Southern WritersSeptember / October 2015

Volume 5 Issue 5ISSN 2333-3189 (Print)

ISSN 2334-5845 (Online)

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Susan ReichertMANAGING EDITOR Doyne PhillipsCREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary FearonCOMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Annette Cole MastronSOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Edie MelsonCONTRIBUTING EDITOR Vicki MossWRITER-AT-LARGE Chris PeppleSTAFF WRITERS Jessica Ferguson Londa Hayden Barbara Ragsdale Rick RobinsonCOLUMNISTS Julie Cantrell Tracy Crump Shelly Frome Sara M. Robinson W. Terry Whalin

Lisa WingateCONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

Cheri BurbachC. Hope ClarkLiz DeJesusPatricia HopeJan Morrillp.m. terrellAlan ThompsonMelinda Williams

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Tess Gerritsen Writer on Fire

22 Cover author

IN EVERY ISSUE5 Magnolia Corner8 Social Media by Edie Melson9 The Writer’s Jar by Julie Cantrell & Lisa Wingate – M.O. Walsh11 Poetry Matters by Sara M. Robinson13 Must Reads by Southern Writers17 What’s the Story?19 Book Proposal Boot Camp by W. Terry Whalin25 The Writing Craft by Tracy Crump 26 Screenwriting by Shelly Frome 35 Tale Spin – p.m. terrell37 Sneak Previews38 The Last Word – Guest Author Cherie Burbach

FEATURES6 Nancy Foshee – History’s Little Known Facts10 Beverly & Charles Connor – Developing Plots and Digging Up Bones12 Anita Mumm – Mumm’s the Word14 Cathy Gohlke – The Power of Positive Writing16 Victor Rook – Writer and Filmmaker18 Deborah Raney – Writing Herself Out of Corners20 Rick Bragg – Tasting the Dust21 Fiction: Art or Craft? by Alan Thompson24 Charles Todd – DNA-Connected Authors Writing As One27 Anna Marie Kittrell – Young at Heart28 Make Your Dialogue Sweat by C. Hope Clark29 Janice Branch Tracy – Mississippi Memory Teller30 The Zen of Writing a Sequel by Jan Morrill32 Wanda A. Ramirez – Hurricane Wanda: The Ramirez Experience33 Conventional Wisdom by Liz DeJesus34 Jason Lucky Morrow – The Die is Cast36 Writing About the American Indian by Melinda Williams

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oday, we’ve invited novelist M.O. Walsh to join us. His debut novel, My Sunshine Away, has become a New York Times bestseller, an Entertainment Weekly “Must” for 2015, and a top pick by too many literary sources to list. (www.mowalsh.com)

Julie Cantrell: Welcome, M.O. We’re honored! Please pull a topic from our writer’s jar.From the Writer’s Jar: How can real settings and true-life experiences be shaped into quality fiction?Lisa Wingate: M.O., you set My Sunshine Away in Baton Rouge, a community where you spent your childhood. What are the challenges in writing about something so close to home?M.O. Walsh: Thanks for having me! When I decided to set my novel in my childhood neighborhood, I was able to build a map in my head. I could remember the turn in the street, the loose gravel in the road, the shape of particular living rooms. The details were already there, waiting in memory. The drawback is that it’s easy to overlook them. Most people in Baton Rouge aren’t thinking about the crepe myrtles they pass every day, but I had to remember to include them so readers could visualize what natives might take for granted. Julie Cantrell: Like you, I grew up around Baton Rouge and I am very familiar with the setting. Are any of the characters or plot points based on reality? M.O. Walsh: When I was little, I heard a story about a girl in our neighborhood being raped. I was way too young to know what that meant, but it stuck with me. Still, the details of Lindy’s character and all the machinations of the plot are total inventions. I was never, much to my mother’s delight, involved in something like what the narrator gets involved in during this book. Lisa Wingate: It is rare for a debut novel to become such a smash hit right out of the gate. How has that success affected you?M.O. Walsh: Well, I am busier than I’ve ever been and I do feel more pressure in terms of writing, but if I drop the ball and never write anything again, or if the next thing I

write is not very good, or if I can’t do that one extra article I’m being asked to do, that’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. If, however, I drop the ball in the relationships I have with my family because I got too busy, or I begin thinking that writing is more important than living, then that’s a different story. I can always go back and edit my fiction. I can’t go back and edit my life. Julie Cantrell: I particularly enjoyed your

protagonist. He reminds me of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye or perhaps “Pudge” in Looking for Alaska. He’s a misunderstood misfit scratching at the fringes of the popular group, with one foot in conformity and the other in rebellion. I think that’s what readers are connecting to most—an authentic guy who welcomes us into his brain with a fearless honesty. Please tell us about

him.M.O. Walsh: People may be connecting with this narrator, because he comes to the reader with a need to confess. He is trying to make something right from page one, and he has tremendous empathy. I don’t know anyone who made it out of adolescence without feeling awkward and desperate, at times, and so people

connect to that, as well. Perhaps his authenticity comes from the fact that he’s now much older and can look back to examine the events. An adolescent would not have this sort of perspective, or the ability to prioritize or sort out the consequences of their actions. If they did, then they wouldn’t get into all the trouble they get into in the first place, and parents across the world could finally relax!Lisa Wingate: Thanks for welcoming us into the world of My Sunshine Away, M.O. It’s a journey we won’t soon forget! nTogether, Lisa Wingate and Julie Cantrell have published more than 25 books, earned numerous awards, and hit both national and international bestseller lists. They blog with a fun group of authors at www.SouthernBelleView.com

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Together, Lisa Wingate and Julie Cantrell have published more than 25 books, earned numerous awards, and hit both national and international bestseller lists. They also blog with a fun group of authors at www.SouthernBelleView.com.

