The following are questions frequently asked of Margaret Benshoof-Holler, author of Burning of the Marriage Hat, A Novel of High Plains Women:

Q: What does the title of your book Burning of the Marriage Hat mean?

A: It has both literal and symbolic meanings.

Literally, it's the hat that the narrator's grandmother is forced by her husband to burn after, symbolically speaking, all love and romance has died in their marriage. It's related to the physical abuse that existed in Katherine's grandmother Naomi's marriage. So, the title Burning of the Marriage Hat is about physical abuse and a woman's ability or inability to walk away from a marriage where physical abuse governs her life.

The symbol of the Burning of the Marriage Hat relates to the cleaning up of unresolved issues and denial within a family.

In a more profound sense, Burning of the Marriage Hat has to do with cleansing or being tried by fire like metal when it is shaped and molded. A jewelry maker begins with a raw piece of metal, puts it to the flame and ends up with something entirely different, something very beautiful. Something like a catharsis. A healing.

It is also something like the road less traveled, choosing one route over another. In the case of Katherine, the narrator in the book Burning of the Marriage Hat, it would mean leaving one route behind or rejecting a role that was set up for her and following something different as a single woman. She, though, is not the typical spinster but an adventurous, courageous, and experienced and sensual woman who has a strong yet cautious attraction to men.

Q: What is a marriage hat?

A: Literally, it means something like the marriage veil. In another way, it is something more symbolic. In life we find ourselves wearing different hats for different occasions. American women wore many different hats during the 20th century -- the "housewife hat", the "wife and mother hat," the "working woman" hat, "the liberated woman hat," "the marriage hat" and so on. The marriage hat has a more significant meaning when applied to a certain group such as the unwed pregnant women.

Q: Is Burning of the Marriage Hat: A Novel of High Plains Women just a book about high plains women?

A: This is a story about a modern-day woman, a world-traveled woman who returns to her roots to resolve conflicting family accounts about her grandmother's death. This is also a book about the lives of girls and women across the 20th century in Wyoming and these are seen through the narrator's flashbacks through time. The book also focuses on the conditions of unwed pregnant women and girls in the 60s. The setting is Wyoming because that's were the author came of age and where her roots are. The conditions of unwed pregnant women during the 1960s were not unique to Wyoming. They affected women throughout the U.S. Since leaving Wyoming over 30 years ago, the author has lived throughout the world and now lives in San Francisco. She has a broad perspective honed not just from one geographical area but from many different places. The author's Wyoming roots, though, are what give the story flavor and a different perspective. Similar to an Australian family saga or Irish or Italian, this one is set in Wyoming.