Almost 19 years ago I moved to Nashville to sing. I learned really quickly no one wanted to hear me. While back in SC in my small little hometown of Camden I could have been a superstar, in Nashville, well, not so much... I found myself working in the parts department of a Heating and Air Conditioning Company in Lavergne, Tennessee. Yep, Like Shirley and Lavergne. I was the receptionist with a lady named Roz who chained smoked, cussed like a sailor and wore mink coats. (Why she has not yet been a character in one of my books is beyond my power of imagination...)
I made one of those 911 calls home to mom and dad, (who still love to hear me sing by the way) and told them if something didn't happen soon I was coming home. Little did I know that an article I had written about an organization called Mercy Ministries of America was being read at that moment by the President and Founder of the organization. She called me the next morning and told me that they were working on their Autobiography and had hired a writer but they just weren't happy with how the book was turning out. They wanted it to read like my article, so would I come help them finish their book. I said, "Nancy, I don't write."
She said, "Yeah, you do."
Through the years I've come to realize the power that we have to call people into their destiny. Because that is what she did for me. She also introduced me to the man who would be come my husband as well. For ten years I wrote for other people. You name it I worked on it: Allegory, gift books, self-help. Have story...will help! During that season I began to teach as well. I spoke at women's conference, at churches, and did some things for the Billy Graham Association and write songs. My husband was a recording artist at the the time, (that was as close as I could get!) and he would write the music and I would write the lyric. But I decided I wanted to write my own book. I wanted to write a non-fiction book that could really help change people's lives. Speak to them in their deep places. I found an agent in New York at William Morris, who had a connection with my husband's manager. And fourteen rejection letters later, on my first non-fiction book called "The Passage", I asked her not to send me anymore.
One day on my back porch I thought, wonder if I can write fiction. I had never written fiction a day before in my life. I had loved it. Consumed it. Hid books behind my text books in class. Had journaled extensively through college, even worked on a screen play, and had written some rather nifty poetry to a few guys I had crushes on in High School, but beside being able to tell fiction pretty well, I had never written it. So, sitting on my porch drinking a Coca-Cola I thought, "Well, if I write fiction where would I set it." I decided on Savannah. I had been there once. Thought it was beautiful, so it worked for me. Then I thought, "I could name the main character Savannah, and everyone could go around calling her 'Savannah from Savannah!'" And that is how my first book about a young woman named Savannah who grew up in Savannah, Georgia, moves back home after college and begins to write human interest stories for her local newspaper. And the first one she thinks is of human interest is about a rigged beauty pageant of which her mother is a former queen of.
The day I walked into the office of my publisher to sign our contract it was very bitter sweet. I thought, "Here I wanted to be known for books that changed people's lives and I'm going to be known for a book about a rigged beauty pageant where women tape their boobs and spray their butts. Not exactly what I was going for!
That was eight years ago. I have had five other fiction books come out, my latest which released this summer, called "Hurricanes in Paradise". Through the last eight years I have also still tried to get non-fiction published multiple times. I formed a ministry called The Whole Woman Revolution, where I lead an inter-denominational Bible Study here in Franklin and we do a VBS for Women event each summer. And so non-fiction has still been a dream.
However, three years ago I walked through the heartbreaking divorce of my 13 year marriage. I was devastated. I walked away from a new three book deal. Didn't speak or teach for almost a year. Basically did nothing but focused on my healing. In the middle of that a new blog came to life called Flying Solo. A blog for singles of all kinds, never married, divorced and widowed. One day my agent asked me if I would be willing to possibly pitch the journals from divorce for a book. I said, "Nope."
"But you're already putting your journey down on your blog."
"Still nope."
"Will you think about it?"
I did. And in December my first non-fiction book called Flying Solo: A Journey of Divorce, Healing and a Very Present God will release. How interesting that I tried all those years to get non-fiction published and it what ends up being a book is something I would have never wanted to walk through and a story that was never meant to be a book...
Life is sweet and full today. On April 10th, I married a precious man and became the bonus mom to five beautiful children. I had never had children and it had always been a desire of my heart. We're all acclimating...some days are more challenging than others...but in the middle of it all there is this beautiful tapestry of story. Our story...Each of us is always writing our story, whether on paper, or whether in the things we do, the words we say or the way we love. Thanks for giving me a few minutes to share mine...
