Porches and Other Settings

by Cathy Pickens

Grammar Quiz:  Which of the following is correct?

A.      A.  The setting includes a farmhouse with a wraparound porch.

B.           B.  "We’ll be setting on the porch when you get ready to leave.”

C.           C.  They were setting out the plates when the preacher arrived.

All y’all who grew up in the South know all three are just fine, even if, once upon a time, your third-grade teacher turned all purply-pink when someone announced he was fixing to set himself down at his desk.

That’s what “setting” is all about, isn’t it?  Inviting readers into an interesting place where they want to set a while and visit.

In our lives, we’ve each found ourselves set out in all kinds of places.  My mama found herself back in the Southern Appalachian Mountains after a magical childhood on the Tampa Bay Keys.  I found myself in the big city, loving Charlotte but missing small-town hill-country life.

A friend of mine found herself in Charlotte, coming from even bigger Boston.  Some of us take to our new settings better than others.  Paula deserves to live in the South, she’s settled in nicely. 

On a visit back to Boston, she stopped in the big box drugstore on the corner.  Just like she was back home, she set in to chatting up the clerk.  “How are you?” she asked in her thick Boston accent.  “Sure has gotten hot quick this year.  Will you be able to take some time off to enjoy the holiday weekend?”

The clerk nodded faintly.  Her hand slipped beneath the counter while she kept a wary eye on Paula.

Uh-oh, thought Paula.  Silent alarm.  Her accent had given the clerk the wrong setting.  If Paula had a Southern drawl, the clerk would’ve written her off as a slow-talking kook of the harmless variety.  Paula’s Boston brogue told the clerk she might be a kook of the launch-herself-over-the-counter-without-warning variety.  Real Bostonians don’t carry on polite, directionless conversations with strangers.  Real Southerners can make strangers comfortable enough to show us their gall bladder scars, even when we don’t want to see them.  It’s all a matter of setting.

Finding ourselves in all kinds of settings—in the books we read and in real life—keeps life interesting.  We know some settings and their rules with an ancient wisdom we can’t explain.  Others, we acquire like a taste for cracklins in cornbread or chit-chat with strangers or humidity, because we become our settings.

I would allow as how that’s part of the fun.  So set yourself down, grab a glass of ice tea and a good book set wherever you would like to visit, and enjoy.  It’s too hot to do anything else.  (I might be South Carolina born and bred, but that doesn’t mean I can’t complain incessantly about the heat.  No setting is perfect.)

The setting of Cathy’s 5^th Southern Fried mystery, CAN’T NEVER TELL, includes a hot South Carolina July 4 carnival.

Obstacles for Writers--by Elizabeth S. Craig

Sometimes we just run into some problems or conflicts when we need to write.  Just like there are internal and external conflicts, there are also internal and external factors that seem bound and determined to trip us up.

External:

•    My children.  Bless their hearts.
•    The weather.  This past winter was all about snow and snow days from school.
•    Dishwasher and laundry buzzers. “We’re done! Come unload us!”
•    Dust.  And supper.
•    Too much quiet.
•    Too much noise.
•    Napping pets that just beg you to curl up with them for thirty winks.
•    That darned internet!

Internal:

•    Feeling distracted (usually by all those external factors)
•    My internal editor (must-be-silenced!)
•    Feeling overwhelmed by the scene ahead

So what can a writer do?

•    Analyze the problem—it’s probably a different obstacle on different days.
•    Are you at home? Try going to a library or coffeehouse or chain restaurant with WiFi
•    Or…completely escape the WiFi by going somewhere that doesn’t have it.
•    You could disable your own internet connection at home for a while…unplug that modem or router or repeater.  (I cheat and plug it back in, so I can’t be trusted. I end up just leaving.)
•    Go outside and write if you’re feeling restless. Take a notebook if the glare is too bad on the laptop.
•    If you’ve been writing on paper, switch to writing on computer.  Switch to paper if you’ve been working on Word.  Sometimes just a small change like that can help me regain my focus. (But I can’t write too long on paper or else I have too much catching up to do on the computer.)
•    Write quickly.  Give yourself a deadline and word count goal and set a timer. Tell yourself for the next 15, 25, or 45 minutes that you’re going to really churn out some words.  Silence that internal editor.
•    Introduce some accountability into the equation. I’ve made an announcement on my Facebook page before that I was going to write for an hour straight and check back in with my word count for the hour.
 •    Try the carrot and stick method--promise yourself that once you've written X amount that you'll treat yourself to a bowl of ice cream (or whatever you're craving.)  Or tell yourself that you can't check email, etc, until you've completed a certain number of words.

