Shannon here: I’m happy to host Candace West today. A fellow Arkansan, she contacted me several months ago and is now part of my local writer’s group. Candace shares the inspiration behind her debut novel, Lane Steen. Comment or answer the question at the end of the end of any post dated Feb 12 – 15 to enter the drawing for an e-book or signed copy. Deadline: Feb 23rd, 11:59pm central time. Here’s Candace:
Rootin’ Hog
Meet my great-grandparents Clarence and Minnie—the inspiration behind Lane Steen. Raised in the Arkansas Ozarks by a hardened father and cruel step-mother, Minnie’s story passed down to me sitting at the knee of my granny. Many days, Granny would share stories of how Minnie overcame her unloving childhood.
When she was a teenager, her father abandoned her with an uncle, telling her to “Root hog or die.” Minnie’s uncle saw her only as a workhorse. Minnie worked plowing fields as long as daylight allowed. Not an ideal place for romance to bud. Yet in the dirt and grime, Minnie found the love of her life, a young man named Clarence.
This is their story:
One spring afternoon, thoughts of Minnie filled Clarence’s thoughts as he pitched hay. Daisy, the family cow, peeped around the stall at him with sleepy eyes.
“Oh, mind your own business, Daisy. Can’t you let a man think for a spell?” He smiled, his deep blue eyes twinkling.
Outside, his father’s wagon rattled to a stop.
Straightening his overall strap, Clarence watched his pa climb down. Sunlight streamed through plump, white clouds overhead. One sunbeam struck Pa right on his bald spot.
Clarence wiped a sweaty hand over his mouth. He’d better not let Pa see him laugh.
“Pa, are you ‘bout ready for supper? Ma’s got an apple pie sitting in the window right now.”
Pa wiped a rumpled kerchief across his forehead. “That’s where I’m headed. But as for you, son, I think you’ve got more important things to
do.” His eyes locked with Clarence’s. “I understand that you’re a bit interested in Minnie Stacy. You’ve been courting her for a little while now.”
The serious glint in Pa’s eyes erased the mirth from Clarence’s face. He straightened his shoulders. “Yes, sir, I am.”
“Well, son, let me tell you this. I drove by her uncle’s field just now. She is out there, plowing up new ground. Being used like a full-grown man! And her a little lady at that! When I saw her staggering over that hard ground behind that plow and team…well! ” Pa’s tanned face flushed as he pushed a finger firmly into Clarence’s chest. “It’s gone on long enough. Jack Stacy intends to work her to the bone. Now, if you care a wit for her, you’d better get her now and marry her—because if you don’t, her uncle is going to kill her.”
Without another word, Clarence leaped into the wagon and clenched the reins. In another moment, the chickens in the yard scattered as the wagon clattered past them. The trees, the hills, and the pastures blurred. Saving her was all that mattered.
A few miles passed, but Clarence never noticed or grew tired. His breath came in short, steady gasps. Closer. Closer. Jack Stacey’s field slowly edged its way in view. Near the end of the field, a tiny dot moved behind a mule and plow. Closer. The dot became a form, then a figure, and finally a wisp of a girl.
***
“Minnie! Minnie! Quit it, now!”
His voice echoed above the sound of the plow biting through the ground. Minnie’s arms ached as she reined the mule to a stop. Turning her head, she saw Clarence running down one of the furrows toward her.
When he reached her, he threw the reins aside and lifted the strap from her shoulders.
“Clarence—I—”
Without stopping for breath, Clarence went and started unhitching the mule from the plow. “You’re coming home, Minnie.”
Blinking against the sunlight, Minnie shook her head. “Coming home? Uncle Jack’ll be mighty mad if I don’t finish!”
Clarence strode over to Minnie and grasped her calloused hands, running a thumb tenderly over her sunburned knuckles. “I’ve tried to give you time to get to know me better, to learn to trust me. Maybe even love me a little. Time’s run out for that, Minnie. I can’t stand it no more. Your uncle is going to kill you with this kind of work.”
Tears burned in her golden-brown eyes, brimming over and sliding down, leaving trails through the dust smudged on her cheeks.
“I want you to come home—with me—now. Minnie, will you marry me?” His grip on her hands tightened.
Minnie scrutinized his face, read the honesty in his eyes. He’d never desert her the way her pa had. He wouldn’t raise his hands and hit her like Uncle Jack.
The tears streaming down her face transformed into a flood. With trembling fingers, she pulled her hands from his and clutched his arms as if she would never let go.
“Yes! Yes! Clarence, I’ll go”
Later, when Uncle Jack came to the field, he found an abandoned plow and a mule grazing under a nearby oak tree.
About Candace: Candace West was born in the Mississippi delta to a young minister and his wife. She grew up in small-town Arkansas and is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. When she was twelve years old, she wrote her first story, “Following Prairie River.” Since then, she has dreamed of writing Christian fiction. Over the years, she has published short stories as well as poems in various magazines. Since her teenage years, she has written many church plays. In 2018, she published her first novel Lane Steen. By weaving entertaining, page-turning stories, Candace hopes to share the Gospel and encourage her readers. She currently lives in her beloved Arkansas with her husband Aaron and their son Matthew along with two dogs and three cats.
About the book – Lane Steen:
How can she let go of the past when she is forced to confront it?
