This week I’m hosting Ann Gabhart with Scent of Lilacs, Margaret Daley with Scorned Justice, Dora Hiers with Journey’s Embrace, Roseanna White with Ring of Secrets and Patrick E. Craig with A Quilt for Jenna. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (March 10th) evening.
Interview with the heroine: Jocie Brooke from Scent of Lilacs by Ann H. Gabhart:
1. Jocie Brooke, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Gosh, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m probably not like the heroines you usually invite over here. I’m thirteen and always getting in trouble with my dad and Aunt Love. No big romances for me yet, but I do see a lot about what’s going on in Hollyhill. Not that that much ever goes on in our little town here in 1964. So maybe the most interesting thing about me is my curiosity. I want to know things. I want to write about the things I find out about. You see, my dad is the editor of the local paper and he lets me write a piece for it now and then – if I don’t get too lax with the facts. He sometimes says he believes I have more of a future in fiction than in the newspaper business. Oh, and then there’s my friend, Wes. He’s very interesting. So what if he’s old enough to be my grandfather and from Jupiter. He’s still my best friend. I love his Jupiter stories.
2. What do you do for fun?
I like to ride my bicycle. I love dogs, especially Zebedee even if he is the ugliest dog you can imagine. I like to walk in the woods. That’s where I found Zeb. And I love to read. What could possibly be more fun than reading as long as it’s not some boring history assignment from school?
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Homework, of course. And carrying Aunt Love’s canning jars to the cellar. There are spiders down in that cellar and it’s dark. Could even be snakes. Wouldn’t you put that off if you could? But it’s one of my chores and I have to do it.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Losing my dad. You see, my mother ran off and left us when I was five. So I don’t really have a mother, but I do have the best dad in the world.
5. What do you want out of life?
Oh gosh, I would love to write a book someday. One that everybody, and I mean everybody, would want to read. But Dad would tell me I’m not thinking about the right kind of answer to your question. Dad’s not only the editor of our newspaper here in Hollyhill, he’s also a preacher. So it’s kind of his job to get me to look deeper into what might really make me happy. I suppose I want to fall in love someday although I have met absolutely no boy I can imagine thinking about in a romantic way. But I love the little kids at church and I hope I can be a good mother who takes care of her children the right way instead of being like my mom who didn’t take care of me at all. That’s my someday wants. Right now, I just want to find out about things and hope something, anything, interesting will happen in Hollyhill. Dad says I’d better be careful what I wish for. Could be when you read Scent of Lilacs you’ll think he’s right.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
My family and Wes. Doing good in school. I have to if I want to go to college. And God. Everybody needs to know him. I’ve been trying to get Wes to go to church forever. So that’s important to me too. Seeing Wes at church with me and Dad.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I read everything. Well, everything they have in the Holly County library here and some of the books Wes loans me from his science fiction book club. But you’d never believe the weird stuff he reads. I like books that have mystery and strong girl characters because that’s the kind of story I’d like to be in.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would have curly hair and a figure. Do you realize how awful it is to be the only girl in the world about to start high school who does not need a bra? I got one anyway, but it would be nice to need to wear it, don’t you think? And my hair. It is so straight that when I try to roll it up it just springs off the curlers. I guess that’s two things, but it would be nice if I could change them both. Dad says I’m fine the way I am, but that’s what a father has to say, isn’t it?
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Oops, it looks like I might have answered this one too soon. But yes, I do have a pet. Finally! I’ve wanted a dog forever and Dad kept putting me off. Then Zebedee followed me home. Really, he did! And I didn’t give him a biscuit or anything. It’s anybody’s guess what kind of dog he is. He’s sort of a dirty white with black spots. Dad says he might have some kind of hound in him and he can bark really loud. That’s why I named him Zebedee. In the Bible it says James and John were sons of thunder, so I figured their daddy, Zebedee must have had a booming voice. I had to beg hard to get Dad to let me keep Zeb after he bonked Aunt Love’s Jezebel cat with his nose. That cat is the meanest cat on record, but Aunt Love calls her Sugar. She’s certainly not my pet! But Zebedee is great.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
What time would I want to see besides the time I’m in right now? Gosh, that takes some thinking. I could be a damsel in distress in a castle. I could see Moses part the Red Sea. I could be a Pony Express rider. Wow, I could think about this question all day! But you probably don’t have all day and I don’t either. I’ve got to get to school. So I’ll just go back to 1956 when I was five years old before my mother left us. That way I could figure out why she wanted to leave and maybe do something to make things different. Dad says I couldn’t, that Mama leaving didn’t have anything to do with me, but at least I might be able to say goodbye. My sister, Tabitha went with her, but neither of them told us they were going. They just took off in the middle of the night. Yes, I think that’s what I would do and then I’d know instead of having to wonder.
