On the Southern Literary Trail discussion
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Q&A with Kim Wright, author of Last Ride to Graceland
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I've been thinking about this since you asked it. I'm not sure I have a preference of one over the other. I can definitely see Honey's point of view when she's clashing with her daughter. It probably comes from having daughters of my own.
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Diane wrote: "I did catch the symbolism of the Tupelo honey. And also loved the explanation of where it comes from and how they collect it by the roadside vendor guy."One of the fun things about my research was actually trying Tupelo honey. It's rare, expensive, and delicious!
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I've had Tupelo honey, it is lovely. Mostly I get honey made from bees a few blocks from my house now, as I read an article that eating honey made from local pollen helps to alleviate allergies. I was eating honey that I knew came from lavender and other plants in my own garden for a while, but the place that made it closed down when the owners retired. I always love the sound of "Tupelo honey", it evokes warm images and emotions for me.
Kim wrote: "I've had Tupelo honey, it is lovely. Mostly I get honey made from bees a few blocks from my house now, as I read an article that eating honey made from local pollen helps to alleviate allergies. I ..."Yes, it's very evocative. I'd heard of it before I started researching the book but had no idea how much effort went into collecting it. It makes you understand why it's so expensive!
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My closest experience with Tupelo honey is listening to Van Morrison.
Tom wrote: "Kim wrote: "Kim wrote: "I've had Tupelo honey, it is lovely. Mostly I get honey made from bees a few blocks from my house now, as I read an article that eating honey made from local pollen helps to..."I love Van Morrison!
While I always welcome questions about the Last Ride to Graceland as a book, I'd like to also say I'm open to any questions you might have about how writers work or the process a book undergoes as it's written, edited and brought out into the world. I've been doing a lot of touring this summer and there were always plenty of questions about how publishing works as well as direct comments on the book. So if you've ever wondered about any aspect of the writing life - fire away!
I would be interested to know how you wrote about Elvis s twin who was such a part of his psyche true but maybe tricky ? Are there any subjects that you feel are too painful to write about or topics that you would avoid for any reason ?
It was tricky to write about the twin, even though it was pretty well documented that Elvis would sometimes speak to Jesse when he was upset or under the influence. My assertion that his attraction to people who looked like him was a type of searching for his lost twin is completely made up, but I think it's a reasonable leap.One thing I can't stand in books or tv or movies is when an animal or child is harmed. I can sit unblinkingly through the most grisly stories as long as only adults are being harmed but when a child or animal is being abused I can't handle it.
But that doesn't mean I don't think these subjects can ever be written about. In the book I'm working on now there is a toddler who drowns and this plays very prominently in the plot. But I know i"m not the kind of writer who could manage an actual scene of a child's death, so the drowning happens "off stage" - it was years in the past and is only referred to, never described.
Since writers write about problems, and tension, and things going wrong it's unrealistic to think there's any topic than can't be approached in literature. In some ways, you can argue that all literature is about trouble. But I think every writer makes up his or her mind about what particular kinds of darkness they won't approach, at least not directly. That's part of our decision making process.
I appreciate your views on literature where the harm to children or animals is described. At one time I was an avid Stephen King reader until Pet Cemetery where the young son, Gage was killed by a truck. I can't remember the complete story, only that it was gruesomely described not once but twice. That did it for me with SK.
Everything about Pet Cemetary freaked me out.
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Lucy was a surprise to me. I wanted Cory Beth to stop once she was out of Beaufort and investigate the contents of the car better... And a hound dog jus happened to be at the rest area and he happened to jumpIn the car.
Lucy being a boy dog with a girl name? Again, I learned his name when Cory Beth blurted it out. Just further proof that writers are often surprised by their own stories!
And the hound dog bit... I swear I didn't even think of that until the end of the book.
But Lucy does serve as a sort of guardian angel for Cory Beth on the road. And he gives her someone to talk to as she drives, which turns out to be very helpful. Otherwise she'd be inside her own head too much.
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I don't doubt it. William Golding, in his introduction to Lord of the Flies, said basically that he just wanted to tell a story about how boys would act sans parental supervision. After it was published readers came up with hundreds of theories about what it meant, chief among them being that it was an allegory for adult society. It's been said, and I agree, that once a story is told, it no longer belongs to the teller. Those who read the story hear it and interpret it based on their own understanding of the world.
That's part of what makes it fun for the writer. People are often coming up with things that never occurred to me.
Diane wrote: "I remember reading an interview with Amy Tan once, and she said she was always surprised at the deeper meanings and symbolism of things in her books that readers found. She was always amused, she s..."I was at an author event once and she described having her book chosen for Oprah's Book Club. The publishing business being what it is, she was well on her way to finishing her NEXT novel when the call came from Oprah, who wanted to discuss some issues before taping the show. To set the stage, Author's daughter has come home sick from school, she's trying figure out what she's going to fix for her family's dinner, and Oprah calls. One of O's questions was "What's the symbolism of the white cat?" Author's first thought: There's a cat in my book?