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D eborah Raney, author of more than 30 novels, certainly isn’t a writer who quits when she faces challenges—not even when the challenges come from her own writing approach. Raney calls herself a “bona fide seat-of-the-pants writer.” She ad-mits that she hasn’t found a perfect routine that works for her. She also acknowledges that she rarely out-lines her books before she begins. “For me, outlining takes all the fun out of writing. But sometimes writing ‘intuitively’ means writing myself into a corner and having to figure out how to get out of the corner. That’s just part of the process for me,” says Raney. Her process not only includes writing herself out of a corner. She also knows that writing a successful novel means editing and revising each chapter before a book can be considered complete. “I’m one of those lucky authors who loves the editing and revision process. Yes, that part is intense, but, to me, it is also when the book truly becomes what it is meant to be.” Raney, whose first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title, uses what she calls a reverse triage system when editing her books. She begins by fixing the little problems first—looking for typos and overused words. “After that, I deal with larger issues—unlikable characters, plot holes, credibility, etc. I then always do one final read-aloud run-through. Doing that helps me

catch so many things.” When Raney began working with filmmakers, she learned techniques to make her writing stronger. “I learned to apply the rule of show-don’t-tell. When I wrote my first novel, I hadn’t yet learned how important it is to write in a way that sets the stage and paints an image for the reader to ‘hang’ the story on. Because of that, the screenwriters had to make a lot of changes in my story to bring it to the screen. When I saw the ways they changed the story, it helped me learn that show-don’t-tell lesson in a way I’ve never forgotten. I think writers who see their story playing as a movie in their head have an advantage over those who are more intent on the words themselves.” Raney’s current projects

include completing the fourth and fifth books in her Chicory Inn Novels series. The series began with Home to Chicory Lane in 2014. She released the second book, Two Roads Home, in June 2015. Another Way Home will hit bookstores in October, with her manuscript for the fourth book due on her editor’s

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTdesk soon. What keeps Raney on schedule? “The truth is, I do what comes in the door as it needs to be done,” says Raney. “Sometimes I simply lock myself in my office and pretend the marketing has gone away, because the priority is ALWAYS meeting the writing deadline. If I don’t get the books finished, there’s nothing to market! But other than when I’m on a tight deadline, I work on interviews and newsletters, web site updates, and book signings as they appear on my calendar and in my inbox. And I write in between.” Being an extrovert, Raney enjoys her personal inter-actions with her readers and writing peers. She stays in touch with the writing community through social media, updating Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and her own web-site. Raney also teaches at writers’ conferences around the country and recently taught a course on writing women’s fiction at Taylor University. “I can’t say enough good things about the value of writers’ conferences for aspiring writers—and long-time writers, for that matter. A conference is one of the few ways a writer can get work in front of someone with the power to purchase his manuscript, even if he doesn’t yet have a literary agent. In addition, there’s just no better way to get across the passion you have for your story than by talking to an editor face-to-face. Add to that the array of continuing classes and workshops that are of-fered, and a writers’ conference becomes a mini univer-sity education in a fraction of the time. And finally, the joy of meeting like-minded people who get what you do, how you think, as a writer is unparalleled.” Raney has definitely written herself out of the corner and into the hearts of her readers. What’s a fun reward for her persistence and determination? “I have a lovely office, with music playing, scented candles burning, flowers in bloom on my window sill, and a coffee bar within arm’s reach. It’s hard to be too miserable in that setting!” Raney encourages all writers to stay focused during the less-than-glamourous moments and write themselves out of any challenges they are facing. n

Book ProposalBoot Camp

by W. Terry Whalin

A Simple Proposal Formula fter reviewing thousands of proposals and manu- scripts, I’ve concluded that attractive proposals boil down to a simple formula. This formula works no matter what you are writing (nonfiction or fiction):

Passion + Sales = book contract

Every writer must have a passion about their story or their subject. Possibly you are passionate about the life changes you foresee from people reading your book. Or maybe an intriguing story is in the forefront of your mind and you are driven every day to write more pages. Whatever the topic, you will be thinking about this topic not only during the writing but also the marketing process, and without passion you will not be motivated to complete the writing or work on the marketing of the book. Maybe you’ve specialized in the particular skill or topic you are writing about. This expertise is something you are ready to tell others about and it is key to your success. An editor or skilled professional can improve the writing, but passion can’t be instilled and must be in the heart and mind of the author. Sales or potential sales is the second key ingredient for your proposal. Who will buy this book, and do you have a reach to this reader? If not, can you create this reach? Whether you have a large or small publisher, in today’s market the author carries 80% of the marketing responsibility. Your publisher can sell your book into the bookstore but without the author’s marketing activity, every retailer can return the books for a full refund. You must have this reach or the ability to generate this reach or you will not have sales. Thousands of books (no exaggeration) are pub-lished every day. To get a book contract, you must have these crucial elements. Your proposal needs to contain the standard sections detailed in my book proposal checklist, which is free for the downloading at http://terrylinks.com/bookcheck. n

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An acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, W. Terry Whalin has recently updated Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, available in bookstores everywhere or autographed at: www.jumpstartdreams.com. He has answers to your proposal questions at www.AskAboutProposals.com. Terry has over 150,000 followers on Twitter (www.twitter.com/terrywhalin).

From listening to a fun-filled, false teeth story told by her grandma, six year old Katie learns to use humor in dealing with bullies at her school. Read When Grandma’s False Teeth Fly to find out what Katie tells the bullies.

Visit http://www.maryleebooks.com

When Grandma’ s False Teeth Fly by Mary Lee

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