Denise Hildreth Jones makes her home in Franklin, Tennessee where she loves a good game of Sorry, a good book, a long bike ride and a Coca-Cola. She lives with her husband, five bonus children and two shih-tzu's. (At least that's what she calls them on a good day...)
www.denisehildreth.com
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
MY CRAZY 10 YEAR PUBLISHING JOURNEY by Maryann McFadden
Since Kathy Patrick asked us to share our publishing stories—how we got started, and all—I’m going to do just that. If you’ve heard it before, sorry! But I love telling it, because it reminds me of how lucky I am to be sitting here, published, and participating in this blog! And yes, it’s kinda long, but hey, this is 10 crazy years we’re talking about!
When I was in my forties, and my kids were heading off to college, I rediscovered a dream I’d all but forgotten, to be an author. It happened quite by accident. You see, I went back to school, too, for a Master’s in Education because I wanted to teach high school English. After a decade in real estate, I wanted security, benefits, and summers off. But a funny thing happened, in the English class we did a lot of writing, and I just LOVED IT! I hadn’t written in a decade, since leaving a freelance journalism career for real estate. But suddenly, sitting in that classroom, writing those creative pieces, something lit up inside me! I was an eleven year old girl again, pecking away at my Dad’s old Underwood manual typewriter as I wrote my first short stories. Dreaming of being an author!
I switched programs and got into a Master’s in English with a concentration in Writing and in my very first class, I created Joanna Harrison, a corporate wife in a short story who runs away to Pawleys Island. Two years later, in 1999, when I wrote my thesis, I wrote 120 pages about a corporate wife who runs away from her life in NJ to start over on Pawleys Island, SC (exactly where I’d still like to run away to!). The Richest Season was born.
After graduating, it took 2 more years for me to finish the novel, getting up at 5 am most mornings and writing before work, and also on weekends. By August of 2001, I had a 500 page manuscript, with not just Joanna, the wife’s journey, but the corporate husband, Paul’s, transforming story, as well as that of an elderly woman, Grace, who gives Joanna a job. I was so excited! This book had everything I love in it, the beauty of nature, the need to get back to the simple things in life. Rediscovering our dreams after getting caught up in the busyness of life! (And I didn’t even realize art was imitating life, it was simply subconscious!).
Well, there wasn’t a happy, tidy little ending to my story. It got rejected for the next 5 years, again and again, and I shelved it 3 times! Now there were some good moments—I got some glowing rejection letters, the best one arriving on October 11, 2001, exactly a month after 9/11. She loved the book, but the publishing world was in flux. I decided to wait a while before trying again. Later in 2002, I had a very big agent call me on the phone! From her vacation home! She wanted the manuscript exclusively, and I was jumping up and down. Two weeks later when she called again, I heard the BUT before she uttered the word… “but I wanted some humor.” I was ready to bang my head against a wall. I had no idea chick-lit was becoming a hot genre, and that’s what agents wanted. Then another agent read my manuscript and asked me to (and I swear these are her words) “ditch Paul and ditch Grace, I just want Joanna.” I realized she wanted a romance novel. I wasn’t willing to give up what I thought were 2 incredible characters.
In the meantime, I kept hearing the same refrain from friends and relatives who were reading the manuscript in a fat 3 ring binder: Your book is wonderful! Why isn’t it published?
A milestone birthday came and went. I began writing another book, while still working full time as a realtor, and I was frustrated as hell. I began to do some soul searching.
I wanted to keep writing. I didn’t want to give up. But what defined success to me as a writer? To be read! And to move people when they read my work. I wanted The Richest Season to be out there in reader land, for people to know about Joanna, Grace and Paul, three characters who I believed deserved to live in reader’s imaginations. I wanted them to fall in love with Pawleys Island, as I had more than 20 years ago.
And so I decided to take one of the biggest gambles in my life: to self-publish The Richest Season. After all, I reasoned, if I could sell houses, which I’d done very successfully for nearly 20 years by then, I could sell this book!!!
I found a small print on demand publisher in California which I’d never heard of, and I was hoping no one else had either. I wanted the book judged on its own merits, not with the stigma I knew it would carry if the truth were known.
My self-published edition of The Richest Season debuted in May, 2006. I immediately orchestrated a book launch at our local college. I sent press releases to our local weekly, and our local radio station. I hung posters all over town. But the week of the launch I was a wreck. I was now feeling like a bit of a fraud. The local paper interviewed me, took a picture, and ran an article with the headline: DREAM OF BEING PUBLISHED COMES TRUE. I thought I would die from embarrassment! Obviously, that wasn’t exactly accurate.
The night of the launch, I was scared to death. I knew most people would have no idea it was self-published. I had no idea how many would show up. Despite a torrential downpour and with little parking nearby, I managed to fill the parlors. One of the first women who came in, who’d gotten the book online—the only place it was available-- hugged me and said, “I loved your book. I wanted to live it.” I went on to sell over 100 books that night. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled. But still…there was that nagging feeling, despite what they thought: I wasn’t the real deal. I wasn’t a real published author.
