An Interview with Marcia Hatfield Daudistel

As the editor of Grace & Gumption: The Women of El Paso, did you learn anything new while working on this project? Is there any one story that especially stuck with you?

MHD: As the editor of Grace and Gumption, I was inspired by the adaptability and courage of the women on both sides of the border in creating the city of El Paso. The women living in Mexico suddenly found themselves citizens of another country when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo changed their lives forever. The women who came West and South to the raw, frontier town of El Paso were faced with a very different, frequently harsh climate in a town known for legendary gunfighters and lawmen. These groups of women set about to address the issues of establishing more schools, creating cultural programs and increasing medical care in this fledgling city in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas. Their efforts were to transform El Paso into a city that would allow their families to thrive. Their legacy is an enduring one. 

Is there any woman (or group of women) from history who has particularly inspired you?

MHD: I learned many new things while working on Grace and Gumption, but perhaps the most surprising realization I had was that the nuns in the early history of El Paso were actually the first feminists. Acting as communities  of women without the supervision of men, except infrequently by the Bishop, they set about to establish hospitals, schools, and orphanages. The several orders of nurses, social workers, and teachers were also administrators with their direct supervisors being the Mothers Superior of their orders. The orphanage they established in El Paso was the only one that took in Mexican children, many orphaned by the Mexican Revolution. Their hospital, Hotel Dieu, continually operated in El Paso until the late 1980s. They had a level of autonomy that married women did not have and were frequently more highly educated than the majority of the women of their time.  

Come Spring...

Many years ago I was part of a Western Writers of America project to compile an anthology of profiles of women of the American West. My subject was Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix who practiced medicine on the western frontier of Nebraska in the late nineteenth century. I had a medical background of sorts and wondered why a woman would choose life in a dugout alone and drive her carriage miles and miles across the prairie to see patients. The story fascinated me and set a pattern for my writing for many years to come.

Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix

When I first turned my hand to fiction, I wrote a novel based on Dr. Fix’s life, only to learn later that the great Mari Sandoz had already done that and done a better job than I did. Still, my version, Mattie, won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, an award that angered some male members who thought it should go to a men’s adventure tale.

I went on to write about more women of the American West—a young girl in East Texas (not really the West but….), a young orphan living on the streets of Fort Worth and crossing paths with Long Haired Jim Courtright and Luke Short. These short novels were sold through the Doubleday Double D Western Book Club, mostly to prison libraries.

I grew ambitious and wanted to do a long novel that would sell in bookstores. I proposed a fictional biography of Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife and widow of General George Armstrong Custer who died at Little Bighorn. Bantam/Doubleday put major publicity behind it, and it probably sold better than any book I’ve ever written. I followed it with fictional biographies of Jessie Benton Frémont, Wild West Show cowgirl Lucille Mulhall, and Etta Place, the Sundance Kid’s girlfriend. And then there was a young-adult book called Extraordinary Women of the American West, a collection of short biographies of sixty-eight women, from pioneers to contemporary.

I admired these women and loved investigating their lives, finding out why, in many cases, they’d left family and comfort behind to strike out for adventure. Many came with husbands, but some did not. All came with a sense of breaking bonds and leaving constrictions behind. They had a curiously optimistic outlook—a favorite saying was, “Come spring…” Come spring, the crops would make, the cattle would produce, life would be better. Always looking toward spring, they minimalized the hardships of life in a dugout or on the cattle trail or an isolated ranch.

“Come spring” is a great motto for all of us.

~Judy Alter, author of Extraordinary Texas Women, contributor to Grace & Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women, and many more

Girl with a Pearl Earring in Nineteenth-Century San Antonio

She became my Girl With a Pearl Earring. I knew that she lived but nothing else about her. I called her Lupe Pérez and wove her into a story of late nineteenth century San Antonio. To this day, I wonder what she might think if she could read Chili Queen: Mi historia.

Writing Lupe’s story gave me an opportunity to gently introduce some ideas for readers to mull. Lupe’s romance with Peter unravels perhaps more because of his family’s objection to a working class Mexican American girl than to their interest in making a match for him. Matters of race and socio-economic status were as real in late nineteenth century San Antonio as they are today, although not talked about openly. The Pérez family accepts their lower status in American society. They do not contest it. Mamá offers that as a reason for Peter’s decision. No one raises objection. Younger brother José is the only one who speaks up about his rights.

In late nineteenth-century San Antonio, women did not enjoy many opportunities for personal advancement. They were second-class citizens, and Mexican American working class women had perhaps even fewer rights. Lupe is unique in her striving for entrepreneurial success. Despite a lack of formal education, Lupe is intelligent, and she tries many different ways to improve business at her family’s chili stand. She takes risks with money she does not have and ultimately makes a bold move when she decides to open a fonda instead of moving the chili stand to another plaza.

