Title: Walls for the Wind
Author: Alethea Williams
Genre: Western historical
Alethea Williams:
Hello, I’m happy to be here today.
Even though I wrote Walls for the Wind,
I still have a few questions for some of the characters. Let’s start with
Connie. Connie, you grew up in an orphan asylum. What did you expect when you
came west with Kit on a train to distribute city children to farmers as the
rails of the transcontinental railroad were laid west?
Connie Kennedy:
Well, to be honest with you, I
thought it was going to be easy to make a lot of money doing almost nothing.
After the war finally ended and the president was so tragically assassinated,
people wanted to hear good news. And so that is what the newspapers were
reporting at the time. There were breathless accounts of the westward expansion
and all the opportunities in new settlements springing up along the rails, as
well as numerous reports of huge, glittering gold and silver strikes in the
West. It all sounded quite romantic.
Alethea:
And how did you find things on your
journey west? Did conditions meet with your expectations?
Connie:
I discovered that it isn’t so easy
to make a living as it had been made to appear. Most people out here work very
hard for their money: the teamsters who haul the supplies to the end of the
line, the railroad workers who build the bed and lay the rails, the hunters who
keep the crews supplied with game, the lumbermen who fell the trees and shape
them into ties and trestle timbers. I suppose even those who labor to relieve
the railroad workers of their pay through liquor and gambling and other diversions
could be said to work hard some of the time. It is difficult for virtuous women
to find adequate means of sustenance.
Alethea:
And so you were disappointed in what
you found at the end of your travels?
Connie:
If I did not want what I do want, I
would like Cheyenne better. Cheyenne is a
Alethea:
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming
big dreams and striving to see them to fruition.
Connie:
(Sniffs.)
Well, maybe you could take a moment and explain that to Kit.
Alethea:
You and Kit disagree on what your
plans should be?
Connie:
Look, I know what you are about with
these questions. You won’t get me to say a bad word about Kit in an interview
for publication. There are those birds that fly a certain distance and then are
content to halt and nest. And then there are those birds of more exotic
plumage, who can’t wait to fly away and see what’s over the next mountain. Neither
bird is wrong, necessarily, they’re just different. Kit will probably remain
here in Cheyenne to the end of her days. But I certainly didn’t leave the
children’s home in New York City to come west and do laundry and change nappies.
Alethea:
Connie, I hope everything works out
for you. Thank you for talking with us today.
Connie:
My pleasure. Anything to be able to
sit down in the middle of the day and get my poor reddened hands out of the
washtub.
Author bio:
Western history has been the great
interest of my adult life. I've lived in Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon.
Although an amateur historian, I am happiest researching different times and
places in the historical West. And while staying true to history, I try not to
let the facts overwhelm my stories. Story always comes first in my novels, and
plot arises from the relationships between my characters. I'm always open to
your response to my writing.
Website: http://aletheawilliams.weebly.com/
Twitter: @ActuallyAlethea https://twitter.com/actuallyalethea
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Alethea-Williams/e/B0077CD2HW/
The Romance Reviews author page: http://www.theromancereviews.com/ActuallyAlethea
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