The Alabama Center for Literary Art presented the reading of Redbirds, Roses, and Ghosts by Gayle Young, the mother of Donna Estill from Calhoun Community College, at the Alabama Recital Hall.
The reading was a part of the Spring 2022 Writers Series presented on March 16, at 12:30 PM. The series was attended by approximately twenty people. The crowd was cheerful and Young’s one hour talk was received with much laughter.
While being fitted for the interview the young man relayed to Young that whenever she left her seat to walk across the stage, she had to carry the cordless microphone with her. She told him she would not be walking around, “not because I am old but because I had surgery in January. I use my hands to talk: they are all over the place.”
Young was attired in gray shoes and pants, a white blouse with redbirds dotted across it, her salt and pepper bob hair style framed her warm smiling face. Estill, the interviewer, is Interim Chief Academic Officer; Dean, Humanities & Social Sciences for Calhoun.
Young was attired in gray shoes and pants, a white blouse with redbirds dotted across it, her salt and pepper bob hair style framed her warm smiling face. Estill, the interviewer, is was dressed in a snazzy red pantsuit with a zipper on each coat sleeve that glistened when captured by the reflection of the light just at the right angle. Young and her daughter sat in matching beige club chairs.
Estill was dressed in a snazzy red pantsuit with a zipper on each coat sleeve that glistened when captured by the reflection of the light just at the right angle. Young and her daughter sat in matching beige club chairs.
Estill beamed whenever her mother told funny stories from the book and talked about life. Occasionally she would ask her mother to clarify herself in some instances. Young’s responses to Estill’s interview questions often spun a yarn with a little truth sprinkled in that made the story interesting. At one point I laughed so loud, I got “the look” from the audience. It was like looking into the soul of the writer through literary eyes.
The first question asked by Estill was,” How did your writing and publishing career begin?” Young stated that her writing started in the sixth or seventh grade when the teacher instructed the students to write a play. Young had the best manuscript, and it was chosen for the class play.
She also said that over the years she wrote stories and used her children as characters often using their actual names. One year at the Monroeville Literary Festival, she met the publisher of Blue Water Publishers, and has been with them ever since. When asked where her inspiration came from for writing she said, “often a redbird whispers in my ear and I talk back.” This was one of those times that Estill asked her to clarify if the red bird actually whispered to her. She said it really did not. This was one of those yarns, that was told with such sincerity.
Questions were taken from members of the audience and the question was, “were all the things true in the stories about your children and their situations,” Young replied, “Somethings are not actually true, but true enough to recognize the personality of each of my four children if you knew them.” Young enjoyed the dialogue and was happy to answer the question and even give more insight. She said that sometimes she forgets the names of her children and she calls them Dixie, which is the dog. That generated a laugh.
One story that was shared from the book was about the Yankees. Young said that when she was in the second grade, the family did not have a television, and she and her best friend entertained themselves with paper dolls and paper cutout clothing. One day while they were sitting on the front porch, the neighbor’s daughter (Cindy Lou) came over and asked them if they wanted to see a real Yankee. She said it would cost them a dime. “We said sure, because we had never seen one, but Granny told us that “those damned Yankees came here (the South) before and beat upon us and wouldn’t leave until they had re-reconstrued us,” so we gave her a dime to come to her house and see one. After seeing them, we asked for our money back because they looked just like us.”
A member of the audience asked Young, how did you become a student at Calhoun Community College? “One day ,I was complaining to Donna that I missed my college education and before I knew it, she had enrolled me in college and that was six years ago. When you are old you take one class at a time, and I still have to take a math class. A relative tried to teach me algebra and percentages, but that remains to be conquered.”
After answering that question someone else from the audience asked, what is the most surprising thing about college? Young replied, “it somehow changes you, caring about other people and cultures, it changes your perception, and there is no way to explain it to a 20-year-old.”
Estill mentioned Young’s second novel, Dirty Pink, which is a mystery based on reality, and asked what the greatest challenge was in writing it. Young said her greatest challenge in crafting a mystery is what weird thing is going to happen to the character, since she does not like to “kill them off.”
The last question asked by a member of the audience was, who is your favorite author? She stated that they are Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Pat Conroy. She said they had pretty words and sentences. She lastly added that Randy Cross (Randy, who was in the audience, a retired Calhoun Community College English Professor) had “come hither eyes.” That was for entertainment.
Young said that her first job was at a shoe store and that was a calamity, because “no one told me I couldn’t touch the cash register.” She retired as an administrative assistant at a law firm while rearing four children. “If you are mad, stressed, or resentful, take a walk, and write about it, that is what I do,” said Young.