Everything Was Fine until Kenny Rogers Walked In—and then It Was Even Better

By Jonathan Haupt

The late Pat Conroy (1945–2016) was perpetually instructing me to write a novel. But Pat told that to everyone. In his mind, every person he met held a novel or two just waiting to be written. I always assured Pat that nothing worthy of a novel had ever happened to me. Conroy, being Conroy, told me that one day I’d lose something dear to me and what I’d be left with in unfair trade was an overwhelming compulsion to write a novel—to try to understand why. That’s a terrifying thought, I told Pat.

We were both right. Now I’m writing this Microsoft Word document that keeps trying to convince me it’s a novel, and I’m writing it exactly for the reasons Pat predicted. In this would-be novel-in-progress, I needed a particularly vital scene to open with my newly crestfallen protagonist Charlie pulled from his routine, stranded for an undetermined time in an unfamiliar place, a setting devoid of any established connections, where he would be a stranger among strangers. A prolonged layover in the Toledo Express Airport provided all the above.

In this moment, Charlie could finally break open under the emotional weight of his dilemma (no spoilers here, gang) and have a confessional conversation with a fellow stranded traveler. He could tell his story in way he never would otherwise and to someone he would be meeting for the first time, without the burdens of shared history or consequence. 

The hook of the scene was to be that Charlie, killing time in a small airport bar, meets a stranger with an uncanny (in the Freudian sense) resemblance to a character from Charlies’ own book, the book-within-a-book, leaving open the possibility that this is a moment of magical realism in which Charlie’s desperate need for a comforting presence manifests a familiar figure from his imagination. Or it’s coincidence, the random chance that an archetypal fictional character would have a real-world counterpart.

I’ve got the scene sorted, I’ve placed Charlie at the Toledo Express Airport bar, and I’m writing along at a good clip. But when Charlie turns to greet his new neighbor at the counter, it’s not the character I envisioned. She has apparently missed her casting call for this scene. Instead, seated next to Charlie is Kenny Rogers. The Kenny Rogers. The actual Kenny Rogers, The Gambler.” “The Coward of the County.” “You Decorated My Life.” “Love Will Turn You Around.” Some 120 hit singles over the span of a phenomenal country music career. That guy.

But here’s the peculiarity—as if it’s not peculiar enough as it is. I’m not a fan. I don’t generally think about Kenny Rogers. Or rather, I didn’t—until the storied Pulpwood Queens Book Club made “How the West Was Won” the theme of their annual Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, this past January, and threw in a country western artist costume component. In the guise of “Kenny Roget’s Thesaurus,” I attended the gathering in support of Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, an anthology I’ve been honored to co-edit with novelist Nicole Seitz featuring remembrances by 67 of our fellow writers who had also been mentored, befriended, and championed by Pat.

In anticipation of Girlfriend Weekend, I revisited the soundtrack of my childhood and the country artists who had been played most often in our house—Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Barbara Mandrell, Johnny Cash, and yes, Kenny Rogers. Looking back on it as an adult, Mr. Rogers’ oeuvre now seemed curiously complicated and contradictory. For every “She Believed in Me” there was a “Lucille,” for every “Through the Years” there was a “Daytime Friends (and Nighttime Lovers).” But what struck me even more was just what an impressive body of work his duets had been, most notably with Dottie West and Dollie Parton, but also Lynda Carter, Sheena Easton, Kim Carnes, and others.

In that context, let’s get back to our distraught Charlie in the bar in Toledo. (Ah, yes, the “bar in Toledo, across from the depot” …or in this case, across from the food court Subway.) Kenny Rogers dropped in, unexpectedly but perfectly, in this moment because his experiences as a duet singer, and particularly his transformative role as a kind of platonic soulmate to the late Dottie West, had imbued him with the wisdom Charlie most needed in this scene. And the absolute oddity of being seated next to a happily retired Kenny Rogers in an adorably small airport bar where no one recognizes him opened the welcome possibility of writing their conversation as a heartfelt homage to “The Gambler.” Kenny doesn’t “break even” in the end but Charlie does leave with some Rogers-esque advice, the “ace that I could keep,” which in turn charts the course to the novel’s much-improved conclusion.

