5/25/2023 0 Comments A season of gifts by richard peckThey were pre-feminist-era power figures, and they clearly had an influence on me because there’s a strong elderly woman in virtually every one of my novels. It was from this family and human element that I fell in love with history, because they were living history. I thought they were very old ladies-they were probably in their 60s-and the fact that they could remember the 19th century intoxicated me. I came from rural Illinois and a tradition of women who ruled the world from black iron stoves in country kitchens. You once said, “When you’re a writer, you can give yourself the grandmother you wish you’d had.” Is Grandma Dowdel that grandmother? I was asked by Harry Mazer to contribute something to a collection of stories about guns, and I thought, “He’s going to get too many guy stories, so I’m going to think up a female character.” That’s how Grandma Dowdel was born. I didn’t think of it as being anything but a short story, but my book editor thought otherwise.
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