Introduction:
Rickie Zayne Ashby’s debut novel, Walton’s Creek, Land of our Fathers, is the first of two volumes chronicling the life of several families in rural Western Kentucky. Based on his own family, this book, Volume I, covers the years 1913 – 1955 and gives a bird’s eye view of what life was like in that part of the country during those times. Previously, Mr. Ashby wrote At the End of the Road: My Journey from Walton’s Creek, Kentucky, a collection of his essays.
Interview:
Mary Ellen Thompson: How well, or thinly, disguised are your characters in this book? You and the book’s narrator, Mickey (whose names rhyme), were both born in 1949. It seems that everyone in the book is buried at the Walton’s Creek Baptist Cemetery and everyone in your family is buried there as well.
Rickie Zayne Ashby
Rickie Zayne Ashby: Many of the characters in the book are based upon members of my family. A few characters, like Ol’ Slickum, are composites. Family and oral traditions form the backbone of the story. I grew up with a wealth of stories and it seemed only fitting that I mold the characters around the real-life story tellers. I suppose that my characters are “thinly” disguised. My inspiration to write Walton’s Creek came from Wendell Berry’s novel The Memory of Old Jack. I believe Berry used his uncle as a model for the story. I admire the way he used an old man’s memory to tell a beautiful tale.
MET: Which of the times in this history do you remember with the most fondness, and why?
RZA: I like my chapter about the old home place. The lifestyle closely resembles my experiences as a youth.
MET: You tell the story of Mickey’s grandfather writing the Lord’s Prayer on a piece of paper, in spiral fashion, inside a circle the size of a dime. Was there someone in your family who could do this?
RZA: My paternal grandfather was an artist and calligrapher. He could write the Lord’s Prayer as described in the story.
MET: I had never heard of a pie supper and found the concept enchanting. In the book, Anna and Jesse attended one, did anyone in your family?
RZA: Pie suppers were important social events in rural Kentucky. I suspect all members of my family participated.
Mary Ellen Thompson
MET: You first mention the Possum Hunters early on in “Grandfather and Grandmother Atlee (1913 – 1917)”. And then again in “The Possum Hunters (1954)”, when the men are discussing the vigilante group known as the Possum Hunters who were prevalent in Kentucky and Tennessee sometime fin the early 1900’s. Do you have a special interest in that group?
RZA: The Possum Hunters were vigilantes that had their origin in the Kentucky Tobacco War. Groups like this sprang up as late as the 1930s. Stories about the Hunters dominated much of the oral traditions in my area of Kentucky for decades. As an adult I researched the group and wrote undergraduate and graduate school papers on the topic. The topics discussed on the Liar’s Bench reflect my research.
MET: This book is Volume One, you say at the end of it that Volume Two finds Mickey back on the road with more memories and stories to share. How far along are you with that, and you have an idea of when it might be published?
RZA: Volume Two is complete and we hope to release it by the first of October. Due to length, Acclaim Press declined to publish the book in a single volume. This gives us the opportunity to use more beautiful John Ward images in a second book cover.
I hope my readers will be enthralled by family cohesiveness and perseverance the characters face as they struggle to survive in a difficult environment. The Atlees face the greatest challenge since the Great Depression in Volume Two. Death and poverty
tear them away from their beloved family farm. That chapter is titled “Death Comes to the Billy Goat Road.”
MET: How and why did you choose Acclaim Press? They did a beautiful job of printing the book!
RZA: I had been rejected by several publishers when I met an Acclaim Press representative at a book festival. I sent him my essay collection and the novel but did not hear back. A year later I met him again. After reading both manuscripts we met at a Barnes and Noble. He politely declined the novel but felt the essay collection was promising. He believed the novel was too long and would be difficult to sell. We agreed to withhold judgment on the novel until we could judge acceptance of the essay collection.
Acclaim Press publishes a lot of picture books. They have been receptive to my ideas and illustrations. I think it is fair to say that they do not like cheaply printed books.
MET: Your book is only available in a hardback edition, do you feel you lose any audience by not having a tablet version?
RZA: I am currently in discussions with AP to bring out the essay collection in paperback with additional essays. I have had some discussion with AP about e editions. I suspect we can expand our audience both here and overseas. The book is costly for readers around the world.
MET: Thank you for taking the time to discuss this with me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and look forward to Volume II.
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