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Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (September 22)

Brittney Morris’s hot debut novel presents a relevant and hard-hitting YA tale of a black teen game developer–17-year-old Kiera Johnson–who created the secret multiplayer role-playing game called Slay.

When things begin to spin out of control and the secret world of the game is threatened, Kiera and her online players face a dilemma that lands squarely in the lap of the young game developer, as she explores the ramifications of racism and the importance of exposing the truth.

Morris earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Boston University, where she was the founder and former president of the school’s Creative Writing Club.

A video game player herself, Morris now lives in Seattle with her husband.

Please share how the story in Slay was shaped by your own personal experiences.

Brittney Morris

Growing up, I was one of the only black kids in my small town. I felt like I was expected to be the black culture expert at my school. I was supposed to know a bunch of musical references, movie references, etc. that just weren’t part of my life. I felt too black to fit in with my white classmates and too “white” to fit in with my black friends, so I grew up in a racial limbo.

Writing Kiera’s story felt quite cathartic because it so closely mirrors mine. Moving between majority white and majority black spaces felt like stepping into alternate universes, one in which I could be myself–I just didn’t know it yet–and one in which I was expected to be “on” so as not to offend or ostracize white people. Kiera learns, like I did, exactly what Blackness means to her and just how diverse, beautiful, and complex it is.

Tell me about the idea of taking on many social topics that are currently relevant to young people today through the medium of video games, and how it resonates with their generation.

Video games–especially indie games–have been tackling tough topics for years: depression, suicide, immigration, chronic illness, self-harm, cyberbullying, and childhood trauma, just to name a few off the top of my head. I have game recommendations for each of those topics if anyone’s interested. Just tweet at me. Anyway, I didn’t see why racism, exploration of racial identity, and “reverse-racism” couldn’t fit in with that list.

And as for Gen-Z specifically, I love seeing them on Twitter. You think we Millennials are skeptical of everything and tired of the status quo? Just you wait. Gen-Z is not here to take no mess, and it gives me so much hope for our future as a species. Video games have been an underutilized immersive and fun educational medium for decades, and I don’t think there’s a better or more innovative group to take it on than today’s teens.

Slay is your debut novel. Tell me about the bidding war for the rights to your book–the immediate interest it garnered from major publishers, and the fact that it is already being considered for movie rights. Were you surprised by this instant response to your work?

I had a great feeling the whole time I was drafting Slay. I knew the concept was commercial, easy to pitch, and full of heavy themes and high stakes. But you never know for sure if something will resonate in publishing. So, I guess when my agent and I began pitching to editors, I was hoping it would resonate, but prepared for the worst. Luckily, we had 13 editors from eight different houses–I think–it’s been awhile – interested!

The bidding war for Slay was wild. It lasted two days and involved lots of conversations with my amazing agent who coordinated the whole process like a wizard. I wasn’t surprised by the response, because I went into this expecting anything to happen. But I am grateful, and eternally honored that I get to share this book with so many people. It’s a lifelong dream come true.

Ultimately, what is your hope for what you would like to accomplish through this book, and the message you want to send?

I was inspired to write Slay after seeing Black Panther. It was the first time I walked into a room full of Black people and felt like I belonged, 100 percent, without having to know any specific pop culture knowledge. You can blame my lone-Black-kid-in-a-hugely-white-town childhood for my complicated relationship with Blackness. It was enough to cross my arms and say “Wakanda forever.”

I want that total unconditional love and acceptance for every single Black person on the planet, especially the ones on the outskirts who feel like they’ve always been “different,” for whom major stereotypes don’t necessarily resonate, like me. I want everyone who reads Slay to walk away believing their identity is what they make it, and that no one has the right to tell them what their identity means or what stereotypes that means they have to fit.

Your publishing agreement includes a second book. Can you tell us yet what ideas you are considering for your sophomore offering?

It does, and I can! It’s about two teen black boys. One can see into the past, and one can see the future. The book is about living with the pressure of knowing what your ancestors went through to get you where you are today, the threat of violence, brutality, and incarceration in your future, and navigating the present under the weight of toxic masculinity.

Slay was a love letter to black people worldwide. My next book sits at the corner of Blackness and masculinity, and it is meant to be a love letter to black men specifically.

Brittney Morris will at Lemuria on Tuesday, September 24, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and discuss Slay. At 5:30, she will be in conversation with Ebony Lumumba.

Author Q & A with Shaun Hamill

By Guest Author

On September 15, 2019

In Fiction, Horror

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (September 15)

A self-acknowledged “steady diet of horror fiction and monster movies” as he was growing up has, for Arlinton, Texas, native Shaun Hamill, resulted in a debut novel that makes Halloween look like a day in the park.

A Cosmology of Monsters turns the lives of one decent family into a nightmarish sequence of circumstances that blurs the lines between reality and the unknown–which is a good thing for those who love the spooky genre.

Hamill, who earned his writing stripes working on his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has seen previous fiction work appear in Carve magazine and Split Infinitive.

Today he resides in Alabama.

Tell me about how you developed such a strong interest in horror stories.

Shaun Hamill

I’ve always been drawn to stories about what might be hiding in the dark. Maybe it’s genetic: my mom kept stacks of horror and thriller novels around the house when I was a kid, and we rented a lot of thrillers from the video store. But I was also lucky enough to encounter three bits of kid-friendly horror at just the right time. The first were Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. The second was Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? show. The third was AMC’s 10 p.m. classic monster movie feature every Friday night, where I first saw Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein. From there it was a natural progression to slasher movies, Stephen King, Anne Rice, H.P. Lovecraft, and a lifelong love affair with the genre.

In your acknowledgements at the end of A Cosmology of Monsters, you refer to your debut novel as “this weird literary genre hybrid.” With the current rise in the interest of horror literature, film, and TV, explain where you believe this book fits (or does not fit) within the seemingly expanding genre of “horror.”

