Dear Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club members and readers everywhere,
Above is the is the Eureka Carnegie Library that I wrote about in my book, “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life”. This was my sanctuary and the one place I could go and make the most amazing discoveries. Walking up those stairs back in the 60’s seem ominous to me but as I entered the sweet librarians welcomed me with open arms and gave me a treasure trove of reading. I would never be who I am or such a reader if not for this small rural library in Eureka, Kansas and so I must share with you a book that will further inspire you to support your local libraries and the women who keep them up and running.
So today’s guest blog feature is on a fellow Kansan, Romalyn Tilghman who has written and an extraordinary book. Read all about the author, this book, and the importance of the role of women in keeping these wonderful libraries continuing to feed our minds and educate the world.
Truly, Tiara Wearing and Romalyn Tilghman Book Sharing,
Kathy L. Murphy
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club Reading Nation
www.thepulpwoodqueens.com for Membership and More!
Email: thepulpwoodqueen@gmail.com
I’m delighted by two recent Pulpwood Queen announcements. One is that my book, TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES, is the June selection for book clubs. The second is that next year’s theme for Girlfriends’ Weekend is How the West Was Won, Through Books.
I’ve always been intrigued by the importance of literature to pioneer women, having heard my grandmother talk of dividing her Ladies’ Home Companion into 30 sections when it arrived every month, to make sure she had something more than the Bible to read every night. A simple woman who had arrived in Oklahoma in a covered wagon, she treasured reading and the world it gave her. The love of books runs in my blood.
I grew up in a Carnegie library in Manhattan, KS, and attended an elementary school named after the first librarian there. After graduate school, I realized how many Carnegie libraries there were in Kansas. (Fifty-nine!) And I started exploring their roots.
What fun to sink into the primary resources created a century ago! I sat in libraries, often in the original oak chairs at old oak tables, surrounded by card catalogues, where I studied first-hand accounts in the form of hand-written minutes. Reading perfect penmanship, I got caught up with individual personalities and community spats. I was overwhelmingly impressed by the dedication of (mostly women) volunteers who conducted bake sales, minstrel shows, and women’s softball games to raise money for books. I learned the politics of the women’s suffrage movement, since the library bond measure was often the first vote women cast, often because town leaders expected them to vote for Prohibition as well. I studied the history of the Dust Bowl, orphan trains, and epidemics (when libraries were closed for extermination). I was immersed in arguments over censorship, discussions over fundraisers, and planning for opening celebrations.
I’m so looking forward to discussions with PQ book clubs — in person, online, and via Skype — about how books transformed the West. Do drop me a note at Romalyn@aol.com, if you’d like to arrange some time together. In any case, may you enjoy the reading, and may a few memories and more stories emerge!
Romalyn Tilghman
TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES
TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES By Romalyn Tilghman ISBN 978-1-63152-233-8; $16.95 U.S.; 5 ½ x 8 ½; 303 pages; Paperback; Fiction/First Novel
PRAISE FOR TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES By Romalyn Tilghman ISBN 978-1-63152-233-8; $16.95 U.S.; 5 ½ x 8 ½; 303 pages; Paperback; Fiction/First Novel
GOLD MEDAL FOR WOMEN’S FICTION, READERS’ FAVORITES AWARDS INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER AWARD PROGRAM GOLD MEDAL—CONTEMPORARY FICTION, 2017 Bestseller, Vroman’s Bookstore (Pasadena, CA) Bestseller, Eagle Harbor Bookstore (Bainbridge Island, WA) Bestseller, Raven Bookstore (Lawrence, KS) “…this warmhearted first novel celebrates the value of community (and libraries!); the inspirational story of women past and present is a must-buy for Kansas libraries and recommended for general adult readers.”
—Library Journal “… this charming debut will appeal to women’s-fiction fans of gentle reads.”
