Sissy!
by Tom Mach
List Price: $15.95
Pages: 343
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0974515922
Publisher: Hill Song Press
Currently living in Lawrence, Kansas, Tom Mach has held editorial positions for one regional and two national magazines, was a stringer for a chain of newspapers, wrote poetry, and taught copywriting at San Jose State University and writing for publication courses in workshops and community colleges. Tom has written extensively for regional and national magazines, such as Writers Digest, where his feature article was published, and in Stamp World, where his short story appears. In addition, he has received numerous writing awards for his poetry, short stories, and articles. Tom authored Sissy!--his debut novel--because he has always been immensely fascinated by the Civil War. With Sissy! he won the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Award for the best Kansas novel.
Tom is currently at work on, All Parts Together, the second novel of his trilogy of Jessica Radford, a fascinating woman from the 1860s who was ahead of her time.
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Q: Sissy! is a Civil War novel. How did you become interested in the Civil War? What does Sissy! have in common with 9/11?
TM: I've been interested in the Civil War ever since I was five years old and received a Union forage cap from my mother. I used to play "Blue versus Gray" battles much like other boys played "Cowboys and Indians." But it was when I got older that I realized the importance of the Civil War. I recall reading Gone With the Wind when I was about 16, and then Red Badge of Courage when I was 17, and I began to the extent of the emotional drama and turmoil that the Civil War encompassed. That war touched on just about every emotion one can describe-anger, fear, patriotism, greed, bigotry, sorrow, compassion, and love. I don't think there will ever be enough books written about it, although Sissy! is different from most Civil War novels in that it focuses far less on the battles, generals, strategies, and so on, (although realistic battle scenes are, in fact, included) and more on the unknown heroes and heroines, such as those brave women who tended to the wounded and who, in some instances, dressed as men to fight in the war themselves. Sissy! concludes with the horror of the Quantrill raid of Lawrence in 1863. This was actually the first act of terrorism on U.S. soil in that as many as 200 innocent men and boys (as young as 12) were killed by a band of 448 marauders charging through town. This terrorist attack has many parallels with 9/11 in that, first of all, this attack could have been prevented. In Sissy! I described how Lawrence was defenseless-it had no railroad, no telegraph, no bridge-and, to top it off, the town mayor ordered its citizens to store their weapons in the town's armory. While many citizens had anticipated an attack earlier in the year, the fact that no such occurred relaxed them. And just like with the brave policemen and firemen that tried to rescue victims of 9/11, the brave women of Lawrence did their best to protect their husbands and sons from the slaughter-and often by ingenious means.
Q: Who is Jessica Radford, and how did you get the idea for her character?
TM: Jessica Radford is a 21st-century, independent woman, filled with the "ridiculous" idea that women should be equal to men, and caught up in the turmoil of the 19th century. At the beginning of the novel, she is a 19-year-old woman who had just completed one year of college (a rarity in those days), and her head is filled with ideological thoughts. But the horrible events that follow change her and teach her the hard lessons of love and compassion so that Jessica is not the same person she was on page one. Jessica is a lovable character despite her faults, and she has a heart of gold when it comes to treating slaves on equal terms. I'm not quite sure how I got the idea for her character. She just popped in my mind one day and I couldn't shake her off. She "nagged" me into existence, and revealed herself to me as I would think about her and dream about her. It got to the point that I knew everything about her-what she looked like, what she sounded like, and how she would react to different people who'd meet her. Other characters in my book, like the slave Tinker, and the part-Cherokee minister Matt Lightfoot, and the kindly Underground Railroad conductor Otto Heller, also came alive in my book. So too, did historical figures such as James Lane, John Brown, and John Speer. Frankly, when these characters become real, the book practically writes itself.
Q: What can we expect from your sequel, All Parts Together? When will this book be published?
TM: All Parts Together is the second book of my trilogy that follows the life of Jessica Radford. Incidentally, All Parts Together is taken from the WAl Whitman quote that was also given in Sissy!--"sure as life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together." The title also carries an implied message of a puzzle that Jessica must solve involving not only a murder mystery but also the puzzle of her own life, where she learns a facet of herself she never had been fully aware of before. This second book starts with the day after the Quantrill Raid and will move on to probably somewhere into the 1880s. Historical events such as the railroad expansion and the Chicago Fire will be incorporated in the book. As I am still writing this book, I don't know when All Parts Together will be published, although I am hoping it will be in 2005.
