Final Thoughts - Ask Pat
You have one final chance to ask the author of Guerrilla Season - Pat Hughes - a question about the novel. Before you post a question please look back at some of the previous comments to see if your question was asked in an earlier comment post. Please answer this question by posting a comment to this blog entry by clicking on the "comments" link below this post. Please remember to use either your first name only or no name. Any comments with full names will not be posted. Thanks.
posted by Eric Langhorst | 8:28 AM
24 Comments:
My favorite part was when Sussie pushed Matt out of the tree.
I thought the best part of Guerrilla Season was when Matt and Jesse were hunting for rabbits until they saw the guerrillas.
I really enjoyed the part when momma revieced the letter from her parents,this part stood out to me because they were going through a rough time and needed desperate help. Momma was not expecting a letter back from her parents because of their dissaproval of her marriage but she could not do this on her own. I loved how the parents just opened up and are willing to take the family in after all these years of never even talkin to their daughter.
Matt doesn't want to go north with his grandparents. Ben said he would run away. Why are the boys so against leaving their home to be safe? Why are they fighting the move?
In your author's note, you said that not many books focused on Jesse's childhood. Where did you find your information at?
Does the book Geurrilla Season have a movie for it?
Hey i think my favorite part in the book would be in the begining when matt kills a rabbit and that is my favorite part because i like hunting and that is what they are doing
Why did you end the book with Matt watching Jesse ride away and not with Matt traveling to the North?
I don't know about all of the other kids would say but, I personally think that you should have told more about what happened to Susie, and Matt. I just think that you shouldn't leave people wondering about what happened to them like that. Did they ever get back together? Did they marry and live on the farm that Matt's dad built?
Were any of the character's personalities in the book based on people in your life?
Hello Pat,
I was wondering, how did you get all of these details about this book? Do you have have a relative that could have told you about it or what?!
I thought that the best part of Guerrilla season was when Susie and Matt were in the tree and Susie pushed Matt out of the tree. Another part I liked was when Matt gave his horse to Jesse because that show true friendship.
The best part of Guerrilla Season is were Matt finds out that his ma is going to have another child. And the second best part is where Matt wakes up and goes and checks on the burning house.
My favorite part of the book is when matt goes back to check on the bruning house!
My favorite part about the book is how throught the whole book Jess and Matt show friendship to each other! and that real friends be jsut the same.
Did you feel obligated to add the "relationship" between Susie and Matt into the story (that seems a popular theme in most books) or was it just a personal choice (I like this part of the book by the way)?
My favorite part of the book would be when Susie pushes Matt off the tree because it's funny and totally unexpected.
Why does Buck scare Jesse and Matt? Why can't he just come say hi, instead of nearly drowning Jesse?
Hi all -
As I've been away for a few days, I'm going to try to address a few questions in each post until I get through them all!
ANON asked why Matt and Ben are so against the move North. Well, I guess I'd answer that question with a question: Put yourself in their place. How would you feel about leaving your home, your friends, everything you had been accustomed to all your life, to go 1,500 miles away to an entirely different lifestyle? What would you do if tomorrow, your parents announced your family was moving to Philadelphia?
Now, granted there are people who welcome such changes ... but I think those are few and far between, especially kids Ben's and Matt's age. I think most kids like to stay with the familiar. What do you think?
Another ANON asked if any of the characters were based on people in my life. The answer to that is a simple no!
ANON again: Is there a movie for "GS" -- no. But maybe someday ...
And still another ANON: Did I feel obligated to add the relationship between Matt and Susie. This is a very, very good question! I can't say I felt "obligated" to add it but there was a certain element of trying to figure out how I could add a strong girl character, because most of the main characters were boys, the exception being Ma and she's not exactly a "girl." And knowing most of my readers would be kids, I wanted to level the playing field a little bit so I settled on Susie, and then I thought it would be really fun to have this thing going on with her and Matt and as it turns out I think that was a really good decision because I like the way it turned out and so do most girls who read the book!
- Pat
To Anon who asked about where I got my info about Jesse's childhood:
You're right, I said there were no books that focused on Jesse's childhood - but there are certainly facts known about his childhood, and set down in biographies and books written by family members, which is where I got my information. Things like Jesse's blinking tic (apparently he had a condition called granulated eyelids, or blepharitis), his religious streak, his temper, his steely blue eyes - all of these things and more were documented in the era he lived.
Other things - the story about Martha King making bullets for Jesse, the tale of little Jesse standing up in church and asking God to save Buck's soul - are also documented, but may be "apocryphal," which is a fancy word for "people say they're true but we really have no way of knowing"! But I liked them anyway, so I put them in the book.
All the historical stuff definitely DID happen and has been documented many times: Mrs. Samuel and Susie being taken to jail, Dr. Samuel being hanged by the Feds, and Jesse being whipped by them.
And of course, there was lots and lots that came straight from my imagination ... which is the job of a historical novelist!
- Pat
To mycatisfat25:
Good question, but it's hard for me to put into words exactly why I end a book where I did. It seemed right to me to end it with Matt and Jesse parting company, since so much of the book centered on their friendship. Also, I like to leave the reader with something to imagine beyond the ending. So I hope you all will imagine what happens when Matt gets home after leaving Jesse.
- Pat
Addressing Anon's complaint about being left hanging (so to speak) at the end:
I'm sorry! But I do feel, as I said earlier, that a good novel SHOULD leave the reader wondering, or imagining ...
And besides, I can't tell you everything that's going to happen because I plan to write more about these characters!
- Pat
I really liked the perspective that the book was written from. Did you find it difficult to write from a young boy's point of view?
~Emma
Since the character Jesse, is based on Jesse Jame's childhood, was the main character Matt based on someone Jesse knew in his childhood, or just completely fictional?
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