posted every Friday
#IndieBragNovConv
To be a little different from the usual 'meet the author'
let's meet a character
Lola James
from
Q: Hello, I’m Helen the host of Novel Conversations, please do make yourself comfortable. Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee, wine – something stronger? You’ll find a box of chocolates and a bowl of fruit on the table next to you, please do help yourself. I believe you are a character in Janie Dempsey Watts’ novel Return to Taylor’s Crossing. Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you a lead character or a supporting role?
A: I’ll have an ice cold Coke, thank you, and perhaps an apple. I’m Lola James, one of the main characters in the story. Although there are six characters who tell the story from their own points of view, my first love, Abednego Harris, and I are at the heart of the story.
Q: What genre is the novel and what is it about?
A: African-American Historical Fiction or Southern Fiction, but it’s really a love story, too. My story begins in 1959 in a small Georgia town where a person of colour stands out. I am 17 and I arrive to do housework and babysitting for a white family. I meet and fall in love with the only other African American there, Abednego, who is 19. He works at a dairy and is well known for his skills in handling bulls and horses. As racial attacks increase in the area, we draw closer to one another and intend to marry. The Ku Klux Klan has different ideas, and their attack tears us apart.
This violence affects us differently. Over time, I grow stronger for it, and immerse myself in art. I am doing alright, or so I think, until one hot summer afternoon when Abednego shows up at my art studio in 2009. It’s been 50 years since I saw him!
Q: No spoilers, but are you a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’? (Or maybe you are both!)
A: I am a “goodie,” but I’m not perfect. I can be stubborn, and I’ve grown into a stoic, hardworking person. I am good at keeping secrets, even at my own expense.
Q: Tell me about another character in the novel – maybe your best friend, lover or partner … or maybe your arch enemy!
A: When I met Abednego he was wiry and quick, and flirted a lot with me. I loved the way he made me feel protected when the Klan was closing in all around us. That’s the way it was back then when we were young, and this was the image of him that lived on in my heart.
When he showed up many years later, I hardly recognized him. He limped in on a cane, and his breath smelled like alcohol. He even took a drink right from his flask while we were talking! He had changed so much from the young, confident man I knew. Still, when he laughed, it was full and rich. And he still knew how to sweet talk me.
Q: Is this the only novel you have appeared in, or are there others in a series?
A: This is the only novel.
Q: What is one of your least favourite scenes you appear in?
A: That’s simple. I am attacked at dusk and pinned to a cabin floor. The attack left me feeling soiled, ruined.
Q: And your favourite scene?
A: The first time Abednego kissed me by a honeysuckle-covered fence. If I close my eyes, I can smell the sweet scent.
Q: Tell me a little about your author. Has she written any other books?
A: She grew up in the Southeast of the United States, and she has been riding horses since she was seven. She loves the countryside, so much that she has made it the setting for two of her novels, the one I’m in and her first novel. Her fictional town is called Taylor’s Crossing. It’s called Moon Over Taylor’s Ridge, and it’s set in present day. The story is about a woman who returns home to settle her father’s estate, but ends up looking for a legendary Cherokee silver mine. The story is full of history, mystery, and romance.
She also wrote a short story collection, Mothers, Sons, Beloveds, and Other Strangers, a B.R.A.G. Medallion winner published in 2017. Some of the stories are set in the South, but others are set in California and Europe. And in 2018, she published a children’s picture book, Pap Pap Goes to Paris, and so does Ricky. It’s about a little boy who wants to go with his grandfather to Paris to climb the Eiffel Tower.
Q: Is your author working on anything else at the moment?
A: She is. She’s superstitious and won’t talk about it much, but I know it will have horses, one of her favourite subjects. I’ve heard her making neighing noises as she works at her desk.
Q: How do you think indie authors, such as your author, can be helped or supported by readers or groups? What does your author think is the most useful for her personally?
A: If readers enjoy a book, they should write a review on Amazon or Goodreads and share their thoughts with others. Ms. Watts enjoys being interviewed, and participating in blogs such as this one. This way, she says, readers can get the true flavour of a story. She loves connecting with book clubs and library groups.
Q: Finally, before we must bid adieu, the novel you appear in has been awarded a prestigious IndieBRAG Medallion, does your author find this helpful, and is there anything else she would like IndieBRAG to do to help indie authors receive the recognition they deserve?
A: Ms. Watts was thrilled to receive an IndieBRAG! She has found having this award helps readers know they are going to read a quality story. She says it’s like a “seal of approval” that sets these books apart from others.
She wonders if book clubs are aware of these awards, and how these clubs may be steered to search IndieBRAG winners to find their next read. They won’t be disappointed, she assures me.
Helen: Thank you, Lola. It was a pleasure talking to you. Would your author like to add a short excerpt? But meanwhile, chatting is thirsty work, would you like a refill?
Lola: Yes, please. Ice cold Coke!
Helen: Salute! Here’s to being a successful Brag Medallion Honouree!