When that weird spontaneity of your writerly imagination seems to summon characters or settings or plot twists that you didn’t know you needed, or even in opposition to your intentions, trust it. The novel knows best, even when you’re not yet certain it is a novel. Show a little faith in the serendipity of the real and fictional characters who walk into your life in these opportune moments and turn you around. It’s a kind of magic, and that’s what they’re supposed to do. “There’s a wonder to it yet,” as Ron Rash wrote in his masterful story “Three A.M. and the Stars Were Out.” And there’s a purpose as well. 

Pat Conroy once called to tell me about two wonderful ladies he had met earlier in the day by unexpected happenstance. We were twenty minutes into our conversation about these dynamic newly arrived women in Pat’s life when it finally dawned on me that he had made them up, that these were characters who had appeared to him anew in that day’s writing on his unfinished novel “The Storms of Aquarius.” I wish I could have called Pat to tell him about Charlie meeting Kenny Rogers in Toledo, but I can’t. So, I’m telling y’all instead. 

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Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press where he created the Story River Books southern fiction imprint with the late Pat Conroy. With novelist and artist Nicole Seitz, he is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, which was honored with the Silver Medal for Best Regional Nonfiction in the Southeast by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Haupt’s articles, book reviews, and author interviews have appeared in the Charleston Post & Courier, Beaufort Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle magazine, Pink magazine, Shrimp, Collards & Gritsmagazine, Fall Lines literary journal, and the Conroy Center’s Porch Talk blog. He serves as an associate producer and consultant to the SCETV author interview program By the River, on the board of directors of the South Carolina Academy of Authors and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries, on the American Writers Museum affiliates steering committee, and on the South Carolina Humanities advisory committee. He’s currently writing a Microsoft Word document that just might be a novel.    

The Pulpwood Queens and Me

By Claire Fullerton, author of Mourning Dove

For the uninitiated, first I’ll answer the question, “What in the world is meant by the Pulpwood Queens?” Thank you for asking. The Pulpwood Queens is a book club. It is the brain-child of one fabulous woman from Texas, Kathy L. Murphy, a painter and hair stylist who owned a salon in Jefferson, Texas, worked as a publisher’s rep until she lost the job, and, rather than lying down, bounced back by consolidating her talents. She opened Beauty and the Book, the world’s only combined hair salon and bookstore. From there, she founded The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas Book Club, which exploded into a nation-wide success. Today, The Pulpwood Queens has 765 book club chapters comprised of the most enthusiastically dedicated readers under the sun. I know this because many of the book club members showed up last weekend in Jefferson, Texas for the annual Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend. They brought their giddy-up in their get-along, wore tiaras and full costume for 2019’s How the West was Won theme, and, for the first time, I was there as a featured author. I will tell you in no uncertain terms that the weekend was the Mardi Gras of the book world. Three days of back-to-back panels comprised of authors introducing themselves and their latest work to a rapt audience of readers eager to discover new books. And in the middle of it, Kathy Murphy: the hub of the wheel, the Pulpwood Queen herself, her magnanimous heart on her sleeve in the middle of her mother-hen joy.

The Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend was an organized, over-the-top, combined book and love-fest. It’s not so easy to corral unbridled enthusiasm into a manageable space, though we all made the trip to Texas for the same reason. We came to fraternize with each other in an arena without hierarchy. We were there because we love books, the people who write them, and all those who read. All this reported, there was a plan. There was structure, lest the two hundred or more participants melt into a fawning, neck-hugging puddle of ecstasy over meeting a long-admired author in person for the first time, or someone known only through Facebook, now within arm’s reach.  For months prior, Kathy Murphy’s right-hand administrator, Tiajuana Anderson Neel, sent notice via social media about what to expect from the weekend and when. She posted a list of recommended lodging, suggested costumes, and shared the weekend’s schedule of events on the Pulpwood Queens Website, where she instructed all authors on how to donate an item pertaining to their book, for silent auction, whose proceeds were to benefit everyone’s favorite non-profit, The Pat Conroy Literary Center, in Beaufort, South Carolina.   