I began pounding the pavement. Getting a bookseller to read a self-published book isn’t easy. The big stores and chains simply won’t. So I focused on the independents. I went into each store with shaking knees and trembling hands, as I brought a copy of my book to one store after another.
Then something magical happened. One bookseller loved it, and then another. They began to help me, recommending the book to their book clubs, asking me to do signings. I got up the nerve to call booksellers in other states. Tom Warner at Litchfield Books in Pawleys Island (my setting), loved it and said “next time you come down, we’ll have you for a signing.” I told him, “I’m coming later this month!” (I wasn’t actually, but after he said that, I knew I had to). The next thing you know, I’m on a Southern book tour, with stops at Park Road Books in Charlotte, and McIntyre’s Fine Books near Chapel Hill! I sent press releases to all the nearby papers and got coverage, because I was that squeaky wheel, who called and emailed until they responded.
I even went to a bookseller’s convention and walked the floor, handing out review copies to some surprised booksellers, as the big name authors signed at booths, with long lines, a very humbling experience.
The next eight months were exhausting as I continued to market my novel in any way I could, while still working. I racked up 25 signings, some library and senior talks, and met with nearly 40 book clubs in 10 states, many via web cam. Reader feedback was unbelievable. I sold more then 2,000 books, what some literary books do in a lifetime, I learned. In one indie, The Richest Season went on to become their top selling trade paperback for 2006, outselling The Kite Runner.
Needless to say, I was exhausted. I had no time to write, and booksellers kept saying to me, “You have to stop selling books out of the trunk of your car (I was supplying many on consignment) and get back to writing. People are asking for your next book.”
One night in November, I decided to search for an agent again. I sent out e-mail queries loaded with all my bookseller and reader quotes, newspaper reviews, and the fact that I had several thousand readers waiting for my next book. The very next morning I got a call from The Victoria Sanders Agency, asking me for an exclusive. I agreed. Eight weeks later they called, asking me to come in.
On the last day of January in 2007, after a harrowing trip into New York that included snow, ice and a train shut-down because of a terrorist alert, I was rewarded with a smile and these words from Victoria: “This is a wonderful book!” Validation! Finally!
But we still had to sell it to a publisher. I knew I was only halfway there.
Victoria asked me to add a few scenes early in the book, something I’d already been thinking about because of all my book club discussions. In April of 2007, with those new scenes added, she sent copies of the manuscript to major publishers in New York on a Thursday. The following Monday morning she called me and said “I think we’re going to have multiple offers.” I literally jumped up and down.
Shortly afterward, she decided to hold an auction for the rights to The Richest Season. It was an exciting and nail biting time, waiting for her call. When it came, I was thrilled to learn that Hyperion Books won, offering me a 2 book hardcover deal. This was it! After years of rejection, I was the real deal!
And the astounding thing was this. All during my low moments, and there were many over this entire journey, my best friend kept singing the Disney song, “When you wish upon a star…” I then learned that Hyperion is owned by…Disney!
Within a few weeks, Random House in Germany bought German rights in a 5 way auction, and Mondadori took it in Italy in a preempt. It’s now being translated into Spanish.
In June, 2008, The Richest Season debuted in hardcover, as an INDIE NEXT PICK. The following summer, my second novel, So Happy Together, also an INDIE NEXT PICK, also debuted in hardcover. Both are now out as trade paperbacks.
I’ve just turned in my third novel, The Book Lover, about a struggling independent bookseller who discovers…a self-published author! I don’t think there’s anything out there quite like it! It’s truly fiction, though I do use a bit of my backstory, but it tells the entire journey of how a book begins in an author’s head and ends up in a reader’s hands. And it’s got lots of drama, and some great characters, you’ll just love.
As I begin the first tentative steps into my fourth novel, there are still days I can’t quite believe it’s true, that I’m a real author. And I'd nearly given up.
My advice to aspiring writers with a dream is work hard, persevere, and BELIEVE!
Maryann McFadden lives in NJ, although her heart is in the Lowcountry of SC. She was a freelance writer for ten years, then sold real estate, before returning to writing, her first love. You can read more at www.maryannmcfadden.com
When I was in my forties, and my kids were heading off to college, I rediscovered a dream I’d all but forgotten, to be an author. It happened quite by accident. You see, I went back to school, too, for a Master’s in Education because I wanted to teach high school English. After a decade in real estate, I wanted security, benefits, and summers off. But a funny thing happened, in the English class we did a lot of writing, and I just LOVED IT! I hadn’t written in a decade, since leaving a freelance journalism career for real estate. But suddenly, sitting in that classroom, writing those creative pieces, something lit up inside me! I was an eleven year old girl again, pecking away at my Dad’s old Underwood manual typewriter as I wrote my first short stories. Dreaming of being an author!