When I started Cosmology, I was only following Toni Morrison’s advice and writing the exact book I wanted to read–something that could balance emotional realism with the sense of dark wonder I seek in horror fiction. Through luck or kismet or what-have-you, my book is being released amid a true horror renaissance. In the past few years, artists like Carmen Maria Machado, Victor Lavalle, Ari Aster, and Jordan Peele have provided an embarrassment of elevated or literary horror, and we’ve also gotten a spate of great mainstream horror as well, including the new IT movies, Stranger Things, and the 2018 Halloween, for example. My hope is that Cosmology will sit somewhere between those two poles, attracting mainstream and literary readers alike.

A Cosmology of Monsters is a story about a really nice guy (Harry Turner) and his family, whose journey into darkness begins with the creation of a “haunted” Halloween house in their backyard. One thing leads to another, and eventually the entire family descends into a state of constant tragedies as each is touched by feelings of the presence of “monsters.” Please briefly explain the premise of this sprawling tale of fear and heartbreak.

A Cosmology of Monsters is a literary horror novel about a family running a haunted house attraction in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas. Narrated by the youngest child, Noah, the novel tracks the family’s fortunes across 50 years, and explores the monsters–both metaphorical and literal–that haunt them. It’s a generational saga, an homage to Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft, and most importantly, a story about the ways love can either save or damn us.

Ultimately, the story is a mixture of thrill, suspense, mystery, and dark forces, all preying on a decent family that seems to attract more than its share of misfortune. Sometimes it feels as though the metaphorical and the “real” situations and settings blur, as scenes, and sometimes characters themselves, quickly transform. How should readers interpret these changes–and are there glimpses of hidden messages in these scenes?

Although much of the book is meant to be read literally, there are a few places where the literal and metaphorical blend–particularly in the “Turner Sequence” interludes between the main story sections. While I wrote the book to be enjoyed and understood in a single reading, I also designed in some secrets that will, I hope, reward multiple readings and close attention. The book has mysteries to be parsed, if the reader is willing.

Are you surprised by the acclaim and attention your debut book has drawn, and do you have plans for another book in this same vein in your future?

It’s funny. Right before my agent and I started submitting this book to editors, I told my wife that I didn’t expect it to sell. I thought it was too odd, that even if publishers enjoyed reading it, they wouldn’t know how to sell it to a general audience. I have never been happier to be wrong. The novel sold quickly, to the incredible and enthusiastic team at Pantheon Books. The entire publication journey has followed this pattern–with me as the gloomy naysayer, and the universe or fate surpassing all my expectations. This is a long way of saying that yes, I’m both surprised and incredibly grateful for the positive attention the book has drawn, and I hope it means I’ll get to write and publish more novels in this same vein in the future.

Bonus question for you! Define “Cosmology” and tell me about the title of the book.

“Cosmology” is an interesting term. In science and religion, it’s the study of the origin, life, and eventual death of the universe, and the rules or forces that govern those processes. In philosophy, it’s the study of existential questions that are beyond the reach of science. I’ve always loved the word–both its sound and its meaning. I think it’s an appropriate moniker for a story in which a narrator is examining his own life from end to end and uncovering the secret forces that have shaped his existence.

Shaun Hamill will be at Lemuria on Wednesday, September 18, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and discuss A Cosmology of Monsters.

Author Q & A with Téa Obreht

By Guest Author

On September 8, 2019

In Fiction

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (September 8)

Téa Obreht’s sophomore novel Inland paints a stark picture of the brutal 19th century American West in a frontier tale that culminates with the meeting of two unlikely characters who give their all to the parched desert, the unforgiving land, and the never-ending drought of the Arizona Territory. A strong touch of mysticism and more than a few conversations with the dead add suspense and intense interest to the story.

Obreht’s internationally bestselling debut novel The Tiger’s Wife earned her the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction, and her works have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and others.

A native of Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia), Obreht now lives in New York with her husband, where she teaches at Hunter College.

Tell me about the “frontier story” your research uncovered that became the basis of the narrative of Inland.

Téa Obreht

Stuff You Missed in History Class, a podcast I absolutely adore, dedicated an episode to something called the Red Ghost. It centered a yarn about two Arizona women who have a disastrous encounter with a monster on their ranch, and went on to frame the incident in the context of the weird, side-lined true history of the Camel Corps, the military experiment which brought camels from the Ottoman empire to the American southwest in 1856.

I’d never heard of either the yarn or the history before, despite having researched regional history and folklore for quite some time, and was absolutely blown away by it–not only because even the weirdest part of this very weird story was apparently true, or because the idea of a camel among saguaros (cactus) presented such a compelling narrative challenge, but also because at the heart of the story were these real people, Hadji Ali and Greek George, who had traveled here from an empire which, at that time, also held the Balkans.

The brutal setting of Inland obviously shaped its characters. How does this setting really become a sort of “character” of its own story?

I think the setting’s most prominent “personality” trait, if you will, is its complete lack of investment in what stories do and don’t survive it. The prevailing and most dangerous myth of the West tells us that an individual’s triumph or a story’s survival are directly proportional to goodness and worth; that good people “make it” because they deserve to.

Nora and Lurie spend their respective storylines learning the falsehood of this mythology by watching–and frankly helping perpetrate–the breakdown of communities and individuals all around them. They are fearful of a similar fate and are working against the inevitable reality that they don’t matter to this landscape and that it is determined to forget them.

Main characters Nora, a homesteading wife and mother awaiting her husband’s return from a desperate trek to find water for the family; and Lurie, a fugitive running from the law, share the common trait of talking with the dead-and, for both, the “conversations” are with family members. You also used mysticism in your first novel, The Tiger’s Wife. Tell me about your interest in this phenomenon–and how it colors Inland.

