I’d like to welcome
Charles Cranston Jett, author of Bess, the story of a twenty-one year-old girl
who leaves her parent’s farm to homestead on her own in the southwest corner of
North Dakota.
CCJ: My original roots are in the western Dakotas where I lived
through high school. My college experience was the US Naval Academy and I spent
my naval service time in nuclear submarines. (Wrote a book about that
experience—Super Nuke!)
Following the navy, I
went to the Harvard Business School, spent many years in business, and then
began to write. I was married for 34 years when my first wife died—then
remarried and have been very happy during the ten years we have been married. I
have two grown children—one is a principal in an elementary school (Eugene, OR)
and the other is in the US Navy.
RW: Who are your favorite authors?
CCJ: I enjoy Bertrand Russell, Tom Clancy, and William Manchester.
RW: Who are your favorite characters among the books you’ve
written?
CCJ: Favorite character is “Bess”
RW: What makes a good book?
CCJ: Excellent and vivid story line and well developed characters
with whom the reader becomes attached and cares.
RW: How does reader feedback matter to you?
CCJ: Reader feedback is essential. They tell you if your story makes
sense and if you have told it well through your characters.
RW: How much of your personality and life experiences are in your
writing?
CCJ: A lot. Super Nuke was
a memoir, Critical Skills,The Doom Loop, and Field Studies are what I lectured
about. Bess captures some of my early
life experiences.
RW: Tell us about your latest book. What motivated
the story? Where did the idea come from?
CCJ: Latest book is Bess. It’s a story about my grandmother and her experiences in
going to far-western North Dakota as a single woman in 1908 and homesteading on
her own. The story is real, and the experiences (for the most part) are real.
RW: Do you feel humor is important in fiction and
why?
CCJ: It’s important in my writing to occasionally
provide a little relief and maybe a smile from the reader. It lightens the
tension where appropriate.
RW: Can you describe the funniest thing that ever
happened to you?
CCJ: I wrote a letter to President Harry Truman when
I was in the fourth grade warning him about the North Koreans invading the
south. Three days later when the US intervened, I had tremendous feelings of
guilt because I thought I started a war.
RW: Tell us about the scariest thing that ever
happened to you.
CCJ: Being on a nuclear submarine shadowing the
Soviets when a torpedo was launched. Fortunately, it was a training shot and
not intended for us.
RW: Those are all the questions I have for you today. Thanks so
much for visiting my blog.
CJJ: You’re
very welcome. Read the book!
Bess
The Plot:
Bess Parker is only 21 years old when she sets out by herself in 1908,
leaving the safety of her childhood home for southwestern North Dakota to
establish a homestead. And it takes all the strength she can muster to succeed—facing
the perils of the vast prairie, making her homestead productive, conquering the
dangers of the frontier, flirting with romance, struggling with the emotional
needs of her heart and body, and meeting the challenges of life on the prairie.
But this unique young woman has a steely determination, and her story is the
epitome of courage and grit in a difficult and sometimes cruel time in the
history of the west.
Your Bio:
Charles Cranston Jett
is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and the Harvard Graduate School of
Business. He served in the US Naval Nuclear Submarine Force and has thirty
years’ experience in the management consulting and executive recruiting world.
A native of the Western Dakotas, Mr. Jett is also the author of WANTED: Eight Critical Skills You Need To
Succeed; The Doom Loop; Field Studies; and Super Nuke! A Memoir About Life as a Nuclear Submariner and the
Contributions of a “Super Nuke” the USS RAY (SSN653) Toward Winning the Cold
War.
Excerpt:
Monday, July 6, 1908: Near Haley, North Dakota
Bess
Parker awoke to the sound of meadowlarks. The morning was crisp and clear just
south of the North Dakota and South Dakota state line, with a few clouds in the
crystal-blue sky like puffs of cotton on their journey to the east. The scent
of wet green hay wafted through the window, tickling her senses. I made it, she
thought, as she got out of bed and quickly dressed. She put on her slippers and
walked swiftly across the rough-hewn pine floor toward the front door. She headed
outside to finally stand in front of her newly built sod house. She raised her
arms and puffed out her chest to greet the new day. She smiled.
A fresh,
cool breeze blew through Bess’s hair as she surveyed the green waving prairie
grass in all directions and the Teepee Buttes about five miles directly west. A
mile to the north, the winding Grand River flowed silently through the little
town of Haley, North Dakota. It was as she had expected all along. It was what
she had dreamed about—had longed for--and seemed to be a just reward for doing
so much studying and planning. This is my land, she thought, my new
home. My homestead.
As a
21-year-old single female, Bess had joined ranks with the few women who had
taken advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. This act, signed into law by
President Abraham Lincoln, provided that anyone who had never taken up arms
against the United States government (including freed slaves and women), and
who was twenty-one years or older, a US resident, or the head of a family,
could file an application to claim a federal land grant. This grant provided
160 acres of free land that the successful homesteader had to “prove up” over a
five-year period to obtain title. Bess had successfully obtained her grant from
the agent in Lemmon, South Dakota and was at the beginning of the five-year “prove-up”
period. After five years, she would have to offer proof that she had lived on
the land and provide evidence that she had made the kind of improvements that
would make the land productive and sustainable for a person trying to earn a
living. If that were done, the land would be hers free and clear.
Bess
reflected on her accomplishments over the past couple of months but knew full well
that her adventures were only beginning. It didn’t sound very exciting on the
face of it—sleeping in a house made of grass and dirt, and dug into the side of
a small hill on the vast prairie, but it was all hers. More than that,
the future would belong entirely to her. It would be a new life—a challenge for
anyone, and especially for a woman alone. The thought of it made her
breathless.
Now, as
she stood outside her home, a feeling of pride and accomplishment swept through
her, and she couldn’t help but smile. This was it—her home—and to top it
all off, she was in love. She had faced a challenge at a young age and
had met it successfully head on, but Bess was no fool. She knew that many more
challenges loomed in her future—challenges that she welcomed. It was
exhilarating. Thrilling.
She stood
silently and enjoyed the cool breeze, the pleasant sound of the wind blowing
across the waving grass—like a heavenly whisper—and the happy birds. She closed
her eyes and listened to those sounds that, together, were symphonic and seemed
to transport her back in time—four years ago—to the only home she’d ever known…Cando,
North Dakota.
Contacts:
Author Website: https://charlescranstonjett.com/
Blogs:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccjett?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/critskls
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Cranston-Jett/e/B00S03T7LC
Barnes and Noble Author Page:
Buy Links:
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