During Women’s History Month it is helpful for every reader to reflect on the constraints within which working class women had to function, how far women have come since Lupe’s day, and how much remains to be done to achieve equality of opportunity for all women, especially women of color with limited resources, inadequate education, but a strong desire to surmount difficulties. Lupe Pérez, a smart and mature seventeen year old, is willing to lose to gain.

My Girl With a Pearl Earring looks back at us from the photograph taken by Frank Hardesty on Military Plaza in 1886. What was she thinking then? What would she think if by some magic, her rebozo could transport her to twenty-first century San Antonio, where she might understand the importance of her legacy for enterprising business women in our city? What would she say about the story I have spun around her? I hope she would be pleased.

~Marian Martinello, author of Chili Queen: Mi historia, The Search for a Chili Queen, The Search for Pedro's Story, and The Search for Emma's Story

Announcing the ELF Scholarship!

Full Tuition Scholarship for a TCU Student Writer

Seventh Annual Sandra Brown Excellence in Literary Fiction (ELF) Scholarship

Are you a TCU student with a passion for writing? Do you know someone who is? Apply for the ELF Scholarship!

The Sandra Brown Excellence in Literary Fiction Scholarship was established by Sandra and Michael Brown to provide a full tuition scholarship to a TCU student who demonstrates both academic excellence and significant potential as a fiction writer.  The scholarship will be given to a rising junior with 54 or more credit hours and will provide full tuition for the junior and senior years.  Transfer students are welcome to apply.

How to apply: Interested students must submit a writing portfolio of 50 to 70 pages.  The portfolio must include an example, or examples, of the student’s original fiction—either short stories or part of a longer work—and a reflective introduction that discusses the student’s writing, goals, and interests.  Two letters of recommendation are required, and these letters must discuss the student as a writer.  To keep the scholarship, recipients must be an English or Writing major, maintain a 3.0 GPA or better, and remain active in TCU’s literary culture.

Deadline: Portfolios may be submitted either in hard copy or ecopy.  If submitted as hard copy, portfolios must be sent to the TCU English Department Office, 314 Reed Hall, no later than 5 p.m., on Friday, December 5, 2014.  If submitted as ecopy, they must be sent to d.e.williams@tcu.edu by the same deadline.

For further information: Contact Dr. Dan Williams at d.e.williams@tcu.edu, or call 817-257-5907. 

For more specific information concerning the construction and submission of portfolios, go to: http://elf.tcu.edu/

History of the ELF Scholarship:

The ELF scholarship was created by Michael Brown to honor his wife, bestselling novelist Sandra Brown. The author of 79 novels, 65 of which have appeared in the New York Times bestseller list, Sandra Brown has sold more than 80 million books worldwide. She was a 4.0 English major at TCU and received an honorary doctorate from the University in 2006.

Print is here to stay.

With the introduction of the e-book and tablet readers, many people are predicting the demise of printed media in the near future. However, I do not see such a Bradburian doomsday for the printed word. In fact, when looking at the current climate, there are many reasons for pessimists to reassess their half-empty glasses.

To see a brighter future, it is first necessary to look to the past. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman notes that the United States is unique in that it was founded in the age of the printed word. In fact, it was one of the most literate countries in the world. This “Typographic America,” as Postman calls it, was integral to a democratic system because it was the only means of communication across a vast landscape. Just think: how would a democracy work in a country where citizens could not read the laws or understand their very freedom? The very size of the country would also make any sort of verbal discourse across states next to impossible! This foundation on the printed word still remains today. The problem with foundations, however, is they are hidden under everything else.

Today, media is overwhelmingly dominated by screens. But if one would behind those screens, he would see a thriving typographic landscape. Let’s start with the e-book, the printed word’s latest arch nemesis. Since 2008, e-book sales have grown 4456%, an alarming number to be sure; at least until one considers the fact that they still only make up 20% of all sales. Last year (2013), e-book sales grew by 43%, which is another healthy number except that it is the first time in three years that they have not grown by triple digits. One last statistic: 457 million e-books were sold last year compared to 557 million print books, but that is just hardcover! Finally, polls have shown that millennials—those people that are supposed to be so plugged into their screens—still overwhelmingly prefer physical print.

That’s not all the good news lurking behind the screen, however. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), more than two hundred movies coming out will be based on books this year alone. While those pessimists might point to this as a sign of the cannibalization of print as a medium, I find it quite comforting. This is mostly because these big movies actually drive book sales, and not just for the juggernauts like the Rowlings and Sparkses of the world; a new trend has emerged in the past couple years where studios are optioning promising novels before they are even published. So in a way, films and television function as multi-million dollar book trailers.

