GOODWEATHER
REPORTS
IV – October 1, 2007
The big news last month was my editor's reaction to IN A DARK SEASON – the fourth Elizabeth Goodweather book. I've already detailed this on my blog so won't repeat it in the newsletter. If you're interested, here's the link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2MQM33N9H56R1/ref=cm_blog_dp_pdp/002-9833071-7618449
I had lunch with a witch last week – a hereditary, Appalachian, self-identified witch. Think Sharyn McCrumb's Nora Bonesteel -- not the Halloween stereotype. No devil worshipper either, this witch (Byron Ballard) is a very nice, down-to-earth woman – a bookseller, gardener, mom, healer, writer. (She's also a community blogger for the Asheville Citizen-Times and her blog will tell you more about Appalachian witches, as well as modern day Wicca and other Earth religions. http://blogs.citizen-times.com/blogs/index.php?blog=18 )
It was great getting to know Byron a little better. And I used the opportunity to gather information. There may be an Appalachian witch or two in Elizabeth 's future and if any of you have experience with this sort of folk magic, I'd like to hear about it. Know someone who could charm warts away? Dowse for water? Take the hurt out of a burn? Byron said the tradition in her family to ease a burn was to repeat the following three times: Come three angels from the North; take both fire and frost. (There are some other variations of this charm in Anthony Cavender's excellent Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia . )
By the way, Elizabeth 's experience in Signs in the Blood – where she reads a verse from the Bible to stop Miss Birdie's nose bleed – is based on my own experience in a similar situation. More folk magic!
So what's next for me? My agent and editor and I are discussing possible directions for my writing – either another Elizabeth book or a ‘standalone' set in the past of Elizabeth 's Marshall County . I have what I think are terrific ideas for each of these and am ready to fall into another story. Stay tuned.
Below is a picture of where I do my writing – in a corner of the room that is also my sewing/ironing/gift-wrapping/painting, etc. room. Jack has grabbed my comfy chair – maybe he'll start work on the next book for me. It'll be a chance for him to give Elizabeth another dog – say, a Border Collie in a starring role.
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Once I was finally done with book four, I was able to get outside to enjoy the end of the summer and do some much-needed weeding. This is a Clouded Sulfur (I think) butterfly. What a gorgeous color, almost like a Luna Moth! It's visiting a Plumbago (Leadwort) flower. I often do my weeding with a camera in my pocket.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM YOU ALL
( or ‘you uns,' as Miss Birdie would say)
Sharon Brock and her daughter wondered about OLD WOUNDS : “W e can't understand why Ben is back here in Florida . I feel sorry for him”
Ben was in Florida because I wanted OLD WOUNDS to focus on Rosemary. That's why there was so little of Ben and Laurel. They'll all be back in book four.
. Betty Ternier Daniels of Saskatchewan asks :
I have one question which you may be willing to explore in your newsletter. Is it possible to write first-rate mystery novels without utilizing characters who are psychotic, sadistic and/or sexual perverts? I know that writers like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie succeeded, but they wrote in another era. Is it possible today? I like Elizabeth George's novels, but they verge on being too graphic for my taste.
And this is what I told Betty: “ I'm going to have to think about that for a while. Off the top of my head, I guess it's easier for me to visualize a villain who is crazy rather than just plain evil and still sane. I think I don't want to believe that a sane person would do evil things.
I'm a great fan of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie. So why do I write the way I do? (Which is still fairly mild compared to a lot of mysteries out there, though definitely not cozy.) With my very first book, when I was writing the Little Sylvie subplot, I had a different ending – a gentler one -- and my editor (who, by the way, was Elizabeth George's editor for her first eleven books) said something like "You're not there yet. You have to shatter the reader."
In other words, I think, go for a really visceral response. After all, we're competing with television and films and daily news in which graphic violence and terrible injustice are routine. So in order really to engage the reader's emotions, it's going to have to be something more than, ‘Aha! It was Col. Mustard with the candlestick because he didn't want the truth about his cheating at bridge to come out.'”
I understand what Betty's saying. There are some writers whose work I love, but definitely would not read at a time when I was feeling fragile or looking for comfort. (Those are the times are when I re-read old favorites – Christie and Sayers, Elizabeth Goudge, Rosamund Pilcher, Angela Thirkell, P.G. Wodehouse, E.F. Benson -- to name a few.)
And, Betty, you'll be happy to know that while my upcoming book involves a madwoman – she is neither psychotic nor sadistic nor a sexual pervert. In fact, the whole book is a kinder, gentler book – love story with Phillip and Elizabeth, happy family Christmas – there's still enough darkness to make it interesting however. Will it be considered first-rate? Who knows? But my editor absolutely loved it.
If you all have opinions on this, let me know and I'll include them next month.
Betty also says: Y ou might enjoy Gail Bowen's novels (published by McClelland & Stewart). She is the best-known mystery writer in my home province of Saskatchewan . Like Elizabeth Goodweather, her protagonist is a widow with children, and like you, she focuses on family relationships and has a great sense of place.
Pat W. in Tennessee asks: Have you ever heard anyone say, "It fell a flood" when it was raining??? I had recently heard that from a friend in NC, and it was a first of all my years of living in this area. Interesting, huh???