On a personal note, I wasn’t going to miss this. No fire, torrential rain, nor threat of mudslide could keep me from leaving Malibu, California and making my way to LAX. I was going to Jefferson, Texas on January 17, if I had to walk, spurred by the fire of anticipation over a three-day book festival aimed at mingling authors and readers.  Every second it took to get from Malibu to Atlanta to Shreveport then make the forty-nine- minute drive into Jefferson, Texas was worth it, and I knew it for what it was when I checked into the Excelsior House Hotel.

I’d be hard-pressed to envision a better backdrop for a book festival than Jefferson, Texas. Everything in the historic town was within walking distance to the convention center, where the party was held. Ambling down the spacious sidewalk on my way to the opening ceremony, I passed restaurants, a coffee shop, and the fully-realized General Store, which had a sign out front reading, “Welcome to the Pulpwood Queens.” It seemed the entire town was behind Girlfriends Weekend. So much so, that even Jefferson’s mayor showed up. Local shops contributed discount codes to the weekend’s attendees, and area restaurants remained open long past their closing schedule because word of the weekend’s festivities was all over the streets.

One foot inside the convention center, and the party was in full-swing. People milled about in cowboy hats and tiaras, smiling ear-to-ear, wearing boots. It was like being in a bee-hive holding the reins of a live wire, until the introduction of each featured author ensued, and the eight Southern Writers on Writing panelists took the stage, then the entire room suddenly felt like being in church. The audience was riveted as each of the panelists shared their thoughts on what it means to be a writer—a Southern writer, certainly, yet the breadth and scope of the discussion was also far-reaching, setting the tone for the following two days.

To bare witness to authors, nationally known and otherwise, talking about the premise of their books was a study in the passionate fires that lead a writer to pick up a pen in the first place. Throughout the weekend, there were key-note speakers that brought down the house: Revis Wortham, Paula McClain, Ann Weisgarber, Ann Wertz Garvin, Lisa Wingate, River Jordan, and we were all thrilled by the repeated participation of author Patti Callahan Henry, who appeared wearing a black, bouffant wig as the singer, June Carter Cash. One after another, Kathy Murphy moderated panels, giving a forum to authors who introduced themselves and their books in what seemed an intimate setting. Primarily, the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend is geared toward readers; it was to them that each author gave their all, before taking a position at a table to shake hands and sign their book.

A highlight of Girlfriends Weekend was the group that came from Beaufort, South Carolina to share the stories about beloved author, Pat Conroy, who was written about in a series of essays assembled in the engaging book, Our Prince of Scribes. Pat Conroy, many knew, was a proponent of and participant in Girlfriends weekend. On the last day of the weekend, the pillars of The Pat Conroy Literary Center gave a talk about Conroy, with an attendant video that touched the hearts of everyone in the room.

Girlfriends Weekend concluded with a party unlike any other. Billed as The Big Hair Ball, it was all that and more. I’ve never seen such thought go into a bevy of costumes aimed at a western theme: cows, Indians, a pioneer woman, Annie Oakley, outrageous wigs, studded cowboy hats, and a mustache to rival actor Sam Elliot’s swirled on the dance floor in a celebratory vortex to the beats ranging from country to disco to pop.

The Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend was simultaneously an education and a blast. I’m thinking I made life-long friends there, in a jury of my peers. Three days in a weekend that felt too short by half, the first thing I did when I got home was mark my calendar for next year’s Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend.

