Dust girl

No story springs to life in a vacuum. This one, however, has a longer history and more sources than much of what I’ve written before.

The story really started back when I was a kid listening to Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl ballads while reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. It came to life under the influence of The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys, Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye, and Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux. Frequently, the most powerful influences for an author are novels, and two were very much in my mind as I worked on this book: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Horace McCoy’s chilling story of dance marathons during the Depression, and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I also was able to draw on the eyewitness accounts collected by the Dust Bowl Oral History Project of the Ford County Historical Society (skyways.org/orgs/fordco/dustbowl/) and the writings and images compiled by Kansas State University (weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/multimedia/dustbowl/dustbowlpics.html), as well as Farming the Dust Bowl: A First-Hand Account from Kansas by Lawrence Svobida, and of course the photographs taken by Dorothea Lange.

Oh, and just for the record-I did not make up the Fairyland amusement park in Kansas City. I found it in the book Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop-A History by Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix. So thanks, gentlemen: you made me rewrite the entire second half of the story.

Suggested Playlist

Nothing tells the story of a time and place like music. So when the story for Dust Girl began to take shape, I went to the music of the 1930s, the Dust Bowl, and the Depression for insight and inspiration. Below is a partial list of songs and ballads I drew on to help Callie and Jack on their way.

“Dance a Little Longer,” words by Woody Guthrie, music by Joel Rafael

“Do Re Mi,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill,” attributed to Thomas Casey (lyrics) and Charles Connolly (music)

“Dust Bowl Refugee,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Dust Pneumonia Blues,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” words and music by Woody Guthrie and Lee Hays

“Hard Travelin’,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“I Ain’t Got No Home,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Little Black Train,” words and music adaptation by Woody Guthrie

“The Midnight Special” (traditional), sung by Huddie Ledbetter to John and Alan Lomax, 1934

“My Oklahoma Home (It Blowed Away),” words and music by Sis Cunningham

“Rock Island Line” (traditional), collected by John and Alan Lomax

“St. James Infirmary Blues” (traditional), recorded by multiple artists

“So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Take This Hammer” (traditional), collected by John and Alan Lomax

“This Land Is Your Land,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“This Train Is Bound for Glory,” new words and music adaptation by Woody Guthrie

“Tom Joad,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

“Vigilante Man,” words and music by Woody Guthrie

About the Author

Sarah Zettel is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. She has written twenty novels and many short stories over the past seventeen years, in addition to practicing tai chi, learning to fiddle, marrying a rocket scientist, and raising a rapidly growing son. Dust Girl is her first novel for teens. Visit her online at sarahzettel.com.

***