Welcome my friend and Southern author Gail Roughton to the Seeds of Inspiration Spring Event. Please be sure to leave a comment to enter your name in the drawing for Gail's mystery/romance, Vanished. Winner will be drawn after 12:01 a.m. on Sunday.

Twitter: @GailRoughton; @GailBranan
Email: gailroughtonauthor@gmail.com
Turning Memory into Story by Gail Roughton
As a reader,
have you ever read a novel that seemed so real you could smell baking bread,
feel the heat of the sun beating down on your head, hear the roars of a crowd?
If you’re a confirmed reader, one who always has a book going (usually one in
each room), you almost certainly have.
Because it’s those moments, those scenes, those books, that make reading
so much more than a pleasant diversion and turn a casual reader into a book
addict. Those moments, those scenes,
those books—they take readers to another world, another place, another time and
introduce them to characters they feel they know, folks they’d like to sit down
with over coffee. Or beer. Depends on the time of the day, I guess.
So here’s
the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar question.
How does a writer write such scenes, such books? Not that I’m saying I do, mind you. I’d like to think so, at least occasionally,
and I know that while I’m writing, I myself am in another place and time. But
not because I’m using my imagination to create them. Because I’m tapping my memory to reproduce
them. Not exactly, of course. Not the actual moment, the actual event. I want the feel, the flavor, the taste, of
that memory. And I want it to come through
to the reader. But even more than that,
I want to put that memory into words that I can take out and visit with
whenever I so choose. Bet you didn’t know that, huh? That basically, writers are selfish people
who in the final analysis, write for themselves and not for others. Which isn’t selfish at all, really, because
by doing so, they create those scenes that turn readers into book addicts.
In other
words, there’s always a story behind the story.
Always. My “darkest” work came
from a real-life ordinary moment. In a
law office. In my early twenties, I
worked for a lovely, lovely gentleman, an older attorney known to all in Macon
as “the Judge”. One day the phone rang,
I answered like a good little secretary and explained that the Judge was currently
out of the office, might I take a message?
“This is Jim
Smith (not really, I don’t remember the real name, it was a long time ago) at
Riverside Cemetery. Please ask him to
call me at xxx-xxxx.”

The Judge
came back, read his message, went “What?” and we all had a good laugh. But the idea never left me, the idea that
this would be an hysterical short satire, a “Night Court” sort of satire,
wherein the poor vampire had to defend his right to live in the family
mausoleum. I mean, his family paid for
it, after all, for the use of dead family members. By what legal remedy would you evict a
vampire? He’s family. And he’s dead. Sort of.
Somewhere
along the line, the story line ceased to be humorous and it dang sure ceased to
be short. Final product: The Dark
Series – The Color of Seven and The
Color of Dusk.
Now, while I
was writing that “darkest” of my works, I took a break at a point where I knew
I had to do something I most emphatically didn’t want to do. (Yes, eventually I did it anyway.) Enough
dark. I needed light. I thought it’d be fun to write an historical
romance but I didn’t want to do the research
. BUT—if I sent my heroine through the Bermuda Triangle, I wouldn’t have to research a thing. My world, I could do what I wanted with it. Where did that idea actually come from? Well, I traced it back. It all started with The Three Stooges, I kid you not. I was five, and Daddy took me on a Daddy-Daughter date to the drive-in movies. (Yeah, drive-in, I’m that old.) It was a Three Stooges movies, and while I have no actual memory of the movie and don’t, in fact, even recall if it had a “space-travel” theme, ‘cause I guess it could have been a preview of a coming attraction – five was a long time ago. Anyway, I remember looking up at the stars out of the car window on the way home and thinking that somewhere out there, there was another world. And that I had a double on it. Yes, I was really five. Final result: Vanished.


So, gentle
reader, the next time you read that disclaimer, the one writers throw in the
front of their books stating “this book is entirely a work of fiction”—you
might want to take that with a grain of salt.
Just sayin’.
For a list of Gail's books and where to find them, please visit Gail Roughton's Amazon Author Page.
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If you're a writer, do you use memories to help write your stories? If you're a reader, what genre do you prefer reading? Gail can spin a fascinating tale in so many. (I'm sure all the authors are readers, so you can answer this too!) Remember to leave a comment to enter the drawing for Gail's book Vanished.
12 comments:
Gail, thanks so much for participating in this spring event. I love your imaginative stories.
Uh, Miss Gail, I think with you folks need to take a grain of salt, a pinch of pepper, a pound of rhubarb, a quarter ounce of bourbon (or down the whole bottle!) -- and a barrel of sugar.
That's a recipe for "down home country" wacky as a June bug! Heh heh.
J.Q., thanks so much for having m! Miss Mae, I love that! Best description I've ever seen!
Hey, I.B., I didn't know you were into giving out recipes. I think there should be some Gum Drop Island chocolate in there too!!
You're welcome, Miss Gail. Hope you're using the sun lotion today!
What a great post! I loved hearing the stories behind your stories, Gail. Your books sound fantastic!
Thank you Heather! I appreciate that! J. Q., I hadn't thought about it before, but you need to have Nosey over on your cooking blog, you know?
Hi Heather, thanks for stopping in. If you liked her stories behind her stories, you'll love her books!!
Nosey on a cooking blog? Hmmm...I don't think so, Gail!
On your cooking blog, "Recipe for Disaster":
10 sticks of dynamite
5 well lit matches
1 pair of high running escape shoes
1 well oiled watch - that keeps time
Place dynamite. Strap on shoes. Strike matches. Check watch and...
Uh oh.
Uh oh...LOL
Congratulations, Heather Brainerd. You won the drawing for Gail's book!
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