From These Ashes: An Interview

WbtR guest Michael F. Mercurio conducts an e-interview with member Tamela Ritter, author of From These Ashes...

1. The book description by itself is enough to really pull the reader in, seeming to allude to an almost pseudo-mystical plot. Would that be a fair description of the overall theme, or would you describe it as more of a coming-of-age novel? Or something else entirely perhaps?

Well, it is a coming of age story and there is a bit of mystical elements. You can't really allude to phoenix, Native Americans and religious cults without a bit of fantasy, magic and mysticism involved. But those elements are just alluded to and touched on briefly in what is a story ground very heavily in reality and everyday struggles. There are no wizards, no shaman and "other world" per se... 

 
  2. Did anything in your real life inspire you for the novel's theme? Are you part Native American yourself? Or do you perhaps identify with Naomi - maybe apt to have been very quiet when you were growing up, and tended to express yourself better through your writing?

This book started and remains to be a sister telling stories about her brother. Only in the beginning, the sister was me and the brother was my own brother, Tim, who died when I was 10 and he was 14. I wanted to tell stories about him, to remember him, to honor him. And in many ways (though all the things--almost all the things-- didn't happen to us) it very much still is a sister (Naomi) telling stories about her brother (Tim). And also, while I never got to know what my own brother would have been like as a man, I like to think that I infused this character Tim with enough of my brother's personality, struggles and spirit that he very much still is my brother.

Am I Native American? Yes. On my mother's side I am Cherokee. Though my mother doesn't talk about it and is loathe to admit it. I only know about my own heritage from my grandmother who lived far from us and died before I was old enough to have an interest in my heritage. All I know about being Indian is from living in areas with a larger than usual Native population, namely the Salish, Kootenai and Spokane. I didn't set out to tell a story about Indians, but like so many elements of the story, that happened organically and as the characters struggled to define what it meant to be a family, and what it meant to be Indian, it made sense as these are things I've often struggled with knowing myself. 

  3. Did you have to do any research for any part of your story? On cults or "cult recovery" for example, or on the history of Arizona?

A lot of research. As organically as this story came, it was crucial to me that I get as many of the facts as I could correct. I was telling a story of a tribe that was not my own, it was absolutely essential to get it as right as I could. Is the tribe I described like the ones that exist in reality in Montana, Idaho and Washington state? Yes and no. I took what I learned and some things I had to bend to tell the story and some things I had to embellish a bit, but all was done with as much respect and understanding as possible. 

My fascination with religious cults stems from a class I took at the University of Montana about the sociology of cults. I was especially intrigued with the sort of cult described as a Charismatic Leader: cults that were formed around a single person and their beliefs and/or delusions. While living in Montana I visited a few places in the backwoods owned by groups looking to live an utopian society of their own making. I remember thinking there was something peaceful and very "Montana" about that and yet, most of them had been abandoned and disbanded. The cult, The Way, created for my story is an imagining of those two concepts, charismatic leader and the search for an utopia of your own making and how it can all fall apart. 

  
  4. Exactly when does this story take place? At first, it seems to imply that it occurs in the past, perhaps during the gold rush. But then I realized it could just as easily be in present day.

The story begins in a Montana reservation in 1980 and ends at a cult recovery facility in 1992. In between these two events the characters take a different paths through Montana, Idaho and Washington to be rejoined in Arizona. Hopefully, it's quite a ride.

 
  5. Do you have any future novels in the works?

Yes. Always. I have participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) every year since 2004, this novel is the fruit of that very first attempt. Hopefully, one of the six novels I've started since will be my next published work. *fingers crossed*

 
  6. (Bonus Question) Any advice for aspiring writers?

Write what you know to be true in whatever disguise of fiction that best suits it and yourself.

Cindy Brookshire Featured on "Nights at the PWC Round Table"

"Nights at the PWC Round Table" is a new weekly web t.v. program by WbtR member Bill Golden, hosted by Connie Moser.  Bill says, "I am very happy to announce that we are introducing a series of interview with public personalities, leaders, influencers and community activists that we believe have an impact on Prince William County (PWC), Virginia."  Our own Cindy Brookshire was among the first to be interviewed.

