Colonial North Carolina Family Day

Posted on by October 15, 2008

The North Carolina Museum of History presented the community
with a taste of colonial times on Saturday 27 September. Over 2400 visitors
that day learned period games, dancing, quilting and crafts such as butter
churning, wood carving, and corn grinding. Militia drills and colonial music
added to the fun.

AdairMuseumTableSmall
My family and I presented "The Family War," and I
sold books just outside the gift shop. Representatives attended from
organizations and sites all over the state: the Sixth North Carolina Regiment
reenactors, Yates Mill County Park, Tryon Palace, and state historic sites such
as Brunswick Town and Historic Edenton. I'll be working with the museum again
in March 2009: a presentation for National Women's History Month. I look
forward to it.

I'm playing catch-up this week with my blog entries.

Autumn 2008 Tour into Western North Carolina, Day 1

Posted on by September 21, 2008

I rolled out of Raleigh about 6:15 Thursday morning 11
September, expecting a 3.5 hour drive to Boone. Drizzle made an inauspicious
traveling companion. More unwelcome was the thick fog that lowered over Highway
421 just west of Winston-Salem. In roadside trees, webs of Gypsy moths shrouded
leaves that were a drought- and summer-exhausted shade of green. Between the webs and
fog, 421 resembled a Highway to Halloween.

West of Wilkesboro, I received my first sample of what I
would soon deem "mountain lessons learned by a flatlander." That
which goes down must inevitably go up, and up, and UP. Not without protest did
my '92 Honda climb that huge grade. Pedal to the metal, creeping along at 50
mph in the "slow" lane, I was passed by numerous shiny, new vehicles.
(Hrumph.) When I reached the top of that grade and read the sign "Eastern
Continental Divide, 3600 feet," I patted the Honda's dashboard and
shouted, "Good girl!"

My first presentation that day was at 10 a.m. at the Watauga
County Library in Boone. I arrived about 9:40, excellent time despite
the weather. Some forty members of the High Country Writers attended my
workshop "Writing the Hero's Journey: 12 Steps to the Elixir." We had
a great time, I sold books, and about half the attendees treated me to lunch at
the nearby China Wok Restaurant.

Isn't fog supposed to burn off during the day? This fog
wasn't listening to the rules; it had, in fact, thickened by lunchtime.
Reminded me of fog in Great Britain. HCW member Marcia Cham, with whom I'd stay
that night in neighboring Blowing Rock, and another member, Schuyler Kaufman,
realized that I'd never find my way to Marcia's house that night after my 6:30
p.m. presentation at the library. So Marcia and Schuyler agreed that if
Schuyler guided me to her house that afternoon, Marcia would transport me to
and from the library for my evening engagement.

Marcia scooted off to an afternoon doctor appointment, and
Schuyler toured me around Boone in her '03 Honda hybrid, which uses stored
electricity to assist the car in climbing mountains. (Her Honda didn't
complain when climbing grades.) We drove to the top of a promontory called
"Howard's Knob," where summery Queen Anne's Lace blossomed alongside
autumnal Goldenrod. Schuyler showed me her "dream house," right on
the Blue Ridge Parkway (and she and I have similar tastes in houses). Around
4:00, we picked up my car from the library's parking lot, and she escorted me
to Marcia's house. During one stretch on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a couple of
fawns pranced alongside the road.

Chamadairkaufman01
The fog got denser, bringing an early dusk. I
realized, dismayed, that I hadn't yet seen the mountains because the whole time
I'd been in them, they'd been blanketed in fog. Marcia's home was located in
"Misty Mountain," aptly named. By the time we reached it, the fog was
dripping. Hence I never got the chance to see the entire exterior of Marcia's
home, but the interior was beautiful and spacious. On clear winter days, Marcia
and her husband, Ken, can see the city of Charlotte to the south from the
French doors in their living room. But all I could see that afternoon was,
well, you guessed it. And here we are, immersed in it: L-R, Marcia Cham,
Suzanne Adair, Schuyler Kaufman.

Marcia whipped up some dinner for us, and that evening, she
drove me to the library for my lighthearted presentation on living history and
how it's helped my research. Sold more books, and how glad I was to have Marcia
drive me back, because we could hardly see two feet beyond the hood of her car
at some points, and you really have to know those winding roads well.

Grasshopper thanks the High Country Writers, Evelyn Johnson
at the Watauga County Library, Marcia and Ken Cham, and Schuyler Kaufman for
making me feel so welcome in Boone.

 

 

Autumn 2008 Tour into Western North Carolina, Day 2

Posted on by September 21, 2008

Friday 12 September didn't dawn bright and clear in Boone.
That nasty fog still socked us in. Around 8:00 a.m., when I was ready to leave,
Marcia got in her car and drove out ahead of me, like a pilot ship. We still
couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of the hoods of our cars. By then, I
was entertaining some less-than-intrepid thoughts about my drive to Burnsville
and the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival on wet, winding, mountain
roads that wove beneath the bearded scowl of Grandfather Mountain.