Kidnapped by her father at two years old, Lane Steen never imagines she is living a lie until a new schoolteacher, Edith Wallace, comes to Valley Creek. Yet Edith is more than a schoolteacher. She is part of the past–a past hidden in a mysterious dream that has haunted Lane since childhood.
At sixteen, Lane yearns to escape from her embittered father’s hatred that engulfs her home. The schoolhouse is Lane’s only escape. Carefully,
Edith works to earn Lane’s friendship, but love and trust doesn’t come easy for a heart plagued by hate. But then the truth shatters Lane’s world.
The truth sends Lane on a turbulent search into the past. Leaving Valley Creek behind, Lane reunites with a family she cannot remember–a family that surpasses her wildest dreams. A family that belongs to her.
Despite her newfound joy, her hatred for her father only deepens. Although she desires to experience the faith of her family, Lane can’t cast away one thing she holds closely: the hatred that helped her survive.
Digging into her father’s unbelievable past, she confronts the story behind her father’s ruin. Will she always be bound by hate?
Yet something even stronger binds her. Something stronger than her family, something stronger than her will. She is bound to Valley Creek, the place of her stormy childhood, the place of the man she loves, but more importantly, the place of God’s calling. Ironically, she finds love, purpose, grace, and forgiveness in a place she’d sought all her life to escape.
Can’t wait for the drawing or worried you won’t win? Get your copy now:
Lane Steen – Amazon Lane Steen – BarnesandNoble Lane Steen – itunes
Question for Readers: Would your, your family members’, or friends’ life story make a good novel? Share a bit of a novel worthy story you know of with us?
Come back Feb 15th for the Candace’s real life romance!
I love this story about your great-grandparents. Stories about family are such a treasure!
Thank you! Family stories are my favorite. I’m thankful Granny passed them down to me or they would be lost forever.
When the time comes for me to tackle a historical, I have the beginnings in the story of the McLeods who came to Eastern Kansas in the 1800’s. The matriarch, my 2x great grandmother became famous in the neighborhood for her “tea parties”, but she raised a rough and tumble family of children. Their family motto Hold Fast speaks to their strength and determination.
Your 2x great-grandmother sounds like a fun, resilient lady. My dad’s family roots stretch from Kansas to Colorado. Those people really did know how to Hold Fast!
I have had several book worthy incidentes in my life, the first was when I was an x-ray tech at the hospital in my hometown. When I got there the patient was already in the x-ray room waiting with some deputies, that was unusual, they never bring a patient down to wait for me. I always had to go get them it gives the equipment time to warm up. So, I turned everything on than got the patient to slide over onto the x-ray table, and I got a film and put it in the bucky tray and positioned the patient, took the picture and the lights go out. The Deputies move back into the room with the patient I go and open the door out into the hall checking to see if the lights are out all over or just in my dept. The lights are out all over the hospital, I wait for the back up generator to kick on only to find out that my department is not on the generator. I try to find our flashlights that we have, but can’t find any. Then the deputies tell me they have to go outside to protect the building. They ask if I can lock the doors to the department and I tell them yes. So I am left with the patient who is handcuffed to the table. I ask him if he is warm enough, and comfortable on the table, He says, “Yes I’m OK.” It’s really weird sitting in pitch black dark so I start talking to him, I ask him what happened to him, how did he get hurt? He tells me that he had landed at our airport to refill his plane, when the deputies show up and arrest him for drug trafficking. He was hurt when he tried to run and hide. He also told me the deputies are afraid the people he was bringing the drugs to, will be after him to keep him quiet. That’s when I realize that I am in danger if what he is telling me is true. However, I also know I am in the most secure room in the building my doors are lead lined to keep the x-rays from exposing anyone outside the room, and they lock. I learned that he learned to fly when he was a kid and started running drugs in college when one of his friends asked him for a favor. They wanted him to fly to Florida, and pick up a package and bring it back to them. They claimed it was a present for their mother’s birthday, so he said yes. when he got back with the package they offered him a job, and the money was too good to say no. We were in the dark for about 30 minutes and the lights came up, and I finished my films. They took the guy back upstairs, and I never saw him again.
Another time I as taken into custody by the Secret Service, and the last one was when I was a victim of a violent sexual assault, and how I survived. My family doesn’t know about the Secret Service, not because it was bad I just never told them.
My husband also works in the medical field and has told me lots of interesting stories. Some funny, some scary, and some sad. Thank you for sharing!
There are elements of my family’s history that would make a good story, but there are a lot of sad times that would have to be mentioned.
That’s true, but it’s usually the sad, hard times that can strengthen people and make a wonderful testimony for others. Thanks for stopping by, Dianna!
My paternal grandmother was raised in Norway here father, grandfather and back another 6 generations were all fisherman. I know because one of my grandmother’s nephew’s wives research and found a treasure trove of history.
Don’t you love discoveries like that! My great-aunt did a fantastic job researching my maternal grandfather’s line. Then a cousin took that research further and found that we are distantly related to John Adams. Genealogy is fun! Thanks for sharing, Kim!
Hey Candace, I enjoyed learning your inspiration behind the book, especially since I’ve read it.
I’m so glad you did, Shannon. And thank you so much for having me here! It has been fun!