The end of October was marked by the Boston Book Festival where I got to schmooze with our non-fiction keynote as well as present DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE at a panel discussion on coming-of-age novels. Around the same time, I learned DOAP won the 2024 American Book Festival Award for Best Literary Fiction!
After a flurry of bookish and social activity in Boston, John and I returned to Wisconsin and huddled with our team to discuss 2024 accomplishments as well as priorities for Flynn Creek Farm’s 2025 growing season. We have many exciting initiatives in store! I have taken the lead coordinating construction projects and infrastructure installation - and one I’m particularly excited about is the restoration of our barn.
A barn is a critical component of a farm’s setting. Readers of my novels know how much I love to write setting, and I’m sensitive to its importance in real life as well! I treat setting as I would a character. Whether a swanky summer cottage dubbed EDEN, the campus of Dunning Academy in THE NINE, or even the island of Manhattan in DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, my settings are more than a backdrop for the action. They contribute to the underlying themes of the book by interacting with the human characters in a way that impacts their psyches. You may have a home or a place in your life that functions as such … At Flynn Creek Farm, our old red barn greets people as they first pull off the road and she has been crying out to be spruced up in order to play a more integral role in our operations (and our story).
Barns are iconic structures in agricultural landscapes, especially those with rich dairy heritages like Wisconsin’s. They traditionally represented prosperity, steaming with the livestock that constituted a farmer’s wealth, literally housing a farm’s most valuable assets. Sadly, while driving around our region, I’ve observed many barns in disrepair. Now, they are more of a symbol of endurance as they age and list, even sag. Our neighbor’s was white and very large and beautiful from a distance, but it had become a hazard and this summer he finally tore it down as mandated by his insurance company.
Once a dairy barn, ours was converted with stalls for horses. She had been used most recently for storage although overrun with rodents, barn swallows, bats, and wasps. In 2023, our crew tried to reclaim the space and began cleaning her out, only to discover the interior stalls were coated with lead paint.
This winter, we plan to take her down to the foundation, creating a structure that both honors her past, while accommodating Flynn Creek Farm’s specific needs. Fingers crossed all goes as planned, but if I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that construction comes with surprises. With a heart full of faith and a wonderful construction team, we hope to be raising a new barn in early 2025!!
I’ve been taking a class on Flannery O'Connor’s short stories and I imagine the barn in “Good Country People” where Hulga and the Bible salesman climb a ladder into a loft and lie against a hay bale, “a wide sheath of sunlight, filled with dust particles slating over them” to be just like the upper story of our barn pictured above. That got me thinking about other barns in literature… obviously, most of CHARLOTTE’S WEB is set in a barn, and John Steinbeck uses barns in many of his novels, OF MICE AND MEN coming to mind first and foremost. Are there stories or novels that you’ve enjoyed that feature barns prominently?
What I’ve read recently with links to my reviews:
DAYS OF WONDER by Caroline Leavitt
THE MIGHTY RED by Louise Erdrich
I WOULD MEET YOU ANYWHERE by Susan Ito
And check out a recent interview with me on the Resilient Writer Podcast
HAPPY THANKSGIVING and may we all experience peace and rest in meaningful settings with people we love!!
JEANNIE
Not sure which is cooler— you power washing the barn or photographed with Malcolm Gladwell!! But seriously, congrats on your book award (amazing!) and happy Thanksgiving!
I enjoyed your article; you certainly have been working hard. Congratulations on your award. Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.