These Is My Words

This is a picture of me with Nancy Turner, the author of one of my all time favorite books These Is My Words. This was such a neat experience to have an author come to one of our Book Club meetings. In trying to discribe how this whole thing came about, I honestly don't know. Some conversation we had at Book Club over the summer led me to Nancy Turners website. I saw on her list of appearances that she had done some Book Club visits. I sent her an email (on the outside chance that she would actually reply) and asked if she would be willing to come to our meeting. She is a Tucson native, so it wasn't like I was asking her to come cross country. She replied back almost immediately and it took a few months to work out the details but here she is!
She was so nice, and gracious and warm. She was a great storyteller (as you can imagine). She told us her life story. The story of writing the book and answered any questions we had. I used to aspire to be an author, so it was especially meaningful to me.

She was kind enough to sign all our books as well. So the big question I had for her, is "How much of this is real?" The story is based on the life of her great-grandmother Sarah Prine. Well, I was a bit disappointed to learn that it is rather LOOSELY based. Sarah Prine never kept a diary, but her brother did as they made the first trek to Texas, so some of the early events are based on that. Other things, details were taken from family stories/oral history or even just watching the way her own grandmother cooked or taught her to jump off a horse while carrying a shot gun -- things she had learned from HER mother (Sarah Prine). But really she didn't know much at all about her great-grandmother so most of it was made up. The historical facts -- Indian raids, droughts, geography and such are accurate and well researched. So although I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't more "true" it makes it all the more amazing that Nancy Turner was able to create such a believeable and engaging story that draws you in and won't let go.

On a final note, I highly recommend this book, it is one of the few books that I can recommend without hesitation to anyone.

Now for my next conquest....getting Stephenie Meyer to come to my Book Club.....