especially women who made a difference in their time, but were not chronicled in our history books, gives me great pleasure. Having my books receive recognition and awards from the Houston Writers Guild and the 2012 Writers-Editors Network International have been both fun and exciting.
And well deserved! How do you respond to negative reviews?
I belong to several writers critique groups and I know something is wrong if I don’t get criticism for how my stories can be improved. Nobody likes nasty people, and it is easy to take criticism personally, but other points of view regardless of where they come from tell me where there is a disconnect in my story that needs to be fixed. I take note, make the fix, and then find the delete button.
I love your attitude! What is something you are determined to do?
Pass to the great yonder with a pencil in hand, my computer turned on, and a book in progress.
Do you have a favorite quote?
“Don’t let the last person who never tries be me.”
I am going to use that with my students. Tell us something unusual, quirky, or odd about yourself?
I fired myself. I was Delaware’s first woman Secretary of the Senate, and when an election changed the political winds, I read from the podium to an audience of over 400 people on opening day the opposition’s Resolution that removed me and the President Pro Tem from office. Needless to say, the General Assembly recessed.
Okay, now for the quickie questions: Answer in three words or less. Ready? Go!
Favorite Disney Character? Dumbo
Favorite Fruit? Black Cherries
Favorite Hero? Bronco-riding Grandfather
Favorite Eye Color? Hazel Green
Best Vacation Destination? Lake Louise, Canada
Food you can’t stand? Brussel Sprouts
What annoys you? Over-talkative People
Coffee, tea, or something else? Coffee
Nightgown or Jammies? Camouflage T-Shirt
Prefer dogs or cats? Dogs
A bit about Barbara (Bobi)
A Nebraskan by birth, I graduated from the University of Nebraska with a BS in Education. My business experience has included State of Delaware
Secretary of the Senate, Sales Manager for Multinational Company, Adult Education teacher and administrator (President of Houston Campus of a national proprietary technical school), National Accreditation Commissioner for Proprietary Schools, and Genealogy Consultant. I am a member of the Historical Novel Society and have been affiliated with the Houston Writers Guild, Gulf Coast Federation of Writers, and Houston Women in Visual and Literary Arts.
The blurb about Hetty’s Song, The Death of the Skylark
Naïve and vulnerable to the ways of the world, she comes under the curse of the ancient evil skylark and falls hopelessly in love, only to suffer rejection and heartache. Finding herself pregnant she must decide whether to marry the father of her unborn child. Cruelly, he forces her into his life of lies, gambling, and crime. To avoid succumbing to his evil, she wills her voice to silence. Will she break the skylark’s curse to become the greatest singer from Singer’s Glen, or will she remain silent without song, the skylark triumphant?
Enjoy an excerpt from Hetty’s Song, The Death of the Skylark
Chapter 1
At first sight of silhouettes picking their way down a narrow path from the ridge, a young girl ran as fast as she could. She knew them well, their identity unmistakable from their dark suits, wide brimmed hats, and chest-deep beards. Racing through trees, over crags, past caves, streams, and deer trails, she followed the familiar path as if etched on the back of her hand. Her hide-out in the thick wooded slopes of the Shenandoah Mountains was the one place the Elders wouldn’t find her. Like their other visits, Mama would soon be captive for a lecture on the proper behavior of a daughter of God, more specifically, her daughter Hetty.
“Hetty. Hetty.” Mama’s voice, tightening to a harsh demand, echoed through the thin, misty air. “Come at once.”
Reaching her hide-out, Hetty ignored Mama’s call and slid down a grassy bank to a large, smooth-faced boulder projecting itself into a rippling creek going everywhere, yet nowhere.
Her image in the sun-glazed water reflected a faded gray cape dress with its line of small buttons to the neck, butterfly collar, a bibbed black apron, and a white pleated prayer cap. Thick woolen stockings scratched inside her high top, black-laced shoes. In her plainness, she felt muted, suffocated, and separated from the world. She yearned for her life to change.
Keeping her company, a barred-wing skylark with its butter-yellow breast scratched the ground under a sumac bush on the far bank. Under his golden, watchful eyes, his ancient evil unknown, Hetty dreamed to live as a wood nymph, to take leave of the confining dreariness, and breathe in God’s glory where all things glowed in the hues of the rainbow.
Deep in the pines, two tawny deer rutted, a golden eagle soared and collided with his mate, a glistening boat-tail grackle strutted his purple dance, and a scarlet tanager sang in a mass of a hundred greens looming above her.
“No matter what,” Hetty vowed to the skylark, “I’ll sing when I want. Won’t let nobody stop me.”
Here’s how you can contact Barbara
http:www//BobiAndrews.Blogspot.Com
@BobiAndrews
Thanks again, Barbara, for joining me here today.
Buy links
Amazon.com
Soul Mate Publishing.com