Although my Honda had more than a half tank of gas,
intuition prodded me to top off the tank before I left the area. I grumbled
over the cheapest gas in town, $3.67/gallon, ten cents more per gallon than in
Raleigh the previous day. Still, I've learned to listen to my intuition. After
I tanked up, I headed out on Route 105, white-knuckling the steering wheel like
the flatlander I am. Again in the "slow lane," my Honda protested
another climb into even more opaque fog. Holy cow, was I ever going to see the
sky on this trip? That particular climb was to over 4000 feet, and by then, I'd
said to heck with fourth gear and accustomed myself to using second and third
gears. Remember, en las montañas, what goes down must go up, and up, and
UP.

Sunshine started puncturing the clouds about halfway to
Burnsville. Tempted as I was to stop and take pictures, I kept driving because
I knew no two-dimensional image could capture the eerie layers of sun, fog, and
mountain that I witnessed, almost like looking at a parfait through the side of
a clear glass. About fifteen minutes east of Burnsville, the clouds peeled back
and presented a pristine, azure sky wrapped around ripples of mountains.
Huzzah!

Inside Burnsville's city limits, every gas station was
packed with cars, some of them lined up into the street, drivers waiting to
tank up. Odd. Reminded me of the days when Jimmy Carter was president, and we
had a supposed gas shortage. Glad I'd filled up in Boone. I found the Town
Center area, venue for most of the festival's events, and wheeled a box of
books into the main lobby, where the indie bookstore Malaprops was
already open for business. My publisher had called me two days earlier with
news that Malaprops hadn't received the box of books they'd ordered, so I
brought all my stock. No way did I expect to sell out of books. I was a
rookie at the CMLF, mere Grasshopper to other authors at the festival, Southern
literary luminaries like John Ehle and Pamela Duncan. Still, what an honor to read and present at the festival. Plus the
weekend provided my first opportunity to reach out to the  readership in
western North Carolina. And how exciting to meet all the authors!

Almost first-thing, I met Lucy Doll, the venue coordinator
for the festival, and the gracious lady with whom I'd be staying for two
nights. She introduced me to another festival volunteer, Kathleen Sioui, a
geologist who rescues dogs and works hard to find them good adoptive homes.

Christine Swager found me in the bookstore area. She'd been
an author guest at the festival in 2007 and had given me two thumbs up as a
reference when the festival selection committee was considering me as a guest
author early this year. Chris and I have been on several panels together at
Revolutionary War historical sites. She introduced me to authors Charles F.
Price and Jack (John) Buchanan.

In the auditorium, I heard the second half of the panel
"Healing Historical Trauma: The Cherokee Removal." Panelist Myrtle
Driver, a Cherokee tribal cultural traditionalist who translated Charles
Frazier's Thirteen Moons into the Cherokee language, hadn't yet arrived.
Rumors were that she was delayed in Cherokee, NC trying to purchase gas for her
car. I still didn't comprehend what was going on or connect her dilemma with
the lines I'd witnessed at gas stations in Burnsville. The panel was moderated
by Charles Price. Other panelists were Jack Buchanan, whose latest release is Jackson's
Way (about Andrew Jackson's role in the Trail of Tears); Dr. Barbara
Duncan, education director of the Museum of the Cherokee in Cherokee;
and Troy Wayne Poteete, a justice of the Supreme Court for the Cherokee Nation
in Oklahoma.

Regarding the Trail of Tears, Dr. Duncan, a folklorist,
discussed the current psychology that when a culture is abused, displaced, or
enslaved, the culture passes the trauma to subsequent generations. Folktales,
she said, are the distilled wisdom of a culture. Folktales of the Cherokee
usually begin, "This is what the old people told me," and end with
something good coming to the people, the wisdom of how to cooperate and help
others in a group. In contrast, folktales of the Europeans who removed the Cherokee
in the Trail of Tears focus on the individual getting ahead. The Cherokee today
strive to release their anger over their removal from lands they inhabited for
so long. A provocative panel and discussion.

When I came out of the auditorium, I noticed that several
copies of my books had already been sold. Usually that doesn’t happen until
after I've given a presentation. I was distracted off that peculiarity by news
that gas had become scarce in the southeast, due to Hurricane Ike's passage
through the Gulf of Mexico. Refineries in the Gulf were being shut down. And
gas prices had climbed well over the $4/gallon mark as consumers panicked over
perceived scarcity. Did I mention that I was glad I'd listened to my instincts
and filled up in Boone that morning? That meant I could return to Raleigh
without having to tank up again.

Over lunch, people discussed the fate of Galveston, Texas,
where the hurricane was predicted to make landfall. I wished I had access to a
TV or radio. In Burnsville, my hostess, Lucy, had a dialup Internet connection,
and I couldn't get a signal with my cell phone. I felt blind, queerly isolated
from the catastrophe hammering Texas and the gas supply quirks.

