Beyond Summer (48 page)

 

Shasta:
Pppfff ! Relationships are great, but I think I could deal with the swimming pool, the country club, and the cute clothes, too.

 

NAL Accent:
Lisa, you took on a real challenge in writing about Sesay, a homeless woman, yet we at NAL Accent think you really pulled it off. What inspired you to tell Sesay’s story?

 

Lisa:
In spending time at various mission projects, in particular the Gospel Café in Waco, Texas, I’ve crossed paths with so many interesting people—both among the volunteers and among those who are served. What you realize, if you take a little time to listen, is that each person who comes through the doors has a story. Each story is unique.

Each story is valuable. The fact that someone is homeless, or illiterate, or poor doesn’t make the story any less valuable. We each have lessons to teach and lessons to learn.

Years ago, I interviewed a woman who’d come from Haiti and worked in the sugarcane fields in Florida, under terrible conditions. Eventually, due to a fire that forced the sugarcane company to temporarily shut down in that area, she left the cane fields and became homeless. Years later, when I met her, she had found her way into a program designed to help the homeless get off the streets. She told me the story of the rabbits running when the cane fields burned. I always thought that story, and her story, should be shared.

 

NAL Accent:
Shasta and Tam, I’m curious to know whether meeting Sesay has changed the way you look at homeless people, and what you would like readers to take away from your experience.

 

Shasta:
I think, mostly, it’s made me see that you can’t tell what’s inside somebody from looking at the outside. Putting people into categories just comes natural, I guess—even to someone like me, who gets tired of being judged by the way I look. I think, by getting to know Sesay, I’ve learned to look deeper. At least, I hope I have.

 

Tam:
Shasta’s right. I think I’d like readers to take away the belief that we each have the power to make a difference. While not all of us have the resources to start something like the Summer Kitchen, we can all find places to give our time and talents. Even just a few hours a week can be the beginning of something life changing.

 

NAL Accent:
Shasta, through you and other characters such as Dell and Terence in
Beyond Summer
, Lisa weaves characters from the Tending Roses series into the Blue Sky Hill series. How does it feel to be part of both series?

 

Shasta:
Well, what can I say? As cool as Dell is, and as much as I’m going to love having her for a sister-in-law, I always knew I had my own story to tell. My Nana Jo used to say we all wander the world until we find our feet. I think that’s what I was doing when I first met Dell, back in the Tending Roses series. Now, here in Blue Sky Hill, I think I’ve finally found my feet.

 

NAL Accent:
Lisa, did you feel a particular satisfaction from merging these two worlds?

 

Lisa:
It is incredibly satisfying to see these two series come together. Dell’s story actually began in my first novel,
Tending Roses
, and throughout the Tending Roses series, she was growing up and discovering herself. In a way, she became the daughter I never had. When her story ended in
A Thousand Voices
, readers began asking what would happen next—would she choose to go to Juilliard to pursue her music, or would she choose to marry Jace and move to southeastern Oklahoma? I’ve been waiting to answer that question, and waiting to discover what Dell’s friend, Shasta, would decide to do with her life. Watching both of these characters come into their own has been like reaching the finish line of a marathon with two sister-friends running alongside.

 

NAL Accent:
Lisa, many of the characters in the novel act foolishly, sometimes even go a little crazy. There are a number of “meltdowns” or threatened or imminent meltdowns. Do any of the characters stand out for you as particularly challenging or interesting to write about?

 

Lisa:
Even though Barbie has a smaller role in the novel, she was one of the most challenging characters to write about. At the beginning of the novel, she appears to be fairly plastic and hollow, but I didn’t want her to end up that way. I wanted to understand, and to help Tam understand, why Barbie felt the drive to have so many children so quickly, and why material possessions were so important to her. I wanted her to be a whole person, and in the end to recognize her own motivations and to experience a shift in her priorities. I hoped Blue Sky Hill would grow her and change her, even if she didn’t want it to.

 

Shasta:
Well, yeah, okay, I guess anything’s possible. Barbie is a trip, but I would’ve thought Aunt Lute would be the hardest one to write about, since she’s nuts, anyway.

 

Tam:
I think I knew all along that Barbie was teetering on the brink. I kept hoping that she would pull herself together and be a mom to the sibs, but to tell you the truth I didn’t think she had it in her. She surprised me.

 

NAL Accent:
Lisa, is there a character in
Beyond Summer
that you have a hankering to write about in another book?

 

Lisa:
I think it would be interesting to know more about MJ, the woman who owns the bookstore. She lived in the Blue Sky Hill neighborhood when she was a child, then moved away, but felt the pull to return and start the Book Basket. She is obviously well educated, either in the traditional sense or self-educated. I’ve always wondered what happened to her during the years she was away from Blue Sky Hill, and what motivated her to return.

 

 

Shasta:
Oh, I think you should write about Aunt Lute. I wonder where she got all the things that are in her head.

 

Tam:
No, not Aunt Lute. I say you should explore the family that ended up in the shelter after losing their house on Blue Sky Hill. Where did they have their baby? Were they able to rebuild their lives? Did they sue Householders?

 

NAL Accent:
Shasta, I understand that in addition to being active in the Blue Sky Hill Neighborhood Coalition and tutoring at the Summer Kitchen, you’ve signed up for some college classes. How’s that going for you?

 

Shasta:
Not so bad, but I should’ve studied harder in high school. Geez. My English teacher was right. I should’ve been paying attention.

 

NAL Accent:
And, Tam, now that you’re closer to your original upscale neighborhood, are you tempted to slip back into your old ways of hanging out at the country club and the mall? Have you been in touch with Emity?