—Booklist “To the Stars Through Difficulties is a deeply charming, wildly inspiring love letter to libraries, to art, to Kansas, to community. Romalyn Tilghman has crafted a glorious quilt of voices here, a beautiful chorus of resilience. Anyone who loves books will find sustenance in these pages.” —Gayle Brandeis, author of the Bellwether Prize winner The Book of Dead Birds “The details sprinkled throughout the novel about the Carnegie Libraries are fascinating ….The ending reveals a surprise twist that I didn’t see coming. I highly recommend this novel …”—StoryCircle Book Review
“To the Stars Through Difficulties is a gem; an endearing story about redemption and transformation. Tilghman succeeds in capturing the condition of an entire community—as well as the heart of this reader.”—Heidi W. Durrow, author of the New York Times bestseller The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
“Anybody can set a novel amid New York’s arts and literary ferment. But it takes a special eye to create engrossing fiction around the tension of cultural currents in a presumed backwater – such as the Carnegie libraries of the Kansas Plains. That’s what Romalyn Tilghman has accomplished in her novel, To the Stars Through Difficulties. Seen through the eyes of three women, it intertwines their personal struggles with the work of a community to support its art center, a former Carnegie library building. Angelina is a drifting Ph.D. candidate; Traci is a fierce artist lacking formal credentials for her art center teaching position; Gayle is the survivor of the tornado in a competing town nearby. Each is just about to give up in the face of stiff odds, and the art center is just about to fold for want of community support and cash. The title is the Kansas state motto (Ad Astra per Aspera), and is appropriate indeed. Readers will find themselves rooting for this star-bound cast of characters.”—Carol B. Chittenden, founder (retired), Eight Cousins Books, Falmouth, MA
“I had a lot of love for this book and its multi-layered message about how women have made, can make, and will make history happen even in the most dire of situations. About how the arts are not a lost cause and neither are people. That creativity brings light and hope, no matter where it is found or how little there is to work with. And how you can find yourself by looking at the people around you. Sometimes, they help you see the things you can’t see in yourself.”—Sweatpants & Coffee
“Romalyn Tilghman’s debut novel should come with a warning label for readers: Put on comfy pants, folks; you may be here awhile. It’s easy to start flipping through the first few chapters with no intention of devouring it only to find yourself looking up, disoriented, the sun coming up on a new day . . . . a promising debut . . . . The erstwhile prairie woman proves her mettle weaving together the lives of disparate characters maintaining readers’ attention to the very last page, whether they hail from Kansas or simply wind up wishing they did.”—The KU Alumni Magazine “I love novels about the strength of women, and one of the things I love most about this novel is how it exemplifies that strength can mean different things to different people, and can be found in many ways. Each of these characters faces her own unique challenges, and I was invested in each woman’s journey throughout. . . . Not only did I learn about the history of the Carnegie libraries, but as a lifelong lover of all things books, it had me thinking about the special libraries in my life and what they’ve meant to me.”—Book Perfume
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Photo credit: Rachael Warecki Straight out of graduate school, native Kansan Romalyn Tilghman was hired as Executive Director of the Association of Community Arts Councils of Kansas and was lucky enough to work with rural arts councils throughout the state. She saw first-hand how groups of (mostly) women encouraged culture on the Plains. From there, she went on to work for the National Endowment for the Arts as Regional Representative, eventually serving a territory that stretched over the Dateline, over the Equator, and over the Arctic Circle. For more than twenty years, she has worked as a freelance consultant in the arts – conducting strategic planning, initiating audience engagement projects, and assessing grant programs for nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and private foundations. She has served on the boards of Americans for the Arts, Association of California Symphony Orchestras, and Western Arts Alliance, as well as on numerous national panels. She lives in Long Beach, California.
To the Stars through Difficulties is her first novel. Romalyn is available to speak to libraries, civic groups, book clubs, and others. Find Romalyn online on her website or FaceBook.
For immediate release TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES By Romalyn Tilghman In TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES, three women, each at a crossroads in her life, meet at the former Carnegie library in New Hope, Kansas. Long since converted into an arts center, it’s now struggling to survive, and the women find common cause in working to save it. • Angelina’s Ph.D. thesis on the Carnegie libraries is due soon. After facing roadblocks for the last ten years, she hopes the discovery of her grandmother’s missing journal will give her fresh perspective. And it does, telling the story of how more than a century ago, a small group of women grew a library on the Plains. • Traci, the brand new artist-in-residence at the arts center, submitted her application based on lies. An adopted child who was never accepted, she hopes that she might—finally— find a home. But her hope stays small, since she knows that at some point, someone will discover the truth about her credentials. • Gayle’s hometown was laid to waste by a recent tornado. She can’t decide if she wants to rebuild or leave. She can’t even think. She’s living in a FEMA trailer, and she ends up joining the No Guilt Quilter’s Guild at New Hope’s fancy arts center to help Traci out. That’s when she realizes one piece of her past life remains: whether or not her mind works, her fingers remember the stitches. Facing doubting husbands, dissent from local religious groups, and their own insecurities, these three women and their friends quilt and knit their way to the future they desire, and in the process, rediscover their own power and worth.