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Claire Fullerton is from Memphis, TN., and now lives in Malibu, CA. She is the author of Mourning Dove, a Southern family saga set in the genteel side of Memphis. Mourning Dove is the 2018 Literary Classics Words on Wings award winner for Book of the Year. It is the 2018 bronze medal winner for Southern Fiction by Readers’ Favorite, a finalist in the 2018 Independent Authors Network Book of the Year, and was listed in the International Faulkner Society’s 2018 William Wisdom competition in the novel category. Claire is the author of Kindle Book Review’s 2016 award for Cultural Fiction, Dancing to an Irish Reel, and paranormal mystery, A Portal in Time. She contributed to the book, A Southern Season: Four Stories from a Front Porch Swing, with her novella, Through an Autumn Window. Her work has appeared in Southern Writers Magazine, and was listed in 2017 and 2018 in their Top Ten Short Stories of the Year. Claire’s work has appeared in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature; Celtic Life International; The Wild Geese, and The Glorious Table. The manuscript for her next novel, Little Tea, is a finalist in the 2018 Faulkner Society’s William Wisdom competition.  She is represented by Julie Gwinn of The Seymour Literary Agency. 

 

To Tackle or Not to Tackle?

By Chris Pepple, Writer-At-Large, Southern Writers Magazine        

We’ve all probably read fictional books that tackle very challenging life issues. I have to admit that I’m a huge Pat Conroy fan and truly mourned his passing knowing I would never have a new novel of his to read. I know that not everyone loves his books—and I admit that some chapters are very hard to read. He does, however, bring to light abuse within families and the effects the abuse has on multiple generations. Conroy was never afraid to write about the harsh realities of the only lives some people know.

What do we do if we have an issue we would like to write about that has touched our lives or the lives of close friends or family? Do we tackle these tough issues in a novel to help bring light to the issues? Do we leave the issues alone because they are so personal to so many people and may bring up emotions that others are still wrestling with?

Tackling issues that are painful to some people isn’t the best idea for every author. You know your audience and your writing ability better than anyone. Jodi Picoult’s readers, for instance, know to expect novels about school shootings (with parts from the perspective of the shooter’s parents), adoption issues, child abduction cases, and racial issues. if you are considering tackling a topic that others may see as painful or divisive, ask yourself if you are up to the challenge and if your audience is ready to read a novel that may contain disturbing topics for some.

If you decide to tackle an emotional topic, here are some suggestions:

1.      Make sure you research the emotional angles of the topic as closely as you would research the historical aspects or factual aspects of other topics.

2.     Let readers know in the book description any themes that may be painful for some people to read about. A grieving mother may not be ready to read a novel about a shooting or a child abduction. A survivor may experience flashbacks if they read descriptive scenes containing family violence. Don’t surprise your readers.

3.      Blog about the topic so you provide information for readers to start healing discussions with book club members or friends. Link to professional websites to offer resources to readers who may want to explore the topic further.

4.      Let a counselor and a community member read your manuscript along with your regular readers. They may spot words that will be interpreted differently by someone who has experienced the topic you are weaving into your novel.

I chose to tackle a tough subject when I wrote about a main character leaving domestic violence, but I chose each word carefully and used the novel to start conversations in my community. Don’t fear tackling a tough subject, but just add a lot of care knowing that some readers may still be healing from the hurts.

Writing and Me

By Kaye Wilkinson Barley

I have written all my life. 

I write to understand.

I write to comprehend my feelings. 

I put those feelings down on paper in an attempt to bring order to the chaos often accompanying  those feelings. 

But it was never for public consumption.  

Not until I was 60 years old.

When I did, finally, at the suggestion of Kathryn Stripling Byer, North Carolina Poet Laureate 2005-09, submit my first piece, it was accepted for inclusion in a regional North Carolina anthology.

It was a piece I wrote while my husband was living in North Carolina and I was stuck back in Georgia for a period of time that seemed unending.  A rough time.  That someone felt as though that piece, written straight from my heart, was worthy of being shared with others was a surprise, and brought some much needed joy.

A statement from one of the editors of the anthology, Dr. Celia Miles, stayed posted on my laptop for years.  “I hope you’ll continue to write,” she said. “You were born to write.  Your writing has honesty.” 

