Author Profile: Barbara Snow Gilbert

Barbara Snow Gilbert

BIO

An attorney by trade, YA author Barbara Snow Gilbert got into writing after taking a course at a local university several years ago. Since that time, she’s written three novels and has been awarded several honors for her work. Her first novel, STONE WATER, was named a Best Book of 1996 by “School Library Journal” and a 1997 Book for the Teen Age by the New York Public Library. In 1997 and 1999, she was awarded the Oklahoma Book Award for STONE WATER and BROKEN CHORDS, her second novel. Ms. Snow Gilbert lives in Oklahoma with her family. Her latest book is PAPER TRAIL.

INTERVIEW

August 4, 2000

Barbara Snow Gilbert is an up and coming YA author whose teen characters face difficult challenges and often have to make wrenching decisions. Her most recent novel, PAPER TRAIL, could be her most heavy to date. It's about a boy who grows up in a small Oklahoma town amidst an anti-government militia group --- a group that turns on him and his family when it's revealed that his father is an FBI agent. The book is about Walker's survival, not only physically, but mentally. Gilbert, an Oklahoma resident herself, tells Teenreads writer Tammy Currier, how the Oklahoma City bombing affected her and helped inspire PAPER TRAIL. Learn the difference between "militia" and "patriot" groups, how her book could raise awareness about the growing problem, and more in this interview.

TBB: In STONE WATER, your first novel for young adults, you wrote about euthanasia. In BROKEN CHORDS, you wrote about a musical prodigy. Your latest YA novel, PAPER TRAIL, is about the anti-government militia movement. What prompted you to explore this topic?

BSG: I wanted to write a scary book, one in which the reader's fear would come from something real, rather than from something fantastical like ghosts or vampires. Many years ago, my family hired a man to do our yard work. His crew turned out to be his wife and children --- seven girls and a baby boy, all under the age of ten. I became friends with them, handing out Popsicles whenever they came, and then one day they stopped coming. I heard they had moved to another town (to remain nameless). The town had a reputation as a center for underground groups similar to the fictional Soldiers of God I created in PAPER TRAIL. I have no idea whether what was said about the town was accurate. And I doubt my friends' move there had anything to do with their politics. But as a writer, the thought that such a hardworking, angelic-looking family could even possibly be involved with something as sinister as a group like the Soldiers of God, provoked my imagination. After I researched and learned that such groups were, in fact, here, lurking under the surface of what appeared to be small-town life in middle America...well, it seemed like a good beginning for a truly scary story.

TBB: Excluding BROKEN CHORDS, you take on some very timely topics in your novels. Does your work as an attorney influence your choice of subject material? If not, where do your ideas come from?

BSG: My legal career doesn't directly influence my writing, but there is a relationship. Probably, I chose to study law for the same reasons that I chose political, social, and religious topics for my books. Controversial social issues just happen to be what interest me.

TBB: Being an Oklahoma resident yourself, did the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 have any bearing on your decision to write PAPER TRAIL?

BSG: Yes. Oklahoma City is a big city with a small-town feel, and almost everyone who lives here knows someone who was a victim or survivor of the bombing. I live eight miles from the Murrah building. When the bomb went off the explosion rattled my windows and sounded huge, even over the noise of my hairdryer. I walked outside, still in my robe, and found my neighbors outside, also in their pajamas. Drivers had pulled over and stopped their cars. Life, interrupted. That event, and its aftermath, is a part of my life experience in a way it would not have been had I lived anywhere else. Although not in any conscious way, it is surely a part of what I drew on to write PAPER TRAIL.

TBB: Throughout the book, you intersperse startling facts about the U.S. militia movement in documentary-like chapters called "Scraps." How widespread is the movement?

BSG: The movement has adherents in all fifty states. There are fewer identifiable groups now than there were several years ago, but research indicates that today's participants are often more hate-filled and prone to violence than participants of the past were.

TBB: The anti-government cause consists of two groups: the Patriots and the militia. There are 435 Patriot groups, 171 of which are militia groups. Can you explain the difference between the two?

BSG: "Patriot groups" is a broader term than "militia groups." Any domestic group which desires or seeks the destruction or overthrow of the government, for any reason, may be considered a patriot group. Militias are a specific type of patriot group. They may stockpile weapons and explosives, practice military maneuvers, and plan warfare against the government and its citizens, much like any terrorist group.

TBB: The members of these groups seem quite fervent, bordering on the fanatical. In your opinion, is there anything that can be done to control or combat them?