We all face obstacles to reaching our writing goals.  If I can figure out what it is that’s tripping me up on a particular day, I have a better chance of nipping the problem in the bud and reaching my word count for the day.  How do you keep going when you encounter writing obstacles?

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin as Riley Adams, the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink (under her own name), and blogs daily at http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010. Delicious and Suspicious releases July 6, 2010. 

As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles duties as Brownie leader, referees play dates, drives carpools, and is dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.
Elizabeth Spann Craig (Riley Adams)
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
http://mysteryloverskitchen.com
Twitter: @elizabethscraig

Q and A with Joshilyn Jackson

Joshilyn's latest, Backseat Saints (June, 2010), tells the story of Rose Mae Lolley, a fierce, tiny ball of war wounds who was a minor character in gods in Alabama. Her life changes dramatically when she meets an airport gypsy who shares her past and knows her future. The gypsy's dire prediction: Ro's handsome, violent husband is going to kill her - unless she kills him first...

Reviews:

“Positively Breathtaking” - Booklist, Starred Review

A sizzling chunk of Southern Gothic...But it’s not only the nail-biting, sinuous plot that gives the book, to quote one of its characters, “a hundred different kinds of pure, naked crazy.” It’s the way Jackson writes, like a woman whose hair is on fire, batting at the flames with one hand while scribbling like mad with the other. ---Atlanta Journal Constitution

 What's the backstory behind Backseat Saints?

Rose May Lolley, the narrator, was a minor character in my first novel, gods in Alabama. When I was drafting gods, I thought of her as “Jim Beverly’s Girlfriend” and she did not appear until chapter eight. When I finally got to the point in the novel where she first appeared, it was like an ambush! She started storming around, demanding a backstory and a history, instigating all kinds of mess. Trouble loved Rose, and Rose seemed to love trouble right back---that’s fiction gold.

I went back and revised gods towith Rose running loose in chapter one, and she upped the stakes for Arlene and the book as a whole almost immediately. She pushed her way into places she did not belong, demanding answers and attention. I should have known she wasn’t done yet! I thought about Rose on and off for years, but didn’t realize she had her own story to tell until one night, very late, I sat bolt upright in the bed, just knowing that Rose had lied to everyone in gods in Alabama. Even to me. It took me almost seven years to see through her, that’s how good a liar she had been. I got up out of bed right then and started writing BACKSEAT SAINTS.It wasn’t; a sequel – I knew that immediately, too. Rose wanted her own story. I would however call it a companion book to gods. They share some characters and thematic interests, and they can be read in either order. In a lot of ways, I think it might be cooler to read Saints first...

You're an expert at first lines. When do you come up with the very first line of your books?

Oh, thank you. I want my first line to set the tone for the book --- so I want it to be in some way a microcosm of the book’s central theme or conflict, as well as set the voice. It should be something that is phrased or shaped to reflect the narrator, or, if I’m in third, to reflect the main character.

Sometimes it comes very first, and I can’t really make the book “go” until I have it. Sometimes I think I have it, and the book begins to go, and then later I will realize I have to start somewhere else. Then I start crafting new first lines, and when I get it, it often means a read through of everything I have and a revision.

BACKSEAT SAINTS is a great title. Can you tell us the story behind it?

When I was drafting, I called the book Texas Rose Red, but as I went along, saints and saint imagery became more and more important to what I was doing thematically. Then I realized the word saints was handy to draw a connecting line between gods in Alabama and this book.

I thought I would do it with construction. gods in Alabama, so this book should be Saints in ______? But I couldn’t get the right word. Saints in Texas? Sounded like a sports book. Saints in Limbo? River Jordan already went there, beautifully. Saints Inside Us? Sounds...dirty, and not the right kind of dirty.

