Local well-respected author and Red Mountain Ranch resident, Tommye Staley, announces a second book in her series, titled Jumping on Snakes: Memories of a Southern Girl.
Her first book, Washing Worms, is a fascinating story of a southern girl who grew up on a farm on an island in central Arkansas. The story features the people who influenced her, the simplicity of life in the South, and the hardships and heartaches of a little girl in less complicated times.
In the latest of her series, Tommye continues the saga of a southern girl growing up in rural Arkansas and the life changes she experienced. At their new home in Palmyra, she learned that jumping on snakes cleared the swimming hole of the cottonmouths that lurked in the cool waters of her favorite swimming spot.
The newly found knowledge was just one of the many new experiences for Tommye, George, and Wes to discover in their new homestead.
Going to school turned out to be one of the simpler adjustments for Tommye. Friendships were plentiful, but boy/girl relationships added a new layer of awkwardness.
This page turner invites you to tag along on hunting, fishing, and horseback riding trips, as experienced by the young trio and their newly acquired friends.
“This is just my way of sharing, to let my readers know how much I appreciate them,” said Tommye, who taught at Wesley College in Dover, Del. and attributes her inspiration to write books to her students. Her life lessons were in a different time and place, she said. “I did not realize how different things were when growing up. You really don’t realize how impactful your early years are until you are past them.”
The majority of the people she grew up with in the South were not white, and as she remembers, there was no division within the community. “There was a time when you did not have to be afraid of people,” Tommye said, as she describes her time on the farm with dogs, horses, and dust, she chuckled.
Tommye said in her youth she learned to hunt and fish with her comrades, whom she did not fear or have prejudice against. “If there is a message in my books,” she said, “there have been times when there was no need for fear in this country… where fear wasn’t a part of a child growing up.”
Tommye and her husband Phil have lived in Red Mountain Ranch for more than seven years. One of their hobbies is to participate in historical skits on Saturdays at the Superstition Mountain Museum.
For more information, email tcarstaley@aol.com