I’m deeply fascinated by the trappings of belief–the way we reel between resisting mysticism and needing it. What I found additionally alluring about this period of American history was the clash of technology and spiritualism taking place from coast to coast, and how that would have shaped these characters’ perception of, and relationship to, the supernatural plane.

There’s Nora, who “talks” to her dead daughter, but insists she knows these conversations to be illusory, that the ghost is obviously just a figment of her imagination. And then there’s Lurie, for whom seeing the dead is a fact of life–albeit one from he derives no comfort because the spirits he encounters are the products of the violent, turbulent history in which he himself participates. His ghosts are people who suffered violence in death or burial, and he fears a similar fate might await him, and thus takes no solace in the confirmation of an afterlife.

Caught between them is Josie. She is Nora’s niece, a medium from New York, whom Nora derides terribly for the charlatanism of “pretending” to commune with the dead–through, of course, Nora is guilty of this kind of pretending, too.

Coming from different circumstances but sharing the urgent reality of a deadly drought, why would you say Lurie and Nora were “destined” to meet?

Because, by the time they meet in the book, despite all their recklessness and weaknesses, they are the only people in the entire world who can give each other what they need.

Do you already have plans for your next book–and can you give us some hints of what it will be about?

I still feel drawn to the West, and will no doubt write about it again down the line. But I think the next one might be a desert island book.

Téa Obreht will be at the Eudora Welty House on Thursday, September 12, at 5:00 to sign and read from Inland. Lemuria has selected Inland as one of its two September 2019 selections for its First Editions Club for Fiction.

Author Q & A with Sarah M. Broom

By Guest Author

On September 1, 2019

In African-American, New Orleans, Southern Culture, Southern History

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (September 1)

In her debut book The Yellow House, Sarah M. Broom presents a powerful memoir of the New Orleans she experienced as a child (growing up in a family of 12 children), and the house that swallowed up the dreams and finances of her resilient mother.

Broom earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and won a Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2016. She was a finalist for the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction in 2011, and has been awarded fellowships at Djerassi Resident Artists Program and The MacDowell Colony.

Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Oxford American, and O, The Oprah Magazine, and others.

Today, Broom lives in Harlem.

Sarah M. Broom

The Yellow House is a richly detailed memoir of your life, sharing not just stories of your immediate family but those of at least two preceding generations. Why was it important to you to devote so much detail to previous generations to fully tell this story?

I wanted to provide context, a kind of grounding, to situate the story in a lineage. To begin at the moment of my birth would have been dishonest, and also would have ignored the people who compose me and make me who I am. I was setting up a matriarchal world, establishing the women who preceded me within the City of New Orleans. The story of my mother’s house felt, to me, indistinguishable from the story of my Grandmother Lolo and her many houses.

The neighborhood in which the Yellow House was built was part of New Orleans East, touted in the early 1960s as a “new frontier” and a “Model City” like nothing that had come before it. Describe the idea behind its expected growth, and why it would eventually fail.

New Orleans East was an enormous area of the city, east of the Industrial Canal, a navigation channel opened in 1923. Long before New Orleans East, Inc. arrived, there was a collection of communities within the east including Orangedale Subdivision, where my mother eventually bought the Yellow House. New Orleans East, Inc. began to build out the more easternmost parts of the area, which created a flurry of excitement and news stories. Eventually, the entire area of the city took on the corporate name. The East failed for many reasons–the oil bust, white flight which led to divestment, public policy and city planning choices, and inattention.

Your mother, Ivory Mae Soule Webb, was a 19-year-old widow when she bought the Yellow House in 1961, paying the $3,200 price with life insurance money after her first husband’s death. By 1964, when they moved in, she was remarried to Simon Broom, and they began married life with six children between them. Tell me about your mom’s pride in her home, and how important it was to her to keep everything looking nice, inside and out.

My mother loved to make a beautiful home. She was raised by women who took pride in all the places where she lived. For my mother, owning a house of her own was buying into the American dream. Through home ownership, I suspect she learned quite a bit about the frailty of the American dream, about the critical importance of the solidity of the “ground,” so to speak. (It was) understood through time that her investment might not build wealth for her as it might for someone else.

After several career moves and the devastation of Katrina, you eventually were drawn back to New Orleans. At the end, you state: “The house was the only thing that belonged to all of us.” Ultimately, what did (and does) the Yellow House mean to you and your family?

It is to this day a repository. Witness to our lives. The place our mother paid for, in which she built a world full of joy and surprise and sometimes sadness, but it belonged to her and it still is ours even as a memory.

Lemuria has selected The Yellow House its September 2019 selection for its First Editions Club for Nonfiction.

Author Q & A with Margerita Jurkovic

By Guest Author

On August 25, 2019

In Southern Culture, Sports

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (August 25)

Slovenian attorney Margerita Jurkovic said she had “no idea what to expect” when she arrived in Jackson in 2017 as a law exchange student–but it wasn’t long before she found herself captivated by a passion for a brand new experience: American (and specifically Southern) football.

She soon realized that the stories she lived out as she discovered the thrill of the game, literally on the sidelines, were the stuff that would make a good read, and Margerita’s Gridiron Adventure: A Slovenian Lawyer’s Crash Course in American Football Culture was the inevitable outcome.

Mike Frascogna, a Jackson attorney and former law professor of Jurkovic’s, took the football novice under his sports-driven wing and introduced her to the game at youth, high school and college matches throughout the Southeast during the 2018 season. Her perspective, as an outsider who was new to the game–and the culture–of Southern football is honest, humorous, and often thought-provoking.

Jurkovic received her second Master of Law at Mississippi College in 2018, graduating magna cum laude. She also holds a doctoral degree in criminal law and human rights. In Slovenia, she serves as CEO of a non-profit organization that works with victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking.

