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The Writing Life -
Carolina InspireD
By
Linda Lovely |
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n 1994,
Kathryn Wall bid farewell to Ohio snows and her accounting profession to retire to Hilton Head Island, SC.
Today, she’s celebrating
the release of Jericho Cay, the eleventh novel in her popular Bay Tanner mystery series set in the Lowcountry.
“As a transplant Yankee writer, I love exploring the dichotomy between old and new South,” she says. “I find inspiration everywhere. Better take care if you stand in line with me, I eavesdrop. When a man describes an angry female as a woman with a ‘head full of snakes,’ I scribble notes.”
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John Claude Bemis ,
who grew up in rural
North Carolina, taught
elementary school for 12
years before penning The Clockwork Dark Trilogy, a children’s series firmly rooted in Carolina soil.
“Traditional fantasy novels didn’t reflect my world,” he comments. “I wanted to create stories young American readers could imagine taking place in their backyards—to evoke the same epic feel as King Arthur except with American folklore. So my books feature cowboys, trains, and medicine show root doctors, rather than knights, castles, and wizards.”
Though Ms. Wall and Mr. Bemis write in different genres, both agree the Carolinas provide authors with a ready supply of inspiration and camaraderie. In mid-May, they were among 130 authors gathered in Columbia, SC, for the 15th annual
SC Book Festival. Each year, this celebration draws more than 6,000 book lovers. At the free festival, a smorgasbord of author panels, readings and presentations enlighten and entertain, while 100 exhibitors, ranging from antique books dealers and independent bookstores to digital publishers, public libraries and writer organizations, pack the convention floor with treasures.
“In this Internet-centric world, it’s great to have a chance to meet talented writers face to face,” says Bemis.
Paula Watkins, director of the SC Book Festival, says the Humanities Council SC, the festival sponsor, has already set dates for next year’s edition – May 19-20, 2012.
The authors who flock to this event showcase the diversity within the Carolina writing community, a heady mix of transplants and natives, young and old, beginners and veterans.
Here are some of the reasons authors find the Carolinas inspiring and the SC Book Festival a must-attend event.
Margaret Maron, a top name in the mystery field, has authored 28 books – 16 in her wildly popular Deborah Knott Series. As one New York Times Book Review put it: “Every Margaret Maron is a celebration of something remarkable.”
Ms. Maron says her surroundings underpin her fiction, adding both flavor and depth. “Once I got past the notion that crime novels needed to be set in a large city, it dawned on me that the rural South could be as exotic to urban readers as New York and L.A. were to me. I set my books in eastern North Carolina because this is where I live and because I wanted to write out of current experience. I try to portray truthfully the attitudes and concerns of those I live among.”
South Carolinians Connie Hullander
(Snowstorm) and
Sam Morton (Ten Weeks Til...: From the Austin Files) joined the ranks of published authors more recently.
When Ms. Hullander started writing with publication as a goal, she joined the South Carolina Writers Workshop. “Annual SCWW conferences provided loads of writing tips and introduced me to fellow authors, editors and publishers. My local critique group has been extremely supportive. Gritting their teeth and listening to my first limited attempts, they offered invaluable feedback. Now, they’re cheerleaders for my published novel.”
SCWW ranks high on Mr. Morton’s list, too. He says it’s “one of strongest public writing groups around.” He encourages fledgling writers to join writing groups. “My group critiqued my first novel, and I didn’t agree. So I paid a professional editor to get my manuscript submission ready. He offered virtually the same critiques, and this time I made the changes. In addition to being fabulous writers, critique group members tend to be voracious readers. They know popular markets, what sells. If you’re aiming for commercial success, that’s the way to go.”
Maggie Bishop, author of the
Appalachian Adventures Mystery series, lives deep in the mountains near Boone, NC, in a valley where high-speed Internet and cell phone service don’t exist. Yet her little town’s High Country Writers’ group claims more than 70 members.
“The mountains inspire all kinds of creativity – music, dance, acting, wood carving, weaving, painting. It’s in the air and in the water. My particular talent is for writing mysteries and the curvy roads, deep woods, abundance of critters and the southern tradition of accepting eccentrics keep the ideas flowing.”
Matt Matthews
is the pastor of St.
Giles Presbyterian
Church, Greenville, SC.
His Mercy Creek won the biennial South Carolina First Novel Contest sponsored by Hub City Press, a non-profit press in Spartanburg that publishes high-quality works by new and established authors, with an emphasis on the Southern experience.
“I really enjoyed the SC Book Festival exhibits,” Matthews notes. “The Jewish bookstore was a thrill; I got a great children’s parable on the Holocaust.”
Nan
K. Chase’s
book Eat Your Yard! profiles 30 lip-smacking plants that can dress up the landscape. She moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina exactly 30 years ago.
“Living in Asheville has
inspired me. The great
American author Thomas
Wolfe, a native, wrote
about the city with such
piercing honesty; that
inspires me. I can look
out my office window and
see across the street to
the places he walked and
recited Shakespeare. The
buildings he passed are
still here, so there is
a powerful link to the
city’s history. When I
was writing my first
book, Asheville: A History, I drew much strength from that. I would walk to Wolfe’s grave site sometimes before I would start a new chapter.”
At the SC Book Festival, Ms. Chase relished the unusual sensation of being surrounded by authors. “My session’s audience was the liveliest ever! Amanda McNulty, our moderator, got people fired up.”
Dorothy St. James,
author of the
garden-themed mystery,
Flowerbed of State, and
Kieran Kramer,
author of Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage, a historical romance, both live in Charleston, SC, and belong to the Lowcountry chapter of Romance Writers of America (RWA).
“There’s a spirit in the Lowcountry that calls to the storyteller in me,” says Ms. St. James. “Nearly everyone I meet here has a compelling story and a colorful way to tell it. The natural beauty of the marsh and ocean inspires my creative side. My writing friends are the greatest treasure! Writing can be lonely. Meeting with other writers to talk about our plots and troubles keeps me from acting too much like a troll living under a bridge.”
Ms. Kramer adds, “I get
inspiration from living
in a place with such Attitude – principled beliefs blended with a sassy joie de vivre. It gives me the courage to take risks in my writing, and RWA has given me all sorts of practical tools. Belonging to the Lowcountry chapter meant I could share my journey with other like-minded writers.”
She notes that the best part of the SC Book Festival was “the sense that everyone there loved books. What a great feeling! I could have stayed another week. It was truly awesome, and I would love to return.”
John
Jeter, is the author of
The Plunder Room and a founder of The Handlebar, a fun Greenville, SC, entertainment venue that attracts artists ranging from Grammy winners to local favorites. Mr. Jeter’s equally enthusiastic about the festival.
“The people who run the SC Book Festival have figured out how to level the playing field and make ALL the writers feel like rock stars. It felt amazing—and proved to be every bit as fruitful, if not more so, than just about any other writerly event I’ve ever attended.”
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About the Author
Dear Killer,
Linda Lovely’s debut mystery/suspense novel, has just been published as a trade paperback and ebook. Set on a fictional island in the South Carolina Lowcountry, the fast-paced mystery dishes up a main course of suspense, action and adventure with generous sides of romance and humor. |
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