National Numbers in for National Novel Writing Month

It ended November 30, but it took a bit of time for the total numbers to come in.  Why?  Because National Novel Writing Month participants collectively wrote a whopping 3,291,071,794 words!

WbtR Co-founder Cindy Brookshire completed the challenge and reported how it turned out in our area.

Congratulations to Cindy and all our prolific, local writers!  Marathon writing during the holiday season is a true accomplishment.

Local Novelists Finish 50K Word Sprint
More than 3,000 in region participated in National Novel Writing Month.

By Cindy Brookshire

The baristas at Barnes & Noble on Sudley Road in Manassas keep the hot coffee coming. In a corner of the bookstore coffee shop, a pocket of sleep-deprived writers have pushed together tables for a final three-hour write-in, a communal sprint to the Nov. 30 deadline of National Novel Writing Month.

NaNo, as participants shorten it, is the world’s largest writing event and nonprofit literary crusade. More than 250,000 participants pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by Nov. 30. There are no judges, no prizes, and entries are deleted from the server before anyone even reads them.

Julie Ehrmantraut (“Jules”) is one of 650 regional volunteers in more than 60 countries who act as Municipal Liaisons for NaNo. “We have upwards of 3,000 writers participating from the Northern Virginia, about 500 active in the regional forum, and about 100 that I see over the course of month at write-ins,” says the 32-year-old stay-at-home mom from Montclair. She’s written nine novels since 2005, spanning genres from space western to paranormal. Her current entry is science fiction.

Natalie Foley, a 28-year-old nanny, crochets while lending support. The Manassas resident filed her novel early. “Typically I write romance,” says Natalie. While Julie is trying to find a publisher for her novels, Natalie prefers to keep hers private. “I’m very self-conscious,” she explains. “I write for me.”

A 25-year-old programmer analyst, Manassas resident Michael Reichelt turned an idea from one of his video game scripts into a stand-alone novel. His premise, “truth resists simplicity,” takes readers on a wild generation ship ride through the galaxy to another inhabited world. “I’ve done NaNo on my own before, but I never went to write-ins,” says Michael. “I’m more social this time around.” He plans to polish the novel and send it out for publication.

“Why do I do it? It’s a month of complete creative abandon,” says Layne Lewis, a 26-year-old Manassas native, who works at a title company and has been participating in NaNo since 2008.

“You let all of your restraints go and just put something out there and it’s a way to actually do it, instead of saying you would like to do it.”

“So even if you lose, you win,” agrees Elizabeth Roberts, a 27-year-old administrative assistant from Centreville. “A co-worker of mine is doing it and even though he knows he’s not going to make goal, still, he has 30,000 words! He never would have had that jump start if it wasn’t for NaNo.

And then there’s me. I had to try it. So I logged into the website and started my novel Nov. 1. They were right – the creative storehouse in my head poured out onto the page. I kept an easy daily pace of 2,000 words until Week 3. That’s when work deadlines and the holiday intervened. I logged back in and realized I’d missed eight days. The write-in saved me. I couldn’t let a bunch of Generation X and Millennials blow past me!

So today, Nov. 30, I uploaded 50,000 words for verification and hit the button. I have finished my first novel.

The best news of all – Jules, Natalie, Layne and the others meet year round at the Manassas Barnes & Noble. If you want to join them, head to the bookstore’s coffee shop Mondays from 7 pm to close.

Want to see a local published NaNo novel? Check out Katherine Gotthardt’s Approaching Felonias Park, published Nov. 30, 2011 by Aberdeen Bay. Gotthardt donates proceeds from the book to local food pantries.

Dan Verner Interviews Linda Johnston

WbtR member Dan Verner interviews WbtR member Linda Johnston,

Editor and Illustrator

 of

Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from the Kansas Territory

Dan: Good morning, Linda, and welcome to the Biscuit with Gravy Interview Program [on Dan's personal blog], a somewhat irregular feature on Biscuit City, going out to all our readers and listeners on the Biscuit City Network. Welcome to our newly renovated glass-enclosed observation post.