While in Mississippi, Jurkovic specialized in negotiations and entertainment law at Frascogna Entertainment Law, a Division of Frascogna Courtney, PLLC, in Jackson.

What brought you to Mississippi from your home country of Slovenia?

Margerita Jurkovic

First, it started as an educational experience in law for me. Finishing my PhD, I thought it would be useful to get some experience in a country with a common law system, so I found Mississippi through one of my law school contacts at home. I was planning on staying only a couple of months, but before I realized I had been in Jackson for almost two years.

How did your passion for Mississippi football develop so quickly, and what role did Jackson attorney Mike Frascogna play in that process?

It happened so spontaneously, my passion for football. While in Jackson I was constantly surrounded by people who are interested in this sport. Seeing the enthusiasm of players and coaches, and then experiencing what the win of their chosen teams means to the fans (played a big part) . . . and Mike Frascogna–he knows a lot of people around here. I learned a lot from him, not only football, but about the law, and also life.

It seems you had a unique vantage point at the high school and college football games you attended during your time in Mississippi: you were actually on the sidelines during the games! How was Mike able to make that possible, and do you think that made the games even more exciting, especially since you usually got to meet the coaches or high-level school officials?

Absolutely–I got to experience things most fans cannot, and this is why the book has so many unique stories–like hearing the pre-game talks in the locker rooms. I became spoiled in a way–now, I only want to watch football from the sidelines! The involvement of the Frascogna law firm in Mississippi athletics made things easier for us. One of my characters in the book said, “Mike can make anything possible!” I guess she was not far from the truth.

What were some important lessons you learned from this experience?

There are many lessons one can learn while living abroad, especially how to keep yourself happy and involved in local activities, even while being so different, and often missing home. There are many differences between European and American life, but we all share the same human needs. Seeing the 7- and 8-year-olds playing the rough sport of football helped me understand some basic American values: protecting teammates, loving competition, and not being afraid of physical contact.

What convinced you to write a book about this adventure?

I did not need any convincing after coming in contact with the passion of the coaches and players for the game, and observing the enjoyment of the fans, cheerleaders, bands and the dance groups. It is truly a unique cultural event, involving the entire community. The emotions of this sport got me from the first day.

I never expected that I would be writing a book about football, surrounded by sweet tea and strong men, seriously fighting out there, for the love of the game.

Author Q & A with Lisa Howorth

By Guest Author

On August 4, 2019

In Fiction, Southern Fiction

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (August 4)

Oxford’s Lisa Howorth combines a humorous twist with the looming realities of an America on the cusp of the 1960s in her sophomore novel, Summerlings.
Set in 1959 and narrated by 8-year-old John, the story centers around the boy’s world during a summer he would never forget: at once a carefree season spent planning shenanigans with his friends, but living with his grandparents and missing his parents, longing to make his neighborhood in Washington, D.C., a more friendly place to live, and surviving an unexplainable spider infestation that has taken over his town.

Lisa Howorth

Howorth’s narrative makes a case for more than a few obvious comparisons of the America of 60 years ago with today’s social and political climate–with a bit of nostalgia thrown in.

The Washington, D.C. native and former librarian is also the author of the novel Flying Shoes, as well as stories about art, travel, dogs and music that have appeared in the Oxford American, Garden & Gun, and other publications.

Howorth and husband Richard are the founders of Square Books in Oxford.

Summerlings packs a lot of grown-up worries into a heartfelt story about the summer of 1959 for close childhood friends and neighbors growing up in Washington, D.C. There are social and political alignments left over from World War II, the heartbreak of divorce–in a time when it was an anomaly–and the Cold War that reinforced suspicions of neighbors against each other. Since you grew up in Washington, D.C., does the setting of this story align itself with your own memories and feelings about that time and place?

Yes–absolutely! The fictional setting of Summerlings is very similar to the ‘hood of my early childhood–Chevy Chase at the District line. It didn’t really occur to me until late in life that mine was an intriguing and unusual neighborhood; typical for D.C., but for nowhere else. To us kids, of course, it was just our ‘hood, and the Washington we knew.

The story is narrated main character John, who, at 8, has his hands full with his parents’ divorce, his mother’s extended hospital stays for what he is told is a case of tuberculosis, a neighborhood bully, a spider plague of Biblical proportions, and a plan to make his neighborhood a friendlier place. As played out with his best friends Ivan, Max, and Beatriz, John’s assessments of his day-to-day challenges often reveal a degree of wisdom beyond his years, always tempered by the judgment of a child. In many ways, the story reminds us that each generation faces its own share of grave problems. What is it about John that reveals his resilience despite his problems?

The story is narrated by John as an adult looking back. As an 8-year-old, he does have a degree of wisdom beyond his years, as traumatized children do. Also like such children, he’s resilient, because what choice do kids have? John understands that his world is shaped by the incomprehensible–and sometimes cruel–actions of adults, but he has no power and must navigate the best he can, resigned to his belief that “the world is the weirdest place on earth.”

There is a fleeting scene in the story in which John’s mother is home for a brief visit, and the family sits down for dinner. He calls it “heartwarming,” and says “I was content. We were like a normal family.” Why was this such an important experience for him?

John is bereft of both parents and he longs for them, especially his mom. When she briefly returns from St. Elizabeth’s, he’s so happy, reveling in her attention and love, and hoping her “TB” is cured. And most kids want stability and normalcy–whatever that is–in their family life, and he’s able to briefly feel that. Unfortunately, as you say, his comfort is fleeting, not even lasting through their crab cake dinner.

The spider plague of that summer was like no other, and was a great equalizer that ensured a common suffering among the city’s residents – and even IT carried political suspicions. Explain the spider plague for readers.

I created the spider plague because I thought it would be fun to capture the goofiness of kids with their collecting obsessions, and would also make the adults seem a little ridiculous with their own obsessions in the Cold War years: the plague must be another plot by the Soviets to “bury” us, as Khrushchev famously said.