That is one of the funny things about being a full time writer. You are often researching one book while the previous one is in production and the one before that is the book that's actually hitting the market. So you're touring or answering interviewing questions about a book that you wrote 18 months or two years earlier. I'm renowned for forgetting the names of my characters! Sometimes I think we all have the feeling that the reader who just closed the book is much more up on things than the author herself!
I'd like to throw a question out to the readers... Do you enjoy this trend of books that mix fiction and non-fiction, i.e., stories like Last Ride to Graceland which take an actual event and build a fictional world around it, essentially placing real people and fictional characters in the same scenes? I'm hoping you say yes, of course, since writers enjoy these sorts of challenges but what would make a book like that work for you....and what would make it not work?
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I agree, Diane sometimes it works and sometimes it does not . i have just read " A Good Hard Look" and that was extremely good
When you're doing this, I think it's important to have a good long Author's Note section in the back where you explain what's real, what's fictional, and what has been changed for the sake of the story. Writers sometime compress things for the sake of drama - like taking three trips to the city and compress them into one, with lots of things happening in one night. Or they will cut out characters to make the number of names the teaser has to remember more manageable. But I think that needs to be explained or the reader feels misled. I have a mystery series too, which is set in Victorusn times and based on real life crimes. I have to be very careful there. I tony want the Ripperologists to come after me!
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That's a key element to fiction. A good storyteller should be adept at taking a situation, even a mundane one, and asking "What if...?"
For example what if J D Salinger went to Iowa. I just reread Shoeless Joe. I enjoy dropping a historical figure into an otherwise fictional account. Has to be well done though like Kim did. Not well done and its farcical.
Thank you, Brina. One of the fun things to do in a situation is to - just as Tom says - look at an existing situation and play the "what if" game, turning it on its ear just a bit. And it's also fun to look at a real historical event and imagine it from the point of view of one of the minor players in the action. Like my friend Ariel Lawhon did in Field of Dreams, where she looked at the HIndenburg disaster through the eyes of several passengers, including a cabin boy. I love reading stuff like that and it's a fun puzzle as a writer as well.
Kim wrote: "I'd like to throw a question out to the readers... Do you enjoy this trend of books that mix fiction and non-fiction, i.e., stories like Last Ride to Graceland which take an actual event and build ..."Kim, thank you for the question. In my Satilla County series I use the history, geography, and culture of my home county and import some of the stories from neighboring counties. Satilla County is thus a fictional composite or representative south Georgia county. The same places and some of the same people appear in all the stories. Of course, for art's sake I enhance and order the events to suit my purpose. After all, as somebody pointed out, life is mostly meaningless chaos. A novel, on the other hand, has to make sense.
The ordering events is so important. That's what makes the chaos a novel.
I have just been invited to speak at a conference on the topic of what makes a book southern and how the definition of "southern" has changed over time. (Assuming that it has.) It strikes me that this would be a great group of collective brains to pick. Specifically....what are some of the cliches of southern literature that make you cringe? And conversely, what are some of the tropes of southern fiction that you enjoy and hope to see novels you read? In other words, how does a writer make a book recognizably southern and meet the expectations of his readers without falling into the same old tired cliches?
Kim wrote: "I have just been invited to speak at a conference on the topic of what makes a book southern and how the definition of "southern" has changed over time. (Assuming that it has.) It strikes me that t..."Southern literature: a sense of place, Time (past, present, future) as the ultimate antagonist, emphasis on culture (food, drink, mores, religion), universal themes (archetypes) in regional dress. Some stereotypes may fade over time, but the essential South and our perception of it endures (as Faulkner would put it.)
Kim wrote: "I'd like to throw a question out to the readers... Do you enjoy this trend of books that mix fiction and non-fiction, i.e., stories like Last Ride to Graceland which take an actual event and build ..."I love historical fiction - mixing the truth and real people and events with fiction. I think it is challenging to get the right mix, but it can make an incredible book.
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I should check in more often. I didn't realize we were having questions with the author. I have my book and am just starting. I have enjoyed your comments, and got a chuckle about the book being too pink. I too, was surprised authors don't get more say in what THEIR book looks like. I'm really looking forward to reading this !
I love the question of what makes a book southern. One of the best explanations I ever heard was given by author Terry Kay when he spoke at a college event in North Georgia. He said that all southern literature has four elements: family, place, religion, and gossip. That works for me.At the Southern Literature Conference in Chattanooga a fews years ago, I enjoyed a panel discussion of authors who discussed the definition of southern literature. Several of them said a common element was land. That also rings true.