Linda: Thanks! I’m glad to be here. I must say that the observation post is smaller than I expected.

Dan: I’ll admit it is cozy, but serviceable. Anyhow, I first met you at one of our Write by the Rails meetings which were held Monday evenings this summer. You had a manuscript copy of a portion of your book and I think it’s accurate to say everyone there was blown away by it. How did you get the idea for such a book?

Linda: When we lived in Kansas about twenty-five years ago, we were close to an historic site on the Santa Fe Trail, just outside Kansas City. I was a guide there and one day while waiting on a group, I saw a diary of a pioneer woman on a shelf in the library. She had traveled the trail, and I became interested in similar diaries, particularly women’s stories.

I could identify with moving and leaving everything familiar behind since we had moved so much with my father in the Air Force and then after we married. My story, in a sense, was the same story as the pioneers.

I continued to research and read pioneer diaries off and on for the next twenty years. Although I had always wanted to do a book, five years ago I became serious about it and took a writing class at NOVA. I did research at the Library of Congress and at the Kansas Historical Society when I visited my daughter who was in school at the University of Kansas.

I should say that I also became interested in diaries kept by men. They were exceptionally observant and wrote very well. Their script is beautiful as well.

My book tells my story as well. I am interested in art, nature and in the emotions of moving and coming to a new place. They’re all there in the book.

Dan: It’s unusual for a book about pioneers to focus on the positive experiences in their lives. Why did you take that approach?

Linda: I asked myself, what did I want my readers to know about these pioneers? What was life like for them on the frontier? How did they cope with what they encountered? How would I have dealt with similar circumstances? I went back to Kansas every year and found a few more diaries that intrigued me each time.

These people have become very real to me and an important part of my life and of my story. We’ve traveled together all these years.

The original diaries are time machines—they’re a direct connection to the past. When I hold one of them, I’m touching someone’s life.

I want to tell the readers about one man, Samuel Reader, who kept an illustrated diary from the time he was 14 until he was 80. That covered the span of years from about 1855 until 1915. Imagine having such a record of your life!

Dan: How do people react to your book, generally?

Linda: People are enthusiastic about it and interested in it. It’s so personal, I want people to like what I’ve done. I’ve been fortunate to be able to do art work. I keep travel journals and I illustrate them, which is what people did before the advent of inexpensive cameras.

So many people are turned off by history, but this is a book for those folks who normally would not pick up a book about history. It shows a different perspective. It’s the personal story of real people and their lives. I wanted to make history personal. It’s taking a look “between the ticks on the time line.” Anybody can read about people who made history: I wanted to write about people who are history.

I wanted people to understand that these pioneers had the same emotions, struggles and heartaches as we do. The context of their experience and understanding it are everything.

Dan: Did you find a publisher while you were working on it or did that happen before you started?

Linda: Last October, I was at a Women Writing the West conference in Seattle. Those attending had the opportunity to sign up and meet with editors and publishers who were presenters at the conference in order to pitch a book. I did just that. I met with Erin Turner, from Two Dot Books, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. I thought targeting a regional of a larger press would be a good fit for my book. As it turned out, Erin loves Kansas history and has written two books on Kansas herself.

So, I prepped for my presentation. I had props—a picture of Samuel Reader, a leather covered diary and some of my paintings. I felt at ease with her and we connected. I sent my manuscript to her and touched base at Christmas and New Year’s. In March I got an email that she was interested in my book and that I should send a query. I sent her an annotated table of contents. She sent a message that she was going to pitch the book to the publishing committee the next day.

She emailed me the afternoon after the committee presentation to tell me that they wanted to publish the book. I was so excited!

They sent a contract, and I hired an attorney to review it. That was costly, but it was worth every cent.

I had experience talking about my book at conferences and that paid off.

Dan: Please tell us about your trip to Kansas this summer to gather more information. You also did something when you discovered the graves of some of the people mentioned in your book. I thought that was very touching. Please be sure to tell us about that.