Speaking of television, it too can drive book sales; shows like True Detective and Game of Thrones have proven this. True Detective is an especially interesting case because it shows how different media can feed on each other and boost sales and ratings. The show centers on two detectives trying to solve a cult murder, with the twist that the mythos of this cult is based on the book The King in Yellow, written by Robert W. Chambers and published in 1895. But the show never mentions this. Instead, it took io9, an online blog, to point out the fact. The end result was a significant spike in sales of the book through Amazon.

The future of print can rely on screens, and vice versa. So, while printed books will never be as powerful or popular as they once were, there is reason to believe that the foundation is here to stay. Now take another look at your glass.

by Ian Burnham, intern

Book Trailers? Huh?

We’ve all seen the latest trailer for Captain American or Noah; movie trailers are a staple in our society today because film companies rely heavily on this type of advertising. The film moguls want to give the audience just enough of a taste to convince viewers that their movie is worth the trip to the theaters, the $10 movie ticket, and $15 food at the concession stands. For filmmakers making a trailer is fairly easy to do. They just edit together some of the footage that already exists.

For books, the challenge is ever more apparent.

Book trailers are rarely seen on television. If anyone has even seen a book trailer, it was probably for the latest James Patterson book. And yet, publishing companies like Scholastic make book trailers all the time.

For TCU Press marketing is crucial to get the word out about the unique books being printed. These books were published for a reason, and people deserve to know about them. Because books are a totally different medium that depends on the imagination of the reader, book trailer makers are presented with an array of different challenges.

Unlike movies, books don’t come with moving images. Many don’t come with any images, besides perhaps the cover art. Trying to assign a particular photo or drawing of a character can be a sensitive subject for readers, just as it is for readers of books with film adaptations. Additionally, book trailer makers must decide whether they want to stick with still images, moving images, or no images. Each present their own pros (like cost efficiency) and cons (like limited audience engagement), but many of these decisions depend on the budget and skillset at hand.

A running convention of book trailers is text (text with excerpts from the book or text from positive books reviews for instance); voice-over narration, another convention, is used much the same way with excerpts and reviews. A third convention that is quite useful—and I would say necessary—is music. Music can set the mood of the trailer and subsequently convey the tone of the book in a matter of seconds.

Book trailers serve a distinct purpose in the greater marketing scheme of book publishing. For many, book trailers are the 15 or 30 seconds needed to pique readers' interest.

by Rebecca Semik, intern

The Written Art

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a book is “a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover.” It’s a simple definition for such an extraordinary object. Some people will see a book and cringe, unable to see more than just a stack of papers bound together. What is the point of a book? Why, as a Writing major, am I planning on dedicating my life to books, especially since they are “going out of style” and won’t be as important as technology advances? Those are questions I am asked almost weekly. Generally they are accompanied by a look of incredulity or a roll of the eyes. A book is so much more than papers tied together. A book is an eye-opening adventure; a book is source of inspiration; a book is a type of legacy; a book is a work of art.

Some books are obviously adventures, others not so much. For my internship at TCU Press, I am reading the architect Frank D. Welch’s memoir, a book I was hesitant about. I read fiction. I live for fiction. What was I going to do with an entire book about architecture? But did I read the memoir, and I was amazed by how intriguing it was. It took me on an adventure and opened my eyes to the thoughts of an architect. I learned new things (like, for instance, what a gabled roof is) and now find myself looking at buildings and wondering about the life of the person who created them. I was bemused about my reaction to the memoir and found myself wishing that it was longer so that I could learn more. It was an adventure because this was something completely new to me, and I was able to learn something from it, and that’s what adventures are about: learning things.

Books are unique concepts. They are the tiny thoughts of someone put together to create larger thoughts, to tell a story and to teach. They have a strange ability to inspire people to do things.

Because of the impact books have made on my life, when someone tells me that books aren’t going to be around much longer, I generally stifle a laugh. I understand that there are now eBooks and that sort of thing, but honestly they don’t hold a candle to the actual, physical copy of a book. Although some books do get lost from the hands of time, many do not. We still have writings like The Odyssey and The Iliad. Decades, if not centuries, from now, people will still know the names Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins.

Each book is a piece of art. It might not be one in the same fashion as a painting or a sculpture or even a symphony, but it is art and it is, in its own sense, everlasting and inspiring. Each book, each sheet of paper, is important in ways beyond just being held together. Books, no matter their genre, are the masterpieces of the Written Art.

by Shelby Hild, intern