How much of your own personality do you share with your characters? Is that a choice, or does it happen on its own?
Consciously at least, I try to keep my personality out of my characters. I am most concerned with authentic characterization, so with every character, I try to place myself in their shoes and I try to see the world as I imagine they would view it. That is true even of secondary characters. For example, to develop the character, Eleanor, in Sunny Gale, I did a fair amount of research on the history of the Wind River Reservation located in central Wyoming. At least having a working knowledge of that history gave me the perspective to envision how a Native American professional horsewoman would have reacted to the cultural biases of the era from 1898-1930.
What I do consciously is extrapolate experience when it fits the context. To give an example, I grew up in the 1960’s on a good-sized ranch and then as an adult, I worked on the ranch for fifteen years. I loved horseback riding in those great open spaces. Whatever my mental state when I set out on a horse, I always found serenity and humility on the range. It always shrank me to my proper size.
In researching professional Western horsewomen of the period, 1898-1930, they all seemed to come from pioneer or ranch backgrounds. In that period, the Western high plains were even less populated and more open than when I encountered them. I felt it was fair extrapolation to think that my heroine, Sunny Gale, would have loved galloping up and down the Nebraska Sandhills or jogging across the southeastern Wyoming plains as much as I enjoyed similar riding. That allowed me to write about the magnificence of that landscape against which all human endeavor, even women’s bronc riding, is dwarfed.
As a reader, what do you think is the most important element in a successful written piece?
I might have whole other thoughts for non-fiction, but for fiction, my answer is, voice. And what I mean by voice is the narrator’s tenor and tone. It should be solid, confident and unwavering. I can think of reading as a dance. The narrator is my lead dance partner. I expect that dance partner to hold me firmly and guide me to wherever we are headed. I should be caught up in my dance partner’s direction and incapable of distraction or question. Of course, characterization, which I discussed above plays a part in developing voice, but characterization of the narrator may or not matter. If the narrator’s characterization is to be minimized, it’s the other characters who have to be authentic.
I am thinking, for example, of Eudora Welty’s short story “Powerhouse.” What I remember about the story is that the reader learns very little, if anything, about the narrator. From the opening sentence, all the focus is on a traveling blues band and the band leader, “Powerhouse” as they finish a set on stage and move to a cafe. The reader can feel the rhythm and hear the music throughout the story. The narrator invokes it all. As a reader, I felt just as drawn to follow in Powerhouse’s wake as the narrator does.
“Powerhouse,” to me, is one superb example of the use of voice.
How should new writers invest their time and money in order to be successful?
The advice I was given, which in my case has stood the test of time, is read as much as possible. I would go so far as to say that you cannot be an effective writer in less you do a lot of reading.
My second recommendation is to locate a dispassionate expert to review your work. Sharing work with reading groups and friends is good for audience reaction, but to me, critical review is essential. One of the writing groups I belong to offers a list of academics, professional editors and authors that you can choose from to review your work for a reasonable fee. I have used a member of that panel for every book I have written since my first book, and it has been worth the money every time.
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“Forbes is an experienced author, and her latest novel is beautifully, even poetically written…A moving, memorable, and fully realized rodeo saga.” Kirkus Reviews, starred.
“Those who have an interest in historical fiction…will find this book enlightening. It’s an eye-opening read and an evocative mixture of fact and fiction.” Michaela Gordoni for Portland Book Review.
“Forbes showcases her remarkable storytelling skills, promising readers an unforgettable experience.” Suzie Housley for Midwest Book Review
It’s 1895 and fourteen year old Hannah Brandt is struggling with the hard life on a new Nebraska homestead. When her imagination is captured by a wild filly she becomes obsessed with horses, which opens the door to her destiny. Just four years later she enters the first Cheyenne Frontier Day rodeo where she wins the relay race and her fate is sealed. She gives herself a new name, Sunny Gale, and pursues a rodeo career, much to the disgust of her young husband and her very proper mother. Sunny defies convention with every move as the drive to compete takes over her life, leaving everything else behind, including husbands and children. It is a rough life she has chosen, but she craves the glory of the spotlight and refuses to bow to the expectations for a woman in her time.
Award winning author Jamie Lisa Forbes has once again brought us complex characters in a story based on real women and the early days when rodeo was wide open for them to become stars. It is a story of the social mores of the times and of a woman determined to defy them no matter how high the personal cost or where that choice might take her.
About the Author
Jamie Lisa Forbes was raised on a ranch in the Little Laramie Valley near Laramie, Wyoming. She attended the University of Colorado where she obtained degrees in English and philosophy. After fourteen months living in Israel, she returned to her family’s ranch where she lived for another fifteen years.
In 1994, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2001, she graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began her North Carolina law practice.
Forbes’ first novel, Unbroken, won the WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction in 2011. Her collection of short stories, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, won the High Plains Book Awards for a short story collection in 2015.
Forbes’ novel of rural North Carolina in the segregation era, entitled Eden, was published in 2020. Her historical novel about women bronc riders in the early days of rodeo, entitled Sunny Gale, was published in May 2024 by Pronghorn Press.
Ms. Forbes continues to live—and write—in North Carolina.
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