Summer 2007 - the Wyoming State Library

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Wyoming nativerevisits past innewest bookEveryone has that moment in their life wherethey stop believing. They stop believing allpeople are good and begin worrying about theirsafety.That moment for author Ron Franscell, whois a featured author at the Wyoming BookFestival, was Sept. 24, 1973. This was the day hisfriends and neighbors Amy Burridge, 11, andher half-sister Becky Thomson, 18, were thrownfrom a Casper bridge by two men. Amy waskilled in the fall, while Becky died 19 years laterat that same spot.“It was for me, personally, that momentwhen the illusions about safety fall away.Up to that point you’re a kid and you’regrowing up in a small town and you’rethinking this wouldn’t happen here. Youknow what; you don’t even think that,because you don’t even know what’spossible. You’re not thinking aboutviolence setting in among you. You’renot thinking about evil coming,” theauthor says.Franscell returns to his hometown andthis moment in his latest book, Fall: TheRape and Murder of Innocence in a SmallTown.“I simply wanted to get beneath theskin of this place where I grew up,” saysthe author.“I wanted to ask some questions thatI didn’t know the answers to, to see whyone event could stick in the memory theway this particular event did.”Another day that sticks in people’smemories is the events of Sept. 11, 2001.Franscell, who is a journalist, workedfor The Denver Post during the attacksand was quickly sent to the Middle East.On his return home, he recalls lookingat photos of the attack in a Frenchmagazine. The photos were of peoplewho had jumped from a World TradeCenter building and one in particularshowed two people holding hands asthey fell. He doesn’t know if it was thefatigue or the long flight, but Franscellwas immediately taken back 30 years towhat happened to his friends.“I’m looking at these photos from theWTC and I’m thinking of a differentterror, not the morning of terror ofSept. 11, but the night of Sept 24, 1973and then they began to blend,” Franscellsays.He began to think of it as a storyto how people deal with this kind ofterror and within the next year he beganworking on Fall.“I knew a book would come from it,because I knew that the issues were thatbig. They were bigger than my curiosity,”Franscell says.He returned home to talk to the peoplewho knew Becky and Amy best, whoknew what had happened. To manypeople he says this is still an openwound for them, but the people of hishometown were glad it was “one of us”who was trying to uncover the truth.“If writing it down and telling thetruth about what happened and moreimportantly what didn’t happen willhelp people, then that’s good. I guess Ihave an abiding faith as a journalist thatspeaking the truth the best we can istherapeutic. It doesn’t hurt. That doesn’tmean that there aren’t facts that don’tcause some pain,” he says.One of the most important partsfor Franscell was speaking to the oneremaining killer, Ronald Kennedy.Franscell’s background as a journalistmakes it important for him to step backfrom his personal feelings and get bothsides of the story.“Some people have certainly said thatI gave a rapist killer a chapter in a book.Others have marveled the mind that wasreflected there. It’s really up to the reader.I did what I thought was the right thingto do.”Franscell insists that he is not a truecrime writer and his next book will notbe a true crime book. His first book,Angel Fire, was a contemporary fictionand his second book, The Deadline, was amystery. He says he writes what he wantsto write, whether or not that falls into acertain literary category.“I am at bottom a story teller and I tellthe story that presents itself. I’m gonnatell the story that I want to tell, that’s justwhere my heart lies,” he says.Speaking: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Mystery & Crime TentBook signing: 10:30 a.m., SaturdayPanel: Crime Panel, Noon, Saturday, Plains Hotel12Wyoming Library Roundup • Summer 2007
Connection with reader and theWest motivate writerWill Hobbs, who is attending the Wyoming Book Festival, is an award-winning authorof 16 novels for upper elementary, middle school and young adult readers.What is your favorite thing aboutwriting?I enjoy the improvisation that happenson a good day during first-draft writing,when my subconscious is in play and myfingers are flying. But the very best part iswhen the book finally comes out and findsreaders.What made you decide to write booksfor younger audiences?It was just a natural fit. As a seventh gradeteacher, I had a classroom library of 500-600 books, mostly novels written for youngpeople. It was a case of “I want to do that!”For several years you were a teacher.What influence does teaching have onyour writing?Actually it was 17 years of teaching—reading and English. That’s definitely wheremy sense of audience comes from. I knowhow easily kids will puta book down. A youngadult novel has to becompelling, challenging,and never lacking forclarity.What role does theWest play in yourwriting?Huge—I want to takekids into the amazingwild places of the NorthAmerican West andintroduce them to the“real world” as I thinkof it. My experiences inwilderness have been thestarting points for almostall of my seventeennovels.What motivates you asa writer?My biggest motivationis making the connectionwith readers: having themtell me, in person or incorrespondence, that the story really tookthem places, that they identified with thecharacter, that they learned something, thatthe novel moved them.You do a good job at connecting withyounger readers, how do you do it?By never writing down to them—I’m stillpretty connected to my own feelings fromthose years, and I have lots of nieces andnephews who keep me young.What is your latest project?My latest is Crossing the Wire, about a 15-year-old boy from central Mexico whosuddenly discovers that he can no longersell the corn he’s been raising to supporthis mother, four sisters, and little brother.With virtually no money and no one withexperience to show him the way, VictorFlores has to journey “across the wire”into the United States to find work andsend money home. It’s a very different sortof adventure/survival novel, all too real.My goal was to put a human face on thecomplex and controversial subject of illegalimmigration.Is there anything you would like toadd?Yes! I was awarded Wyoming’s readervotedIndian Paintbrush Award for mynovel, Down the Yukon. Coming from thekids, this was a huge honor, and I wantto thank them and all the teachers andlibrarians who make the Paintbrush Awardpossible.Speaking: 3:15 p.m., Saturday, Laramie CountyLibrary-LarkspurBook signing: Noon, SaturdayPanel: Children’s Writing, 10 a.m., Saturday,Laramie County Library-WillowWill Hobbs with the real-life bald eaglethat inspired the eagle names LIBERTYin his novel, Jackie’s Wild Seattle.Wyoming Library Roundup • Summer 2007 13
Page 3 and 4: LibraryWyomingSummer 2007Rounduptab
Page 6: Wyoming Book Festival: Meet the aut
Page 9 and 10: teaches nature and spiritual/religi
Page 11: Friday writing workshops at theWyom
Page 17 and 18: other women writers in the 1920s an
Page 19 and 20: Author’s river writing journeysto
Page 21 and 22: Warden tells tales of rugged,colorf
Page 23 and 24: Wyoming author uses sense of humorw
Page 25 and 26: Author sends message of life after
Page 27 and 28: Festival bringsauthor homePoet and
Page 29 and 30: Sandlin says hippie erawill return
Page 31 and 32: Help support the Wyoming Book Festi
Page 33 and 34: Wyoming Book Festival MapWyoming Li
Page 35 and 36: ook signing-saturdayWyoming Library

Summer 2007 - the Wyoming State Library

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?