It helped me write the one novel that I had wanted to write for as long as I can remember.  You know the one.  The one that Toni Morrison was talking about when she said, to you, ““If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

I think my writing style comes from simply loving to tell a story. That love of storytelling is how I developed my voice.  And, I’ve been told it’s a distinctive one.   

As far as the craft of writing, I will be the first to admit - I know nothing.  If my writing passes any sort of craft test, it comes from having been a reader since the cradle along with being lucky enough to know some excellent editors who have graced me with their help and expertise. 

I have, of course, read some of the best books on how to write that all writers read.  And I love them.  Especially Stephen King’s “On Writing,” and Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird.”  I love and recommend them, but have I learned anything from them? 

Except that one bit from Ms. Lamott about the first draft always being terrible?  I don’t think so.  My fault – certainly not theirs.  My fault because I always find myself reading for the story.  The entertainment.  The simple joy of words, excellence in pacing and beautiful phrasing.  Yep – even in “how to” books.

Learning through reading, for me, comes, I believe, without my conscious thinking.  And, it comes from reading books written by good writers.  Writers like Louise Penny, James Anderson, Margaret Maron, Pat Conroy – along with others.

All that said, I have not one word of advice regarding writing.

Unless you have yet to discover that it can save your sanity.  If that’s the case, then my advice is to write.  Tell a story – be it to friends, family, the public or to yourself.  Tell a story, “the” story, “your” story.  But first, do it for yourself.

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Kaye Wilkinson Barley lives in Boone, NC with her husband, Don, and their spoiled little Corgi, Annabelle. Kaye has had several short stores and creative non-fiction essays published, one photo/story book and one novel; WHIMSEY: A Novel. Kaye and her husband are avid photographers. Her blog, Meanderings and Muses ( http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/ ), is a place where she shares stories and photos.  Anything and everything from a memory, a book review, a recipe, or a political rant.   

Championing your Voice

By Kristin Billerbeck, author of The Theory of Happily Ever After

“Voice” is such an important part of “writing.”  We love authors for their individual voices and the way they tell their stories.  The wry wit of Jane Austen, the verbose word pictures of Dickens’s characters, the soothing Southern ambiance of Pat Conroy’s prose, they are all recognizable by their voice.  As writers, we must be brutally honest with ourselves about what we bring to the table as a storyteller. 

I published many books before I found my voice.  I was writing sweet, Christian romances about kindly, generous heroines. It turned out, I identified more with the heroine of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” than I did my own heroines. Even Scarlett O’Hara with her spoiled southern ways spoke to me in her clear cut fashion and survival nature.  I’m not proud of this discovery, but I had to admit, it was the truth.  

At that point, I sat at my desk and wrote one chapter in first-person present and told the awful truth as I understood it — as an aging Christian spinster in a church singles’ group.  That book became my best selling, “What a Girl Wants.” 

At the time, I didn’t hold back because I didn’t know any better.  I didn’t know it would be offensive.  I didn’t make it politically correct.  I wrote about the unfairness of being a good, godly young woman and waiting while all the eligible bachelors at church snapped up the young, hot chicks straight out of college. 

So you have to ask yourself when searching for your voice, what’s your truth?  When you look around your world, what injustice makes you feel undone? Maybe your voice and passion come in your settings.  Do the intricate veins on a leaf make you contemplate life as a whole? When you walk in a Civil War graveyard and read an epitaph, are you compelled to tell that person’s story and imagine yourself back in 1861?

If you were to sit down and write a tale about something that unsettles you and feels like a grand injustice in the world, what would it be?  What is your truth as an author? Your voice will come from that truth.  Write down something only your best friend knows about you. Is it part of your story?

Now for the negative. when you write the truth, it will polarize readers.  That’s why so many authors play it safe and write sweet, little stories that won’t stir the literary world.  

When I wrote my latest, The Theory of Happily Ever After about a research scientist bouncing back after a setback, I definitely heard from people who disagree with my take on overcoming depression as a Christian.  With What a Girl Wants I even got called a choice name or two — things that probably shouldn’t be uttered from a Christian’s mouth. (There are a few verses on judgment after all.)  But that result is inevitable if you voice your truth.  You’ll trigger someone. But look at it this way, you’ll make them feel something.  Maybe they needed their world rocked a little.