So I asked my Best Beloveds, the band of glorious humans who have formed a little community over on my personal blog, Faster Than Kudzu. They came up with a whole LIST of words to go in that blank, and one of them was Backseat. Saints in the Backseat. I loved the idea, but the rhythm was wrong, so I swapped it around to Backseat Saints. Which is the right kind of dirty. Those Beloveds...they are genius.

What books so you have your nightstand right now?

I am halfway through THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN’S BAG. I love it as much as I loved the first Flavia book, and that is saying a lot. Next? I am Adriana Trigiani’s big fan grrrrl, and her new one, BRAVA VALENTINE, is on the top of the stack. Then I am reading our own J. L. Miles’s latest in the form of galleys (I LOVED her Cold Rock River). I also have the new one by Yann Martel.

I am on the third book in two series I am really digging: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST and A FAINT COLD FEAR by Karen Slaughter. Then I want to reread DISMANTLED by Jennifer McMahon---I zoomed through it too fast the first time, desperate to know what happened. That book is not done with me yet.

Those books are all in a treacherous pile on my nightstand right now, fighting for room with an empty wine glass, four remotes for various aspects of the confusing television, the dog-suck-moist chewy bone I stepped on getting out of bed this morning, and four shades of OPI polish...I need a bigger nightstand.

What was your biggest challenge writing Backseat Saints? Your greatest joy?

My biggest challenge is always cowardice. I want people to think I am a nice lady----and yet I do not write “nice” books. My characters always want to do things I do not necessarily approve of, like take guns and go lie for their husbands out in the woods, or marry violent fellas who are dangerous enough to need some shooting in the first place. They steal, they lie, they have sex with the wrong people in the wrong places, they make hideous mistakes and feel awful and try to atone. In other words, they are people, broken as we all are, and yet hopeful anyway. Part of me wants to be a lot less honest and a lot sweeter, but I don’t have that kind of story to tell. *I* don’t even believe me when I try to tell that kind of story.

My greatest joy came in those moments where Rose Mae took over---where I wasn’t second guessing myself or worrying about what my mom’s church friends would think. When I let myself feel empathy for Rose in spite of her damage and her flaws, gave her her head, and the words for it came---It’s magic. I got that flying feeling you get when you are IN the scene and it has you and you are making it and in some ways, it is making you. A lot of wasted words and boring worky hours of screen staring and frustration go into a book, but the moments when I am in the zone and I am making the things in my head translate onto to paper---best drug in the world.

It is why we do it, right?

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson lives in Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. Her debut, gods in Alabama, won SIBA's 2005 Novel of the year Award and was a #1 BookSense pick. Jackson won Georgia Author of the Year for her second novel, Between, Georgia, which also a #1 BookSense pick, making Jackson the first author in BookSense history to receive #1 status in back to back years. Her third novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, was a Break Out book at Target and was shortlisted for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. All three books were chosen for the Books-A-Million Book Club.

Q and A with Denise Hildreth

What's the backstory behind HURRICANES IN PARADISE?


 Right after my heartbreaking divorce after thirteen years of marriage a friends called from out of the blue and asked me if I would be able to take a quick trip to The Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island. She added, “And you don’t have to pay a dime.” Well, there was one asset to being single, you could pick up and go at the drop of a hat! Now, not being a spur-of-the-moment kind but more of a “Plan until you drive people crazy” kind of girl, I packed up my bags and headed to The Atlantis.


On my first night there I was sitting at dinner with three other ladies. One of them was our host who was divorced with a small child. Another had never been married, and another was widowed. And while we were sitting there I knew I had the makings of a new novel and spent the remainder of the weekend taking notes and creating my characters.

The story is both a part of my pain and my healing. It was the first time I felt truly free to write after the break-up of my home, but it was also a place to get out some of my own personal pain and emotion of what I had gone through. Story is a beautiful gift. It allows us even as writers to transport ourselves into other people’s lives and say the things we wish we would have said if we had a do-over.