EXCERPT
What Lola remembered most about the evening Abednego first kissed her was the overpowering smell of the honeysuckle, the way his eyes softened when he reached out to tuck the blossom behind her ear. She had never been that close to a man before and she found herself staring into his ebony pupils wondering if she looked long enough would she see his soul? And if she did what would it look like? This was what she was thinking when all of a sudden he kissed her.
She liked the way it felt having his warm lips press against hers, yet she was scared. Auntie had told her if she let a man have his way with her she would be struck dead by a lightning bolt. She quickly looked up in the sky and saw not a storm cloud in sight. The sky was clear with a sliver of a moon. Auntie was wrong—she would not be killed if she kissed him again. She moved her face close to his. As their lips touched, a tingle began in her stomach, shot through her like an electric current. The lightening! She pulled away to see where it had come from but saw nothing but the sky deepening into indigo, punctuated with a pearly crescent. Auntie had not told her the truth, and now she knew why. She had never felt anything like this except for one time at church when she was singing “Amazing Grace” and felt a yearning, a surrender, to the melody that vibrated through her body.
From that night on Lola didn’t think anymore of staid old Dr. Doushaun or her plan to go back to Rome in the fall. She let herself forget that there was a time beyond each warm summer evening she spent with her farm boy. Instead she let herself be consumed with thoughts of Abednego and how he enjoyed seeing her laugh, how she melted when they kissed. While she fried the okra in the iron skillet at the Buttrills, she found herself staring at the clock above the stove counting the hours till she could leave and stop by to see him on the way home. As she scrubbed the skillet and pots after supper, she sang one of his tunes in her head. “Sleepy Time Down South.” The work was drudgery. Hopes of seeing him carried her through changing little Emily’s diaper, cleaning up the toddler’s spit up and even scrubbing out the toilet.
On most afternoons on the way home she stopped at his cabin and took a seat beside him on his front porch. Together they watched the lowering sun wash golden light over the grass fields across the dirt road.
CONNECT WITH Janie Dempsey Watts
website: www.janiewatts.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjaniewatts/
Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2CMqnCO
Twitter : https://twitter.com/moonovertaylors
from
Q: Hello, I’m Helen the host of Novel Conversations, please do make yourself comfortable. Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee, wine – something stronger? You’ll find a box of chocolates and a bowl of fruit on the table next to you, please do help yourself. I believe you are a character in Janie Dempsey Watts’ novel Return to Taylor’s Crossing. Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you a lead character or a supporting role?
A: I’ll have an ice cold Coke, thank you, and perhaps an apple. I’m Lola James, one of the main characters in the story. Although there are six characters who tell the story from their own points of view, my first love, Abednego Harris, and I are at the heart of the story.
Q: What genre is the novel and what is it about?
A: African-American Historical Fiction or Southern Fiction, but it’s really a love story, too. My story begins in 1959 in a small Georgia town where a person of colour stands out. I am 17 and I arrive to do housework and babysitting for a white family. I meet and fall in love with the only other African American there, Abednego, who is 19. He works at a dairy and is well known for his skills in handling bulls and horses. As racial attacks increase in the area, we draw closer to one another and intend to marry. The Ku Klux Klan has different ideas, and their attack tears us apart.
This violence affects us differently. Over time, I grow stronger for it, and immerse myself in art. I am doing alright, or so I think, until one hot summer afternoon when Abednego shows up at my art studio in 2009. It’s been 50 years since I saw him!
A: I am a “goodie,” but I’m not perfect. I can be stubborn, and I’ve grown into a stoic, hardworking person. I am good at keeping secrets, even at my own expense.
Q: Tell me about another character in the novel – maybe your best friend, lover or partner … or maybe your arch enemy!
A: When I met Abednego he was wiry and quick, and flirted a lot with me. I loved the way he made me feel protected when the Klan was closing in all around us. That’s the way it was back then when we were young, and this was the image of him that lived on in my heart.
When he showed up many years later, I hardly recognized him. He limped in on a cane, and his breath smelled like alcohol. He even took a drink right from his flask while we were talking! He had changed so much from the young, confident man I knew. Still, when he laughed, it was full and rich. And he still knew how to sweet talk me.
Q: Is this the only novel you have appeared in, or are there others in a series?
A: This is the only novel.
Q: What is one of your least favourite scenes you appear in?
A: That’s simple. I am attacked at dusk and pinned to a cabin floor. The attack left me feeling soiled, ruined.
Q: And your favourite scene?
A: The first time Abednego kissed me by a honeysuckle-covered fence. If I close my eyes, I can smell the sweet scent.
 |
| Janie Dempsey Watts |
A: She grew up in the Southeast of the United States, and she has been riding horses since she was seven. She loves the countryside, so much that she has made it the setting for two of her novels, the one I’m in and her first novel. Her fictional town is called Taylor’s Crossing. It’s called Moon Over Taylor’s Ridge, and it’s set in present day. The story is about a woman who returns home to settle her father’s estate, but ends up looking for a legendary Cherokee silver mine. The story is full of history, mystery, and romance.