Linda: Last spring I received a grant from the Kansas Historical Society to complete my research. I made a trip to Kansas in August to do that. While I was there I gathered more information and met some fascinating people.

We don’t usually hear the words, “pioneers” and “fun” used together. But they, like us, did have good times as well as bad. That’s why the book is called Hope and Hardship.

One settler, Joseph Savage, went to Kansas in 1854. He went back to New England the following spring to get his wife and five children. . . He went back to New England, remarried, and returned to his farm in Kansas. His experience shows the character of many early settlers.

That strength got them through difficult times, including droughts in 1856 and 1860. During that time, settlers received aid (clothing, money, and other supplies) from eastern states. This helped them survive as well.

Another woman emigrated there and hated the place. Her father-in-law didn’t want her to leave, so she stayed. She wrote poetically about the wildflowers and nature, and although she might have been “sad and sorrowful” one day, the next day she went to church and recorded that Kansas had invigorated her and that she had never felt so good, that it was a “fairy land.”

Dan: Please tell us about some interesting people you met in the course of doing this book.

Linda: I got in touch with Bill Griffing, who had posted some of his ancestor’s (James) letters online. James lived in Manhattan, Kansas Territory. Another of my diarists, Thomas Wells, lived in Topeka but moved to Manhattan in 1870 and lived next door to James the rest of his life. The two families became lifelong friends. This illustrates the network of relationships that characterizes a society.

Dan: You have an interesting way of working on the book. Would you describe how that happens?

Linda: I paint for a week and then I write for a week, every day, eight to ten hours a day.

Dan: I might add that the paintings are charming and lovely. What sort of projects do you have planned in the future?

Linda: I might like to do a book on Pike’s Peak. Many settlers traveled from the Kansas Territory to search for gold there. I would also like to do a children’s nature book, maybe on nature journaling. I participate in a writing workshop for fourth and fifth graders each summer and really enjoy that.

As part of my book project, I would like to encourage kids to keep a journal and understand that their everyday lives are a part of history. I will incorporate this in my website, which is my next big project once I have turned in my final manuscript.

Dan: Wow! That’s quite a list. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Linda: I feel very blessed that this project is coming to fruition and involves all the things that I enjoy.

Dan: When does your book come out?

Linda: The launch date is August 13, 2013, and the book will be published by Two Dot Books, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. I’ve already got the caterer lined up for the release party!

Dan: I want to thank you for being our guest today, for an informative, far-ranging interview. We’re looking forward to seeing your book when it comes out. I’ll put a notice here when it does with some information about how our readers can get a copy. We wish you the best in your work!

We’ve been talking with Linda Johnston, editor and illustrator of Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from the Kansas Territory. It’s a beautiful book and one that I look forward to reading

This has been the Biscuit City Interview Show brought to you on the Biscuit City Network. Stay tuned for more interviews at irregular intervals. And so we bid you a fond farewell from the glass-enclosed observation tower.

Cindy Brookshire Interviews WbtR Author B.N. Peacock

Bastille Day with Local Historic Novelist B.N. Peacock
by WbtR Founder, Cindy Brookshire

Interestingly enough, I commemorated the 222nd anniversary of Bastille Day this past weekend with the Manassas author B.N. Peacock, whose historical novel, The Tainted Dawn, is the first in a series about the great naval wars between England and France, 1792-1815.

It’s not often you run into someone whose hero is Lord Nelson of the Royal Navy.

B.N., or Barbara, as neighbors greet her on dog walks around Old Town Manassas, has been writing most of her life. She won honorable mention in a national writing contest in middle school for a short story on the Battle of Bunker Hill, as seen through the eyes of a British correspondent. She spent a college year studying in England, earned several degrees, traveled extensively, met her husband, Dan Peacock while working at the USDA in Washington, DC, built a house with him in Culpeper, raised two children, nursed an ailing mother for almost two decades and then, in the late 1990s decided to write a series of books that began with The Tainted Dawn.