I switched programs and got into a Master’s in English with a concentration in Writing and in my very first class, I created Joanna Harrison, a corporate wife in a short story who runs away to Pawleys Island. Two years later, in 1999, when I wrote my thesis, I wrote 120 pages about a corporate wife who runs away from her life in NJ to start over on Pawleys Island, SC (exactly where I’d still like to run away to!). The Richest Season was born.
After graduating, it took 2 more years for me to finish the novel, getting up at 5 am most mornings and writing before work, and also on weekends. By August of 2001, I had a 500 page manuscript, with not just Joanna, the wife’s journey, but the corporate husband, Paul’s, transforming story, as well as that of an elderly woman, Grace, who gives Joanna a job. I was so excited! This book had everything I love in it, the beauty of nature, the need to get back to the simple things in life. Rediscovering our dreams after getting caught up in the busyness of life! (And I didn’t even realize art was imitating life, it was simply subconscious!).
Well, there wasn’t a happy, tidy little ending to my story. It got rejected for the next 5 years, again and again, and I shelved it 3 times! Now there were some good moments—I got some glowing rejection letters, the best one arriving on October 11, 2001, exactly a month after 9/11. She loved the book, but the publishing world was in flux. I decided to wait a while before trying again. Later in 2002, I had a very big agent call me on the phone! From her vacation home! She wanted the manuscript exclusively, and I was jumping up and down. Two weeks later when she called again, I heard the BUT before she uttered the word… “but I wanted some humor.” I was ready to bang my head against a wall. I had no idea chick-lit was becoming a hot genre, and that’s what agents wanted. Then another agent read my manuscript and asked me to (and I swear these are her words) “ditch Paul and ditch Grace, I just want Joanna.” I realized she wanted a romance novel. I wasn’t willing to give up what I thought were 2 incredible characters.
In the meantime, I kept hearing the same refrain from friends and relatives who were reading the manuscript in a fat 3 ring binder: Your book is wonderful! Why isn’t it published?
A milestone birthday came and went. I began writing another book, while still working full time as a realtor, and I was frustrated as hell. I began to do some soul searching.
I wanted to keep writing. I didn’t want to give up. But what defined success to me as a writer? To be read! And to move people when they read my work. I wanted The Richest Season to be out there in reader land, for people to know about Joanna, Grace and Paul, three characters who I believed deserved to live in reader’s imaginations. I wanted them to fall in love with Pawleys Island, as I had more than 20 years ago.
And so I decided to take one of the biggest gambles in my life: to self-publish The Richest Season. After all, I reasoned, if I could sell houses, which I’d done very successfully for nearly 20 years by then, I could sell this book!!!
I found a small print on demand publisher in California which I’d never heard of, and I was hoping no one else had either. I wanted the book judged on its own merits, not with the stigma I knew it would carry if the truth were known.
My self-published edition of The Richest Season debuted in May, 2006. I immediately orchestrated a book launch at our local college. I sent press releases to our local weekly, and our local radio station. I hung posters all over town. But the week of the launch I was a wreck. I was now feeling like a bit of a fraud. The local paper interviewed me, took a picture, and ran an article with the headline: DREAM OF BEING PUBLISHED COMES TRUE. I thought I would die from embarrassment! Obviously, that wasn’t exactly accurate.
The night of the launch, I was scared to death. I knew most people would have no idea it was self-published. I had no idea how many would show up. Despite a torrential downpour and with little parking nearby, I managed to fill the parlors. One of the first women who came in, who’d gotten the book online—the only place it was available-- hugged me and said, “I loved your book. I wanted to live it.” I went on to sell over 100 books that night. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled. But still…there was that nagging feeling, despite what they thought: I wasn’t the real deal. I wasn’t a real published author.
I began pounding the pavement. Getting a bookseller to read a self-published book isn’t easy. The big stores and chains simply won’t. So I focused on the independents. I went into each store with shaking knees and trembling hands, as I brought a copy of my book to one store after another.
Then something magical happened. One bookseller loved it, and then another. They began to help me, recommending the book to their book clubs, asking me to do signings. I got up the nerve to call booksellers in other states. Tom Warner at Litchfield Books in Pawleys Island (my setting), loved it and said “next time you come down, we’ll have you for a signing.” I told him, “I’m coming later this month!” (I wasn’t actually, but after he said that, I knew I had to). The next thing you know, I’m on a Southern book tour, with stops at Park Road Books in Charlotte, and McIntyre’s Fine Books near Chapel Hill! I sent press releases to all the nearby papers and got coverage, because I was that squeaky wheel, who called and emailed until they responded.