This inspiring and hopeful novel has something for every reader—a rich story of friendship and loyalty, a mysterious missing journal, romance, an abiding love of books and the written word, and a can’t-put-it-down tale of beating the odds. Straight out of graduate school, native Kansan Romalyn Tilghman was hired as Executive Director of the Association of Community Arts Councils of Kansas and was lucky enough to work with rural arts councils throughout the state. She saw first-hand how groups of (mostly) women encouraged culture on the Plains. From there, she went on to work for the National Endowment for the Arts as Regional Representative, eventually serving a territory that stretched over the Dateline, over the Equator, and over the Arctic Circle. For more than twenty years, she has worked as a freelance consultant in the arts. She has served on the boards of Americans for the Arts, Association of California Symphony Orchestras, and Western Arts Alliance. She lives in Long Beach, California. To the Stars through Difficulties is her first novel. Find her online on her website or FaceBook. She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve members of She Writes, the largest global community of women writers online, and women writers everywhere. It is a curated press that’s both mission-driven and community-oriented, aiming to serve writers who wish to maintain greater ownership and control of their projects while still getting the highest quality editorial help possible for their work. She Writes Press titles have traditional distribution nationwide through Ingram Publisher Services. The company is a division of Spark Point Studio, LLC.
### MORE PRAISE FOR TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES: “What a joy! We learn about the importance of the Carnegie libraries, the orphan trains, and the state of Kansas; all subjects the author knows a great deal about and loves deeply.”—Goody Cable, owner of the Sylvia Beach Hotel, a hotel for book lovers
“Anybody can set a novel amid New York’s arts and literary ferment. But it takes a special eye to create engrossing fiction around the tension of cultural currents in a presumed backwater – such as the Carnegie libraries of the Kansas Plains….Readers will find themselves rooting for this star-bound cast of characters.”—Carol B. Chittenden, founder (retired), Eight Cousins Books, Falmouth, MA “…an uplifting story about the strength of collectivity, especially the collective power of women.”—Centered on Books “…wonderful….The characters are so realistic, and those who long for small town living will truly appreciate To The Stars Through Difficulties. When I was a child, I loved The Little House On The Prairie books, and this felt like a modern, grown-up version of the those books….I highly recommend To The Stars Through Difficulties.”—Bookchickdi
CHATTING WITH ROMALYN TILGHMAN
1. How did you learn about the Carnegie libraries? What made you want to write about them? My very first library, in Manhattan, KS, was a Carnegie library. I started going when I was five or younger. I loved that place! Its atrium, its desk with a drawbridge, the children’s room, the stacks, the big oak tables for grownups to read newspapers, the little cards you signed to check out a book. To say nothing of all the stories! That said, my memory isn’t so good. A few years into writing this book, I asked my brother if he thought they’d change the name of our elementary school, as part of the movement to take Robert E. Lee’s name off buildings. He informed me OUR school was named after Mary Cornelia Lee, the first librarian of that Carnegie library in Manhattan, who served from 1904-1942. In other words, even as a kindergartener, I must’ve known of her importance to the Carnegie library movement. Straight out of graduate school, I was hired as executive director of the Association of Community Arts Councils of Kansas and spent much time traveling the state. Several communities were converting their Carnegie libraries into arts centers, and I was intrigued by both their history and their current use. The more I read, the more I was struck by similarities in the efforts taken to bring cultural amenities to very small, very remote, very rural communities, then and now. I’ve been carrying notes around for over 30 years.