Also, I love writing about the natural world in a place, and I’m crazy about E.O. Wilson’s memoir, Naturalist, particularly about his Alabama childhood collecting bugs. By the way, Wilson’s mentor was Marion R. Smith, a myrmecologist (a scientist who studies ants) who worked in Mississippi and D.C. and has a cameo in Summerlings.

John laments late in the story that children are constantly being told, “You’ll understand when you’re older,” yet they are faced with problems they must process at the moment. In what ways does this entire story, which took place 60 years ago, remind us that some things never change–and what can we learn from that?

Well, I think I make it clear that the issues of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s resonate strongly today, most obviously the ongoing concern with Russia. When I began writing this book, I didn’t really set out to make this a strong theme, but the more I researched, the more I found: 60 years ago, Khrushchev vowed publicly to interfere in our elections, they were poisoning people, refugees were being turned back from the U.S., and we all feared Communism and nuclear war.

But there’s also, I think, a way to see things positively: things appear to be terrible, but we do come through. At least so far! And on a lighter note, it was fun to write about how exciting and pervasive the music and films of the ‘50s were, too–we still cherish all that, remembering the iconic lyrics and scenes. The good things also last.

Lisa Howorth will be at the Eudora Welty House on Wednesday, August 7, at 5:00 to sign and read from Summerlings. Lemuria has selected Summerlings as its July 2019 selection for its First Editions Club for Fiction.

* * *

Howorth will also appear at the Mississippi Book Festival August 17 as a participant in the “Southern Fiction” panel at 2:45 p.m. at the Galloway Fellowship Center.

Author Q & A with Martin Clark

By Guest Author

On July 28, 2019

In Southern Fiction

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 28)

Devoting decades to his life to the rough-and-tumble field of law has been pure inspiration for the fictional stories that have made Martin Clark one of the most awarded and acclaimed legal thriller writers today.

The latest evidence of that claim: The Substitution Order, Clark’s newest novel, crafting a tale that embraces, at times, despair, hope, and unanswered questions about a lawyer who’s hit rock bottom after an unrestrained summer of bad choices leaves him broke and broken-hearted.

Martin is a retired Virginia circuit court judge of 27 years whose previous novels (The Jezebel Remedy, The Legal Limit, Plain Heathen Mischief, and The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living) have garnered awards including a New York Times Notable Book, A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year, a Bookmark Magazine Book of the Year, a Boston Globe Book of the Year, a winner of the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in both 2009 and 2016, and many more.

He and his wife Deana, a photographer, live on a Virginia farm with dogs, cats, chickens, and three donkeys.

After graduating from law school 35 years ago and going on to serve as a Virginia circuit court judge for 27 of those years, the law–and writing novels with law-related stories–must have become somewhat second nature for you. Your first book, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, was published in 2000, followed by three others and now The Substitution Order. All have garnered much attention. Has it surprised you that your books were immediately met with such success, which continues today?

Martin Clark

I probably shouldn’t admit this–your version sure makes for a better history–but my books were definitely not “immediately met with success.” Like so many other writers, I collected years and years of rejection letters, until 1999, when Knopf took a chance on The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living. To this day, at every gig I do, I read from those rejection letters. Here’s a favorite riff from a 1983 butt-kicking, sent to me by a New York literary agent: “I read five pages and wondered if you’ve ever been scared by a performing flea; read 10 more and developed a severe case of vertigo.” That said, I’ve had an excellent run since then, and I’m very grateful for my good fortune, which is, all things given, pretty darn surprising.

Your works carry a dry sense of humor that is built into the twists of the plots and the personalities of the characters. Have you found that to be one of the most appealing aspects of writing–does it come naturally to you?

Pretty much. Plus, there’s so much sadness and heartbreak in the court system that occasional levity helps all of us get through the days. Eighty percent of my job as a judge was sentencing people for theft, drug charges, and probation violations–a smile or a wry comment or quiet joke often made some weeks just a tiny bit more tolerable.

In The Substitution Order, you place a likeable, down-and-out attorney in the position of combatting scam artists trying to undo his career for good, even as he struggles to win it back by playing by the rules. His journey plays out amidst health issues, relationship foibles, and legal loopholes. How do you go about developing characters and their circumstances, and do you tend to base the substance of your plots on what you’ve seen during years of law and court experience?

I absolutely draw on my time in the courtroom–write what you know, correct? But the characters and the plots are largely fictionalized, given that much of what happens in court is frequently mundane and routine. More to the point, if, as a reader, you invest in a book, you don’t want a legal primer, you want a good ride, some entertainment, some twists and turns, and maybe a very small instruction at the end. And, to be clear, in The Substitution Order, Kevin Moore certainly knows the rules and how to use them, but I wouldn’t say he follows them to the letter.

The end of The Substitution Order was a bittersweet surprise. Is that in sync with your experience of handling legal cases that may not have turned out as you expected?

Thank you for mentioning that. As writers, we hope to tell a realistic, entertaining story, create likeable characters that readers will root for, and then provide a payoff over the last few pages. “Bittersweet surprises” is a great way to put it and exactly what I hope The Substitution Order delivers. As for handling court cases and how I’ve seen them turn out, virtually any lawyer will tell you that you just never know. Plus, as I highlight in the book, sometimes it’s a victory for a litigant when things don’t go totally and completely sideways, and you sneak out with minor wounds and not a full-blown bloodletting.

What have you enjoyed most about creating these stories, and what would you say is your biggest challenge when writing?

My biggest writing challenge these days is finding the stamina and focus to slog through all the technical, picayune final edits. I love writing, but debating commas and preferred spellings and capitalization rules is tedious. Necessary, but tedious.

