About the Author
Loletta Clouse received a B. S. from Tennessee Technological University and an MLS from Peabody College/Vanderbilt. She worked as a librarian for the Knox County Public Library for twenty-five years. She is now retired and writes full time. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband Larry.

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Loletta Clouse: On a more personal note...
I became interested in writing my latest novel "Rainbow by Moonlight" when I read in the local newspaper that the University of Tennessee had received a grant to digitize the Arrowmont records. Later when I started to read some of the records, especially the letters the teachers had written, I became fascinated by the idea of writing this story. I wanted to learn more about these young women who were willing to leave lives of comfort and privilege to teach in the isolated mountain village of Gatlinburg.

I learned that the 1920’s was an exciting time in American history for women. Women were emerging from the stifling restrictions of the Victoria Era to a more enlightened time. For the first time more women have been allowed to go to college and they are eager to make a contribution to society. They soon discover that there are few outlets for their talents and intelligence. They were allowed however to do “good deeds.” And there is a great movement in the country for social reform, for example Jane Adams and Hull House and the Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky.

Of course, Claire has her own reasons for coming to the mountains. It took me a while to understand her character. I read Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces about this time and it helped me to see Claire’s journey to the Great Smoky Mountains as the Hero’s Quest. She goes into a strange land, is tested and learns powerful lessons, and must decide what to do with her new found knowledge. This is the quintessential hero’s journey. Claire had to go against her parents and society’s expectations of her and venture into a completely different culture that judged her by yet another standard. She did all of this while battling her own doubts and fears. That took an enormous amount of courage.

An underlying theme of this book and all my books is courage. Courage to live a life of ones own choosing as Claire puts it. Courage in the face of ordinary life has always fascinated me. My characters always face such challenges and I have such admiration for their undaunted spirits.

"Wilder" is the story of the mining camp of Wilder, Tennessee. In 1932, the families of this small mountain camp were facing a struggle to survive as the Fentress Coal and Coke Company cut wages and refused to bargain. It is the story of a young girl's personal struggle to come to terms with a way of life and the love of two very different men. Although the book is a novel, I did incorporate many of my family's stories. I come from a long line of storytellers. My mother has always been a wonderful storyteller. She has a vivid and rich memory of her childhood in a coal mining camp. My brothers would always say, 'someone should write this down.' Not only did I write them down, I made tapes of my mother telling the stories.

I was born in Anderson, Indiana but I grew up on the Cumberland Homesteads, near Crossville, Tennessee. My parents were part of the migration north during the Great Depression. I attended school at the Homesteads Elementary School. Like any child, I accepted the unusual design of the school and the unique stone houses as just the way of life everywhere. It was only later, after I wrote Wilder and began research on the Cumberland Homesteads for my second novel, that I truly came to appreciate the community's uniqueness. My grandparents, Frank and Catherine Johnson, were original Homesteaders. My grandfather applied to come to the Homesteads after the mines failed in Wilder. After writing about the coal mining strike in Wilder, it seemed a natural progression to write about the Homesteads.

For my novel "The Homesteads", I interviewed many of the original Homesteaders and their children. Many of their fascinating stories have been woven into the book. Doyle Vaden told about the time his mother was paid to feed the children soybeans and then weigh and measure them to see if they had grown. I put the story into the book because I found it so delightful. I spent many hours at the library reading old newspapers, thesis and historical documents on the New Deal Subsistence Homesteads, but nothing gives you the flavor like peoples stories. I got a feel for the hope, the fear and the dreams of the real people who built the Cumberland Homesteads.

"Mallie" came about because of a challenge from a friend. I had hiked the Smoky Mountains most of my life, but I really knew little about the history of the area before it became a national park. After a wildflower hike at Elkmont where, as my friend put it, 'I exhausted him with my questions,' I decided the next time we hiked I would be the expert. When I started doing some research, I quickly realized what a rich history existed. I doubt now that I could ever become an expert and that, at best, I might know more than I had known.I became fascinated with the logging that had taken place throughout the mountains. The cultural and environmental change brought about by logging was tremendous. Not only did the logging change the Smoky Mountains but also the mountains changed the way lumbermen did their jobs. The development of new equipment designed to harvest the trees from steeper and steeper slopes is a fascinating story in itself. Now, when I hike up Jakes Gap, I am in awe of the men who built a railroad up the mountain and brought down railcars loaded with eighteen hundred pound logs.I feel very privileged to have grown up in an area so rich with history and so many wonderful characters and stories. Being able to combine my love of history, research and writing makes me feel fortunate beyond reason.