Note: This is a posting from Lifeline ensemble member Amanda Link, dramaturg and assistant director for our winter MainStage production of One Came Home.
An interview with Amy Timberlake, the multiple award-winning author of One Came Home, That Girl Lucy Moon, and The Dirty Cowboy.
Q: What inspired One Came Home?
A: I wrote it over a long period of time, so there were many inspirations. I saw a production of The Taming of the Shrew and was disturbed by the relationship between the sisters. After that, I knew I wanted to write a story about two sisters. I had already written a middle grade novel called That Girl Lucy Moon, in which one of the characters is a 68-year-old business woman. I ended up cutting about 100 pages of her from the book, but I held onto her voice. Someone in my writing group suggested I try that voice as a 13 year old girl. She would be a future business woman, sure of herself even at that difficult age. Now I had two ideas but I still didn’t have a setting. That’s when I came across a book on passenger pigeons. I knew a little about this bizarre phenomenon and wanted to learn more. I’m an amateur birder and will occasionally pick up bird books, and this one was amazing. I had to keep reading bits aloud to my husband! It sounded like science fiction at times. And then on one page there was a map of Wisconsin, my home state, with a giant L-shaped blob in the middle of it. It was the site of the largest passenger pigeon nesting ever recorded. It was about 850 square miles, which is about the size of 3 and a half cities of Chicago all put together. I had also been watching a lot of Westerns and I thought, I could set a Western in Wisconsin. Why not?
Q: At our first rehearsal, we went around the room and discussed if we related more to Agatha or Georgie. Do you see yourself more in one or the other?
A: When you write in first person, you end up feeling very strongly connected to that person. I like giving my opinion, but I’m not as dogmatic as Georgie. I actually don’t speak like Georgie at all. My Grandfather talks like Georgie. In my book The Dirty Cowboy, I made my first attempt at my Grandfather’s voice. He had a very Western way of approaching people. He would just tell them the truth and move on and let them do what they wanted with the information.
Listening to stories being told was a big part of my childhood, especially whenever I would visit my grandparents. In One Came Home, Georgie is telling this story to someone. It’s a long story, but she’s a talker so it works.
Q: What is it like for you to see your work adapted into another form?
A: It’s exciting when you’ve written something that makes someone else want to create something. I haven’t seen One Came Home yet but when Lifeline adapted The Dirty Cowboy, it was so much fun! I’ve been to a lot of shows at Lifeline so I trust you guys. You take good care of your stories and it’s clear that you value literature.
I can’t wait to see how you’ll do the birds! And what will Billy look like? I’m looking forward to seeing the show.
Q: When did you start writing?
A: In the third or fourth grade, I wrote a poem. When I showed it to my Dad he said, “You really have a way with that.” And that little comment stuck with me. I was always a big reader. I loved to read. And I thought my library card was like a super power badge that I could use to get anything I wanted. I lived in a small town and I could walk to the library by myself and then use the books to travel to different times and places. The idea that I could write my own book was so cool, but also really intimidating. I had a long path to becoming a writer because it didn’t seem possible. I thought I should do something more practical. I studied economics and then history before I got my Master’s in Writing. But all along the way I took every creative writing class available in high school and college because it was always something I wanted to do.
Q: Do you work on one thing at a time or do you tend to have multiple projects going at once?
A: I always have lots of ideas. I’m trying to get better at working on more than one thing at a time. Right now I have two things. I’m working on a novel and that is my primary focus. The secondary project is a nonfiction picture book. I am in the research phase for that one, trying to see if it will work.
The novel is written in third person and there is lots of humor in it. I don’t want to say too much about it but I will say that one of the issues from One Came Home has come into this book. Telling this story is one way that I am working through a question that I have. All of my writing is like a record of my thoughts through stories.