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Jo tells us how That Summer came to be:
The setting of That Summer is the Southern Appalachians of East Tennessee where my
ancestors and I were raised. I’ve listened to the older generations tell their
stories at family reunions about time before telephones and automobiles. Their
stories fascinated me and caused me to want to write about a time before I was
born.
This story percolated in my mind in the
late 1990s. I’m what writers call a panster type of writer. I don’t outline my
plot on paper. My entire plot and characters simmer in my mind before I write a
word. Many times I don’t know the ending but I know how to get there. Of
course, sometimes characters surprise me by going this way when I intended them
to go another way. I love how my stories many times work themselves out as I
write.
While this story still rumbled around in
my mind, in 2001 I received a life altering health diagnosis with a negative
prognosis. My first symptom was the loss of penmanship that nobody, even I,
could read. Then I began to have involuntary muscle spasms that prevented me
from holding my fingers on the home keys of a keyboard. I couldn’t write and
couldn’t type—this was before speak-to-type.
I thought my writing career had vanished.
I cleaned out my files—even trashed all my
rejection letters I’d been saving. Now I wish I’d kept them to prove that I
really am a writer. I gave away most of my writing craft books.
My mind was still intact but my body
wouldn’t do what it was told. My balance while walking started to diminish and
I quit going to writing conferences. My doctor advised me not to drive. I was
dependent on my family to even get to my doctor’s appointments and still am.
In 2008, I began to improve. My hands were
steadier and I could get my story started. The biggest aggravation when I write
anything is the time I have to leave my story to research the facts. When the
story starts pouring out of my mind I want to write. I write continuously, not
indicating chapters but I do indicate scene and POV changes. After I finish
that first draft I go back and do those things.
I have outlived my doctor’s prognosis by
over a year and a half. I’m writing the second of a 3-book contract and feel
fine other than fatigue when I don’t stop to rest now and then. Fatigue does
bring on more unsteadiness in my hands and legs.
From 2001 to 2008 I had a lot of time to
meditate. A relative marvels that I’ve never questioned God, why me? I have not
become bitter because of the health issues. I think God just gave me time to
understand a lot of things when I was inactive. I’m a more peaceful, patient,
and faithful me.
This is the way That Summer came to be: hibernated for seven years, and then became
a story on paper.
Thank you so much for hosting me, Diane. It's my pleasure to spend time with you and your readers.
Thank you so much for hosting me, Diane. It's my pleasure to spend time with you and your readers.
Leave your name and email here at Diane's blog. I'll give away a copy of That Summer at each blog.
Jo Huddleston
Author of the forthcoming Southern historical, That Summer
Website/blog http://www.johuddleston.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jo.
Offering spiritual tonic and hope