2. At one time, there were 1500 Carnegie libraries. Do any of the libraries still exist as libraries? If not, what has become of them? Over 900 of them are still used as libraries. Some are unchanged, some have been expanded, some remodeled. About 250 have been demolished, and the other 300 have been converted to other uses. Wikipedia has a complete list of Carnegie libraries and it’s been great fun to check them out as I travel. Friends have found themselves doing the same! Recently, I had a wonderful tour of the Carnegie library in North Minneapolis, which first served a population of Jewish immigrants and had books in some forty languages; then served mostly African Americans; and now is of great importance to the Muslim community.
3. Is it a fact that women have not been given credit for bringing the Carnegie libraries into existence or was that something you fictionalized? If it’s true, why do you think their stories and voices were not recognized? Are women ever given the credit they’re due?! As I worked with volunteers in Kansas, I realized how integral these women were to their communities. I can’t help but believe the same was true when the libraries were built. Most of what’s been published about the Carnegie libraries has been written about Andrew Carnegie, although if you look at the local histories, women predominate.
4. Do you think libraries play as important a role in rural communities as they did when Carnegie founded his libraries? Absolutely! Step inside one and you’ll see the importance. As I did research in Kansas, I saw people doing genealogy research, checking out piles of mysteries to read by a loved one’s sickbed, grappling with homework. Computers are always in use. I have yet to find an empty library.
5. You clearly love books. Where did your love for books come from? I have loved books since I can remember. They’ve been my most constant companions, through periods of despair and celebration. My parents read to me before I learned words, then I started reading to my brothers. I’ve read through a hurricane, on beaches, in planes, trains, and automobiles. I wouldn’t think of leaving on a trip without too much to read and too much to knit.
6. Why did you decide to write from the perspectives of three main characters? I started with Angelina, the library researcher, but I wanted to weave in arts centers so added Traci, as artist-in-residence. Gayle was the third to join the party. Since this book was several years in the making, I attended many workshops and lectures on writing, and the Wizard of Oz was often brought up as a perfect plot. As a Kansan who can be defensive about Wizard of Oz stereotypes, I resisted the urge to capitalize on the story. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized our need to understand our own hearts, brains, and courage is universal.
7. You have been involved in arts and communications work your whole career. How hard is it for any community to fund and then maintain an arts institution nowadays? Is it any easier? Is it harder for rural communities or poor urban ones? Have you seen arts programs transform communities in the way your novel describes? I started in the nonprofit arts field in its heyday, when the National Endowment for the Arts was encouraging (and funding) creative endeavors throughout the country. We developed quite a reputation for the work done in rural Kansas. Very small grants encouraged private support, and the smallest of towns were hosting art exhibits and performances as well as creating opportunities for community members to participate in making art themselves. That has become significantly harder in the last decade, as funding has decreased, especially in Kansas, where there is no longer a state arts agency. Arts have definitely transformed communities in the way I describe in the novel. It’s hard for both rural communities and poor urban ones to support the arts, perhaps in different ways, but equally as hard. The one thing they have in common is it’s usually one person or a very few who start a process that makes magic happen.
8. Do you knit? Quilt? I knit and I have quilted. One of the most important encounters of my life happened in the knitting section of a bookstore when a woman suggested I join the knitting group sitting around a table a few shelves over. As an introvert, I’ve never been much of a joiner, but this group of women sustained me through the writing of this novel. They are amazing in their creativity, diversity, and spirit. We tell each other stories, lift each other up, chip in on a good cause now and then, and have been known to adventure as far afield as Iceland.
9. Have you lived through a tornado? I have not lived through a tornado. Thank goodness! I am terrified of tornadoes and always have been. Anyone who has been with me in tornado weather remembers my hysteria. As a child, my recurring nightmares were of tornadoes coming towards me. As research for my novel, I spent a couple of days in Greensburg, the small town in Kansas that was decimated by a tornado in 2007. I immersed myself in first-hand accounts, and many of those experiences are reflected in my novel. It is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited. The community imagined a totally new, green, 21st century town and then built it. 10. Can you explain the title of your novel? Ad Astra Per Aspera is the Kansas motto, translated into “To the Stars Through Difficulties.” 11. What do you hope readers take from your novel? A greater appreciation of the history of the Carnegie libraries and a sense of the power of a small group of people to change their communities.
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