England and Spain are on the brink of war. France, allied by treaty with Spain, readies her warships. Three youths – the son of an English carpenter, the son of a naval captain, and the son of a French court tailor – meet in London, a chance encounter that entwines their lives ever after. The English boys find themselves on the same frigate bound for the Caribbean. The Frenchman sails to Trinidad, where he meets an even more zealous Spanish revolutionary. As diplomats in Europe race to avoid conflict, war threatens to explode in the Caribbean, with the three youths pitted against each other.

She finished the manuscript in 2005, on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. By that time she and Dan had moved to a home in Historic Manassas. There, she began querying editors – and collecting rejections. She tackled the hard task of editing by lighting a candle and setting it near her laptop while the soundtrack from Les Miserables fed her muse.

Finally, in January 2011, her manuscript was accepted by www.FireshipPress.com. She signed a contract, worked with Fireship’s editor, and in March 2012, The Tainted Dawn was published.

Peacock is currently working with a publicist to market the book. A book reviewer herself for the Historical Novel Society, she has garnered three reviews through Library Giveaways and Goodreads, and will soon have two more reviews by the Military Writers Society of America and The Copperfield Review. David Hayes of Historical Naval Fiction recently interviewed her: www.historicnavalfiction.com.

Meanwhile Barbara Peacock continues to collect material for the second novel in the series, as yet unnamed. She recently traveled to the Fells Point Maritime Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, to visit the home to one of her characters, and was delighted to talk to a colonial re-enactor at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, who showed her how to load and fire a 1766 French Charleville Musket. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8a2vJwbUm8&feature=relmfu

Peacock keeps a box of books ready to sell or consign for $15 a piece in her car trunk, much as John Grisham or Tom Clancy did when they started out. Would Herman Melville have done the same from his steamer trunk? She recently did a book signing at Opera House Gourmet in Old Town Manassas, and is lining up one for later this summer at 2nd & Charles in Woodbridge.

Her advice for other writers in the local Write by the Rails networking group: “Never ever give up.”

B. N. Peacock's website.

Excerpts of her novel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ragyerj94M&feature=relmfu

# # #

Interview with YA/Horror Author Claudia Lefeve

WbtR author Claudia  Lefeve talks about her passion for writing young adult literature (YA), science fiction (Sci-Fi).

1. What kind of YA and horror do you write?

I generally refer to myself as a speculative fiction writer, as sci-fi and horror fall under the speculative umbrella. I currently have two books out in my Travelers Series (YA Sci-Fi) and most of my short stories are horror. My sci-fi novels are nowhere near what I consider sci-fi (no aliens, spaceships, or space operas), but center on alternate realities and time travel. My horror stories are more subdued (no blood and guts), relying on imaginative twists as a literary device.

2. Why did you pick these genres?

I kind of fell into writing YA. The voice was there for a teenage heroine and as for YA sci-fi, the genre came after I wrote the first book in the series. I had ever intention of writing a paranormal romance, but someone it fits somewhere in-between. As for horror, it will always be my favorite genre, both in media and print. I grew up reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft, as well as watching shows like The Twilight Zone (I'm watching that now as I'm typing!), Tales from the Darkside, and The Outer Limits. I am forever grateful for my parents who never censored what I read or watched on TV growing up! 

3. What advice do you have for writers who want to pursue YA and/or horror?

Learn it, love it, live it! Basically, read your genre. I generally read 2-3 books a week, when I'm not on a deadline, and I generally split it between YA and horror. In the last two weeks, I've read Alice in Deadland by Mainak Dhar, Troll or Derby by Red Tash, and ARC of Pines by Blake Crouch, Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn, and Initiation by Imogen Rose. The best advice for writers is best said in the loosely paraphrased words of Stephen King, "Write everyday and read a lot." 

And for a little shameless self-promotion, my collection of short stories, unDead Dixie Debs, is now available in eBook format on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! Print version to follow... 

Thanks for having me! 

_____________________________

Claudia Lefeve was born and raised in the Gulf Coast border town of Brownsville, Texas, a curious place where folks see curanderas in lieu of shrinks, tortillas are served at every meal, and even gringos speak Spanish.  She currently resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and two pugs.  Find out more at www.claudialefeve.com.