BSG: Our government, thankfully, tolerates a wide diversity of thought, criticism, and even hate, directed against it and its citizens. Fanaticism --- especially fanaticism offensive to the rest of us --- is protected as free speech by our Constitution. What is not protected, of course, is violence, or the planning of violence. That is a crime. What seems so dangerous about the current crop of fringe groups is their willingness to use violence, the hate mentality many of them profess, and their weird blend of politics and extremist "Christianity." As for what might be done to curtail these groups, I'm no more qualified than anyone else to guess. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, (cited in PAPER TRAIL), educates the public and brings litigation against such groups wherever possible. I would like to think that a book like PAPER TRAIL might have a small role in raising awareness and in provoking discussion. But how effective are discussion and litigation against people bent on violence? As one of the characters in PAPER TRAIL says of his work with the FBI to curtail the Soldiers of God, "We never know for sure about the lives we save. We only know for sure about the lives we lose."

TBB: For those of us unaware of the movement, can you explain the basis for the militia’s beef with the United States government?

BSG: We've been talking about "the" movement, because it's convenient to do so, but really, there's not one, organized patriot movement. There are many small, scattered patriot groups with different agendas. Anti-government extremists might be militant anti-abortionists, people who want to secede from the United States, people who believe in segregation of the races, or people who think NO government should have the power to tax or regulate, to mention just a few of their views.

TBB: Your main character, a 15-year-old boy, has spent most of his life as a member of the Soldiers of God, participating in war games, bible study, and learning wilderness survival skills. After his mother is shot and killed by members of the SOG before his very eyes, the boy plunges into the Oklahoma woods and embarks on the fight of his life. Rough, both physically and psychologically, the time he spent in the woods, putting his wilderness survival skills to the test, was more than just believable. It was downright gripping. Have you spent much time in the woods yourself? Have you ever had any "wilderness" training? If so, would you recommend it?

BSG: I don't have any survival or wilderness experience per se. As a camper, and later as a counselor, I spent several summers near the Pecos Wilderness area in New Mexico, and I did some backpacking and horsepacking there; but it was far from a survivalist experience. I had to do a ton of research in order to write about the boy's survival trek in PAPER TRAIL.

TBB: Was Walker's character based on any one in particular?

BSG: This is going to sound like a cop-out answer, but it is the only one I can give. As stated in the front of PAPER TRAIL, "Although this book contains references to the world we live in, the main body must be read as a work of fiction. The town of Red Cedar, its inhabitants, and the events depicted as occurring there are creations of the author's imagination, and any similarity to actual locations, persons, or events is merely coincidental. The "Scrap" chapters are, however, of a different nature. The quotations in these chapters are entirely documentary and the citations are to actual publications."

TBB: From what we’ve read, your background is in law. When did you become interested in writing? What made you decide to write for teens? What do you enjoy about it?

BSG: I've always been interested in writing, but I never gave serious attention to it until I took a course at a local university several years ago. At that time I had no idea I would end up writing young adult books (I'm not sure I was even familiar with that term), I just wanted to try fiction writing of any sort. What I found out was that I could tap into that special, adolescent voice. The issues my characters have to confront are big ones, and would be difficult for any one of any age to handle. The fact that my protagonists are young, heaps extra burdens onto their backs. My young characters have to be very strong to deal with all I ask them to. That's one thing I like about writing about this age group. Also, knowing my books will be published as young adult books carries a special responsibility --- not to soften, or censor the material in any way, but to write it as honestly as I can.

TBB: Your work has been compared to the novels of Robert Cormier and Gary Paulsen, two very popular YA authors. Do you favor the work of any current young adult authors?

BSG: It's flattering to be compared to writers like Cormier and Paulsen, authors whose work I like and respect very much. I purposefully don't read too widely in the young adult genre, but another YA author I like is Virginia Euwer Wolff.

TBB: For those out there who’ve been bitten by the writing bug, what advice can you offer?

BSG: My advice is to consider taking a writing course. I could not have written a publishable manuscript without the tips I picked up in the first class I took. I asked around to find the best writing teacher in my area and then I enrolled in the school where she taught. Then, when you're ready to tackle a book-length project, write the story that only you can write.

TBB: And finally, are you working on anything now? If so, can you give us a sneak preview?

BSG: I have ideas for a new project, but nothing is on paper. My first three books are each very different, and if I write any of the several ideas that are currently working themselves out inside my head, I can promise that pattern will continue. One idea in particular would use a very unusual format, but I can't divulge anything more about it than that.