She also wrote a short story collection, Mothers, Sons, Beloveds, and Other Strangers, a B.R.A.G. Medallion winner published in 2017. Some of the stories are set in the South, but others are set in California and Europe. And in 2018, she published a children’s picture book, Pap Pap Goes to Paris, and so does Ricky. It’s about a little boy who wants to go with his grandfather to Paris to climb the Eiffel Tower.
Q: Is your author working on anything else at the moment?
A: She is. She’s superstitious and won’t talk about it much, but I know it will have horses, one of her favourite subjects. I’ve heard her making neighing noises as she works at her desk.
Q: How do you think indie authors, such as your author, can be helped or supported by readers or groups? What does your author think is the most useful for her personally?
A: If readers enjoy a book, they should write a review on Amazon or Goodreads and share their thoughts with others. Ms. Watts enjoys being interviewed, and participating in blogs such as this one. This way, she says, readers can get the true flavour of a story. She loves connecting with book clubs and library groups.
Q: Finally, before we must bid adieu, the novel you appear in has been awarded a prestigious IndieBRAG Medallion, does your author find this helpful, and is there anything else she would like IndieBRAG to do to help indie authors receive the recognition they deserve?
A: Ms. Watts was thrilled to receive an IndieBRAG! She has found having this award helps readers know they are going to read a quality story. She says it’s like a “seal of approval” that sets these books apart from others.
She wonders if book clubs are aware of these awards, and how these clubs may be steered to search IndieBRAG winners to find their next read. They won’t be disappointed, she assures me.
Helen: Thank you, Lola. It was a pleasure talking to you. Would your author like to add a short excerpt? But meanwhile, chatting is thirsty work, would you like a refill?
Lola: Yes, please. Ice cold Coke!
Helen: Salute! Here’s to being a successful Brag Medallion Honouree!
EXCERPT
What Lola remembered most about the evening Abednego first kissed her was the overpowering smell of the honeysuckle, the way his eyes softened when he reached out to tuck the blossom behind her ear. She had never been that close to a man before and she found herself staring into his ebony pupils wondering if she looked long enough would she see his soul? And if she did what would it look like? This was what she was thinking when all of a sudden he kissed her.
She liked the way it felt having his warm lips press against hers, yet she was scared. Auntie had told her if she let a man have his way with her she would be struck dead by a lightning bolt. She quickly looked up in the sky and saw not a storm cloud in sight. The sky was clear with a sliver of a moon. Auntie was wrong—she would not be killed if she kissed him again. She moved her face close to his. As their lips touched, a tingle began in her stomach, shot through her like an electric current. The lightening! She pulled away to see where it had come from but saw nothing but the sky deepening into indigo, punctuated with a pearly crescent. Auntie had not told her the truth, and now she knew why. She had never felt anything like this except for one time at church when she was singing “Amazing Grace” and felt a yearning, a surrender, to the melody that vibrated through her body.
From that night on Lola didn’t think anymore of staid old Dr. Doushaun or her plan to go back to Rome in the fall. She let herself forget that there was a time beyond each warm summer evening she spent with her farm boy. Instead she let herself be consumed with thoughts of Abednego and how he enjoyed seeing her laugh, how she melted when they kissed. While she fried the okra in the iron skillet at the Buttrills, she found herself staring at the clock above the stove counting the hours till she could leave and stop by to see him on the way home. As she scrubbed the skillet and pots after supper, she sang one of his tunes in her head. “Sleepy Time Down South.” The work was drudgery. Hopes of seeing him carried her through changing little Emily’s diaper, cleaning up the toddler’s spit up and even scrubbing out the toilet.
On most afternoons on the way home she stopped at his cabin and took a seat beside him on his front porch. Together they watched the lowering sun wash golden light over the grass fields across the dirt road.
CONNECT WITH Janie Dempsey Watts
website: www.janiewatts.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjaniewatts/
Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2CMqnCO
Twitter : https://twitter.com/moonovertaylors
INDIE BRAG LINKS:
Website: https://www.bragmedallion.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Indiebrag/
Twitter: @IndieBrag
HELEN HOLLICK:
Website: www.helenhollick.net
On Amazon: http://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Subscribe to newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick
Twitter: @HelenHollick
Intriguing character and story!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of Lola’s story. Lovely interview.
ReplyDeleteice interview and a love story spanning 50 years is intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone :-)
ReplyDeleteNice interview and I agree that the idea of a love story across 50 years is intriguing, especially given the changes that have come over Abednego - what has happened?
ReplyDeleteI found this book to heart wrenching and rather timely with the rather divisive climate we seem to be in. Ms. Watts is a very talented author and w are proud to have several of her books as B.R.A.G.Medallion Honorees - including her recent children's book! We hoe to see more of her work at indieBRAG in the future.
ReplyDelete