Summer 2007 - the Wyoming State Library

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Love of literature shines through books, genesFamous author native to CheyenneHer voice rings with excitement and of ayouth most people wish they could hold onto.Maybe that’s why children’s author PatriciaMacLachlan is so good at sparking the interestof young readers with her books. She is bestknown as the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall.“When you’re writing a book, you neverknow how your readers will react, whetherthey’ll love it or drop it like a stone. You neverknow. You kind of write books for yourselfand hope somebody else likes them,” she says.MacLachlan, a featured author at theWyoming Book Festival, lived in theCowboy State until she was in the first grade.Her former home in Cheyenne is quitedifferent from her home in Williamsburg,Massachusetts.“I like the prairie, and I like the wide openspaces and the big sky, so I’ m always wishinghalf the trees here would fall down. I have asummer house by the water, when you lookout over the water it’s kind of like looking outover the prairie” says the author.The Wyoming author has released morethan 20 books. Her most recent are a novel,entitled Edward’s Eyes, about what happens ina family when one of the children dies, and apicture book called Fiona Loves the Night, whichMacLachlan created with her daughter, Emily.The duo has done a series of picture bookswith a few more to come in the collection, shesays.“It’s very funny because we revert back tomother and daughter in some funny ways.We’ll get a little cranky with each other andother times we get hysterical and laugh a lot.It’s really like a family,” MacLachlan says ofworking with her daughter.In addition, MacLachlan says Emily hasbecome a very good editor.“Sometimes she’ll say things to me like, ‘Areyou really committed to that sentence?’”She says she hopes she and her daughter willsome day write a novel together.Emily isn’t the only one of the MacLachlan’schildren to share her literary interests. Oneson, John, has written a book, too, while theother son, Jamison, lives in Boston and worksin publishing.Her children have always played a role in herbooks. Some characters were based on herchildren, something they said, or somethingthey did.“Sometimes they recognize somethingthey’ve said but realize I’ve painted over it asa painter would. I’ve changed it, so it’s notobvious to anyone but them.”One of the reasons her children may be sointerested in literature is because they were sosurrounded by it growing up. MacLachlan hada similar upbringing having two parents whowere teachers.“They’re all avid readers, and I think it’s howyou grow up and what you’re used to,” shesays.MacLachlan spends some of her timespeaking with other people’s children, too. Shesays when she visits schools, she makes surestudents know a book is never finished theminute she stops writing. She must rewriteover and over again.“It’s good for them to see how much wehave in common, because teachers make themdo things over, and my editors make me dothings over,” MacLachlan says.Most of the things MacLachlan writes aboutdevelops from experiences in her youth orpeople she knows. Sarah, Plain and Tall wasstrongly based on her mother’s family.“I often tell kids they’re living the life nowthat they will write about later.”MacLachlan has won numerous literaryawards including the Newbery Medal forSarah, Plain and Tall.“I think winning the Newbery Medial wasa very high point in my career, because it ischosen by librarians. But sometimes I think thehigh point in my career is writing a sentence inmy next book,” she jokes.She also won the Christopher Award, TheScott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction,the Golden Kite Award and many AmericanLibrary Association Notable Books. In 2003she was awarded the National HumanitiesMedal for her body of work. She received themedal at the White House in Washington,D.C. She was also an Emmy nominee for thescreenplay of Sarah, Plain and Tall, produced byGlenn Close and Hallmark Hall of Fame.20Wyoming Library Roundup • Summer 2007
Wyoming author uses sense of humorwhen promoting Wyoming librariesIt’s unclear whether or not author CraigJohnson is a cheap date, but the good newsis he has a pretty cheap honorarium forlibraries—a six-pack of Rainier Beer, canspreferred. “A lot of libraries go ‘wow, justgive a six-pack, hmmm, maybe we shouldgive that guy a call,’” the author laughs.“I think you can judge a society by itslibraries, and with that in mind, Wyomingcomes out ahead. We’ve got a wonderfullibrary systemin the state,and anythingI can do topromote themand literacy isa donedeal.”The story of his honorarium beganwith the Meeteetse library that wantedto bring him in to do an event but wereunsure whether they’d have enough money.“I wrote and said that once you reach acertain level or literary notoriety; you can’treally negotiate your honorarium; mine isthe same as it’s always been: a six pack ofRainier Beer,” jokes Johnson.But jokes aside, Johnson is a seriouswriter with some serious attention. Hisbooks have received high praise. Before hiswriting success, Johnson spent a long timein what he calls his “bum years.” Johnsonsays he did everything from being acowboy to a police officer. “A lot of times,I look back and think thank goodness Ibecame a writer or else all of this wouldhave been for nothing. I would have justbeen a bum.”In addition to running the gamutof jobs, life for him was scatteredthrough much of the country. Heeventually found and built his ranchin Ucross, Wyoming—population25. And it’s this place and Wyomingas a whole that have had significantroles in his writing. “To ignore theplace is to do something at your own riskas a writer, because it informs everything.Location informs your characters—whothey are and where they’re from. To ignorethat would just be a criminal act, as far asI’m concerned,” Johnson says.He also decided to put an emphasis onthe seasons in his books. The Cold Dishstarts with fall, followed by Death WithoutCompany in winter and Kindness GoesUnpunished in spring. His next book, AnotherMan’s Moccasins, is a summer book.“I decided I would take into considerationone of the things that has the most impacton us out here in the West—the weatherand the seasons.”Setting his books in Wyoming, in theromantic beauty and epic quality of theWest, may have even been one of thereasons his books were published. “It’snice to be reminded of the beauty here.Whenever I walk out to feed the horses inthe morning and the sun is hitting the hillsjust right; the dynamic is gold and beautiful,it just reminds you. It reminds you that welive in a wonderful place—a special place.”Johnson says he shies away from tellingpeople what a Cinderella story his writingcareer has been. His book earned positivereviews in publications such as The NewYork Times, Washington Post and Denver Post.But, after all the national attention hisbooks receive, he’s most happy that hisstories resonate with readers in Wyoming.“There’s the biblical phrase that theprophet hath no honor in his own country.You worry about that type of thing, butthe responses the books receive nationally,internationally, and particularly here inWyoming are very important to me.”At the opening of Johnson’s web sitewww.craigallenjohnson.com it reads,“People wonder where I get my eccentriccharacters, but if they lived in Wyomingthey wouldn’t ask me that question.”Johnson’s Walt Longmire novels TheCold Dish, Death Without Company andKindness Goes Unpunished, received starredreviews in Kirkus and Booklist and withBooksense and Killer picks. The Cold Dishwas a DILYS award finalist and DeathWithout Company won the 2006 WyomingHistorical Society’s Best Fiction Award andwas a finalist for the Mountain & PlainsBook of the Year. Kindness Goes Unpunishedwas 38 on the ABA Hardback Best SellersList. His short story, Old Indian Trick, wonthe Hillerman Award, and the fourth inthe Walt Longmire series, Another Man’sMoccasins, will be published by Viking inMarch 2008.When asked if he still did his in-statehonorariums for a six-pack, Johnsonreplied. “Yep, but these days they usuallyoverpay me with an eighteen-pack.”Speaking: 12:45 p.m., Saturday, Mystery &Crime TentBook signing: 1:30 p.m., SaturdayPanel: Mystery Panel, 10 a.m., Saturday, PlainsHotelWorkshop: Cannibalizing Your Friends andFamily for Characters, 2:30 p.m., Friday, AtlasTheatreWyoming Library Roundup • Summer 2007 21
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Summer 2007 - the Wyoming State Library

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