Lake County >> Sunny Franson has never penned a book hoping other people will like it.
“I’ve never written for anybody else,” said the Lake County author. “I’ve written when i have something to say.”
With three books to her name, Franson feels fortunate that people have responded positively to her writing, but she’s never been one to concern herself with good reviews. She’s more interested in writing about the subjects that interest her.
Take her book, “The Secret Lives of Chickens”. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a book all about the clucking little animals. It’s not an instruction manual, or a guide to picking out your own bird, or even a series of “why did the chicken cross the road” jokes. The Secret Lives of Chickens is about the world those birds inhabit, their society and behavior, how they interact with different creatures and how they outsmart others.
In the book, Franson wrote about the chickens she has known and loved, who reside in Upper Lake. They’re quick, clever birds, even if they don’t really look it, and far more complex than people realize. “I think they are more intelligent than anyone ever gives them credit for being,” she said.
Readers seem to agree. According to Franson, the Secret Lives of Chickens has been fairly popular.
Her most recent release is a departure from domestic fowl. It’s a book of short stories titled “Reflections”. Each story is fictional and the subject matter varies from tale to tale, but they all share a theme: the ecology of people and their environment. The stories in Reflections encourage readers to look a little closer at the world around them and notice those things they normally overlook.
Franson practices what she preaches. “Our lives have so much in them that we never appreciate or see,” she said. “I think it’s important to notice these things, and I think when I write that’s what happens to me.”
As a wildlife biologist, she also has a good deal of experience observing the natural environment, and while creative writing may seem like a departure from her scientific background, the two fields actually have quite a bit in common. Wildlife biology entails watching nature without prejudice. Franson approaches writing in much the same way. If she spots something interesting while observing her environment, she writes about it.
“Maybe we all try to find ways we can reach out and understand better what’s around us, and this is one of the ways I do it,” she said.
Franson doesn’t really consider herself a creative type, but she certainly looks that way on paper. Not only is she a writer, she also paints. And she paints well enough to show her work at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport (her art will be on display in May). But painting and writing don’t influence one another, she said. Her well of inspiration for both mediums is one and the same – the environment.
“I am at home in the natural world,” added Franson. “That’s part of why I became a wildlife biologist.”
Franson has been writing on and off since moving to Lake County in the 1970s. Some 40-odd years ago, she enrolled in evening community college classes to meet people in her new home. For a few semesters, she took creative writing courses, but then she set her pen down and put writing aside.
She didn’t start up again for years, not until she decided to write a book about post traumatic stress disorder. Called “Dark Water,” that particular volume is about hope and healing.
The next book Franson released wasn’t actually written by her, but her father. She formatted and designed his book, “Second Age”, which he had penned in his 80s but never published. The story follows his adventures as a young man in the 1930s, including the time he and his friends built a houseboat and floated down the Mississippi River.
Releasing her father’s book into the world was a way for Franson to honor and pay homage to him.
Second Age, The Secret Lives of Chickens, Reflections, and Dark Water are all available at the Lake County Wine Studio in Upper Lake. Watershed Books in Lakeport and the Main Street Gallery also have a few copies. Visit www.rootlets.com for more information on Franson’s writing and for links to purchase her books online.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
