Authors Interviewing Characters: Marcia Bradley, The Home for Wayward Girls
About THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS
Growing up in the 1990s, Loretta escapes her abusive parents–and the “ranch” they run for “bad” girls—eventually becoming an advocate for teen runaways and a foe of today’s Troubled Teen Industry where teens are sent to programs in isolated locales and wilderness camps. This heartfelt novel offers hope despite harrowing circumstances, pays homage to the difference a teacher can make in a student’s life, and will appeal to fans of Joanna Goodman and Lisa Wingate.
Authors Interviewing Characters: Marcia Bradley, The Home for Wayward Girls
Marcia: It’s really great to have this chance to talk with you, Loretta. Would you like another latte? Anything? Is this okay for you?
Loretta: I’m good. Thanks for asking. But okay is a high bar—I’m working on it.
Marcia: How so?
Loretta: I escaped the ranch years ago. A place where I was never okay. And now I help teens, runaways, survivors. So, what I mean is, for me okay is always a step beyond. When teens aren’t shipped off to residential programs and wilderness camps and conversion therapies, well, then I’ll be closer to okay.
Marcia: I know your life on the ranch was insufferable. Can you talk about the people who helped you survive?
Loretta: Gosh, it was the girls, always the girls, and the librarian at school, and my teacher, Ms. Del. It’s amazing that I only remember a few people from school. Mrs. Barry, our librarian, saved maps for me to read. That’s how I planned my journey. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But on the prairie, I only knew east from west. With the maps, I learned which roads would take me far from the ranch when the day came for me to go.
Marcia: I think you are still in contact with your teacher Ms. Del. Is that right?
Loretta: I am. In school, my senior year, Ms. Del believed in me. I’m not even sure why. But she did. Somehow, she knew how messed up my life was, and she kept giving me hope that there was a better life waiting for me. After my graduation from high school, if she hadn’t taken me to Dairy Queen, well, everything could be different now. We still talk, I can call her any time, she’s got her own kids now, but we’re connected forever.
Marcia: What about Elsie? Didn’t you two sort of save each other?
Loretta: That’s a good way of putting it. I will never forget the day Elsie was dropped off by those transporters—we call them goons. They are sort of fake law officers hired to pick up kids at their homes. Paid for by their parents, can you imagine?
Marcia: No, I really can’t.
Loretta: Anyway, they pulled up our dirt road and there she was. This beautiful young woman who looked tough as nails but when I walked her to the bunkhouse, I saw how nervous she was. And then she said that she already felt like she knew me. No one had ever said that to me. I’d never had a best friend. Never. We were bound together from then on. That’s why I did what I did. I’d never have let anything happen to Elsie.
Marcia: Are you still friends?
Loretta: Absolutely. Nothing could change that. She’s a famous artist in New Mexico now. Lives on her own little hacienda. I go there as often as I can. Sometimes Clarke comes with me. He’s my husband, my biggest fan and I’m his. But other visits, it’s just Elsie and me.
Marcia: What’s it like to be back together?
It’s a blessing to be in that kind of peace with Elsie. It’s as if we have a shared brain space for our scary memories—is that possible? We don’t even have to talk. We know what we survived. We take long treks on the mesa behind her house. We hold hands and walk and maybe laugh a little. We don’t have to say much. We just are.
Marcia: You said it’s a blessing to be with Elsie. But you aren’t religious, are you? Or are you?
Loretta: I’m never sure. For me, my God would have to be everything outside my bedroom window back on the prairie. The pronghorns that some think are antelopes, but they aren’t. They have huge eyes that rarely close. They even sleep with their eyes open, on alert for predators. I learned a lot from watching them. And Peregrine falcons. Always soaring over my head reminding me freedom did exist. Nature, that’s God to me.
Marcia: Before you go, I gather you’re big on quotes. Have you got one for us?
Loretta: Ha! You’re right. I love that so much truth is easy to find. Really smart people came before or are living now, and I could listen to them for days. You know, you don’t have to go far to find the words that can make a difference.
Marcia: For example?
Loretta: Well, my assistant, Annie, is incredible and I don’t know what I’d do without her. Anyway, she sends me these uplifting texts. It’s as if she knows when I might be overwhelmed. The other day she messaged me WDOB.
Marcia: WDOB?
Loretta: Yep. That’s an acronym she created. WDOB. It means we do our best. That’s all we can ask of ourselves, right?
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Marcia Bradley began her second life, earning an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2017 shortly after receiving her BA from Antioch University LA. She received a Bronx Council on the Arts/New York City BRIO Award for Fiction. Marcia believes many people face untenable life situations causing life altering choices to be made; her novel and published pieces focus on such stories. A native of Chicago, Marcia teaches at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence and lives in the Bronx.
instagram.com/marciamariebradley/
https://www.facebook.com/marcia.bradley.98
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The Home for Wayward Girls
“On Goodreads 105 of the buzziest novels of 2023 list!”.
Growing up in the 1990s, a young girl escapes her abusive parents–and the “ranch” they ran for “bad” girls—and becomes an advocate for teen runaways in this harrowing and heartfelt novel for fans of Joanna Goodman and Lisa Wingate.
While other adolescent girls are listening to grunge rock or swooning over boy bands and movie stars, Loretta knows little of life beyond the Home for Wayward Girls, the secluded ranch where her parents run a program designed to “correct” teen girls’ “bad behavior.” Some new residents arrive with their moms and dads, while other are accompanied by transporters—people paid to forcibly deliver these “problem” teens—girls caught swearing, smoking, drinking, or kissing. Many are failed runaways desperate to leave their controlling and sometimes brutal homes. Few have any idea of the suffering that lies ahead.
Loretta witnesses firsthand how the adults use abusive discipline to crush these young women’s spirits and break their wills. She understands these girls’ pain and shares it. Since childhood she’s been afraid of her father, and avoids him by spending time with the residents, secretly teaching them the survival skills they’ll need in case they manage to escape. Until the day a horrifying act of violence forces her to make her own terrible choice. Terrified and with no other option, Loretta flees the ranch and hitchhikes across the country, ending up in New York. Eventually finding safety and a sympathetic community, Loretta dedicates herself to working with lost, vulnerable, and defenseless teens, determined to prevent the same thing from happening to other girls like her.
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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