Heroine Interview from A Captain for Laura Rose by Stephanie Grace Whitson with a Giveaway

» Posted on Mar 5, 2014 in Blog | Comments Off on Heroine Interview from A Captain for Laura Rose by Stephanie Grace Whitson with a Giveaway

This week I’m hosting Leann Harris with A Ranch to Call Home, Stephanie Grace Whitson with A Captain for Laura Rose, and Christina Lindsay with Londonderry Dreaming (ebook only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post 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 (Mar. 9th) evening.

A Captain for Laura RoseToday we’re speaking with Laura Rose White, the heroine of A Captain for Laura Rose:

1.  Laura Rose White, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

You probably won’t believe it, but I really am one of the best pilots on the Missouri River. I know, I know … women just don’t pilot steamboats. My father didn’t think so either, but then one day I was tagging along with Joe, my brother—Papa was teaching Joe everything he knew—and I said something about a sandbar up ahead. It was obvious to me it was there, but Joe hadn’t seen it. Papa turned around and looked at me—“surprise” would be putting it mildly—and from that day forward, he realized that not only did his little girl love life on the river, she also had a gift when it came to reading the water. Of course Papa always expected that I’d be the cub pilot working under Joe.

 2.  What do you do for fun?

I know that you twenty-first century folks think more about fun than work, but the truth is, in 1861, someone like me who is struggling to save her way of life just doesn’t think about “fun” very much. That doesn’t mean that my life isn’t a good one, though. There is nothing in the world to compare with the feeling I get when the sun comes up and splashes color all over the sky and the river. From up in the wheelhouse you can see “forever and a day,” as they say. And it’s my wheelhouse. Now, that’s something.

Steamboat LOC3.  What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I’ve been putting off letting Finn know that my feelings about him have changed.

4.  What are you afraid of most in life?

Losing my Laura Rose. Papa named her after me, and if I lose her … well. I just can’t imagine any other life than the one I have on the Missouri.

5.  What do you want out of life?

I want to save my family’s legacy. We’ve always been a steamboating family, and before steamboats the Whites were sailors.

6.  What is the most important thing to you?

See #5

7.  Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?

I have Mama’s Bible. It’s just sitting on top of the trunk in my cabin, and I know she’d want me to be reading it. I need to make time for it, but … you know how it is.

8.  If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

That’s easy. I’d talk Inspector Davies into giving me the examination so that I could be a licensed pilot. That would make all the difference.

9.  Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I don’t have a pet—but don’t tell Logjam I said that. He’s a fearsome-looking mutt we rescued off a floating pile of river debris when he was just a pup, and he’s decided that he’s part-owner of the Laura Rose. He’s also a self-appointed security guard, and I’m very thankful for that part of his attitude. There’s a certain breed of rat that scuttles about on the levees and in and out of the packets the ply the river. Logjam seems to be able to detect them, and if he doesn’t like you—whoa. Watch out. On the other hand, in recent days he’s managed to charm his way into my cabin (which has always been off limits to him). But I don’t think of him as a pet. He’s more a member of the crew.

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I’d love to have sailed on my great-grandfather’s ship. Her name was the Rosalee. We have an assortment of carpenter’s tools used aboard the Rosalee back in the day—planes and such. Every time I hold one in my hand, I wonder what it would have been like to be out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, sails billowing, nothing but water in view. It seems so romantic.