Mississippi Delta - grace grits and gardening

about the Setting for my Novel…

December 21, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Today I’m discussing the setting for my novel, The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee. First of all, the definition of setting… Setting includes the environment and surroundings of a story. From A. A. Milne’s 100 Acre Woods to Henry’s hospital bed in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, the setting includes the landscape and time period as well as items on the kitchen counter.

The setting for my book is rural Mississippi County, Arkansas, the place I grew up. In my story, not only does the setting provides background information and paint a picture of the place, but the setting is integral to the story, affecting tone and mood. At least I hope you’ll find that to be true.Continue Reading

Pictured: Delta Cotton

October 9, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

P i c t u r e d: Delta Cotton

Cotton-picking time in the Delta is my favorite. This week when I haven’t been holed up working on my book edits (yay!), I’ve been driving from the bootheel of Missouri and along the Great River Road searching out magazine and blog post stories. The highways and byways of the Delta are roaring with trucks hauling soybeans and grain. The gins are ginning at capacity. I can often be found poking around in fields or parked on the side of the road taking pictures. So far, the farmers work around me. ? ??

A few Delta cotton pics. (The smoke in the first two pictures is from the adjacent soybean field—burning stalks after harvest.)

John Deere picker, Mississippi County, Ar.
Round bale, Mississippi County, Ar.
Adams Cotton Gin, Leachville, Ar.
Old cotton picking sack, Mississippi County Museum, Osceola, Ar.
Momma, my sister and me.
1910 cotton picking basket, Mississippi County Museum, Osceola, Ar.
Beautiful boll, Dunklin County, Mo.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]In them old cotton fields back home… @ArFB @JohnDeere #farming #Delta #Arkansas[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cotton Fields Back Home

Save the Osceola Courthouse.

September 16, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Hey y’all. I’m excited that my first article as a regular contributor for Delta Crossroads is included in the Fall 2015 issue. It’s an opinion piece on saving the Osceola Courthouse, a gorgeous Classic Revival masterpiece that deserves at a minimum a discussion about its value to the city beyond dollars.

A snippet from the article:

Antique bricks and mortar, a shimmering copper dome high above the oak trees—the Osceola Courthouse is so much more than the structure itself. The courthouse marks the centerpiece of the square, the town’s greatest landmark.

Osceola, named for Chief Osceola of the Seminole tribe, became the county seat of Mississippi County (located in Northeast Arkansas) near the end of the nineteenth century. In 1900, Osceola was a boomtown, a stop on the main line of the St. Louis-San Francisco “Frisco” Railway. The downtown area bustled with two ice plants, two bottling works, a wagon factory, and electric and water utilities. The town even boasted an opera house. Fancy.

To read the entire article online, click HERE. (Be sure to read all the articles—this month’s issue is dedicated to fall and harvest. The Save the Osceola Courthouse article can be found on pages 27-30.)

AND, for those of you interested in my soon-to-be published book, Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, there’s a surprise on page 32.