While I was there I had a real personal moment of healing. About thirteen years ago, during my first year of marriage, my husband and I at the time had traveled there and so I was really dreading going back to a certain extent. It was such a wonderful memory for me. But when I got there, the incredible hotel we had stayed in that had all those wonderful memories was boarded up, looked tired and worn down and I heard the sweet voice of my Father whisper, “Memory Closed. Time to make new ones.” That moment was a healing that I didn’t even know I needed. And so powerful for me.

When I first began writing I wanted to write non-fiction that changed peoples lives. But I ended up writing my first novel, Savannah from Savanna about a rigged beauty pageant. Signing my book deal was a bittersweet moment. Here I wanted to be known for these powerful life-changing teachings and I was writing fiction books where women tape their boobs and spray their butts. Not quite what I had envisioned. But six fictions books later I can say the stories have changed me.

I do have my first non-fiction book coming out in January of 2011. But it too was nothing I ever thought I would write. It is the journals from the first year after my divorce entitled, “Flying Solo: A Journey of Divorce, Healing and a Very Present God.” Proving that story finds you…not necessarily the other way around.

Who are some of your literary influences?


My literary influences are so varied- because my interests are so varied.

In fiction- Pat Conroy is the epitome. His ability to weave the emotional aspect of story along with the humor that can make you belly laugh is that thing that captures me. I'm drawn to stories that can cause you to feel at every level and he is the master at that to me.
But I am a huge non-fiction reader as well- So my inspiration there is Phillip Yancey- He is a writer who knows what he believes and writes about it passionately and honestly. And those are two things that I believe are essential to powerful non-fiction.

What's your favorite sentence from the book?

My favorite sentence from "Hurricanes in Paradise" is "I swear, that woman must carry a Bedazzler in her pocket!"


You just became a stepmom to five children. How are you finding time to write?


Well, we call it "bonus mom" around our house. I am learning to be flexible. The new word for the woman who just got kids at 40 and is a P-L-A-N-N-E-R. So, I am learning that kids need you to be present. Whether we're doing a puzzle, riding our bikes, reading books together. They want you there. So, writing happens early in the morning. We don't have them all the time, so that affords me some uninterrupted time to write. But I can hhonestly say, I've thoroughly enjoyed the interruptions.

What books are your nightstand right now?


"Staying True" by Jenny Sandford

"Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee" by Charles Shield

"Love and War" by John and Stacey Eldredge

My best piece of craft advice:

Just start writing.

Each day I'm nervous to sit down and write. I hear people say all the time they have a story. But a story is never written unless you're brave enough to sit down and write it. So just do it!

Talent's Not Enough by Karin Gillespie

Acting was my first love before writing. When I was a child I saw an audition notice in the paper: “Wanted actors to try out for Alice in Wonderland. Must be twelve and over.”


I begged my mother to take me. She said, “But you’re only eight.”

I said, “Who cares? I want to be Alice. I was born to play her.” Plus I had the requisite long, blond hair.

My mother reluctantly took me, figuring I might get a part as a hedge hog or a playing card, but no, at the end of the day, I got the part. I was Alice.

From then on I kicked butt at auditions, snagging every part I tried out for. In college, I landed the part of Girl in "Hot L Baltimore." My director wasn’t happy with my performance. Not nuanced enough, he said. At first I was defensive. After all, I got every role I’d ever tried out for. What did he know?

But the more I thought about it, the more I knew he was right. I’d been relying solely on talent, but talent can along take an actor so far.

After Hot L Baltimore, I read dozens of books on acting. I read plays aloud constantly, trying hard not to go for the obvious interpretation of a character. All if helped me to become a much better actor. I tried out for another play with the same director and when he cast me he praised my growth. It was an extremely proud moment for me. I felt like I had the right to call myself an actor.

I tell this story because something very similar happened to me in my writing career. When I became a mother and could no longer take time for community theater, I focused on writing. I had some very early successes: cover stories in my local alternative newspaper and a positions as a freelance theater reviewer and editor of a parenting magazine.

When I tried my hand at novel writing, I wrote one practice novel that I stuck under my be to live with the dust bunnies, but my second novel was published. I’ve heard that’s unusual—that most people write several novels before getting a contract.