You can check behind me, and you’ll discover I’ve never said anything like this before–I generally don’t care to praise my own writing–but The Substitution Order is by far the best novel I’ve ever put on paper. On December 30, 2015, I almost died, and it took me about a year to fully recover. I was lucky enough to have a steadfast wife and a godsend, genius surgeon, and now I’m fixed, totally normal. So, truthfully, I enjoyed simply being able to sit down and write this novel, being able to do it. Brushing against ruin tends to make you slightly wiser and a little more thoughtful. As my editor told me about this book: “You’ve always had a great story to tell, but now you actually have something worthwhile to say.”

Martin Clark will be at Lemuria on Thursday, August 15, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and discuss The Substitution Order.

Author Q & A with Juliet Grames

By Guest Author

On July 21, 2019

In Fiction

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 21)

“Author” is a new title for Juliet Grames, associate publisher and curator of the Solo Crime imprint for HarperCollins. With the publishing of her debut novel The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, Grames joins the ranks of the hundreds of writers whose works she has helped become real books.

Growing up in a tight-knit Italian family living in Connecticut, Grames loosely borrows from some of her own experiences as she shares the tale of the indomitable Stella Fortuna, who gave birth to 11 children even as she lived through at least seven–maybe eight–near-death experiences.

Grames is looking forward to her appearance at the Mississippi Book Festival in downtown Jackson Aug. 17.

“I had the great good fortune of visiting Jackson in January 2018 and was profoundly moved by everything I saw and experienced, but especially by the literary culture of the city,” she said. “I am so honored and grateful to have been invited to the festival and to have the opportunity to be a tiny part of that rich literary culture.”

Since this is your debut book, please share a bit about your background.

Juliet Grames

I was born in Hartford, Conn., and grew up in the Farmington Valley. I knew I wanted to write books since I was a little girl–actually, my first attempt at a novel, when I was 6, was a story inspired by my grandmother, just like Stella Fortuna was. I’ve spent my entire career working with literature. My first job was at the public library, then I spent four years working at my hometown’s Borders Books, then a year at a literary agency before getting my start in book publishing editorial at places like John Wiley & Sons and The Overlook Press. But secretly I’m actually a devout amateur historian. I was a history major at Columbia, and spent a year studying history at Oxford.

As a book editor who has worked for Soho the past decade, you now hold the position of associate publisher and curator of the Soho Crime imprint. How does it feel to be on this “other side” of publishing? Was writing a book always part of your career dreams?

I originally got into publishing because I thought it would help me toward a writing career. For years, it seemed this plan had catastrophically failed, and I advised aspiring publishing professionals not to get into editorial if they wanted to write, because they would never be able to find bandwidth to nurture their own creative voice. But in the end, it wasn’t such a bad plan. Soho Press is a wonderful institution that has allowed me, and others, to pursue creative endeavors, and I believe my editorial training really helped me make my own novel into the best thing it could be.

This story is partly based on experiences in your own Italian-American family. Can you tell us a little about that?

The novel follows a girl born in Calabria, Italy, in the years after World War I through her childhood in a poor mountain village, emigration to the U.S. on the eve of World War II, courtship, family drama, and eight near-death experiences. It was inspired by my grandmother, a larger-than-life character and storyteller.

My grandparents emigrated from southern Italy in the 1930s and settled in Hartford, Conn. I grew up steeped in their culture–the food, the dialects, the storytelling, the music, the horticulture–and very proud of my immigrant roots. As I got older, I tried to find histories and literature about the Italian South so I could learn more, but was frustrated by how little there is. One reason I wanted to write this book was to try to capture the fascinating world of southern Italy, where so many Italian-Americans’ ancestors originated.

The story begins with Stella’s parents’ history and extends to Stella’s life at age 100. Along the way, readers we learn about Stella’s multiple brushes with death, raising her large family and her lifelong longing for her own independence. Please tell us briefly about these struggles that define her life.

Stella Fortuna’s eight near-deaths are the one piece of the plot I took wholly from reality. My grandmother had very similar misadventures over the course of her long life–experiences, I realized, which laid the groundwork for an allegory about how dangerous independence and self-actualization could be for women like my grandmother, like Stella, born into reduced circumstances in pre-war southern Italy, where women were not even citizens.

Life was especially dangerous when these women took risks to better their situations–to educate themselves or their children, to be ambitious about accruing money or property, to stand up to their controlling or abusive fathers or husbands. Stella struggles her entire life against the identity her world wants her to embrace–obedient wife and mother. Her stubborn independence and fierce sense of self never allow her to compromise, even when her resistance nearly cost her her life.

Even though Stella and her family moved to America when she was 19 years old, she never got over missing the Italian village of her childhood. How does that drive her outlook and expectations of a better life?

Stella is typical of many Italian emigrants of the first half of the 20th century in that she is deeply ambivalent about having to leave Italy. The tragedy of poverty and colonial exploitation meant that there were few work opportunities in places like Calabria, and people traveled thousands of miles to work abroad so they could feed their families. Many of the millions of Italians who arrived in the United States between 1900 and 1925 continued to think of Italy as home and intended to return there.

During my research, I found two very poignant forms of nostalgia at this great wave of migration: first, Italian-Americans like Stella and many other characters who never stopped loving and missing Italy; and second, in Italy, the descendants of the Italians who remained in towns that were emptied out by emigration, who feel kinship for the American cousins they never had a chance to meet.

In the end, the narrator tells readers that Stella was “not a woman of her time,” and that she was had “incredible will and strength, of charisma, of innate intelligence.” What can we learn from this tale today?

My main hope is that readers will walk away from the novel asking themselves about the lives and reputations of the “difficult” women who might have come before them–mothers or aunts or grandmothers of Stella’s generation who sometimes had to go to extreme or even ugly lengths to survive the hard years of the 20th century and to keep their families together. I believe our foremothers’ legacies are worth revisiting, and that when we question why these women were so “difficult,” we often find them to have been more heroic and multi-faceted than we could have guessed.