Then again, what if a novel were set in a southern city. It might not have land.
Perhaps the definition of southern literature is constantly evolving.
For me Southern literature is one of the richest and most exciting as it keeps on evolving over the years .I discovered it about 30 years ago only and if a book has Southern written somewhere on the cover I know I am rarely disappointed with the stories inside let s face it , Southerners are among the best story tellers going.
There is a great book that I often dip in to , the title is The Seven Basic Plots , why we tell stories and it reminds me how imaginative we humans are , it is comforting to read the same story over several times but Southern literature has this regional voice
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Janie wrote: "I love the question of what makes a book southern. One of the best explanations I ever heard was given by author Terry Kay when he spoke at a college event in North Georgia. He said that all southe..."Oscar wrote: "Kim wrote: "I have just been invited to speak at a conference on the topic of what makes a book southern and how the definition of "southern" has changed over time. (Assuming that it has.) It strik..."
Oscar wrote: "Kim wrote: "I have just been invited to speak at a conference on the topic of what makes a book southern and how the definition of "southern" has changed over time. (Assuming that it has.) It strik..."
This is all so interesting. Janie, I love the Terry Kay quote.
One of the things that writers debate among themselves is whether there is an "old south" sort of storytelling and a "new south" storytelling. I mean, everyone knows the sort of "hound dog and grandpa in the rocker" cliches of old south storytelling but then there's the new south with, as Cory puts it, the big banks and hip hop artists and Disney World and serial killers. And it has a voice too, just not one that is so well defined.
Camie wrote: "I should check in more often. I didn't realize we were having questions with the author. I have my book and am just starting. I have enjoyed your comments, and got a chuckle about the book being to..."One thing that hits writers by surprise is just this, Camie. When you sell the book, you sell the book. Sell it as in "You don't really own it any more." Most publishers want the writer to be happy and some consult more than others, but the bottom line is that with anything that's a marketing decision -and both the cover and even the title are considered marketing, not editorial, decisions - the final say lies with the publisher. I think most writers more or less get this and just grumble among themselves. ("It's so pink!!") but some get REALLY upset.
But it's just like if you've sold a house. A house you worked on for years and really loved. You can't drive by a month later and say "But they ripped out all my boxwoods and painted the door bright green." It's their house now.
Jane wrote: "There is a great book that I often dip in to , the title is The Seven Basic Plots , why we tell stories and it reminds me how imaginative we humans are , it is comforting to read the same story ove..."Great writing book. I also like "Save the Cat." It's based on movies, not novels, but the storytelling advice is still golden.
I have Save the Cat also which is very good but working on mémoires at the moment
Jane, I think I'll look into the seven basic plots book. Thanks for telling us about it.Kim, it is exciting as the new south storytelling evolves, and I think we lovers of southern literature can look forward to more rich stories.
By they way, perhaps I missed it, but where will you be speaking about the definition of southern literature?
It was at mid south festival in Memphis a couple of weeks ago! But I enjoyed being on the panel so much I'm trying to convince other conferences and festivals to offer the same topic!
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I once met Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series. In describing the process of turning his books into a television series he mentioned advice that Tony Hillerman had once given him. What Hillerman said was "You have to think of it as two men standing on opposite sides of a fence. You hand your book across to the other guy and he hands you a big bag of cash. Then you walk away."
Fortunately, Craig isn't quite that cynical and he managed to negotiate a considerable amount of decision making authority into his series, even down to the casting.
One thing that helps writers release control and still feel good about the process is the fact that by the time one book is in production they're usually pretty deep into writing the next book. The chute that runs between the moment the book is written by the writer and when it gets into the hands of the reader is a long one with lots of steps in between. So every writer I know begins the next book while the previous one is in production.Which is good for lots of reasons, but one of them is that when they say "We're going to do this, or that" you care, of course, but your real loyalty is to the book you're writing at that moment. It's a writerly thing. You always think the next book will be a little better. And this makes it easier if you're not a Craig Johnson or Tony Hillerman, i.e., an established name brand author but rather someone just starting out or more in the midlist. If you're not consulted or you're not happy with every decision that's made you can at least shrug and say "But this next book....it's the one that's really going to slay."
I've been binge-watching the Longmire series lately and I, too, have long been interested in what kind of narratives make it onscreen and what must be sacrificed by the author.
On the Southern Literary Trail
Books mentioned in this topic
Lord of the Flies (other topics)My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South (other topics)
Last Ride to Graceland (other topics)
Last Ride to Graceland (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Craig Johnson (other topics)Tony Hillerman (other topics)
William Golding (other topics)
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