I even went to a bookseller’s convention and walked the floor, handing out review copies to some surprised booksellers, as the big name authors signed at booths, with long lines, a very humbling experience.
The next eight months were exhausting as I continued to market my novel in any way I could, while still working. I racked up 25 signings, some library and senior talks, and met with nearly 40 book clubs in 10 states, many via web cam. Reader feedback was unbelievable. I sold more then 2,000 books, what some literary books do in a lifetime, I learned. In one indie, The Richest Season went on to become their top selling trade paperback for 2006, outselling The Kite Runner.
Needless to say, I was exhausted. I had no time to write, and booksellers kept saying to me, “You have to stop selling books out of the trunk of your car (I was supplying many on consignment) and get back to writing. People are asking for your next book.”
One night in November, I decided to search for an agent again. I sent out e-mail queries loaded with all my bookseller and reader quotes, newspaper reviews, and the fact that I had several thousand readers waiting for my next book. The very next morning I got a call from The Victoria Sanders Agency, asking me for an exclusive. I agreed. Eight weeks later they called, asking me to come in.
On the last day of January in 2007, after a harrowing trip into New York that included snow, ice and a train shut-down because of a terrorist alert, I was rewarded with a smile and these words from Victoria: “This is a wonderful book!” Validation! Finally!
But we still had to sell it to a publisher. I knew I was only halfway there.
Victoria asked me to add a few scenes early in the book, something I’d already been thinking about because of all my book club discussions. In April of 2007, with those new scenes added, she sent copies of the manuscript to major publishers in New York on a Thursday. The following Monday morning she called me and said “I think we’re going to have multiple offers.” I literally jumped up and down.
Shortly afterward, she decided to hold an auction for the rights to The Richest Season. It was an exciting and nail biting time, waiting for her call. When it came, I was thrilled to learn that Hyperion Books won, offering me a 2 book hardcover deal. This was it! After years of rejection, I was the real deal!
And the astounding thing was this. All during my low moments, and there were many over this entire journey, my best friend kept singing the Disney song, “When you wish upon a star…” I then learned that Hyperion is owned by…Disney!
Within a few weeks, Random House in Germany bought German rights in a 5 way auction, and Mondadori took it in Italy in a preempt. It’s now being translated into Spanish.
In June, 2008, The Richest Season debuted in hardcover, as an INDIE NEXT PICK. The following summer, my second novel, So Happy Together, also an INDIE NEXT PICK, also debuted in hardcover. Both are now out as trade paperbacks.
I’ve just turned in my third novel, The Book Lover, about a struggling independent bookseller who discovers…a self-published author! I don’t think there’s anything out there quite like it! It’s truly fiction, though I do use a bit of my backstory, but it tells the entire journey of how a book begins in an author’s head and ends up in a reader’s hands. And it’s got lots of drama, and some great characters, you’ll just love.
As I begin the first tentative steps into my fourth novel, there are still days I can’t quite believe it’s true, that I’m a real author. And I'd nearly given up.
My advice to aspiring writers with a dream is work hard, persevere, and BELIEVE!
Maryann McFadden lives in NJ, although her heart is in the Lowcountry of SC. She was a freelance writer for ten years, then sold real estate, before returning to writing, her first love. You can read more at www.maryannmcfadden.com
Projecting Your Characters...on the Silver Screen
After an addictive read, do you find yourself wondering what actor could play the part of the protagonist?
Hollywood is all abuzz now about who is going to play the "girl" in THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. [I vote for Ellen Page.] And I've heard Angelina Jolie is eyeing the script for Ron Rash's SERENA.
When you write, do you picture the characters as actors?
I don't while I'm drafting, but when the manuscript is finished [they're never finished, really, they're abandoned] it's fun to speculate, and cast the movie.
On MyBooktheMovie I was asked to people my novel SECRET KEEPERS with actors...to cast it.
It was great fun.
Here's the short version:
Emma Hanley - Frances Conroy
I’ll never forget Frances Conroy's fascinating role as Ruth, the matriarch on HBO’s Six Feet Under. Both Frances and Emma, as it happens, are redheads and willowy and southern. Frances, born in Georgia, would capture Emma's soft lilt and steely kindness--and her unexpected chance for a late-in-life romance. She’d make Emma her own.
Dora Hanley Quattlebaum - Kim Dickens
Kim Dickens plays the chef Janette Desautel on HBO’s Treme with a kind of complex determination. Kim’s southern accent is genuine; she’s an Alabama girl.
