This week I’m hosting Stephanie Grace Whitson with A Most Unsuitable Match, Lisa Harris with An Ocean Away, and Leslie Gould and Mindy Starns Clark with The Amish Nanny. If you want to enter the drawings, 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 (July 17th) evening.
Interview with the hero from A Most Unsuitable Match by Stephanie Grace Whitson:
We’ve left the hurricane deck now, and headed down onto the cargo deck where dozens of roustabouts work, firing up the boilers to keep the steamship going, loading and unloading cargo, and generally working themselves into an early old age. As we’ve watched the way things work around here, one of the roustabouts has caught our attention. He refused to talk to us at first, but when we told him Captain Busch had given us permission to ask him a few questions, Samuel Beck agreed to the interview.
1. Mr. Beck, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
The most interesting things about me? Sorry, but that’s just not any of your business.
2. What do you do for fun?
Lamar and I play checkers. Although it’s hardly a game. The man can beat me with one checker and about four moves.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
You don’t know much about working as a roustabout, do you? Doesn’t matter whether we dread something or not. We work sun-up to sundown, and sometimes, if the Captain decides to run at night, we work some more.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Not finding my sister. Or finding her … depending on what I find.
5. What do you want out of life?
To see Emma happy.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Making up for not keeping Emma safe. I promised Ma I would, and then I didn’t. Ma’s gone, but she’s in heaven, and I like to think she’ll see when I make up for it. I like to think she’ll see it and smile. Maybe be proud of me again.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
The only thing I’ve got left of Ma is her Bible. I brought it with me. I don’t understand why she pored over it like she did. A lot of it just doesn’t make sense. Like those long lists of names. Those “begats.” But it makes me feel closer to Ma to read her book, so I keep at it.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d be more like Lamar. He seems so … peaceful. Inside, you know? Captain Busch yells at Lamar a lot. Says he’s too slow or too old or whatever. But Lamar just smiles and keeps humming while he works. And he works hard, too. I know his knees hurt a lot, especially when we’re hauling wood. But Lamar never complains. He’s a good friend, too. Yeah … I’d like to be more like Lamar.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I’ve never thought about pets. Pa never would have allowed it. Pets get in the way of working. I knew too much about Pa’s black snake whip as it was. I didn’t need a pet distracting me.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d go back to the day Emma got hurt, and I’d stay home instead of going fishing.
