Thursday, July 2, 2015

BEYOND Forever Cry - - -




Martha Jane Tennessee Tucker Gillum, the star of Forever Cry, Died in Wing, Arkansas in 1941, shortly after her eighty-second birthday Party. I was born in that same house in 1944, three years later. As I look at the group photo from that birthday party, I see twenty four mostly familiar faces, from infants to adults. These were the people who surrounded me, and loved me, as I grew to adulthood. As I approach my seventy first birthday, only four of these people survive today. Enjoy those around you who love you. Life is short.
     Forever Cry is a historical fiction book, inspired by my grandmother’s colorful life. She was born as the Civil War was about to start, and most of the book took place during the Reconstruction.
     Sarah, Tenny’s mother, was a strong mountain woman who held her family together as the war wound down. Her children give her much joy, and much shame, during a time of violent upheaval in Arkansas.
     My best first-hand information about Grandma Tenny came from my older siblings. My brother Harold, as a small, rowdy boy, remembers her as a very old lady, his worst nightmare. Once, she told him to do something. He replied, “Just a minute.” She laced her fingers in his hair, and swung him around a couple of times.
     My sister Jonnie, as a frail and sickly little girl, remembers her as the one who held her in her arms and rocked her all day long. Every day. When she grew too large for Grandma to hold, she sat beside her in her rocking chair. And rocked. All day long.
     I remember my dad’s comments about Grandma Tenny as a very old lady, when a man came up missing. “The law wanted to come question her, but was afraid to.” I never understood that. Why would they fear a very fragile old lady, nearing death? In the end, I learned why.
     In researching for Forever Cry, I noticed a little side note on a family researcher’s paper. “Her family hung a man early one morning.” That’s all it said. What??
     Other bare comments. “Grandma and her sister were hidden in a cave once. For two years.”
     “A big wild hog ran in and got the Baby.”
     “Men were killed in her behalf.” Needless to say, all this stimulated more research.  What a life this woman lived!

     This comment, penciled in by my editor, stated, “This could never happen.” Actually, I could not change it, because it did happen. Truth, at times can be stranger than fiction.
     My two great grandfathers also make their appearance in Forever Cry.  LaFayette WAS held as a POW in the Civil War. He DID survive by eating white oak acorns. He WAS the first constable of Atkins, Arkansas.
     James, my other great grandpa, DID haul in his year’s cotton crop, got drunk, and threw all the money away in the road ditch. He DID marry his daughter’s husband’s baby sister, LaFayette’s youngest daughter, at age 78 and produce two children.
     All the actual events in Forever Cry, woven into the fabric of the story with lots of undocumented happenings I strongly suspect but can’t prove, along with pure fiction, at times, make for a story I think you will like.
     My real-life uncle by marriage, Harry Poynter, DID face the sheriff, Deputy sheriff, and county clerk in the streets of Dover, killing one man, and sent the other two racing for Russellville. He DID face down a thirty man posse in downtown Dover, sent to arrest him, with the words “I will give up my guns with my life, and I will make the man who takes it pay a heavy price.” They, also, chose to go home instead.
     Several early readers have already finished. Comments: “That girl just completely destroyed the whole family’s reputation.” I dread telling her: “That girl never existed.”
     “I just kept being drawn back to it until I finished.”
     “That first major event was just horrible. So bad, it could not have actually happened.” But it did.
     I did a lot of research about the wars and politics of that time, doing my best to keep that factual. I hope you enjoy it. Either way, my contact info is at the end of Forever Cry. I hope you contact me when you finish. We need to talk. I will laugh with you, or apologize to you, depending upon which seems appropriate.
     The Arkadelphia book signing will be Wednesday, July 8th, 10 – 2, at Hardman Interiors. Hope you can come!

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