Bobbie Hanley - Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling did a beautiful job portraying the socially inept, fragile but engaging Lars Lingstorm in Lars and the Real Girl. He could bring the same dignity and innocence to Bobby, a former science prodigy who struggles with bouts of schizophrenia.
Jake Cary - Benecio Del Toro
As police officer Javier Rodriguez in Traffic, Benecio Del Toro played a character both incorruptible and smoldering. Brooding and principled. It’s an attractive mix. Jake, head of the Blooming Idiots, is like that. He needs to have a head for business, but he has a soft heart for anyone who needs a hand, and he’s carrying a secret torch for Dora.
Gordon - Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters played the cool-headed and dedicated Lester Freamon on The Wire. Clarke could bring his intensity and his humorous touch to Gordon—a war buddy of Jake who sleeps in the woods, who sees things others miss, whose latent gifts emerge and change everything.
Kyle Quattlebaum - Zach Gilford
Kyle is full of passion and mischief like his mother, Dora.. Friday Night Lights Matt Saracen, played by Zach Gilford, is a sensitive, occasionally awkward but always appealing teenager, who is close to his grandmother.
Visit her blog, "Novel Thoughts."
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Writing What I Know
When I think about southern fiction I think about sitting in my high school English class, hiding a copy of Pat Conroy's The Prince Of Tides behind the book I was supposed to be reading because I couldn't put it down. I think about the first time I read Lee Smith's work, first in short story form, and later, in a novel called Black Mountain Breakdown. The characters were people I recognized, who talked like I did, and lived where I lived.
I didn't know that was allowed.
I thought that published novels had to be lofty and erudite, set in places like LA or NY. I didn't know NC was acceptable. These writers fostered my desire to write by showing me that I had something worth saying-- that people wanted to hear about simple folk who sell tomatoes fresh out of their garden at a roadside stand (my grandfather) and tell tall tales about their fathers who were itinerant evangelists who traveled the east coast on horseback, alternating between getting drunk and preaching (my great grandfather).
Write what I know? That I could do.
This year I saw my dream of publishing my first novel, The Mailbox, fulfilled just shy of the day I turned 40. I took some time off to have six kids and spend time raising them, but I never forgot my dream of writing. I wanted to write what I knew, but what? I had a hard time landing on one idea-- my thoughts were flitting and fickle. One day as I made my yearly trek out to the mailbox that sits on the coast of NC, I had an idea that stuck. What if I wrapped a love story around that mailbox?
That night I told my husband about my idea and he nodded like he always did when I shared one of my many novel ideas, saying something vague and distracted about how that would be good. He didn't, to his credit, add what I am sure he was thinking: "If you'd ever actually write it, that is."
But this time, I did. I started with "once upon a time" and wrote all the way to "and they lived happily ever after." I did it as much as a personal challenge to myself as anything. Selling it to a publisher and seeing it on the shelves was just gravy. I poured into that book everything I loved about Sunset Beach, NC, the site of many of our family vacations through the years. I added quirky characters based on people I've observed during a lifetime of growing up in the south. I populated the setting with familiar landmarks. I let the dialogue flow without worrying if the characters were speaking "proper English." I just let them talk like the people I know.
I wrote what I knew. And turns out, it was enough. I am thankful to the early influences who taught me that it would be.
Marybeth Whalen hangs out online at www.marybethwhalen.com and at home with her six children and husband, Curt.
I didn't know that was allowed.
I thought that published novels had to be lofty and erudite, set in places like LA or NY. I didn't know NC was acceptable. These writers fostered my desire to write by showing me that I had something worth saying-- that people wanted to hear about simple folk who sell tomatoes fresh out of their garden at a roadside stand (my grandfather) and tell tall tales about their fathers who were itinerant evangelists who traveled the east coast on horseback, alternating between getting drunk and preaching (my great grandfather).
Write what I know? That I could do.
This year I saw my dream of publishing my first novel, The Mailbox, fulfilled just shy of the day I turned 40. I took some time off to have six kids and spend time raising them, but I never forgot my dream of writing. I wanted to write what I knew, but what? I had a hard time landing on one idea-- my thoughts were flitting and fickle. One day as I made my yearly trek out to the mailbox that sits on the coast of NC, I had an idea that stuck. What if I wrapped a love story around that mailbox?
That night I told my husband about my idea and he nodded like he always did when I shared one of my many novel ideas, saying something vague and distracted about how that would be good. He didn't, to his credit, add what I am sure he was thinking: "If you'd ever actually write it, that is."