In the authors' lounge, I met Vicki Lane, moderator
for a Saturday panel with Sallie Bissell and Rose Senehi.
Peggy Poe Stern, a native Appalachian author who'd been at my
presentation for the High Country Writers the previous day, was also there with
her husband.

My books continued to sell in advance of my Saturday reading
and presentation, the stacks of both dwindling, so I fetched the last of them
from my car and consigned them to Malaprops. Then I returned to the auditorium
to hear Tony Grooms, keynote speaker, on "The Beloved Community." He
spoke on the responsibility artists have of pointing the way to the greater
social good, and the role of faith in creating art and social change. That's
why spiritual and religious leaders are so often at the heart of social and
political change. Another fascinating presentation.

After that, I listened to Jack Buchanan read a selection of
short stories at Main Street Books. (How annoying that I'd left my copy of his
Revolutionary War book, The Road to Guilford Courthouse, in Raleigh.)
Main Street Books is a quaint shop in an older, true
"brick-and-mortar" building not far from Town Center. The store's
primary business is sales of gently used hardbacks. They also offer a small
selection of new hardbacks and paperbacks.

Jeepsterdollsioui01
At the main building, I ran into Lucy
and Kathleen again. I hitched a ride with Lucy to her house to meet her sweet
beagle, Annie; her beagle mix, Mr. Carmichael; and two doggies she was
fostering, Lucy and Susie. I came alarmingly close to adopting the adorable
beagle-terrier mix, Lucy. (I'm such a sucker for beagles. Thank goodness
Kathleen found her a family Saturday.) Kathleen joined us, and we hopped in her
Jeepster for a tour of Burnsville. We headed back to the festival in time to
partake of Happy Hour, which actually lasted from 3:30 to 6:30 and was
clandestinely undertaken at a nearby building and adjoining patio because
Yancey County is "dry." Then all the authors and volunteers enjoyed
Carolina BBQ.

Kathleen and Lucy planned to attend the party of a Burnsville
resident named Dotty, who lived up the mountain. Sounded like great fun to me,
so I went with them. Turned out that many of Dotty's guests were retired
ex-Floridians. I decided that there couldn't be many retirees left in Florida
because they'd all moved to Burnsville. Dotty and her friends had spacious
homes in the mountains, no Florida heat or humidity, no hurricanes, and no
traffic. What's not to like? Lucy kept introducing me as her author and making
me feel as if I'd won a Pulitzer Prize. The sun set, a waning gibbous moon
rose, and Lucy, Kathleen, and I, full from our BBQ dinner, admirably resisted
the lure of the desserts and hors d'oeuvres. I never made it to the "Java
Jam" back at the Town Center that night. Too tuckered out.

Many thanks to Lucy Doll, Kathleen Sioui, Dotty, Malaprops,
Chris Swager, Charles F.Price, Jack Buchanan, and Dr. Barbara Duncan.

 

 

Autumn 2008 Tour into Western North Carolina, Day 3

Posted on by September 21, 2008

Lucy Doll and I had decided to cook a breakfast for each
other. Saturday morning the 14th, I cooked steel-cut oats with dried cherries and
blueberries, allspice, flax seeds, and walnuts. Usually I add some pure maple
syrup. We tried brown sugar instead. Excellent.

At the Town Center, I caught most of Charles Price's
presentation on his Revolutionary War novel, Nor the Battle to the Strong.
Previously, he's set his novels in the Civil War. He admitted liking the
Revolutionary War era for its more laid-back morals. Contrasting Georgian
morals to Victorian, he said, "Everything was unbuttoned" and got a
laugh from the audience. This is a point I reiterate with readers. We're too
eager to apply Victorian standards to people of all periods. During the
Revolutionary War, people didn't carry the baggage of repression that they did at the
time of the Civil War.

My reading at 10:00 a.m. was held across the street from
Town Center in the Design Gallery, a charming arts and crafts gallery
that also sells upscale kitchen supplies and accessories and decadent
chocolates. I'd met the shop's owner at Dotty's party the night before. She
provided chocolates for authors in the lounge and during Happy Hour. After my
reading was over, I got to select a chocolate as a gift. Twist my arm a little,
gee.

I caught most of Peggy Poe Stern's presentation "Story
Chucking and Searching for Ghosts." (Seems I was forever sneaking in late
for other authors' presentations because attendees, many of them relocated
Floridians, wanted to talk with me in between sessions and get my autograph.
And yes, my stacks of books on the Malaprops table continued to shrink.) Peggy,
an Appalachian folklorist, tells great ghost stories. "Story chucking"
happens when the storyteller invites listeners to contribute their own stories.
My "chucked" story was about encountering a ghost, Henry Kinard, at Kinard House, a Victorian-era B&B in Ninety Six, South Carolina. Henry, the
former owner, was a polite spirit, and I gave him an acknowledgment in Paper
Woman. Even so, he was quite enough of a sensation, and I'd rather not
encounter any more ghosts, thank you.

