When I Crossed No-Bob (17 page)

When I finally settled down to write
When I Crossed No-Bob,
I couldn't help but think I was writing about more than one reconstruction in Mississippi.

I come from a family of war survivors—on both sides. My mother survived Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. A good many of my father's people lived through the Civil War. At this writing, the United States is in its fourth year of warring in the Middle East.

Whereas
How I Found the Strong
was based on the real life of one of my relatives, Frank Russell,
When I Crossed No-Bob
is Addy's story. Abandoned by her parents, Addy is a
survivor, a young girl living through a difficult situation during one of the worst times in the South's history.

I know that when put to the test, people, young and old, can do tremendous things. Average people transform into noble, strong, resilient human beings—perhaps the very human beings they were meant to become. This was my hope for Addy.

As I neared completion of Addy's story, my father told me about a girl some of his relatives took in after she had fallen on hard times. The couple grew to love this girl and adopted her, raising her as their own. My father referred to this girl as his cousin, who, he says, worked and studied hard, then grew up to become a nurse.

At this writing, the people of Pass Christian are still living in FEMA trailers and tents. I keep hearing a need to get back to "normal." But I have to admit, I want more and better than normal for Mississippi.

It is wonderful to complete a novel, but it is sad too, because to finish means that you have to say goodbye to all the characters, people whom you've come to see as your friends and family now, people you have come to know and love so well. You've lived with them and dreamed about them.
You've worried about them. So when I began
When I Crossed No-Bob,
I was both excited and relieved to return to the Smith County in my imagination, if only to check back in on the Russells and Frank. Still, it's hard to say goodbye to them a second time.

My thanks to the University of Evansville for granting me a sabbatical leave so that I could research and write, to the Mississippi Association of Arts & Letters, to the Indiana Library Association and the Mississippi Library Association for inspiring me to continue to write about Frank Russell and Mississippi. And thank you too to my father, James McMullan, and Mr. Gene Tullos of Raleigh, Mississippi, who both took the time to tell me more and more about Smith County. Thanks to Maureen Duncan for all of her help. Thanks to my sister, Carlette McMullan, and my brother-in-law, John Gibbons, who brought Madeleine Honor Gibbons into the world so that I could dedicate this book to her. Thanks too to my mother, Madeleine, who always takes the time to listen. I could not have written this book without my husband, Pat O'Connor, our friends, their children, our son, James, his friends, and all the schoolchildren I've corresponded with and visited. And many, many thanks must go to my agent, Jennie Dunham, manuscript editor, Susan Buckheit, and Margaret Raymo of Houghton Mifflin, who said the magic words, "What's next?"