Fun Five: Carole Dagg

Apr 8, 2011 by shanyn

Fun Five
Carole Estby Dagg

Author of The Year We Were Famous

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1. Describe your perfect picnic.
My perfect real-world picnic would be a potluck at the lake or beach with two dozen relatives or friends (at least half that number in hyped-up kids) and a couple dogs chasing sticks or frisbees.  One table would be heaped with salmon just off the grill, baked beans, corn baked in the husks, and ten kinds of salad.  The other table would be heaped with desserts.

Just once, though, I’d like a Masterpiece Theatre kind of picnic, where faithful Mrs. Cook opens the wicker hamper and arranges cucumber and watercress sandwiches on Wedgewood plates, serves iced tea in Waterford crystal goblets, and I musingly recite long passages of poetry over dessert.

2. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
My favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla, not that I eat it plain.  Vanilla is the little black dress of ice creams which can be dressed up or down with the right accessories, which might include slivered almonds, dollops of loganberry jam, bananas sautéed in butter and rum, chocolate-peanut butter sauce, fresh local strawberries, and, of course, whipped cream.

3. How many states and countries have you visited?
I have visited twenty-four states and over thirty countries.

4. What television show do you love to watch?
Since I read over a hundred books a year I happily go a week or more without watching any TV.  My one addiction is Mad Men.  I wait until it comes out on Netflix and order the whole season to watch in a marathon weekend while get to the bottom of the ironing basket and complete the hand-finishing on weaving projects.

5. Describe a cool birthday party you’ve been to.
A cool birthday party…that’s a hard one.  Maybe my son’s birthday in Palmer, Alaska?

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More about The Year We Were Famous:

In May of 1896, seventeen-year-old Clara Estby and her mother, Helga, pack satchels with compass and maps, ponchos, first-aid supplies, journals, a pistol, and a curling iron. They head east along the railroad tracks, planning to walk twenty-five miles a day for the next seven months. Their goal: to reach New York City in time to win a $10,000 wager which would save their family’s farm from foreclosure.

Saving the farm was the most compelling reason for the walk, but Clara’s mother was an active suffragist who also wanted to demonstrate the resourcefulness and endurance of the New Woman.

Shy, methodical Clara and her bold, impulsive wear out sixteen pairs of shoes apiece on their eastward trek as they confront flash floods and snowstorms, mountains and deserts, highwaymen and rattlesnakes. With each new challenge, Clara and Helga come to rely on and respect one another for the very traits that make them so different.

For a year, they are famous. Newspapers write up their adventures and they meet governors and mayors, the wife of presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, and even shake hands with the new president-elect himself, William McKinley.

Based on the true story of the author’s great aunt and great grandmother, this is a fast-paced historical fiction adventure that sets the drama of Around the World in 80 Days against an American backdrop of the suffragist movement, the 1896 presidential campaign, and the changing perception of “a woman’s place” in society.

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