JO
a novel
a historical fiction novel set in the 1950s American West
by Marilyn Skinner Lanier
Jo is a story about impermanence and how losing one’s roots can threaten a couple’s marriage and the future of their family.
Jo is set on cattle ranches in rural Oregon and Wyoming in the early 1950s, and Central California in the late 50s after an unexpected turn of events forces hard choices. Jo Glover must come to terms with her unbearable childhood and take charge of her family’s future when her husband’s unflagging optimism and repeated losses threatens to upend their lives.
Jo finally realizes her dream of having a stable, secure place to raise her family when she and her husband Kurt move with their three young children to his parents’ pioneer ranch in eastern Oregon. Kurt is excited about returning home again after completing his military duty in WWII, and Jo is eager to try her hand at raising their children on a cattle ranch far away from her charming but devious mother. Her desire for putting down new roots reinforces her determination to not look back at the tumultuous childhood she escaped by leaving home at age thirteen.
Hardpan
a novel
by Marilyn Skinner Lanier
What happens when a young ranch family in 1950s rural Wyoming loses its moorings?
When their young daughter is sent to live in southern California with wealthy relatives whom she barely knows, while her father struggles to reestablish himself as the family breadwinner by taking on jobs in central California that are foreign to his ranch upbringing?
A short film, “The Fence,” based on a chapter from the novel, won the Director’s Award at the UCLA Film Festival in 2008.
About Me
I’m a product of parents whose roots are Oregon pioneers. Family stories from the 1870s on captured my imagination: the cattle drives from Texas to the high desert in southeastern Oregon, and at the turn of the 20th century, tales about building and operating a toll road through this remote ranch country to haul silver ore from mines in nearby Silver City, Idaho to San Francisco.
A Special Setting for Jo
Jo is set on cattle ranches in rural Oregon and Wyoming in the early 1950s, and Central California in the late 50s after an unexpected turn of events forces hard choices. Jo Glover must come to terms with her unbearable childhood and take charge of her family’s future when her husband’s unflagging optimism and repeated losses threatens to upend their lives.
These images show some of the real locations featured in the novel.