Following Peggy's presentation, all authors from the morning
session had an "official" booksigning. I signed a pile of books and
schmoozed with more transplanted Floridians. By then, I was almost nostalgic
for Florida. I say almost because the Florida of my childhood exists now
only in my heart, and Florida remains in the bull's-eye for powerful, deadly hurricanes.

Ehleadairprice01
During lunch, I realized I'd hustled around
so much that I'd forgotten to take pictures, so here are two from the authors'
lounge. In this one, I'm in between John Ehle and Charles Price.

Harrisadairpoteete
And here I am between Rosemary Harris (John
Ehle's wife) and Justice Troy Wayne Poteete. This Rosemary Harris is the
actress, not the mystery author. She told me a funny story about being in a
pharmacy with the author Rosemary Harris, both of them awaiting prescriptions,
and when their name was called, they met each other for the first time. If your
"spidey-sense" is tingling, you're recognizing Miss Harris from her
role as Peter Parker's Aunt May in the Spiderman movies.

Sequoyah
Justice Poteete had worn a cool Cherokee
turban on Friday, and I'm sorry I didn't snap a picture of him then. This
picture of Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee alphabet, shows the type of
turban he wore.

My presentation right after lunch, "Community, Camp
Followers, and Combatants in the American War of Independence and the Civil
War," provided another opportunity to contrast Georgians with Victorians.
Between the two wars, the gender mix of civilians who followed an army changed
to heavily favor men. Women were on the battlefield for both wars. But in the
Revolutionary War, they were dressed as women, while in the Civil War, they
were predominantly disguised as male soldiers.

The final two sessions I attended were panels. Vicki Lane
moderated "Beyond the Mystery: Addressing Problems in the Beloved
Community While Telling a Cracking Good Story and Finding Out Whodunit."
Used to be that mystery, as genre fiction, was considered frivolous reading.
These days, many mystery authors write to a theme of social consciousness. I
haven't read any of the authors' books on that panel and will soon remedy that,
but North Carolina mystery author Margaret Maron deals well with social issues in her
Deborah Knott series.

Sarah Addison Allen moderated a panel on Southern
women writers with Pamela Duncan and Catherine Landis. They discussed the
influence of region, food, and family on their writing; what books impressed
them as children; the hardest and easiest aspects of writing; and the
importance of setup, structure, and knowledge of characters, regardless of whether you're a
"plotter" or a "pantser." The humorous tone of the
panelists belied the gravity of content in their responses.

I went to another official
booksigning and came very close to selling out. Only a couple copies each of my
books remained. Malaprops would take those back to Asheville, for in-store
stock.

Excellent meatless lasagna at the banquet that night. I sat
with Lucy, Chris Swager, Vicki Lane, and several readers. (We like readers!)
After dinner, Fred Chappell and Britt Kaufmann read their beautiful
poems composed to address the theme of "The Beloved Community."

More thanks to: the Design Gallery, the Carolina
Mountains Literary Festival committee, Peggy Poe Stern, Vicki Lane, Rose
Senehi, Sallie Bissell, Sarah Addison Allen, Pamela Duncan, Catherine Landis,
Fred Chappell, and Britt Kaufmann.

Autumn 2008 Tour into Western North Carolina, Day 4

Posted on by September 21, 2008

Sunday morning, 14 September, Lucy cooked eggs scrambled
with kale and bell peppers. You wouldn't think of that combination for
breakfast, but it was delicious. I've since tried it on my teenagers, and they
like it, too.

Adairbarley01
I left Burnsville in time to partake of morning coffee in Boone with Kaye Barley. Kaye is an avid reader, particularly
of mysteries, and a gracious reviewer. After "meeting" her on the
Dorothy-L discussion list for mysteries, she and I had corresponded through
email for more than a year before this opportunity arose for us to meet in
person. What a pleasure to finally put a face and voice to the name. And Boone
wasn't swallowed in fog this time, so I got to see the lovely university town
and its surrounding mountains.

Home in Raleigh around 2:00 p.m., where I hit the Internet
to find out what Hurricane Ike had done to Galveston, Houston, and the gas
supply. My sons arrived home soon after me. They'd been hiking part of the
Appalachian Trail in Virginia with their Boy Scout troop. Their adventures were
somewhat hairier than mine: ran out of water, encountered a timber rattlesnake,
got paced by a bear, and serenaded by a cougar's yowl all night. We exchanged
stories most of the afternoon. Be it ever so humble…

Grasshopper thanks Kaye Barley for the coffee-break company
and is grateful for a successful tour!

Next up: "The Family War" presentation for
the North Carolina Museum of History 27 September.

Will the Real Banastre Tarleton Please Stand Up?

Posted on by December 17, 2014

In Camp Follower, I wrote one of the most controversial figures from the Revolutionary War, British Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, into the novel as a secondary character. In contrast to creating and sustaining a fictional character, wrestling a reasonable Tarleton onto the page proved to be no easy task. For one thing, despite all the debate he generates, the real guy just isn’t polarized.