My first novel also ended up being a lead title, (also unusual) and it was optioned for film. My publishing company took out full-page ads in several publications and sent me on an eight-city book tour. The novel was part of a series, and the support continued. The whole time I felt a little bit like an imposter.

When I was done writing the series, I wrote a stand alone novel, It was incredibly difficult to write and took two years and countless revisions to finish. Then I wrote another untitled novel that I toyed with for three years. I kept working on it, but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t ever get it right. I didn’t know what to do. Why was writing getting harder instead of easier?



Before I put another word on paper, I decided it was time to go back and get some schooling. I enrolled in an MFA program, which has been invaluable but I also started to devour books on fiction writing, especially on structure and character motivations. I found John Truby’s Anatomy of a Story to be a lifesaver as well as The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler. I also think Alexandra Sokoloff’s blog is amazing.

Now I know exactly what’s wrong with my untitled, unsold novel and one day I’ll go back and fix it. In the mean time,armed with all sorts of new knowledge, I wrote another novel, which I hope will be my next published work. Although the writing was difficult (that’ll never change) at last, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing. I also fell in love with writing all over again. Even if I never publish another book, I can unequivocally and proudly say: I am a writer.

If you're a writer, what happened to make you feel validated? Did you ever have a writing setback that ended up being a blessing in disguise?

Q and A with Bente Gallagher

Tell us about the new book, A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS.

A – It’s the first book in a new series, featuring recovering Southern Belle Savannah Martin. Savannah has always been a good girl, always doing what was expected, fully expecting that if she does everything perfectly, everything will fall into place in its turn. When things don’t work out that way, she starts reassessing everything she’s always believed to be the truth and starts to build the kind of life she wants, not the one she’s expected to have. She gets her real estate license and starts plying her trade, and pretty much immediately finds herself tangled up in a murder mystery, when one of her colleagues is murdered in an empty house and Savannah is the one who stumbles over the body. It’s a part mystery, part romance, part suspense novel, with – according to one early reader – “enough wit and sexual chemistry to rival Janet Evanovich.” Can’t ask for better than that!

This is your first book written under your real name. You also write a successful Do-It-Yourself mystery series as Jennie Bentley. A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS played an indirect part in that coming about didn't it?

It certainly did! I wrote A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS back in 2005, just after I got my real estate license. I was walking into empty houses with strangers pretty much every day, and having a vivid imagination, it didn’t take long for me to consider all the possibilities for what might be hiding inside. Dead body, escaped convict, crazed ax-murderer, rabid dog... Once I finished the manuscript, my agent started sending it to editors, hoping to find a home for it, and eventually it ended up at Berkley Prime Crime, an imprint of the Penguin Group. They have a very specific focus on mysteries featuring ‘crafts and activities’ – knitting, sewing, baking, cooking, glass blowing, doll collecting, etc. – and my book didn’t fit with the rest of their line. But they liked me and they liked the fact that I had a background in real estate and renovation, and so they asked me if I’d be interested in generating a series about a home renovator for them instead. There are three books in the Do-It-Yourself home renovation mysteries released so far, with at least two more to come.

They say write what you know. You've been a realtor and you renovate homes. So is it safe to say you had much of your research in your head?

I’ve owned and renovated nine houses in the past nine years, so yes, there isn’t much I don’t already know when it comes to that end of things. I’m familiar with the various architectural styles, the various Nashville neighborhoods, the ins and outs of Savannah’s new profession. What I have to research are the crime-related parts of the books: the murders, the murder-weapons, the police procedure.

You also live in Nashville. Why does the city work as the setting for this book?

I didn’t pick it specifically because I thought it would work; I chose to write about Nashville because I live here and it was what I knew. That said, I think it works very well as a setting on a lot of levels. Back when I wrote the book, the real estate market in Nashville was very strong. It’s still doing better than in a lot of other areas in the country, although it’s more of a normal market now, rather than the very strong sellers’ market it was back then. Nashville is an interesting city in which to place a series of books. It’s big, but not too big; more like an overgrown small town. There’s been a lot of population growth in the past few years, from other parts of the country, and there’s a small amount of tension between the ‘natives’ and the ‘newcomers.’ People in other parts of the country tend to think of Nashville as Music City – all country music all the time; nothing but country music – but to those of us living here, there’s a lot more to Nashville than that. We have a vibrant art scene, a lot of history, and a lot of industry. Music isn’t the only big industry here, something a lot of people are unaware of. Besides, Nashville offers a lot of different settings, from downtown urban areas and historic neighborhoods to suburban sprawl and rivers, forests, and hills. There’s something for everyone in Nashville.

