sshaver — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 08:00:38 +0000

Join a new community of readers and bloggers.

The story of a young Texas farm family struggling through the Dust Bowl debuts here, with a new mini-episode added each day. Contribute your interests in literature, history, and human nature. The author, Shelley Shaver, will visit the blog daily and respond.

Click on the titles on the right hand side of the page: they are meant to be read in sequence. Today’s poem will be the poem below the others in the column.

Imagine your world is stolen.
Imagine you stay.

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Times are hard.

Money is tight.

Jobs lost.

Homes lost.

Your grandparents survived it all before you.

How?

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Black storms of suffocating dust rolling up from the horizon and turning night to day. A young farm wife, Riah McKenna, trying not to lose her land, her family, and a sharp-tongued red-haired friend the community wants her to abandon.

A crisis of bank failures, foreclosures, lost jobs, and men and women fighting to hold on to their self-respect.

All this hidden under the quiet, close-mouthed culture of the wide-sky small-town Great Plains.

A people learning what they can hold on to when the ground opens up beneath their feet.

That’s the story.

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Horton Foote, playwright of To Kill A Mockingbird, changed my life.

Thanks to his belief in my writing, to the magical webmasters Susan and Robert Christensen of the Horton Foote Society, and to the thousands of you who visit and revisit this story, this site has become the home for Rain: A Dust Bowl Story.

I worked for 10 years creating this story, based on the strong women and men of our grandparents’ generation. I waited 20 years for this story to find a home.

Yes, it’s long. But it can be read one episode at a time. Read, leave, return.

You know I want you to come back.

Shelley Shaver

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See Comments At Bottom of This Page

For The Curious:

If you’re curious and your favorite is the outcast Louise, in Section I, try one of the following episodes: 2, 3, 5, 7, 15, 18, 19, 20, 27, 42, 48, 49, 63, 64, 65, 67, 72, 73….

If you’re curious and your favorite is Riah or her husband Tom, in Section I, try one of the following episodes: 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74….

If you’re curious and your favorite is the boy James, in Section I, try one of the following episodes: 6, 8, 9, 14, 30, 31, 32, 34, 39, 40, 47, 48, 50, 53, 57, 62, 69, 71….

If you’re curious and your favorite is James’ deaf friend Barker, try one of the following episodes: 62, 81, 90, 105, 107, 121, 122, 123, 125, 145, 146, 149, 150, 169….

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