My first exposure to him came when I was a child, with Disney’s TV show, "The Swamp Fox." The Tarleton of this series was Walt Disney’s kiddie version. He came across as a boring, proper gentleman, almost forgettable. But his name lodged in my memory, became part of the mythology surrounding the Revolutionary War that American children learn in history class.

Jason IsaacsFast-forward to 1999, when I began earnest research on the Revolutionary War in preparation for writing Paper Woman. Tarleton and his exploits dominated history and folklore of the Southern theater. Just about everywhere I looked, he and the green-coated British Legionnaires colored the landscape. As folklore boogey monsters, these men slaughtered pregnant women, ate children, raped women, and disinterred corpses. In 2000, Hollywood via Roland Emmerich gave us "The Patriot," with Jason Isaacs oozing evil, wicked, mean, and nasty in his portrayal of Colonel Tavington, a thinly disguised version of the folklore Tarleton.

Wow, an entire regiment of sociopaths on the big screen. Timely, what hey? Nothing like what good ole Uncle Walt gave us with “The Swamp Fox.” Excepting Norman Bates, sociopaths didn’t get much airtime pre-Hippy and pre-‘Nam. But TV viewers in the 21st century can invite “Dexter” into their homes once a week. Go figure.

As I’ve always been skeptical of the “truth” as told by Hollywood and folklore, I sought out reputable scholars and historians like Dr. Tony Scotti, Dr. Larry Babits, and John Robertson. There I learned about the Tarleton who was a resourceful regiment commander, professional soldier, compelling leader, and handsome ladies’ man — but not necessarily a brilliant military strategist. Yes, he had a substantial ego. Yes, he practiced Total War, like patriot counterparts such as Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee. However he was no more ruthless than they. Were Tarleton living in modern times, he’d likely have been aimed at Twelve-Step programs for his issues with alcohol, spending, and gambling. Investigators today might quickly dismantle most atrocities attributed to Tarleton and the Legion due to faulty event sequences, questionable reliability of witnesses, and so forth. Tarleton seems to have been liked, trusted, and respected by Legion cavalrymen and infantrymen, which suggests that he led with his virtues, rather than his vices. Tarleton, a sociopath? Hmm, let’s just say that my fictitious Lt. Dunstan Fairfax makes a more convincing sociopath.

Romanticized TarletonTo further muddy matters, some folks today don’t believe that Tarleton had an evil, wicked, mean, or nasty bone in his body. His fan club has a web site. There’s also a rock band named after him. Here’s a PhotoShopped version of the famous Reynolds portrait of Tarleton, emailed to me back in 2000 by a Tarleton fan. Hey, if you’re an author in the Romance Writers of America, grab this idea and run with it. Your audience is guaranteed.

.

Dragoon recruitPlus the British Legion creates an impressive sight on the Revolutionary War reenactment battlefield. My sons’ first reenactment was Revolutionary War Field Days 2000, in Camden, South Carolina. Here’s my younger son, almost swallowed in the uniform of a legionnaire. Check out the little guy’s grin. Could it get much better than that? Shortly after, I hijacked Dr. Seuss to capture the wide-eyed wonder of a five-year-old boy who is surrounded by campfires, muskets, and bearskin hats:

“Dr. Seuss Meets the British Legion”
(with apologies to Theodor S. Geisel)
Copyright 2000 by Suzanne Williams. All rights reserved.
Tarleton:
I am Ban. Ban I am.
Young recruit:
That Ban-I-am, that Ban-I-am,
I do not like that Ban-I-am!
Tarleton:
Do you like green men and Ban?
Young recruit:
I do not like them, Ban-I-am.
I do not like green men and Ban.
Tarleton:
You do not like us.
So you say.
Try us! Try us!
And you may.
Try us and you may, I say.
Waxhaws, Camden, Ninety Six.
We can move and we are quick.
Rebels fear the color green.
We are Charlie’s war machine.
Kill their chickens, pigs, and cow.
Ruin their lives. Yes, we know how.
Torch their crops and famine bring.
Gotta love mad George, our king.
Green horse thunder in the night.
Starving children all take flight.
(Spare the ladies, flirt and sigh.
In ten years you will know why.)
Rebels beg upon their knees.
Lop their arms off, if you please.
Sabers stained with purple gore.
Yes, we practice Total War.
Will you help us burn a house?
Next we will unearth a corpse.
Rebels homeless. Watch them flee.
Terror is such fun, you see!
Young recruit:
Say, I like that fluffy hat.
Those tall boots, just look at that!
Shiny spurs and jacket green.
You’re way-cool, you war machine.
Can I stay and learn some tricks?
Fire a musket when I’m six?
In the saddle I’m a man.
Thank you, thank you, Ban-I-am!

(Okay, I’ve never claimed to be a poet.)

Did I mention that we still have a lot of trouble distinguishing folklore about
Tarleton from fact? This summer, a columnist from a small-town Georgia paper contacted me about substantiating his belief that historians slight the South when it comes to the Revolutionary War. By the time I got back to him, he’d already published his original article, but he was still eager to publish a letter from me to the editor. Well, I took one look at his article and cringed. He hadn’t done the proper research and had mistaken as fact several incidents of folklore about Tarleton. So I wrote a letter to the editor that supported the columnist while gently correcting his mistakes. They never published my letter. I’m guessing that they read it, realized the magnitude of their error, and decided to drop the topic.

