Tough Love, a Wyoming Childhood

The extremes of life in rural Wyoming can be a challenge when dogged preparation for harsh winters can mean the difference between life and death, and where glorious summers seem to reward the survivors. For Kate Meadows it was a conundrum. Growing up in a small town, surrounded by magnificent mountains and trout filled rivers and streams may sound like heaven to many, but if the concept of wild frightens you, it can be a struggle to fit into that landscape. Some children would have been delighted by the sight of a moose scratching his antlers on the signpost at the corner of their yard on a cold winter night. Kate was frightened. She never took to hunting or horses. The outdoors and its wild creatures-at the core of her family and the generations before her-at once fascinated her and provided the means to overcome her fears while instilling in her a hearty respect for a raw and sometimes merciless landscape. So what's a girl to do when she's torn between the desire to escape to civilization, yet so tightly bound by the invisible but unbreakable chains of love? Kate Meadows has deftly captured her struggle to find her place in a world where she just doesn't fit in. This collection of essays recounts her childhood experiences and conveys the emotions that saw her through a defining part of her life. It's a story that resonates with everyone, and a story no one will be able to forget. A moving portrait of a young heart sprouting amidst the gritty, worn and tender characters of Wyoming small town life.-Jamie Lisa Forbes, author of WILLA Award winner Unbroken. A narrator in full command of her Wyoming landscape, inside and out, painting portraits of characters who are able to tame some of their demons, just not enough of them. How does Kate Meadows get us to grieve for her Grandpa? But she does. -Daniel Asa Rose, author of Larry's Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant-and Save His Life