But this time, I did. I started with "once upon a time" and wrote all the way to "and they lived happily ever after." I did it as much as a personal challenge to myself as anything. Selling it to a publisher and seeing it on the shelves was just gravy. I poured into that book everything I loved about Sunset Beach, NC, the site of many of our family vacations through the years. I added quirky characters based on people I've observed during a lifetime of growing up in the south. I populated the setting with familiar landmarks. I let the dialogue flow without worrying if the characters were speaking "proper English." I just let them talk like the people I know.
I wrote what I knew. And turns out, it was enough. I am thankful to the early influences who taught me that it would be.
Marybeth Whalen hangs out online at www.marybethwhalen.com and at home with her six children and husband, Curt.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Welcome to A Good Blog is Hard to Find featuring TODAY, Scarlett O'Hardy's Gone with the Wind Museum!
Dear Readers,
Good Saturday Morning! Welcome to our southern authors blogspot! I am the NEW facilitator for this site as author, Karin Gillespie has passed me the torch to carry on our features on fine southern authors and their stories. One thing we know for sure, "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell is not only one of the most beloved stories of the south but has also gone international with it's story.
Here in historic Jefferson, Texas, my hometown, we have one of the most unique museums in the world dedicated to indeed, southern author, Scarlett O'Hardy's Gone with the Wind Museum. You have to see it to believe! The owner, Bobby Hardy, a passionate collector, has truly put together a world class museum of all things "Gone with the Wind".
Last year at our 10th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend, I took those who stayed over for worship service Sunday to the museum that afternoon. We we viewed case after case of signed first edition books and memorabilia, in awe of all the costumes, movie posters, and other memorabilia, including an outstanding GWTW gift shotp, this visit was the perfect wind down to our book club festival.
Yet another reason to travel to our fare southern city, Jefferson, Texas, the Bed & Breakfast capital of the Texas. Check out the website at http://http://www.scarlettohardy.com/ and a virtual museum tour at http://www.scarlettohardy.com/MuseumTour.htm.
So for all you southern readers this is a great literary place to road trip, but do call the museum to plan your visit. And while you are at it, my Beauty and the Book, http://www.beautyandthebook.com/ to your literary adventure, it's the ONLY Hair Salon/Book Store in the country! Check out my Wall of Fame of Authors who have graced my door! Some call it BOOKLAND, a reader's mecca, modeled after GRACELAND. I even have Elvis in my shop for Kodak moments!
Do you know of a great southern author featured site that is a don't miss adventure. We all would love to hear about it so please comment!
Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Hairdresser to the Authors, and YES, some celebrities too!
Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", Grand Central Publishing
Founder of The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Getting From Point A to Point B
Another reason is that I really enjoy connecting to writers.
For me, writing the South is what comes naturally to me. And while there are plenty of Southern writers, finding them and connecting to them isn’t so easy.
That’s one reason I was excited when I stumbled on “A Good Blog is Hard to Find” over a year ago. And I was even more excited to write for it. I’m a fan of most of the writers on this blog and the others’ books are on my “to be read” list.
Why is it so important to be part of a writing community? I think it’s because writing is such an isolating activity, by its very nature. And many of us don’t have non-virtual writing friends…so the connection becomes even more important. And it’s even more fun when you share a similar background or live in the same region.
We’re all giving a little “getting to know you” segment for our new blog readers—and also just to get reacquainted with other writers in the group.
So here I go---5 Things About Me:
• I grew up in Anderson, SC…and have lived in Georgia (briefly), Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina…and England. I studied abroad in college and wrote articles for Nine to Five magazine in London.
• After college, I married and moved to Vestavia Hills, Alabama, near Birmingham. Wrote for a local magazine.
• Had a baby. Spent many hours playing on the floor, sweeping Cheerios from under the highchair, and bolting the furniture to the walls (active baby.)
• Moved to Matthews, NC, near Charlotte. Had a second baby.
• Realized during an episode of Sesame Street that the idyllic writing cabin in the middle of nowhere was going to come through for me at exactly half-past never. Started writing my first book, taking full advantage of baby’s naptime, and any Teletubby programming that I could write during.
So that’s how I got from Point A to Point B with my writing. How about you?
Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (July 6 2010) Riley Adams
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/
Festivals are Fuel for the Subconscious
SOUTHERN FUN
By T. Lynn Ocean
It all started with dominos. After seeing an episode of 'Royal Pains' during which Hank's brother played dominos in Cuba, I decided that I needed to learn the game. With my best friend, Peggy, in tow, we dug through my mom's attic storage until we found boxes of games—and old photos. There was one of me, high school age, in a pink gown. I never, ever, ever, should have told Peggy what it was. But hindsight is never around when you need it.