All of the above have fed into and fueled my desire to portray a balanced, human portrait of Banastre Tarleton. I may have been nuts to take on a historical figure laden with so much baggage, but I have to say that the research and writing were loads of fun. Not that my depiction of Tarleton is Absolute Truth, but the more we research with open minds, the more we can approximate the accuracy of what was once a real person.

**********

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Cancellations, Additions

Posted on by September 6, 2008

Hanna
An unwelcome guest named Hanna blew away our presentation on "The Family War" today in Wilmington, NC. But Dorothy Hodder at the New Hanover County Public Library graciously rescheduled us for 15 November 2008, same time, same place.

Ben Steelman of the Wilmington Star-News interviewed me 11 August at a meeting of the Star-News/WHQR  book club in Wilmington, NC. And my family and I presented "The Family War" for an audience at the Cary Public Library 20 August 2008 in Cary, NC. Both events were lots of fun. Thanks to Karen Kiley at the library and Ben.

While I'm preparing presentations for my trip next weekend to Boone and Burnsville in North Carolina, I'll note the addition of two events to my fall author schedule: "Family War" presentations at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, NC 27 September, and panel discussions at the Carolina Crimes event in Wilmington, NC 25 October.

An Interview With Mur Lafferty and P.G. Holyfield, Authors and Podcasters

Posted on by August 5, 2008

Podcasting is a form of self-publishing, and many
traditionally published authors are quick to presume that podcasters give away
their works for nothing. That presumption is inaccurate. Furthermore,
podcasting has exciting applications for authors who are published
traditionally.

I'd like to dispel some of the myths surrounding the
technology of podcasting. Today’s blog entry takes a look at the nuts and bolts
and value of podcasting via an interview with two authors from science fiction and fantasy (SF&F), Mur
Lafferty (Playing for Keeps) and P.G. Holyfield (Murder at Avedon
Hill). I met both at a panel discussion in Raleigh back in May. (Watch most of the discussion about podcasting on YouTube.) Mur and P.G. have developed tremendous fan followings through the technology of
podcasting.

SA: Hi Mur and P.G., and thanks for chatting with me. How
long have you been podcasting, and how many regular listeners do you have?

ML: I've been podcasting since December 2004, almost four
years. I have several podcasts, so it's hard to say, but I'd estimate about
5000 regular listeners.

PGH: I started podcasting in February 2007. I released
Episode 1 of Murder at Avedon Hill on my website in June 2007 and on Podiobooks.com in November 2007. My earliest chapters have been
downloaded over 5000 times, and I’m approaching 3000 downloads with my later
chapters.

SA: Demographically, who are your listeners?

ML: Science
fiction fans, geek mothers, beginning writers. Mostly people over 25.

Pgholyfield
PGH: I have only general data about my listenership. As
around 90% of podcast listeners do not provide feedback, it’s hard to figure
much out about them, other than what country they live in.

Of the listeners that have provided feedback through
email, voicemail, and reviews, I have listeners on six of seven continents.
While podcast listeners do skew younger than book readers when you look at them
as a whole, a great percentage of my most interactive listeners are over 30.

I have been greatly pleased to see the mystery fans that
are enjoying the novel, especially those that say they usually do not like the
fantasy genre. (Note: Murder at Avedon Hill is a mystery in the spirit of the
medieval mysteries of Ellis Peters or Susanna Gregory, but set in a
fantasy world where magic works, monsters exist, and the gods can choose to
live mortal lives in order to directly affect events in the world.)

I also think the mystery setup has brought in more female
listeners compared to the podcast average. My evidence to support this is based
on feedback and talking to other podcasters about male and female listenership.

SA: As an option to traditional publishing, a number of
writers self-publish via podcasts. Although the work of these folks can be
protected by the Creative Commons, they're essentially giving their
books away. Obviously you're getting something from podcasting besides
contracts, advances, and royalties, although I'm sure you wouldn't mind earning
plenty of money for your efforts. Initially, what attracted you to podcasting
and made it worth your while?

Murlafferty_2
ML: When I got started in podcasting, it was an entirely
new way to express yourself and seemed a fun new thing to try. Took me a while
to podcast fiction, but when I did, I started building an audience of 20,000
that I hope will follow me with the print version of Playing for Keeps. (Note:
Mur's four novellas are available via podcast. Playing for Keeps, her first
novel, has been podcasted and is also her first work to go into print.)

PGH: In April 2006 I listened to Brave Men Run, by Matthew
Wayne Selznick. I immediately knew that I was going to podcast Murder at
Avedon Hill. I love the DIY ethic, and once I started listening to podcasts
that were out there, I knew I could do it and believed I could do it well.

