Augusta Locke
by William Haywood Henderson
Buy book: $11.19

Set primarily in Wyoming, Henderson's new novel is the chronicle of six generations of a family, viewed through the lens of one woman's very long life. Augusta "Gussie" Locke is born in Minnesota in 1903. As a teenager she moves west with her mother to Colorado and then runs away from home. A one-night stand with a traveling soldier leaves her pregnant, and with her daughter, Anne, she eventually finds a life in Wyoming running supplies to oil and mineral crews in the Great Basin Divide.

Hi, all! Bill Henderson here, author of Augusta Locke. I’m happy to have my novel included on the Email Book Club list, and I’d love to participate in the forum. If you have any questions about Augusta Locke or writing in general, post them and I’ll jump into the discussion. Looking forward to seeing your comments. Thanks.

This sounds like a very interesting book. Gussie sounds like an independent person. I like that. I will put this book on my "want" list.

"To Gussie this girl was remarkably strange, remarkably dear. There were years between them, -(whole continents of regret.)" - brackets mine - Finding phrases like this is like finding little treasures for me in my reading of books - sort of like special tiny seashells or grains of gold when seining for gold, I suppose -

Have already placed a hold at library for this one - Gussie is already a real character to me and like the book spanning generations of time - She seems quite old at this point -physically, it seems - but not mentally - this will be my next read - I am #1 on the wait list which promises to be soon -

There was a real Gussie (Gussie Anderson) that I based my Gussie on. She lived in Dubois, Wyoming, where my parents had a ranch for 20 years. The first time I saw her, working on a windmill, I thought she was a man. She was a tough little character. Later I learned that she'd come into Wyoming from Colorado with a young daughter in tow, though no one could ever tell me what had happened to that child (at the point of asking, Gussie had already passed on). I also learned that Gussie had spent most of her life working men's jobs, such as road crew, ranch hand, outfitter, etc. Seemed like a perfect character for a novel! Mostly I was interested in exploring how a single woman raised a daughter in Wyoming in the 1930s, but I was also interested in figuring out how a woman got along in such a rough working environment.

Having only read one chapter of you book so far, I feel the deep love and intimate relationship youhave with all the creatures of the world. i enjoyed the details of bird types and plant names. i know i will enjoy the book. i felt the earth beneath my feet and the smell of the forest.

My mother was a biology teacher, and whenever we went camping or hiking she would point out all the various plants, birds, animals, etc. It was a great education. It really shaped the way I see the natural world.

Hi Bill,

I'm impressed by your undertaking to tell the story of six generations. I'm working on a novel, and as much as I think it would be great fun to tell the story of my main character's mother and grandmother, I've decided at this time to tell just about a few months of her life. I think it's probably a safer alternative for my first complete novel. (I do have another novel I started before this one and put on the back burner, and it's one of those multi-generational things. It seemed overwhelming, which is probably why it ended up on the back burner.)

What advice can you offer an aspiring novelist on simply getting the first draft finished?

Gwenette

Hi. Although my novel is described as covering the lives of six generations of a family (that was an early description of the novel before it was actually finished, I think), it's mainly focused on Gussie herself and her relationship with her daughter Anne, with an early chapter (Ravenglass) devoted to her relationship with her parents. So you can probably include your other generations in your novel without going into huge detail, if you think their stories add to your central story. Just keep in mind who the central character in your novel is, and then pick and choose the "side stories" that enhance that central character's story.

As for finishing a novel...that's the hard part, isn't it? Some people say that you don't really finish a novel, you abandon it. =-) I've had the best luck finishing a novel when I'm working under deadline, either imposed by my publisher or just by a friend or reader. The pressure really works for me, and it forces me to stop fiddling endlessly with chapters and get on to the bigger structure. I find myself making more useful choices about drama and structure, avoiding getting sidetracked, etc. Mostly, though, throughout the process, I have an ending in mind, and that ending, however unformed it might be, keeps me on track, because I always have something to aim for.

I think I am firmly hooked on Gussie after only two days, and look forward to the rest of this week's portion of her story.

Having spent some years in the Colorado Rockies, I am quite taken with the descriptions of the land and the vegetation, as well as the sense of Gussie's extended lifespan.

Looking forward to seeing where she takes us.