My best advice for finding your true voice is to think about what you’d write if there were no rules.  If you weren’t trying to fit into a mold and get published by XYZ Publishing, what would you have to say?  How would your character say it?  Where would your character say it from? What would their deepest truth be? What would they never do?  Now, what would drive them to do just that? 

You may show your voice in dialogue, setting or even in plot structure, but tell your truth.  It’s what sets your book apart and what makes any bestseller, special.    ________________________________________________________________

Kristin Billerbeck is the author of more than thirty novels, including What a Girl Wants and the Ashley Stockingdale and Spa Girls series. She is a fourth-generation Californian who loves her state and the writing fodder it provides. Learn more at www.KristinBillerbeck.com.

Pat Conroy and Me

By Tina Murray, Ph.D.

"What do you do?" renowned Southern writer Pat Conroy asked me during his book-signing event at the Miami Book Fair, years ago. Mr. Conroy was about to sign a copy of his latest novel, which I had just purchased.

"Well, I'm trying to be a writer," I replied, my voice feeble  and apologetic.

He contemplated me.

The two of us were not alone. Fans stood in line nearby to meet-and-greet the famous author. However, that is how I remember the event--as if, suddenly, Mr. Conroy and I  had been set apart from physical reality and isolated by a single spotlight. His response to my whine was immediate and definite.

"You say, 'I am a writer.'" he ordered, signing.

I was astonished.

"I am a writer," I said tentatively. Comprehending, I repeated the words, with conviction. "I am a writer."

He closed the book and handed it to me. He waved an index finger in my direction. "Never let anyone tell you you can't do it," he said. "Not anyone," he said emphatically.

I nodded, agape. He went on.

"Not your family, your friends, your boyfriend--" He reeled off a laundry list of potential saboteurs. 

"No one."

I think I thanked him. I hope I did. Dazed, I had wandered off, drifting back into the milling throng of book enthusiasts. Absorbing what had occurred  I wandered, as evening fell, warm and humid.

Something dramatic and significant had happened in my life.  That night, my body rode home on the Metrorail, but my head remained in the ozone. Pat Conroy had changed my life.

He had given me the keys to tenacity. Nothing is more crucial to the writing life than tenacity. A writer may possess great talent, be a stellar craftsperson, and approach artistry, but none of it matters if  the writer's work is left unfinished. Tenacity matters.

He had given me the keys to Tena City, as it were, or to Tina City. He had unlocked my resolve.

Since that conversation, I have written three novels, each published by ArcheBooks. My latest novel, A BIG FAN OF YOURS, is Volume Three of my series, "Starlight on the Gulf."  The  series, which also includes Volumes One and Two, A CHANCE TO SAY YES and A WILD DREAM OF LOVE, did not write itself, I promise you. These novels exist because of Pat Conroy's kind words.

His righteous insight gave me permission to persevere, permission I had denied myself, from an early age, in various pursuits. Often, I had taken the advice of naysayers. Worse, I had talked myself out of goals.

Now I know I do not have to give in, bow down, or buckle under to negativity, no matter its source.

Neither do you, writer.

I am a grateful for the opportunity to pass along Pat Conroy's advice to a host of Southern writers. I believe he would have wanted it that way.

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Tina Murray, Ph.D. has ventured her way into the publishing world after years spent in a wide range of pursuits. Insight gained, especially as an actress and artist, subsequently enhanced by degrees in art education, education, art and drama from the the Florida State University and the University of Miami, has fed her imagination for her debut romance novel A Chance to Say Yes. Now she enjoys the sunny shores of paradise as she prepares the sequel in her movie-star dynasty. Website http://tinamurrayauthor.com/index.html

       

Five Words Changed the way I Look at Writing

By Chris Fabry

I received an unexpected birthday gift from an acquaintance. I had lost signed copies of treasured books and my friend knew I loved Pat Conroy. She went to his house and knocked on his door. Perhaps it was because she was going through chemo and had a scarf around her head that he scribbled a signature and wrote a personal message:

“To Chris, Happy 50th Birthday. My best to you in your writing life. Go deeper. Always go deeper.”

