Interview with Dayna Dunbar

Cozy Library: I remember hearing the adage “Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain.” It seemed as if Aletta (in Saints and Sinners of Okay County) was doing just that by advertising herself as a psychic reader.  Why was the time right for Aletta to do that, in addition to her needing the money?

Dayna Dunbar: Timing was right because 1) her marriage was falling apart and 2) she had to feed her kids. The marriage was falling apart because she wasn’t being who she really was or being true to herself. That’s why she got into the relationship with Jimmy in the first place. She tried to make the marriage work, to have the life she thought she could, but it didn’t work. She had to put out the sign to feed her kids, but also to start being herself and start reclaiming her life.

CL: I thought Joy, Aletta’s next-door neighbor, was a wonderful, interesting character. Will we learn more about her in your next book?

DD: Yes, Joy is definitely in the next book.  In The Wings that Fly Us Home, Aletta takes Joy and a new friend Bobette on a road trip of self-discovery. Aletta is looking for information about an ancestor, a Native American medicine woman, who was also a seer. Aletta realizes her psychic abilities are in her blood and that gives her a sense of connection and acceptance; she feels as if she belongs somewhere. The reason Aletta hadn’t known about her ancestor, her mother’s grandmother, is because of the shame Aletta’s mother felt about having a Native American in her family.

CL: I know your next book is a continuation of the story in Saints and Sinners of Okay County. How many books do you see in the series? Or do you plan to write about different characters and/or settings in future books?

DD: I have another story about Aletta and Jimmy that’s ready to tell, but I decided to do something different in my next book. I’m about two-thirds of the way finished with a third novel set in the present day in a small-town Oklahoma – and with completely different characters than the first two novels. It’s nice to write about different people and different parts of myself. Aletta isn’t gone. – the Okay County books may end up being a trilogy.

CL: In your next book, will you interweave two stories from different time periods as you did in Saints and Sinners of Okay County?

DD: That was a choice I had to make, about whether to go back to the time of the Aletta’s great grandmother and tell the story from her perspective. I chose not to; I stayed with Aletta’s point of view. That way, readers are discovering the great grandmother as Aletta is. Aletta has some visions, where she’s seeing her great grandmother’s time, but the book is mostly from Aletta’s point of view. I love genealogy … going into the past, finding out about a different time and people and how those people affect lives in the present day. The Wings That Fly Us Home goes back into the 1800s and early 1900s in Sante Fe NM and also to the Land Rush, and the Oklahoma Territory.

CL: When the movie is made of Saints and Sinners of Okay County, who do you see playing Aletta? Jimmy?

DD: I’ve always seen Aletta played by Renée Zellweger, even before she won a Golden Globe for Chicago and before she won her Academy Award for Cold Mountain. I thought she was amazing and when I looked at her, I thought, “She’s Aletta.”

For Jimmy, I see Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer on the television show Lost. He’s gorgeous, with an angelic face, but he’s a bad, bad boy. That’s the essence of Jimmy.

CL: Which is more difficult for you: writing a screenplay or writing a novel?

DD: When I was writing screenplays, I would have said “novels.” Now that I’m writing novels, I would say “screenplays.” There are 90-120 pages in a screenplay … so thinking about writing a novel was more than I imagined I could do.

Now that I’m writing novels, I see that screenplays are difficult and very limiting. In writing novels, authors have lots of leeway. You can go off on tangents a bit. You can have descriptions, be inside people’s thoughts and feelings and have those parts drive the story. It’s not just what you see on a screen. Someone who can write screenplay and get across a character’s interior with just action … it’s an amazing talent. It’s hard.

Writing a novel takes longer, there’s a depth to it. In a screenplay, you have to achieve the depth of character but without being able to tell what the person is, you have to show it. That’s why when you see a great movie and you’re touched and feel you know the characters … the writing has to be spectacular to achieve that.

CL: Who are your favorite authors?

DD: I grew up loving the classics: Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen. Now, I like stories about people that show insight into a world I may not ever have experienced. Or if I’ve experienced the world, it’s a viewpoint I’ve never thought of.

One of my favorites now is Donna Tartt. She’s brilliant. After reading her, it’s hard for me to find work that I get excited about because her work is so different and so brilliant. I’m having difficult time right now finding a novel to read. That’s why I’m excited about the Cozy Library. Much writing is mean spirited, callous, filled with people I can’t stand. I’ve started five novels and haven’t been able to finish one.

I want stories that are real and even gritty, but that are also uplifting and inspiring. I just read a Tom Wolfe novel. He’s a brilliant writer. Then I started Bonfire of the Vanities and discovered I couldn’t read it. The characters are so coarse and violent with themselves and with other people.

I love stories written from child’s point of view: To Kill a Mockingbird and Cold, Sassy Tree. I also love southern stories … from authors like Fannie Flagg, but writers like that are few and far between.

I love a great story. Books have gotten so far into violence and pushing the envelope further and further. I can’t believe the level of degradation they tell about.

I had to learn that every character couldn’t be nice. At the same time, when something comes up that’s painful or challenging or violent, that there needs to be some redemption there. People can learn from it or it can be a turning point, but it’s not just for the sake of having more and more violence. I’ve found in my life that when I face difficult challenges, those are the things that teach me the most.

CL: Which writers most influenced your work?

The classics and the southern writers: Billie Letts, Fannie Flagg, the women I read and say, “These are the stories about my people.” I felt that if people will read those authors and be interested in them, then I could tell my stories and find an audience. Barbara Kingsolver’s work and career have also been a big inspiration. The classics influenced me immensely … Gone with the Wind may have been the biggest influence.

CL: What are you reading now?

DD: So many things …. I just started The Lost Language of Cranes, a novel by David Leavitt. It’s extremely well written.