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| Dunkeld Catherdral |
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| J Schlenker |
While
cleaning out some bookshelves he pulled out a notebook of poems I had written
in high school. He said, “Why don’t you write?”
My
next question was what do I write about. While walking out in the woods, an
idea came to me. I get a lot of my ideas while out in nature. Sally came to
mind. I can’t even remember when I thought of Sally last. But the memory of the
one time I met her came to me as clear as on the day I actually did meet her.
Later
that same day, as synchronicities would happen, or some might call them
coincidences, when two angles come together to form something, in this case, it was the beginning of the fruition of my idea of writing about Sally, I heard about
Gather on NPR. I immediately checked it out on line and joined. Gather was a
community of writers or wanna be writers like myself. My husband, while driving
home, heard the same thing on NPR and said, “Jerri, I heard about this thing on
public radio, a place where you can contribute stories.”
I
told him, “Yep, heard it, too, and I’ve already joined.”
I
can’t even remember the first thing I wrote, but I remembered how nervous I was
to hit the submit button. But, back to Sally. Sally Ann Barnes (I didn’t even
know her last name at the beginning) was born in 1858 into slavery. She lived
to be 110, dying in 1969. I met her in 1961 when I was eight. She was 103 and
mopping the floor.
Sadly,
I didn’t start researching Sally’s life until about 2007, the same time I
joined Gather, and by the way, Gather is now defunct. But, it provided a great
start. I researched Sally’s life for three years. A lot of what I got were
mysteries. On Gather I wrote what I called Sally Shorts. Things about her life
came up that I would have never have dreamed of, one being the lost Jonathan
Swift Silver Mine. Besides doing the regular online research, visiting
courthouses, libraries, and historical museums, I made blind phone calls,
visited cemeteries and knocked on doors. I talked to so many old people. Eleven
years later, I find myself in that category. That is one of the things I miss,
hearing their stories, and they had great ones to tell. Not everyone welcomed
me with open arms, but most did.
As
time went by, I began to partially unravel the mystery of Sally. I discovered a
lot about where I live as well, Eastern Kentucky .
I hiked over many of the same places Sally would have trekked. My husband was
totally supportive, driving me places, hiking with me, and visiting cemeteries.
I
discovered NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The first thing I
attempted was to write Sally’s story. I don’t want to say I failed. It was
practice. It just wouldn’t come together for me. I was trying to write
non-fiction, even though I would never have all the facts. My husband kept
telling me to write it as fiction. I had never written fiction before.
I
skipped NaNoWriMo for a couple of years and then began again. This time I wrote
something entirely different, Jessica
Lost Her Wobble. It spanned the time period from 1900 to roughly 1980. I
sent the unfinished manuscript to the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Contest and became a finalist in
2014. I self-published Jessica Lost Her
Wobble in December 2015. I kept participating in NaNoWriMo. My second
novel, The Color of Cold and Ice, was
the result of National Novel Writing Month, as well. It won an IndieBrag award.
It was during the NaNoWriMo of 2016 I attempted
Sally again. I still couldn’t get it right. But, as fate would have it, I was
walking out in the woods and how to write Sally came to me. There was only
three days left of NaNo. I wrote furiously around the clock, getting my
fifty-thousand words in, the goal set forth by NaNoWriMo. But, I felt there was
more to find out, and as synchronicity would have it, there were still some
people left alive that could tell me things. It was almost as if Sally was
sending them my way so I could complete her story. I self-published Sally in September of 2017.
Once again, November rolled around. I began to
write about my own family during NaNoWriMo. The story would begin in the late
1800’s. I only got 17,000 words into it. Like Sally, it just wasn’t coming. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving,
2017. My husband and I were walking out in the woods, probably over the same
ground that Sally may have walked. Suddenly, all of these animals started
talking to me, a peacock in particular. After we got back to the house, I
started writing A Peculiar School, a
fantasy, something I never thought I would write, but then I had no idea I
would ever write a novel to begin with.
A couple of months ago I was beginning my
editing process of A Peculiar School
Nancy says: I agree that many things can happen which seem really coincidental and lead to a writer choosing a particular subject. My own historical focus of writing about Roman Scotland seems inevitable due to my having lived in at least 3 houses in the close proximity of ancient sites of Roman occupation- my current one really close! Serendipity? Coincidence?
Nancy says: I agree that many things can happen which seem really coincidental and lead to a writer choosing a particular subject. My own historical focus of writing about Roman Scotland seems inevitable due to my having lived in at least 3 houses in the close proximity of ancient sites of Roman occupation- my current one really close! Serendipity? Coincidence?
Jerri Adds: There
are several articles concerning Sally on the website, including pictures
concerning her life. There is also a picture of the Carnival Glass.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful story today, Jerri. Sally sounds like an amazing woman. Best wishes with sales for the novel and with all of your writing projects.
Slainthe!
