Betty Belanus

The material I used for the novel, Seasonal, was a fictionalization of my dissertation research. There was so much rich material from the Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, which took place from 1979 - 1982, that it was just begging to be put into a readable format. And, who the heck really reads academic books? Very few people - sorry all my academic friends out there - so a novel was born.

I was a "seasonal folklorist" in the summer of 1980 at a couple of state parks in East Tennessee. It was a really rich experience. Then, as I said, I wrote my dissertation using that material and the experiences of the other folklorists that worked on the project. We collectively had some great stories! So, I gathered them into a narrative and there you go.