"Oh, that's a high school picture from when I was in the Miss Mosquito beauty pageant, in Texas."
Her jaw dropped. Literally, mouth hanging open for a pregnant beat.
"It's a pretty big deal there," I told her. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival is an annual, three-day affair held in Clute, Texas. There's a Mister Mosquito legs contest, watermelon seed spitting, lots of beer drinking and barbecue eating. And every year, some lucky gal is crowned Miss Mosquito.
Dominos forgotten, Peggy rapid-fired me with questions, and actually rolled on Mom's living room floor laughing when she found what I did for the talent competition. But, hey. Not all southern gals can sing or dance. My thing back then was studying martial arts. My talent was a weapons kata. I thought it turned out pretty good, although I recall the judges ducking a few times during my routine. I don't think anything flew out of my hands, though.
Since Peggy—near seizure status at this point—wouldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of a festival that honors mosquitos, I refilled wine glasses and reminisced. I grew up in several parts of the country, but ended up in Texas before relocatig to South Carolina. Writing southern fiction is all about the rich cultural customs and traditions, the weather and the food, and yeah, the crazy, odd, jaw-dropping-if-you're-from-California-like-my-friend-Peggy festivals that we throw. Near where I live in South Carolina, here's a sampling of annual festivals: Chicken Bog, Tobacco, Chitlins, Pig Pickin', Pig-callin', Turkey Calling, Peach, and Sweet Potato. Just in case you're wondering, of course they crown a Sweet Potato Queen.
I didn't enter any more beauty pageants after the Miss Mosquito adventure, but I've never stopped attending festivals. I ADORE them. Get a group of southerners together for a good cause and you can't help but to have fun. Plus, festivals are wonderful fuel for any writer's subconscious mind! Talk about characters? I've seen a harmonica-playing blind man being led around by a geriatric bloodhound. Rows of country folk chowing down on plates of fried pig intestines. (That would be the chitlins.) Ladies in dresses and floppy hats, hand-rolling their own cigarettes. I could go on, but I'll keep this post short and leave you with a simple message: GET OUT THERE! Explore the day-trip destinations near where you live and look for community festivals. Even though summer is coming to a close, the cooler days of fall promise a whole lineup of great excuses for a party. The Moonshiner's Reunion and Mountain Music Festival in Campobello, SC, for starters.
By T. Lynn Ocean
"Oh, that's a high school picture from when I was in the Miss Mosquito beauty pageant, in Texas."
Her jaw dropped. Literally, mouth hanging open for a pregnant beat.
"It's a pretty big deal there," I told her. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival is an annual, three-day affair held in Clute, Texas. There's a Mister Mosquito legs contest, watermelon seed spitting, lots of beer drinking and barbecue eating. And every year, some lucky gal is crowned Miss Mosquito.
Dominos forgotten, Peggy rapid-fired me with questions, and actually rolled on Mom's living room floor laughing when she found what I did for the talent competition. But, hey. Not all southern gals can sing or dance. My thing back then was studying martial arts. My talent was a weapons kata. I thought it turned out pretty good, although I recall the judges ducking a few times during my routine. I don't think anything flew out of my hands, though.
Since Peggy—near seizure status at this point—wouldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of a festival that honors mosquitos, I refilled wine glasses and reminisced. I grew up in several parts of the country, but ended up in Texas before relocatig to South Carolina. Writing southern fiction is all about the rich cultural customs and traditions, the weather and the food, and yeah, the crazy, odd, jaw-dropping-if-you're-from-California-like-my-friend-Peggy festivals that we throw. Near where I live in South Carolina, here's a sampling of annual festivals: Chicken Bog, Tobacco, Chitlins, Pig Pickin', Pig-callin', Turkey Calling, Peach, and Sweet Potato. Just in case you're wondering, of course they crown a Sweet Potato Queen.
I didn't enter any more beauty pageants after the Miss Mosquito adventure, but I've never stopped attending festivals. I ADORE them. Get a group of southerners together for a good cause and you can't help but to have fun. Plus, festivals are wonderful fuel for any writer's subconscious mind! Talk about characters? I've seen a harmonica-playing blind man being led around by a geriatric bloodhound. Rows of country folk chowing down on plates of fried pig intestines. (That would be the chitlins.) Ladies in dresses and floppy hats, hand-rolling their own cigarettes. I could go on, but I'll keep this post short and leave you with a simple message: GET OUT THERE! Explore the day-trip destinations near where you live and look for community festivals. Even though summer is coming to a close, the cooler days of fall promise a whole lineup of great excuses for a party. The Moonshiner's Reunion and Mountain Music Festival in Campobello, SC, for starters.
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