Q: What has been your feedback from readers?
TM: The response to Sissy! has been overwhelmingly positive. A reviewer with BookWire calls Sissy! a "masterpiece." ForeWord Reviews says that "this novel contains every piece of a good story-romances, victories, defeats, heroes, and villains." TheBestReviews.com claims that "this intriguing story was hard to put down." The Historical Novels Review adds that there is "plenty of action and historical detail here for Civil War buffs." I've received five-star reviews on Amazon, where readers have said such things as: "This is a page-turner in every sense of the word" and "I just finished reading Sissy! and I love everything about it." I've also had a reader tell me she intends to read Sissy! a second time as well. That comment is especially encouraging since Sissy! is a book that needs to be reread to delve into a deeper meaning of this book. Just like Moby Dick was more than a whaling story, Sissy! is more than a Civil War story. It's a story of a deep, spiritual insight into love and compassion in the midst of an era of brutality and hatred.
Q: What's next?
TM: In addition to writing the next two books of the trilogy of Jessica Radford, I also have two other writing projects. One is a series of children's books about a mischievous cat. The other is an intriguing mystery about the cross of Christ. I'm also considering doing a series of historical articles for small-town newspapers. I will have plenty exercise for my typing fingers over the next several years.
Q: What was the last book you read?
TM: I reread John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. It was interesting how I looked at it differently this time, where now I became more aware of the striking contrasts in character description. Steinbeck is a master at painting characters realistically. Prior to that I read Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson and that is a book that told about bigotry, a theme very prominent in Sissy!
Q: In addition to the novel Sissy! you have written articles, profiles, book reviews, poetry and short stories for various publications. How did you first become interested in writing? Why do you write?
TM: After my attempt at writing a novel at 17, I put my writing aside for awhile, although in my twenties, while I went to the university to study engineering, I'd take shots at writing short stories. It wasn't until I was 37, however, while working as a product manager for a food company in California that I got bit by the writing bug. Up to that point, I had not been published (except for a couple of engineering articles), and so I tried my hand at writing articles. While working full-time at my other job, I managed to submit an article a week to a community newspaper and eventually became a stringer for them. From there, I went on to published in a wide variety of magazines as well. To this day, I'm not certain why I suddenly rediscovered the joy of writing at that age, but I received considerable encouragement from my colleagues at the California Writers Club, and eventually became president of two of their branches and even help hold one of CWC's annual conferences-one in which Alex Haley ("Roots") was a speaker at. Eventually, Mr. Haley allowed me a two-hour interview in his hotel room. I had also interviewed other important writers such as Pulitzer-Prize winner Wallace Stegner ("Angle of Repose"). I found these writers inspiring because they loved to create "mind pictures" with words, and that's the reason I write today. To me, words are to a book what violins are to an orchestra. You play them well so that send you to another dimension. Good writing is also an acquired skill, much like learning open heart surgery. It takes years of training and years of practice to do it exceptionally well. I also shudder when I hear about some person who has never written before, complete a first draft of a novel, sends it to a publisher, and gets a $100,000 advance. It just doesn't happen that way.
Q: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?
TM: I love to listen to good music-classical music, Civil War music, and some country and western. Music is definitely an inspiration to me in my writing. When I wrote Sissy! I not only listened to strains from "Bonnie Blue Flag", "Battle Cry of Freedom", "Dixie", and others, but I also watched Civil War films, such as the Ken Burns series. Matter of fact, there is a scene in the Ken Burns film where the "Ashoken Farewell" is being played while a soldier near the battlefield, writes to his wife and tells her how much he wished he could tell her he loved her and how his spirit will comfort her if he dies. He died a week later. That scene always makes me cry. I carry a lot of deep personal emotion into my writing.
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Excerpted from Sissy! © Copyright 2008 by Tom Mach. Reprinted with permission by Hill Song Press. All rights reserved.
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