SA: How has podcasting taken your writing career to the next
level?

ML: I write on a more regular basis now, knowing I have
an audience waiting for it. Building that audience has shown me to be an
effective marketer, which makes me more attractive to publishers.

PGH: Podcasting has allowed me to put my work into the
hands of consumers. Their feedback has
been invaluable, and in the process, I have learned how to market
myself. I hope to use this experience in the future with respect to pursuing
agents and publishers.

SA: Why do you continue to podcast?

ML: It's fun, and I want to continue to give away content
to the people who support me. There's also so much about this medium we have
yet to explore, and I want to be one of the ones doing that.

PGH: Unlike Mur, this is my first podcast novel. At this point I've released around 70% of the
novel. I hope to finish the novel in November. At that point my second
novel should be completed and ready to podcast. No matter where my writing
leads me, I plan to continue podcasting my work.

SA: During the panel discussion, you mentioned that the ideal length of a podcast
would be your listener's commute, somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes.
A podcast can be produced simply, by the author recording and posting readings
from his/her own book. On the complex end, the author might hire voice talents
to represent each book character and incorporate sound effects. What approach
do you use?

ML: I go the simple route. I don't have time to do a full
voice cast project for fiction. Right now, I'm doing a short audio drama, about
ten-minute episodes, and the work involved is staggering.

PGH: I am at the audio drama end of the spectrum,
although audio drama usually means a focus on dialogue and the use of sound and
dialogue to replace descriptive narration. I am podcasting the novel fully but
incorporate a large voice cast (over thirty readers), music, ambient noise, and
effects. While this adds layers of complexity in producing the podcast, it
results in a product that listeners seem to appreciate and that I am very proud
of.

SA: Where do you record your podcasts?

ML: At home in the spare bedroom.

PGH: I built a small studio (basically foam padding in a
closet) in my basement. It’s around 6’ x 8’ in size and allows me to create
audio without worrying about ambient noise when I'm recording.

SA: Approximately how much preparatory time goes into your
usual podcast?

ML: Depends on which podcast I'm doing. If it's the
chatty one, little to no prep. If it's my writing podcast, I do some notes and
bullet points and make sure I have my emails ready to read, so about an hour.

PGH: My episode timings are tied to chapter length and
usually run between 25 and 35 minutes. For me, a 30-minute episode can take me
anywhere from 15 to 25 hours to put together. Some of this is due to the
organizational requirements tied to having 30-plus guest voices. Recording,
editing, and finding or creating appropriate sound effects takes up the bulk of
this time.

Contrast this to my friend Nathan Lowell, author of the "Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" novels, who spends no more than two and
a half hours putting together a 20- to 30-minute episode. But his is a straight
read with the same intro/outro music for each episode. There is no right or
wrong way to do a podcast novel, as long as the story and sound quality meet
listener expectations.

SA: How often do you usually post a podcast?

ML: I try for weekly, but it's closer to
bi-weekly. If it's fiction, I go for weekly.

PGH: Due to my production requirements, I release episodes
every 10 – 14 days, sometimes longer. Podcast novelists usually release an
episode every week, so some listeners have stopped listening due to my release
schedule and told me they will come back as soon as I’m done with the novel. I
understand their concerns and do my best to be consistent. Consistency is the
key. Now that I am on a more regular schedule, even though it isn’t every seven
days, I’ve been able to level set and meet listener expectations.

SA: What types of media files do you include in a typical
podcast?

ML: 95% of the time it's audio files, but I have posted
.pdf and video files.

PGH: The audio podcast file standard is the .mp3. At the
upper end of .mp3 settings, the audio quality is high enough that it sounds
good to most consumers. But the RSS feed — the scripting that allows people to
subscribe to websites, blogs, and podcasts — can accept many different file
types.

Recently I have
begun releasing .pdf files with artwork and maps from my fantasy setting.

SA: Podcasting has a "geek mystique" surrounding
it. SF&F authors employ the technology in far
greater numbers than do authors of other genres. So let's dispel some of that
mystique for the non-SF&F writer who wants to start podcasting. At the panel in May, you
discussed site hosting with an entity such as DreamHost or Libsyn, and the importance of making sure you have plenty of bandwidth. In
other words, plan up-front for a big following. What software and equipment do
you need to get started?

ML: You can get started with a $30 microphone from Target
and the free, cross-platform software Audacity or GarageBand, a
freebie that comes installed on Macs.

PGH: I addition to basic equipment, you need to consider
your hosting needs. For example, I purchased a two-year hosting package at
DreamHost for $99 that covers every possible listener download scenario I
should experience.

You can add other hardware items to improve your overall
sound — for example, mixers, required for better microphones. If you get
hooked on creating audio and want to take that next step, join a podcasting
group such as the one at Yahoo or the Podiobooks.com Community and seek advice.

As far as websites go, the easiest thing to do is to set
up a WordPress site after you have server space. Most hosting services
provide a one-click option to install a WordPress blog. There is a plug-in for
WordPress called PodPress. This plug-in makes podcasting a much more efficient
process.