I’ve thought a lot about what he meant, particularly after his death. I filed the advice along with other tips I’ve read from writers. One of the basic questions we ask is “How do I do this?” It’s easy to focus on mechanics. Write in the morning. Have a dedicated place where all you do is write. Write every day. Turn off the TV. Show, don’t tell. You’ve read these tips and they’re helpful.

I endeavored to follow them. I looked for the perfect desk, the perfect chair, even the perfect ergonomic keyboard. I got up every morning and hammered at stories. I thought if I followed the advice and worked hard, I would succeed.

The hard truth is that there is no magic equation to writing. There is no special font that will guarantee sales. (I did find a good ergonomic keyboard.) There’s no computer program that will pull the content from your soul. The real power of writing that matters is found in going deeper.

But what does that mean? How do I “go deeper”? How do I mine the nuggets of gold in my own soul without wallowing or becoming maudlin or exploiting my own pain and becoming self-focused?

The answer to that gets closer to the bone than mechanics will take me. Being willing to risk is the first step. In a sense, what Pat was saying in those few words was a call for me to get out of the way. To tell my stories with confidence as only I can tell them. To trust the process that brings me to the page. Allow the pain and questions and struggle to propel me. To write hard and clear about what hurts, as Hemingway said.

The hardest part of this is gauging success. If I write a bestseller, have I arrived? If no one reads my stories, have I failed? What if I’m criticized? Applauded? Pat’s words both haunt and encourage. They are a constant call to avoid such equations. Instead, I ask a harder question. Has the process led me to a subterranean region of my heart? Have my words helped me discover what I really believe about myself and the world? And in the journey, have I been able to bring the reader to a different place in their own heart?

Go deeper. Always go deeper.

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Chris Fabry is an award-winning author and radio personality who hosts the daily program Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio. He is also heard on Love Worth Finding, Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, and other radio programs. A 1982 graduate of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University and a native of West Virginia, Chris and his wife, Andrea, now live in Arizona and are the parents of nine children. Chris’s novels, which include Dogwood, June Bug, Almost Heaven, and The Promise of Jesse Woods, have won three Christy Awards, an ECPA Christian Book Award, and a 2017 Award of Merit from Christianity Today. His eightieth published book, Under a Cloudless Sky, is a novel set in the coalfields of his home state of West Virginia. His books include movie novelizations, like the recent bestseller War Room; nonfiction; and novels for children and young adults. He coauthored the Left Behind: The Kids series with Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, as well as the Red Rock Mysteries and the Wormling series with Jerry B. Jenkins. Visit his website at www.chrisfabry.com. Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio Tyndale Media Center-where you can download press materials like: Media Alert, interview questions, Author Q & A, author image, book cover image, etc.

Pat Conroy, 1945-2016 “I wear the ring.”

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine    

Southern writer Pat Conroy, the author of such great works as The Boo, The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides, passed away on March 4^th. Conroy had been a Marine Brat living in various places but after the age of 15 spent most of his life in his beloved Beaufort, South Carolina. There he grew to love South Carolina; it’s people, food and beauty and reflected his love in his writings. 

In his writings Conroy also reflected his troubled childhood. The Great Santini was a reflection of his childhood with an abusive military father. In the movie depicting the book Robert Duvall brought the part of the father to life so well it was frightening. In The Lords of Discipline, his 1980 account of life at a southern military school was enough to cause a split with him and his alma mater The Citadel. It was over 20 years later that the relationship was finely mended and Conroy was asked to return to give the 2001 Commencement speech. He stated that he had thought Saddam Hussein or Jane Fonda had a better chance to deliver the address.

