Elisha Wells Stroupe is a Mid-Missouri author who recently came out with her debut book, “Desperate Farmwives.” She is the creator and author of a blog of the same name, which features humorous real-life tales of her and her family living on a farm near Armstrong, Missouri. Her book is a collection of selected blog entries, along with some new (and reportedly exaggerated) stories as well. I recently emailed some interview questions to her, and she was kind enough to take time out of her schedule to write back some answers.
Daniel Boone Regional Library: How did you decide to start blogging about farm life? At what point did start to think about turning material from the blog into a book?
Elisha Wells Stroupe: I had the idea to blog about farm life for quite a long time before I actually started blogging. My sister-in-law and I would trade stories over wine, and we called ourselves the “Desperate Farmwives” for years. In 2015 I decided to stay at home with my children after a career as a teacher and I knew I’d need something creative to work on to survive full time motherhood, so that’s when I finally started the blog. I wrote quite a few quickly and realized that I had more than enough material for a book within the year and decided that was my next goal. It felt like a snail’s pace, but looking back now, it’s only been five years. I feel like I accomplished an amazing feat while raising two wild boys.
DBRL: How did you develop your humor as a writer? Does it come naturally to you?
Stroupe: I think being a teacher really helped develop my humor in storytelling. Humorous writing is not the kind of writing that I focused on before I started teaching, but humor is important in the classroom. You can lose kids fast when you’re going over essay format for the zillionth time, so I liked to write example essays for them that were entertaining. They probably heard a lot of the stories from the book before anyone. I was also in charge of some professional development days for my colleagues, so when you’re bringing up reinventing the wheel on curriculum for the fifth year in a row, you learn very quickly to make the presentation funny and bring chocolate. I’m a big fan of “Saturday Night Live” and great female comedians like Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey. When I read my own work, I hear Tina Fey’s voice in my head. Watching them and reading their books have really influenced me a lot.
DBRL: You write about farm life from somewhat of an outsider’s perspective, so your book seems that it would have appeal for both rural and urban audiences. Do you have a main audience in mind when you’re writing?
Stroupe: I’ve never had a specific audience in mind, but I do love when I get to talk to older farm wives who have read the book and have their own stories to share. We bond over the things that we thought were definitely not funny at the time, but turn out to be funny looking back. They do remind me often that I have it very, very easy compared to the farm wife of a generation or two ago. I do not milk cows by hand nor do I ever intend on doing so. Sadly, farms are getting bigger and bigger and the small family farm has become rare, but many people are nostalgic for the farm life they grew up with or heard about from their parents so people of all backgrounds have enjoyed my stories.
DBRL: Read anything good lately you’d like to recommend?
Stroupe: I was once a librarian so this is a loaded question. I could go on forever. I have only survived self distancing by reading as much as possible, and thankfully, I can hand my kids a pile of books and they’ll be entertained for quite a while too. “Where the Crawdads Sing” is a new favorite, but I have really enjoyed “Big Magic,” “Tightrope,” and “Outlander,” but if someone is looking for a good uplifting humorous book, I think “Year of Yes” by Shonda Rhimes was one that I’m grateful I had shelved on my to-read list for this very anxiety-filled time. It was a good distraction and motivator.
DBRL: Where can readers get a copy of your book?
Stroupe: My book is available on Amazon, but you can also check it out at DBRL.