SA: What technical/geek background do you have? Any degrees
in computer science, for example, or courses in computer languages?

ML: Mostly self-taught. I'm a liberal arts geek. I
learned HTML in 1995 and learned this audio stuff from my husband in 2004. My
previous job at luluTV helped me learn the video side.

PGH: I have always been interested in computers, and
before I became a stay-at-home dad, I worked as a testing coordinator at a
financial institution, testing online banking applications. As a result I am
ahead of the curve, technically speaking. But I am one of those people who know
just enough to break things.

SA: What is the application of podcasting for an author
already in print and not self-published or vanity published?

ML: Branching out the audience, keeping readers
interested between books, and breathing life into out-of-print publications.
Not to mention supplementing your content, fiction or non-fiction, with other
media.

PGH: Podcasting not only allows new and undiscovered
authors to build an audience, but gives small press and midlist authors a
great opportunity to increase their fan base. The most important thing that
podcasting gives an author is an aural connection to their listeners and
readers. Listeners may not be paying for content, but they are making what some
would say is an even more important investment in you: their time. If you
deliver a quality work and the listener invests the 20 – 50 hours required to
listen to that work, you have created a connection and a relationship that
print-only authors do not have with their readership.

Print authors such as Tracy Hickman and Michael A.
Stackpole are successfully leveraging podcasting. Hickman podcasted his
out-of-print novel, The Immortals, and now it is being re-published.
Stackpole’s Fortress Draconis podcast has introduced his fiction to a new group
of potential consumers — consumers who may go out and purchase his other
novels that are in bookstores today.

SA: What examples have you seen of podcasters making the
transition into traditional print with a small, medium, or large press?

ML: From Scott Sigler and J.C. Hutchins and
their large deals with Crown Publishing and St. Martin's Press,
to myself and Christiana Ellis and our small-press deals with Swarm
Press and Dragon Moon Press. More podcast authors with audiences
are getting attention, and I think it's going to keep happening as long as
publishers keep an open mind about digital media.

PGH: To build on what Mur said, Sigler is the most
successful podcast author to-date. Crown was intrigued because he has more than
40,000 listeners. Hutchins has nearly as many listeners, and that caught the
attention of St. Martin’s Press. Swarm Press, Mur Lafferty’s publisher, also
picked up Matthew Wayne Selznick’s Brave Men Run. And Matt Wallace recently had a short story anthology released by Apex Book Company. Many
stories in Wallace's anthology had already been released in podcast form.

SA: Any resources, including web sites and blogs, about
podcasting that you want to recommend?

ML: I'm co-author of Tricks of the Podcasting
Masters, so of course I'd recommend that.
Podcast411.com is on hiatus, but the site itself has a great deal of
information about podcasting on it.

PGH: Also, Podcasting for Dummies and its
companion podcast are a good place to start.

Here's a great short video on YouTube explaining
podcasting.

And here's a decent podcaster starter package from
an audio website.

SA: What's your next project?

ML: I just launched "The Takeover," my audio
drama about zombies in Corporate America, on podcast. My first novel, Playing
For Keeps, previously podcasted, is available in print 25 August 2008.

PGH: I am writing my second novel, tentatively titled The
House that Time Forgot. It’s another cross-genre piece, a mystery/fantasy with
more of a ghost story feel to it. It’s shorter and won’t take me a year and a
half to podcast.

SA: Excellent information. Again, thanks for being my guests today, P.G. and Mur.

Next up: a presentation for "Prologue," the
Wilmington Star-News/WHQR book club meeting in Wilmington, NC on 11 August.

The Fourth of July at Colonial Williamsburg

Posted on by July 16, 2008

Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia is a Mecca for fans of the
Revolutionary War and Colonial America, especially on the Fourth of July.
That's where my family and I were this year. Along with four other authors, including Ed Cline, I sold and signed my books in front of the bookstore at the Visitors
Center.

Family02
My family and I took a break mid-afternoon, when the crowd
had thinned, to stroll in the colonial city. Tourists can rent articles of period
clothing for the day to better experience the ambiance. We were dressed fully
in period clothing, so a number of tourists asked us for directions because
they thought we worked there. They must have wondered how crazy four other visitors could be to dress to the Colonial Nines in ninety-degree weather. This was my
sons' first visit to Colonial Williamsburg, the first time they experienced an
entire Revolutionary War-era town, with all the merchants' and craftsmen's
shops, and the carriages and folks in costume. The closest experience they had for
comparison was Sutlers' Row at a larger reenactment. Both sons agreed that the
colonial town at Williamsburg gave them an excellent feel for an 18th-century
town. Hands-on history, at its best.

That night, we watched the fireworks. A spectacular display,
despite drizzly skies. I hit a sales record that day and will head back for the
7 December Grand Illumination event. Many thanks to Bob Hill from the bookstore
for the sales opportunity.

Next up: a presentation at the Wilmington Star-News/WHQR
book club meeting in Wilmington, NC on 11 August.