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Home >> About Brad Haynes >>Aninterview with Brad Haynes

A TALK WITH BRAD HAYNES, AUTHOR OF THE SADDLE BUM

What was your inspiration for The Saddle Bum?

I wanted to write a short romantic novel that would be relatively easy to film. Much of the story came from background experiences with horses, music, and women.

What was so special about Mary Anne and Steve’s relationship?

Longfellow described it as “The twilight that surrounds the border-land of an old romance.” Here we have an illicit love affair between people from two different worlds that lasted just four days; yet their love story spans 30 years.

What does this story teach us about love?

A simple lesson from the story is that we can be happily married, while still clinging to an old romance. We may carry the romance in our minds as a fairy tale but, in essence, it is real love.

Much of your story takes place in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Why is this setting important to you?

I have lived and worked in the region most of my life and know it well. The book did not require a lot of time and research.

In your story, the main characters are separated for many years. Do you think that love can really survive the separation of time and distance?

In a romantic sense, love can exist as long as we have imagination. In the real world, love for someone can die, yet it is always born again for someone else, somewhere, sometime, someplace, whether in this world or the next.

Would you consider yourself a romantic?

As long as I can think young, I believe I can be young of heart. And since youth is the essence of romance, I must be a romantic.

Is your story autobiographical?

If you understand my characters, you can find me in the words I have written. Like most fiction authors, I write what is in my heart. In a sense, I’m simply a student of life. I create characters and endow them with qualities I either admire or dislike.

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