 

Tam:
Really, my mind’s on school, and working with the literacy program, and volunteering at the Summer Kitchen when I get a little time. Mrs. Kaye’s son, Christopher, is hot, for one thing, and he works down at the Summer Kitchen a couple days a week. There’s also a program in Dallas that teaches inner-city kids to play golf. My dad and I have been getting involved there, so I guess all that time at the country club wasn’t wasted, after all.

Emity called once from Europe. She was having a good time, but after we talked about the basic tourist stuff, we really couldn’t find much to say. She never called back after that, and I haven’t called her. I guess sometimes people just grow in two different directions.

 

NAL Accent:
One message I took away from the novel is that we’re all connected. Decisions that one of us makes affect the rest of us, often in ways that profoundly alter our lives. This is certainly true within families, but it extends well beyond families. Shasta and Tam, would you agree with that? And, Lisa, is this a message you think we particularly need to hear these days?

 

Shasta:
That’s one of those things you understand, growing up Choctaw. Even in these modern times, Choctaw kids are still taught that we’re part of the Tribe. What hurts any member hurts the Tribe, and what hurts the Tribe hurts every member. We understand it in a way that a lot of folks don’t.

 

Tam:
I think the interdependence of people was one of the biggest revelations for me during my time on Blue Sky Hill. In today’s society, we value independence above almost everything else. We work toward it. We crave it. We think that success is in not having to depend on anyone, and not having anyone depend on us, but the truth is that we’re not meant to go along the path alone. We’re meant to lean on each other and to support each other. Success is in having the grace to give when you can and the humility to take when you need to.

 

Lisa:
I think Tam stole my answer.

 

NAL Accent:
I’m curious to know what each of you thinks will happen to the Blue Sky Hill neighborhood in the years to come.

 

Tam:
I think the neighborhood will grow, change, and develop naturally. As current residents age and leave their homes, new residents will move in, remodel and redevelop the historic properties, allowing those properties to retain their character. Blue Sky Hill will be a place where cultures meet and people of different backgrounds and income levels mix.

 

Lisa:
I imagine that Blue Sky Hill will become a place with its own identity. Like many neighborhoods in Dallas, it will be nurtured and regulated by a coalition of residents who value the character of the neighborhood, but who also value each other. I imagine that as the neighborhood grows, more services, like the literacy class, will be available to existing residents.

 

Shasta:
It’ll be home, of course, and in the future, outfits like Householders will know not to mess with folks in Blue Sky Hill.

 

NAL Accent:
Lisa, in what ways is the fictional Summer Kitchen similar to and different from the Gospel Café, which you say in your acknowledgments helped to inspire
Beyond Summer
? And is there a real-life counterpart to the Blue Sky Hill neighborhood?

 

Lisa:
There are many neighborhoods in Dallas that are similar to Blue Sky Hill. The neighborhood is roughly in the area of Lake-wood, and shares some similarities, including the streets of grand old mansions, like those on Blue Sky Hill, and more modest houses only blocks away, like those on Red Bird Lane.

The Summer Kitchen is in many ways similar to the real-life Gospel Café. While in the story, the Summer Kitchen operates from the church building, the real Gospel Café still operates from its original location, a blue Victorian house in the Kate Ross neighborhood of Waco, Texas. Like the Summer Kitchen, the Gospel Café was started by a very small group of people. It proves that a few people can step out and make a difference in the larger community. The café now offers meals, care and concern, and services such as medical help and substance abuse classes for residents and homeless men, women, and families who would have nowhere else to turn. So much more than food is delivered through the kitchen window. When people have become invisible, like Sesay, the mere experience of being valued, of having a choice of menu items, of having someone look you in the eye, of being offered space at a table set with real plates and silverware, of finding a place where people greet you and remember your name, can be life altering. Often, the contact that begins with a lunch at the café becomes the first link in a chain of events that changes lives. There’s really no way to describe the experience of looking across the kitchen counter and seeing a customer in tears over a kind word and a plate of food.

1. There are a lot of characters in this book. Who are your favorites and why? Who don’t you like?

 

2. Most the characters are deeply flawed, yet we care about them anyway. How does Lisa Wingate achieve that?

 

3. The Lambert family members find their lives turning upside down almost overnight. Tam ends up in a place she can hardly conceive of being. Yet most of us experience at some point some sense of disconnect between what we thought our lives would be and what they really are. Has that happened to you? How did that experience change you?

 

4. Why do you think Lisa Wingate chose to include the stories that Sesay tells the children at the Summer Kitchen story hour? What insights did you receive from them?

 

5. Did you notice that Lisa Wingate narrates Tam’s and Shasta’s chapters using verbs in the past tense while she narrates Sesay’s chapters using verbs in the present tense? Why do you think she made this choice? Do you have any thoughts about other ways in which the novel is structured?

 

6. Barbie experiences an emotional turning point that offers some insights into her background, and might suggest she has tried to satisfy an emotional loss by surrounding herself with material possessions. Is that how you read Barbie? Do you think our culture is too obsessed with acquiring things, and if so, what are some of the reasons for that?

 

7. Shasta has made some impulsive decisions in her life, and is suffering the consequences. Perhaps the worst consequence is the bruising of her own self-image. Discuss how she sees herself, how she thinks others see her, and whether her self-criticism is deserved.

 

8. What do you think of Aunt Lute? In what ways is she truly crazy? In what ways is she crazy like a fox—in other words, smarter in her handling of a situation than either Tam or Barbie?

 

9. Several characters experience major insights or turning points during the course of the novel that suggest they will make different choices in the future—Tam, her father, Barbie, Shasta, Sesay, to name a few. Did you find these transformations believable? Why or why not?