An Intimate Q&A: Samuel W. Gailey – ‘Deep Winter’
Below is an excerpt from a conversation between myself and my wife, writer Ayn Carrillo Gailey, on the crafting and release of my upcoming debut novel, Deep Winter.
AYN: Your book let’s us glimpse into the life of hunters and even the life of the game hunted. You grew up learning to hunt in Pennsylvania, but have mentioned it would be difficult for you to shoot any big game now. Can you elaborate on that?
SAM: I enjoyed hunting as a kid. By age 12, I hunted all sorts of game in Bradford County. My step dad’s father was a District Fish Warden and worked with the National Wildlife Federation, so the importance and respect of the land and wildlife was certainly passed down to me. Everybody (boys & girls) starts hunting after their twelfth birthday in that region. It’s a rite of passage and a way of life. We were educated in gun safety and hunting regulations, and were required to complete a hunter’s safety course. We had no mall, no movie theatre, no bookstore, no nothing. What we did have was the woods, a place where we spent a great deal of our time. Growing up, we had an unlocked gun cabinet in the house with various rifles and shotguns, but due to our training in gun safety, I don’t remember an incident where a gun was used for anything other than hunting. We also did not have violent video games—unless you consider Atari games like Asteroids, Centipede and Pac-Man violent. School was closed on the opening days of deer season (for both buck and doe). When school was in session during hunting season, we grabbed our rifle or shotgun after school, headed into the mountains and hunted until dark. I hunted pretty much everything, with the exception of black bear. Squirrel, rabbit, turkey, grouse, pheasant, and white-tailed deer. Out of all of these game animals, the only one I didn’t bag was a turkey. Turkeys, despite all general appearances, are not dumb birds—at least not the ones I hunted. They have tremendous eyesight and are extremely cautious animals.
For the entire Q & A, click here.