That one's new to me. Just the other day I heard a man use the term ‘falling weather' to refer to precipitation – rain, snow, or sleet. Also new to me.
Diann B., who lives near me, says: I too have been enthralled by the colorful phrases the locals use, such as "He looked at me like a cow looking at a new fence."
I know that look. Cows are very suspicious of new fences and generally will walk all along them to see if there's a weak spot so they can break through to that greener grass on the other side.
Diann adds: I have fallen in love with the small congregation at ( a local) Church, and the preacher (who walks on top of the pews and runs out the front door during sermons) is priceless. The soulful singing of Polly and Elbert at the church comes straight from a deep place of spirituality and longing. It is unlike anything I have ever heard before.
The tradition here favors energetic preaching. And the singing is wonderful, indeed.
Caryn wants to know: Will you ever be appearing out of your region?
Do you mean do I tour? Not as such. Bantam Dell wouldn't pay for a tour for a lowly paperback original author such as myself so my travels, all on my own nickel, have been limited to the Southeast -- and the past two Malice Domestics and the past two Bouchercons. But in the future, who knows -- all things are possible.
And for all those who said they liked the pictures showing the originals of Elizabeth 's dogs and garden, here are some of our house – the original of Elizabeth 's.
The living room – the painting on the left of the fireplace is by Paul Bauman and is from a photo taken in our county. The one on the right is mine -- showing a group of my friends quilting in our dining room. The quilt is one we actually made and it was featured in the book I co-authored. ( Community Quilts by K. Kavaya and V. Skemp)
The sitting corner of the kitchen – the painting of my two boys (around '87) is by Mary Maupin Brumo - a friend. We swapped – I made her a very nice wall hanging quilt in exchange.
The dining room -Miss Susie Hutchins enjoying the morning sun and the view to the east. The white cloud in the distance is morning mist rising from the unseen river.
This is for someone who asked if there was really a blue bench like Elizabeth and Phillip sat on. Here it is – my husband, an excellent woodworker, made it.
Isn't this little fella a beauty? I love the way his tiny pink feet cling to the weed stalk. I wonder if he would sting if I touched him. I think he's a white variant of a Yellow Wooly Bear caterpillar who will grow up to be a Virginia Tiger Moth but if any of you know better, please tell me.
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Recent Reads
Some I've particularly enjoyed
Finn – Jon Clinch
Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
Stardust – Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
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In early September I was driving by a field of golden-ripe burley tobacco – the plants are almost six feet tall – and I just had to take a picture.
Though we haven't grown tobacco in years, I get a little nostalgic seeing it. I have a conflict of feelings about tobacco – I've never smoked and don't like being around smoking because even second-hand smoke makes my eyes water and my throat sore. And I was a care-giver for my mother-in-law (a heavy smoker for much of her life) as she slowly, miserably, died of emphysema, so I know what tobacco can do to a body.
But what a great crop to grow! (Possibly opium poppy farmers feel the same.) Tobacco was the one legal crop small farmers around here could count on for a decent payday. It could be grown in small steep patches without fancy equipment and tended by the whole family. The year revolved around tobacco: planting the seed beds in March, setting out the plants in late May or early June, hoeing, fertilizing, hoeing, cultivating, suckering and picking off worms (later replaced by spraying), and topping the rest of the summer. Then in early September, the plants were cut and hung in barns to air-dry.
By November the leaves would be cured – a rich brown and crispy dry. In order to pull the leaves off the stalk and sort them into grades, you would have to wait for a damp day – foggy, drizzly, rainy, or snowy – when the brittle leaves had taken up moisture from the air and become like thin limp leather. The ‘baccer was said to be ‘in case' and the leaves could be handled without shattering.
So you'd gather your family in the cold damp barn and ‘work up the ‘baccer.' This involved stripping the leaves from the stalk and sorting them into grades. Back in the 70's and 80's we made three grades but our mentors talked of years before when they distinguished many more grades – as many as fourteen, if memory serves.
When we started growing tobacco, we made the graded leaves into ‘hands' – an elegant bunch of leaves held together by another leaf wrapped around the stems. The hands were stacked on ‘baccer baskets and taken to the warehouse to await the auction. A buyer could pull out a hand at random to examine the leaf for quality. When the ‘baccer sold, all these hands were dumped into a grinder and the painstaking work was shredded. We were really happy when a way of baling the leaves became standard – not nearly as pretty but a whole lot less time in a cold damp barn.
I'm thankful to have participated in something that was such a touchstone in our part of the world. I've already used that experience in my writing and, no doubt, will again.
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Vicki's Schedule
2007
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Saturday, Oct 20–Writing Workshop at Madison Arts Council, Marshall , NC . 10-2. (1 hour lunch break). Contact info@madisoncountyarts.com
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Sunday, October 21 – Barnes and Noble, Tunnel Road , Asheville , 1-3. Vicki will be autographing books.
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Saturday, November 10 – Great Smoky Mountains Book Fair- Sylva , NC. First United Methodist Church , Jackson Street , 9-3.
2008
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May 23 – 25 – WNC Woman Writers' Retreat at Lake Logan . Presenters: Kay Stripling Byer, Lavinia Plonka, Peggy Millin, and Vicki Lane http://wnc-woman.com/events.html
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Hutchins in our mail basket
Have a great Fall and keep in touch!
Vicki