Juliet Grames will appear at the Mississippi Book Festival August 17 as a participant in the “Best Debut Novels of 2019” panel at 10:45 a.m. in State Capitol Room 113 and the “All About Soho Press” panel at 2:45 p.m. in State Capitol Room 201 H.

Author Q & A with S. J. Rozan

By Guest Author

On July 14, 2019

In Mystery, Southern Fiction

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 14)

Author SJ Rozan’s familiar detective duo of New Yorkers Lydia Chin and Bill Smith find themselves in a place “more foreign . . . than any (they’d) ever seen”–the Mississippi Delta–when they tackle yet another mystery in her newest tale, Paper Son.

Multi-award-winning crime writer Rozan, herself a native and current resident of New York City, was intrigued when she first heard about the Delta’s long-established Chinese community, and proved that this “Most Southern Place on Earth” was also the best setting yet for another whodunit. And this time, it‘s personal: Lydia’s cousin–whom she never knew existed–has been accused of murdering his father.

To her writing credit of 16 novels and more than 70 short stories, Rozan adds Paper Son, the 12th in her popular Lydia and Bill series. Her work has been the recipient of the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, Macavity, and Japanese Maltese Falcon awards, and she recently captured the Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.

Rozan will appear as an official panelist at the Mississippi Book Festival on the lawn of the Mississippi Capital on August 17.

How did you decide to set your latest novel in the Mississippi Delta – the “most Southern place on earth”? Do you have friends/family/ties to Mississippi? Did you visit the Delta in person to research the land, people and culture of the area?

S.J. Rozan

I first went to the Delta to visit my friend Eric Stone, who had moved to Clarksdale. Eric introduced me to the story of the Delta’s Chinese grocers. I’d never heard this fascinating bit of American history. I’d been writing about Chinese-American private eye Lydia Chin for years, and this seemed like a situation made for her. I researched the history of the grocers and the Delta itself when I was back in NYC, then made two more trips to the Delta to interview, see people and places, and get a feel for the sights, sounds, and smells.

Paper Son places private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, with a plan to defend a cousin in what appears to be an open-and-shut murder case. As an American-born native of Chinatown in New York City, Chin, and fellow New Yorker Smith, face the Delta with the uncertainties of “strangers in a strange land.” They are soon sorting through the tangled “facts,” amid nuances of the Delta’s past. What role does the setting of this story play, and what would you say this case tells us about the secrets of the Delta–past and present?

The setting in some ways IS the story. This is true in all my books, with Paper Son as my 12th Lydia and Bill book, and my 16th overall. Things happen in some places–in this instance, the complicated family history of Lydia’s Delta cousins–that wouldn’t happen in others. What the case tells us about the secrets of the Delta, I think, are universal truths: everything is complex and nuanced; we rarely get any whole story unless we dig for it; and the motivations for people’s actions are often different from what we think they are.

After working in a number of career roles, how did you know that writing was what you were meant to do, and what was it that made you gravitate specifically toward writing crime novels (or is the term “mysteries” more accurate)?

I like the term “crime novels;” it’s broader and gives me more leeway as a writer. I always wanted to write, but in college I got sidetracked by the thought that a person had a responsibility to do something useful in the world. I became an architect. The firm I was with did sustainable buildings and historic preservation. They were great people and I enjoyed the work, but I wasn’t happy. As soon as I admitted that to myself, I realized I wanted to go back to my original love, which was writing. Crime novels attract me because they’re about two main issues: a moment when someone feels intense pressure to respond to a situation, and the aftereffects of that response.

Have you already begun to write the next adventure for Lydia and Bill–or perhaps other characters–and why do you think Lydia and Bill have become endeared to so many readers?

The way my series works, Lydia and Bill alternate as narrators from book to book, with the other character as sidekick. Paper Son is Lydia’s book, and I’ve started the next one, which will be Bill’s. It’s set in the New York art world, an endless source of intrigue. What readers tell me they like about Lydia and Bill is the way they’re obviously fond of each other, or maybe even more than that, and they can depend on one another absolutely, but neither of them will take any baloney–from the other, or from anyone else. Also, Lydia, a strong independent Asian woman with, nevertheless, a huge family she takes seriously, is an unusual character in crime fiction.

Please tell me about your participation in the upcoming Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 17 in Jackson. On which panel will you be a participant, and what will be the topic of discussion? Is this your first appearance at this event?

This will be the first time I’ve been part of the Mississippi Book Festival and I’m very much looking forward to it. I haven’t gotten my panel assignment yet, but whatever it is I’m sure it’ll be interesting and fun. ‘See you there!

S.J. Rozan will appear at the Mississippi Book Festival August 17 as a participant in the “The Thrill of Mystery” panel at 1:30 p.m. in State Capitol Room 113.

Author Q & A with Luke Lampton and Karen Evers

By Guest Author

On July 7, 2019

In Southern History

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 7)

Images in Mississippi Medicine: A Photographic History of Medicine in Mississippi by Dr. Luke Lampton and colleague Karen Evers, presents an unprecedented chronicle of the practice of medicine here from pre-statehood days to the technologies of today.

Along with Lampton’s historical narratives that cover everything from the state’s hospitals to the early physicians, the treatment of mental illness, the advancement of public medicine, the beginnings of medical education and more, the book is illustrated with many rare and significant photos.

The volume is published by the Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) under the auspices of the Commemorative Committee for the 150th Anniversary meeting of the MSMA House of Delegates.

Lampton has served for 25 years as a family physician at Magnolia Clinic in Magnolia, where he resides. He was born and grew up in Jackson, and he currently publishes Hinds County’s oldest newspaper, the Hinds County Gazette in Raymond.