--jgh

Just this weekend I was looking for my next read. As a (Fort Collins) Colorado transplant, I love reading about everything our Rocky Mountains give to us. I was in our local bookstore, whining to my husband that I hadn't found anything to satisfy my mountain fix since I read Isabella Bird's letters. I think this is it!

For Colorado History: my favorite is "To Know Her By Name" by Lori Wick [4th in her Rocky Mountain Series] with descriptions of Boulder and the mountains west of Bouler. There is also, "Doc Susie" by Virginia Cornell [the story of a doctor who came to Fraser Colorado when diagnosed with tuberculosis, includes the construction of the Moffatt tunnel]. For some reason I am unable to get this fiction book club on my email, i get other genres. The book sounds good. I'll try it.

One of my favorite books about the West (and very useful while researching for Augusta Locke) is "Lady's Choice: Ethel Waxham's Journals & Letters, 1905-1910." Young Ethel heads up into Wyoming to teach at a school on a remote ranch. What a life!

Isabella Bird! A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains! Yup, a good book. And just the type of book I read while researching my various novels. I love getting a perspective on the West before it become overrun. People seemed to have a greater sense of the vastness of the landscape, the beauty, and the danger.

Welcome to Colorado! I live in Denver.

Hi, Bill!
I live in Arvada, but was raised inbetween Golden and Fraser. Yep, outhouses, baths in alpine streams, Latching down trashcans so the bears can't get into them, spring runoffs with flooding streams, mud. I love it. Nice to have you as a neighbor!

Hi, Wendy. Have you spent much time in Wyoming? I've found that lots of people think of Wyoming as the I-80 corridor, which can be somewhat bleak. But, as you know, there are amazing pockets of beauty all around the West. The Wind River Valley, besides having an unusually gorgeous name, is particularly rich in scenic beauty, everything from daunting badlands to granite peaks.

And ... outhouses! On our ranch in Wyoming, the pump in the well would sometimes fail, and we'll all have to tramp out to the outhouse. It was a two-seater ... though I was never comfortable with the concept of a two-seat outhouse! =-)

Hi, Bill,
I like Buffalo and Sheridan. The old Sheridan Hotel would make a good story. Cody is great too, the art museum. My sons wood shop teacher is from a ranch west of Casper. I'll be driving through Wyoming tomorrow on my way to Idaho. We had a 2 seater also, though never used at the same time. I still have the wood stove my mom cooked on. I hope we get to see more of your books.

Wendy C.

I have enjoyed the first two reads. Really descriptive. Ready to learn more about Gussie and her relationships, her life.

With all due respect... the first two chapters are so slow... so descriptive... Certainly life had a different dynamics at that time... Looking forward for some more action...

You're right, I don't write fast prose. =-) I hope you'll keep reading, though--lots happens to Gussie over the course of her life. But I fully understand that different readers have different tastes in prose style. I know I do. I tend to like fairly dense prose, as in Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Virginia Wolff, etc. Maybe it's because I started out writing poetry for many years before switching to fiction.

Hi,

I guess you must be influenced at least a little by McCarthy--I thought I detected it while I was reading your description of the landscape.


My favorite line so far though is this: "She had never flown any higher than her father's shoulders."

And my favorite image?

"the light in the basin would seem almost subterranean, as if the granite had collected
light through the day, as if the basin lit the sky."

Oh, my gosh, that's good. Thanks!

Carol

Little girl lost is the thought that came to me as I read of four year old Gussie in her blue crepe dress soaking up the sun and hearing the remarks her mother made about her and never having another feeling such as she had in that blue dress - hopefully so, but probably not -

The idea of taking a character from real life but not knowing too much about and building a story about and around her sounds like a good way to start a writing experiment - maybe I'll try that for myself - have written some poems - but never prose -

To the author - do you have any published poetry? - I'll google and see if I can find -

Hi, Doris. No, no published poetry. I gave up on writing poetry after I realized how hard it is! But I continue to read a lot of poetry. I just read Marie Howe's new volume--it's beautiful.

It reminds me of being a tween and teen and reading Little House on the Prairie and all the variations of that series that other authors wrote. However, when I was younger I was disappointed to learn that all the women turned out to be housewives and teachers. Too bad this book wasn't out back then.

One of the cool things about living in Wyoming was meeting all these women who were blazing their own trails. After all, Wyoming was the first U.S. territory to give women the vote, way back in 1869!