Did you sometimes get Bente Gallagher and Jennie Bentley confused?

A – I don’t get myself confused with myself, since I’m pretty much the same person no matter which name I write under. And the styles of the books are similar enough that that’s not a big problem either. The way I write is the way I write, pretty much, with small allowances for the parameters of each genre: cozy mystery for the DIY-books and more of a romantic suspense mystery for A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS. The problem is in keeping the voices of the two protagonists distinct. Both are young women, both narrate the stories in the first person. Both have some of the same traits. My traits, most likely. They’re very different characters, though. Avery Baker, the protagonist in the DIY-series, is a New Yorker born and bred, who lives in Maine where she renovates houses with her boyfriend Derek. She’s very hands-on, not at all afraid to wade in and get dirty, and she’s curious to a fault and quite talkative. Savannah Martin, the main character in A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS and the other books in that series, is a Southern Belle: elegant, ladylike, reserved, sweet as sugar on the outside and hiding a lot of ‘inappropriate’ thoughts and feelings below the surface. Their two voices are very different, both regionally and because of the different ways they think and see the world. It can be tough, after spending six months in Avery’s head, to remember what Savannah sounds like when I get back to her. Other than that, though, the two settings and casts of characters are distinct enough in my head that I don’t get them mixed up.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’”

By Peggy Webb



One of the most frequently asked questions at writers’ seminars is “Which comes first, characters or plot?” Hmmm. Great question. And the answer? Both!


I write both plot-driven novels (cozy mysteries) and character driven novels (women’s fiction). From incubation to synopsis to finished novel, I’ve never consciously separated character from plot. Certainly, I make character charts that list everything I already know about my characters as well as some things I want to find out. But plot is so intricately tied to character that in the process of creating one, I’m also creating the other.


The real magic of the creative process is that my characters frequently misbehave. Early in my career I had planned for a male protagonist to be a staid, reliable, rather up-tight lawyer. On page one he let me know he was a soccer coach. No matter what kind of logic I used, no matter how much I railed and argued with him, threatened and pleaded, he remained staunch. Finally, I relented. But with a warning: “If you’re not the best soccer coach ever, I’m not giving you any love scenes.” We came to an understanding, this stubborn soccer coach and I, and together we created a book readers loved.

And then there was Elvis. The dog. A basset hound, to be precise. I was going to make Elvis a sleuthing, mischievous ghost. But about the time my beloved Labrador retriever, Jefferson, had to race outside to do his business, my muse stood up and shouted, ELVIS IS A DOG. That worked for me. I made supper, went to bed and was promptly rousted out by Elvis, who had started talking and wouldn’t shut up. I stumbled into my office and took dictation for a very long time. Those scribbles on scrap paper eventually became chapter one of ELVIS AND THE DEARLY DEPARTED. They also set the format of all the Southern Cousins Mysteries. Elvis and his human mom, Callie, alternately narrate each novel.

Over the course of a twenty-five-year career, I’ve compiled a long list of characters who misbehave. I’m glad they did. I’m glad I’ve learned to trust them. My characters have led me down hidden pathways and into deep waters I might not have explored if I had insisted on sticking to the plan. They’ve surprised me, delighted me, made me laugh, made me cry, and above all, made me a better writer.

When you read a book, what are you looking for in the characters? Which ones stay with you long after the last page has been turned, and why? As a writer, do you turn your characters loose and let them misbehave?

Peggy is currently taking dictation while Elvis and the zany cousins, Callie and Lovie, misbehave in the fifth comic romp of the Southern Cousins Mystery Series. Book three, Elvis and the Memphis Mambo Murders, will be available September 28, 2010.