The State newspaper published an article titled, State of Surprise: Pat Conroy’s love letter to South Carolina. It would do every writer well to read this and think on what drove Conroy in his writings. We too would do well to learn our surroundings, its people and history. Conroy in a 1988 interview with CBS said, “I always felt that if I told a story of the South I’d tell the history of the whole world. If I could figure out the South, figure out what is glorious about it, figure out what is hideous about it, if I could get it down if I can get it right, I would tell the story of the entire human race.”  

During the 2001 Commencement speech to graduating class at the Citadel Conroy said the following:

“IN 1979, THE YEAR MOST OF Y’ALL WERE BORN, I WAS FINISHING UP “THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE,” AND I TRIED TO THINK OF A LINE OR WORDS THAT WOULD SUM UP BETTER THAN ANYTHING HOW I FELT AND HOW OTHER PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT THIS COLLEGE. I WANTED IT TO BE SOMETHING RINGING AND AFFIRMATIVE, SOMETHING TRUE, SOMETHING TO BE TRUE FOR EVERY PERSON WHO HAS EVER GONE THROUGH THE LONG GRAY LINE. I CAME UP WITH THIS LINE, "I WEAR THE RIng.””

On Tuesday March 8, 2016, Conroy’s funeral was held at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Lady’s Island. Flags in Beaufort were at half-staff honoring their "Prince." Members of The Citadel’s Class of 2001 traveled to the funeral service. They were personally invited by Conroy when he spoke to them at their Commencement. He told them to show the usher the date on their class rings and say “I wear the ring.”  

His writing secures his legacy for future readers. What are your favorite Pat Conroy books and why?      

       

       

 

  

Writing Your Southern Story

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine 

Prolific southern author, Pat Conroy, has a unique insight in how an individual becomes a writer. He candidly questions, "do you think that Hemingway knew he was a writer at twenty years old? No, he did not. Or Fitzgerald, or Wolfe. This is a difficult concept to grasp. Hemingway didn't know he was Ernest Hemingway when he was a young man. Faulkner didn't know he was William Faulkner. But they had to take the first step. They had to call themselves writers. That is the first revolutionary act a writer has to make. It takes courage. But it's necessary."

I love a book that has twisting plots, and secrets revealed at just the right time with layers of carefully constructed descriptions drawing me into the author's created world. I like lovable but flawed and evil beyond evil characters.

I am drawn to southern authors who have unique story telling abilities. Pat Conroy states, "here's what I want from a book, what I demand, what I pray for when I take up a novel and begin to read the first sentence: I want everything and nothing less, the full measure of a writer's heart. I want a novel so poetic that I do not have to turn to the standby anthologies of poetry to satisfy that itch for music, for perfection and economy of phrasing, for exactness of tone. Then, too, I want a book so filled with story and character that I read page after page without thinking of food or drink because a writer has possessed me, crazed with an unappeasable thirst to know what happens next." To me, Conroy's list is what personifies a great southern author.

On Facebook, I interact with authors for my job. I'm constantly finding authors that speak to my reader's soul. On Tuesday, I discovered a blog post from December written by southern author Claire Fullerton. Somehow I had missed reading the original post during the holiday season. Someone else had read the post this week, commented on it which is why I saw it March 1st on my Facebook feed. A lesson to all authors to repost some of your blog posts from time to time because someone may have missed it the first time. If you are an author who appeared on Southern Writers Magazine's blog, Suite T you might want to consider reposting your blog post on all your social media links because like me someone may have missed the original post. Make sure to monitor for comments so you can respond, gain readers, and up your Google footprint.

Claire's blog post is "A Southern Christmas Story" titled, "A Place in the World."

It drew me in and left me wanting to know more about her characters and their stories. Of course, I sent her a message letting her know how much I enjoyed her post and story. "A Place in the World," left me wanting more. I want to know these characters. I want to know their history and secrets. I want a book, please Claire. Her story evokes a layered multi-faceted tale to be told. A tactile story from her southern author's soul, resonates with my soul. As Conroy states, "a story untold could be the one that kills you." Like Claire, write that story, but consider expanding it to a book.

Do you have a story you are dying to write?