Writing Cookesville USA
I was born and lived the first twelve years of my life in a town called Owensboro, in northwestern Kentucky, on the Ohio River. My family and I moved to Orange County, California when I was twelve, where I lived until I married at the too-young age of nineteen. From there, I moved to San Francisco with my engineer husband, then on to a project in British Columbia, in the high Rockies.
I loved every town that I lived in, until we moved to Bakersfield. It was my husband’s hometown and his choice, not mine. Nevertheless, living in one town for several decades—for the first time in my life—I’ve found that my story has become part of the fabric of a lasting community. I gave birth to my children here. I divorced here, and I eventually found that I was the only immediate family member still living here, in a town not of my choosing.
Why? I came to terms with the fact that this is a town that is misunderstood—much like I was in first grade at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Owensboro. That lost little girl found her voice and talent at Philpot Elementary (just outside of town), then eventually came into her own power—fully educated and teaching a new generation—in the hot and dusty town of Bakersfield. In time, I looked back on my decades in this town, and realized I had a lot of stories to share, good and bad, and that no one had presented the “inside scoop” on this town.
Cookesville U.S.A. is a historical satire/drama/western, based upon the history and peoples of Bakersfield, CA—and its relationship with Hollywood. While Bakersfield was founded by a Colonel Baker, the fictional town of Cookesville was settled and founded by a wealthy goldminer named Frank Cooke. Cooke was a captain in the U.S. Cavalry (yes, he was Captain Cooke), who fought in the Mexican War before heading to the California gold fields to make his fortune. When he returned to the southern “San Andreas” valley with his Choctaw wife, and a menagerie of Chinese and Mexican laborers, he brought with him the idea of protecting the “others” in the new state of California—those who had no legal protections by the new state constitution.
This story continues into the 21st century, as Cookesville grows into a modern and thriving town—governed oftentimes by persons of questionable character. The major protagonist, “Lynnie,” is a sleuth who uncovers, and often covers up, the major crimes for a major law firm in Cookesville. He and most characters in this book are based upon real people in the history of Bakersfield, most of whom I have known personally, and some of the characters’ storylines are a composition of numerous people.
The investigator whose life mirrored Lynnie’s (he passed away in 2011, like his character in the book) was approached by actor Dennis Quaid, who wanted to tell the story of one of the real crimes “Lynnie” had worked to alter (cover up?). “Lynnie” passed away before this could happen. My spouse (a criminal attorney, family law attorney and administrative law judge with the California Department of Rehabilitations) and I were close friends of “Lynnie’s.” We often met for lunch, had him over for dinner in our home, and I collected those stories through the years. When “Lynnie” passed, I felt his story had to live on. If you read the narrative about Lynnie’s memorial service in the book, you are really hearing the words of the authentic Lynnie’s friends and lovers.
What sets Cookesville apart are the real stories of Bakersfield that have not been exposed before. As already stated, people I have known through years of socializing, working and being involved in the legal community will recognize many of the stories. Much like the book/movie, The Help, I am already being contacted by friends who are telling me whose story they recognize, and asking me who some of the others represent. I knew this would be a fun project, and it is certainly proving to be so.
As someone who has stepped up to the plate to be a spokesperson and storyteller for Bakersfield, I indeed believe my expectations have been met. Cookesville, U.S.A. represents the very epitome and spirit of this town. Its fictional locations and peoples are clearly representative of the stories and peoples I have come to know, love, laugh with, cry with and—yes—sometimes despise, during my decades here. Long-time residents have been scouring its pages, recognizing the familiar, both beautiful and startling, while clinging to the love stories and affairs. If you have lived in this valley town for any length of time, you know that it is far from the boring oil town that a drive-by on Freeway 99 portrays.
There are dozens to hundreds of beautiful communities, along with country clubs, tennis clubs, restaurants and more—representative of many races, ethnicities, social categories, and distinct cultures. From the Okie migration of the Dust Bowl Days, to the 1940s-1960s migrations to California to support the war effort and build new housing for those migrants, there is an abundance of history, drama, crime, and cover-ups. Vigilante justice founded this valley town, and behind the scenes, it is never too distant.
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Sarah Burns is a historian, and author, who has authored several books. She has also gained an international reputation as a distinguished researcher in the field of gender and race relations. In California, Ms. Burns is notable for teaching the first women’s history course at a community college. Described by her colleagues as dedicated and deeply intellectual, Burns notes that she loves to share her findings in a storytelling manner. Now she is promoting her new fiction book “Cookesville U.SA.”
Follow Sarah on Twitter https://twitter.com/SarahBurns9
Find out more about Sarah on her website www.cookesvilleusa.com
COOKESVILLE USA
Cookesville, U.S.A. is a fictional western town whose story, location and peoples have been ripped from the pages of history. From Santa Fé, New Mexico to the goldfields of California in 1850, to the settling of Cookesville in California’s Central Valley, its colorful characters bring to life the true drama of westward expansion.
Cookesville introduces readers to many historic characters, weaving together fictional story lines with dramatic history. For instance, in the crossroads which was Santa Fé of 1846, Burns highlights the life and saloon of the historic character, Doña Gertrudis Barcelό, or “La Tules,” as the people of Santa Fé called her. Here, the flavors of the Old West and Spanish cultures combine to take readers on a whirlwind adventure and romance, the backdrop of which is the Mexican-American War, 1846-48.
Moving on from Santa Fé, newly-wed Frank Cooke experienced the early days of the Gold Rush in California, in the chapter which explains, “How the White Man Took the Land…Again!” Working his claim, Cooke becomes a very wealthy man, who nevertheless experiences the dangers of vigilante law. He and his entourage of Native Americans, Mestizos and Chinese eventually retrace his original route back to the southern San Andreas valley. There, he and his family settle by a river they humbly name the Cooke River, creating the town of Cookesville.
This California central valley city embodies the struggles that ran strong as the state of California came to life in 1850, bypassing the process of organizing as a territory and racing to become a free-soil state. Encompassing lands which paralleled both the previously delineated North and South during the antebellum period, it became an instant combination of numerous races, mixed faces and outlooks. The passions which typify the goals of each ethnicity can be witnessed in its early development. Paradoxically, the spirits of the Old South and the Antebellum North compete on this western soil.
The result of these equal but opposite visions would lead to violent confrontations. Readers learn the backstory of the peoples who originally settled Cookesville, following their offspring and their relations into the 20th and 21st centuries, along with the influence of new in-migrating peoples. Their red-hot relations and stories are compelling, exciting, exotic and sensual; and though they are fictional, they are solidly based upon real characters. You won’t want to miss a single epoch or individual story line. Cookesville exemplifies not only how the West was won, but how the spirit of survivalism was essential in uniting cultures-on a local and national level.
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