A fifth-generation Mississippi physician, Lampton is Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA).

Karen Evers has filled the role of managing editor of that Journal the past 24 years. The daughter of a physician and a nurse, she lives in Jackson. Her professional background before her appointment at the Journal was in advertising in New York City.

The book earned a gold award from the Columbia Books Association Trends contest, which is a top national prize for the best of professional association publications.

The reception for Images in Mississippi Medicine has been so successful that a “volume 2” is already under consideration, its authors say.

Please tell me how this book came about . . . whose idea was it, and why was it 20 years in the making?

Dr. Luke Lampton

Lampton: The origin of the book is the origin of a column in the state medical journal. After the two of us came together as editors in 1998, we contemplated feature columns which would interest our physician readers. One of these columns was Images in Mississippi Medicine, which presents a historical photograph or graphic image with accompanying narrative. We would occasionally discuss gathering them together as a book in the distant future. In 2017, as the state medical association prepared for the 150th meeting of its House of Delegates, Dr. Michael Trotter, chairman of the Commemorative Committee, asked us to create a historical book from these monthly columns, which dated back to 2002. We added many other rarely seen images and settled on 300 in our attempt to tell more fully the story of Mississippi medicine.

Dr. Lampton, what was your primary role in the production of this book?

Lampton: As author and creator of the monthly historical column, I wrote all of the copy and collected the majority of the images over the years utilized in the book. I also wrote all of the essays, narratives, and cutlines used in the book; thus, I was the primary author. That said, I did want to acknowledge Karen’s significant editorial assistance and vision with the book, and I requested her inclusion as joint author with me.

Ms. Evers, what was your primary role in the production of this book?

Karen Evers

Evers: As managing editor of the Journal during the life of the column and the creation of the book, I assisted Dr. Lampton in research, copy editing, and coordinating publishing and printing. I also helped him locate [the] many of the images [that] did not come from his extensive personal collection of photographs. It was fun! Discovering the story behind the images and how the pieces of history were relative was amazing. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the University of Mississippi Medical Center Department of Archives (Misti Thornton) were invaluable resources, as was The Mississippiana collection at Mississippi State University’s Mitchell Library (Fred Smith). We also worked closely with Adrienne Dison in the artistic production of the book.

Can you name a few of the standout doctors and/or medical accomplishments that have taken place in Mississippi over the years?

Lampton: There are many, and perhaps the major accomplishment of this book is to shine the light on many neglected heroes in our state’s historical parade. Certainly, Dr. William Lattimore (1774-1843) deserves more prominent remembrance by both citizens and physicians for not only his public health accomplishments, but also his selfless political leadership. He, with the help of his brother and other Natchez physicians, created the state’s first hospital, its first board of health, its first use of vaccination and quarantine, and the first board of medical censors. These are remarkable and progressive public health accomplishments. Lattimore also served as Mississippi’s first Territorial Congressman and in that capacity determined the dividing line between Alabama and Mississippi and located the current site of Jackson. He is remembered for making morally justified decisions but not politically opportune decisions, which cost him the governorship.

In the more modern period, Dr. Joseph Goldberger’s brave and groundbreaking work eliminating pellagra in Mississippi in the early 20th century had global implications. Few realize that this Orthodox Jew who was an immigrant to New York married the niece of Jefferson Davis, who was his right hand in all of his brilliant public health work. Goldberger’s Mississippi connections through her proved critical in the success of his work.

Also featured in the book is the work of public health legend Dr. Felix Underwood, who revolutionized public health in Mississippi and was called “the man who saved a million lives.” Other public health leaders are featured, including Dr. Waller Leathers, Dr. Ed Thompson, Dr. Mary Currier, and Dr. Alton Cobb. Cobb may have made the most important contributions to public health and medicine of any Mississippian over the last 50 years. The modern public health system in Mississippi can be credited to his work and vision, and he set standards of excellence at the Department of Health and a focus on science which endure today. Thank Alton Cobb for Mississippi not having a measles outbreak recently, because he was the one who helped fashion our strict vaccination laws well before other states realized their importance.

As well, the University of Mississippi Medical Center plays a central role in the history of medicine in the state. Its purpose is explored beginning with the earliest development of a two-year school in Oxford up to the bold move to Jackson in the 1950s. The legendary early professors, Drs. Guyton, Pankratz, Snavely, Hardy, Batson, and others are mentioned. Early attempts at medical education are also discussed, most notably the first four-year medical college, the Mississippi Medical College, which operated in Meridian from 1906-1913.

The role of mental health, especially the long history of the state’s mental health institutions, is discussed in detail, with fascinating images of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum–as it evolved into the Mississippi State Hospital–in both Jackson and Whitfield and the East Mississippi Insane Hospital in Meridian. Also, the development and growth of community hospitals and sanatoriums are explored around the state, from 1805 to the Civil War to the later King’s Daughters movement to the later Hill-Burton period.

And there is more.

Why is this book important to Mississippi, and who should read it?

Lampton: The book reveals that medicine played a vital role in the broader history of our state. Education, politics, race, poverty, and public health come forth on every page. There exists no comprehensive history of medicine in the state.

This book provides the framework for the state’s medical history, and we hope it encourages more writing and research on many of the topics highlighted. The book is important not only for historians and physicians but also for students and lay readers.

Signed copies of Images in Mississippi Medicine are available at Lemuria’s online store.

Tag: Jana Hoops (Page 3 of 13)

Author Q & A with Brittney Morris

Author Q & A with Shaun Hamill

Author Q & A with Téa Obreht

Author Q & A with Sarah M. Broom

Author Q & A with Margerita Jurkovic

Author Q & A with Lisa Howorth

Author Q & A with Martin Clark

Author Q & A with Juliet Grames

Author Q & A with S. J. Rozan

Author Q & A with Luke Lampton and Karen Evers

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