Where the Crawdads Sing meets The Four Winds as award-winning author Donna Everhart immerses readers in a unique setting—a turpentine camp buried deep in the vast pine forests of Georgia during the Great Depression—for a captivating story of friendship, survival, and three vagabonds' intersecting lives…
It takes courage to save yourself...
In the dense pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners labor, hacking into tree trunks to draw out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling the resin to stills to be refined. Among them is Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, who run a small turpentine farm together.
Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, is thankful for it--and for her kind if careless husband. When Warren falls victim to his own negligence, Rae Lynn undertakes a desperate act of mercy. To keep herself from jail, she disguises herself as a man named "Ray" and heads to the only place she can think of that might offer anonymity--a turpentine camp in Georgia named Swallow Hill.
Swallow Hill is no easy haven. The camp is isolated and squalid, and commissary owner Otis Riddle takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Although Rae Lynn works tirelessly, she becomes a target for Crow, the ever-watchful woods rider who checks each laborer's tally. Delwood Reese, who's come to Swallow Hill hoping for his own redemption, offers "Ray" a small measure of protection, and is determined to improve their conditions. As Rae Lynn forges a deeper friendship with both Del and Cornelia, she begins to envision a path out of the camp. But she will have to come to terms with her past, with all its pain and beauty, before she can open herself to a new life and seize the chance to begin again.
Reviews:
“Fans of Sarah Addison Allen won't be able to put it down.” – Booklist
“The distinctive setting of the turpentine camps in the South during the Great Depression will make an imprint on readers, just as the characters of Rae Lynn and Del do. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen won't be able to put it down.” —Booklist
Q & A with Donna~
Tell us a little about yourself and how you started writing.
I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and still
live within forty-five minutes of there. I’m married, have two kids, and two
grandkids. I used to have an adorable little Yorkie, named Mister, but we,
sadly, lost him unexpectedly in July of last year. I am a huge animal advocate
and donate to various organizations. I’m a Stage IV cancer survivor.
My “origin” story as a writer is off the beaten track, I
suppose. How I got started seems like a bit of karma. You know how you meander
along going to work every day, come home, do the “home” stuff, and start all
over? That was me, not unlike so many other people. I had what I call a
“nothing to see here,” sort of life. In the background to all of this lived my
desire to write, recognized around age eighteen. But, Marriage, Kids, Work,
Family, Other Obligations, Bills (capitalized because those are major
influencers), had taken hold of my destiny, at least for the time being. Oh, I
had dabbled with a book I’d had on my laptop since 1992, but . . . , to take it seriously? No. Writing was
a back burner dream for decades. Until a bankruptcy – not mine, fortunately!
I worked in Information Technology for thirty-five years,
(I’m aging myself with this info - haha) and, I would have most likely retired
from that, had everything stayed as it was – but, it didn’t. The company I had
been with a good while declared Chapter Eleven in late 2008. Talk about pushing
a panic button. Then came the layoffs. One, by one, by one, I saw my colleagues
go, people who were like family. On any given day, I thought I was next.
Luckily, I was able to continue working for three more years as they sold off
parts of the business. I went back to school and got a degree – not an MFA in
writing, although in hindsight . .
. anyway, late at night I worked on a
manuscript that was disastrous, and about sixteen years old. That, (amazingly)
is the manuscript that would eventually become my debut novel, THE EDUCATION OF
DIXIE DUPREE.
I suppose what it boils down to is, I was more or less
pushed off the cliff because of my company failing. If it hadn’t been for that,
I’d still be happily project managing my way toward retirement. I signed with
an agent on March 9th, 2012. My exit date from my IT job just so happened to be
exactly three weeks later on March 30th, 2012. I haven’t looked back since.
What are some things you enjoy when not writing?
Running used to be my go to, head-clearing, make myself
feel better about eating ice-cream at night, mainstay. The cancer diagnosis in
2017 and the long-term side-effects have more or less sidelined something I did
for the better part of thirty years. Nowadays I walk/run, bike (when it’s
warm), work in the yard, read and bake. My husband and I also like to take
trips to the North Carolina mountains in our 5th wheel camper.
How do you start your day (a routine of sorts?)
I typically am downstairs by 6:00, and spend a bit of time
with my husband before he goes to work, around 7:15, or so. Then, I go back
upstairs to my office to work. Normally – and this is probably a MISTAKE, I
check on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Well. We all know
what happens. Sometime later, I realize, I haven’t written ONE word! I write
for at least a couple hours – depending on how it’s going. Sometimes I have to
get away from it to think, and this is when I like to go outside and get in
some exercise of some kind. It always helps unclog the brain cells. Despite the
time drain of social media I do find that I write about 4 hours a day, usually
more.
Finish this: “I can’t write without…”
I can’t, make that CANNOT, write without coffee, and quiet.
Sometimes, even neighborhood noises, leaf blowers, etc., disrupt my train of
thought. I am talking tomb silent. Crypt silent. I.e. dead silent. ☺
What is something about you that would surprise people?
Oh, gosh, I don’t know. My life is still that “nothing to
see here,” sort of life, except I write, which is exciting to me. BUT – one
thing that might be surprising, and it’s not really about me, but more of something that happened to me. I was walking
on the beach and found a dead person years ago. It was out of season, so there
weren’t a lot of people around. I recall seeing this odd looking shape in the
distance moving back and forth in the waves. I kept walking, and when I
realized what I was seeing, I started to run and found a young man who had
drowned. Since that day, which was in late September, right after 9/11, I have
kept up with his mother. His name was Joey Johnson, his mother’s name is Mary,
and he was from West VA. I found out he was fasting because of 9/11. There was
still a rip current from a recent hurricane, and he got caught up in that. So
sad.
Is there a particular author or book that influenced or
inspired your writing or decision to write?
Yes! If anyone ever hears me speak at a book event, I
always, always talk about the influence of Kaye Gibbons (I have every single
book she ever wrote) as well as Dorothy Allison. Both of those authors were my
introduction to Southern fiction, stories told in the sort of “voices” that
spoke to me.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first
book published (or this book?)
What is it the weather people say when it’s the holidays
and there are travel snafus? “Pack your patience.” That applies very well here.
So, all that great stuff happened above; signing with an agent on March 9th 2012,
and three weeks later I left my decades old job for the life of a bestselling
author! Except, the book didn’t sell for THREE years. (!)THE EDUCATION OF DIXIE
DUPREE officially went on sub in mid-March 2012.
There was a flurry of email
excitement at first between my agent and myself. A week went by and while some
of the biggest editors in NYC were reading the book, I was determined to prove
I could do it again! I got busy on Book #2 just to keep myself from going nuts.
Two weeks go by. A month. Six months. A year, and on and on. I never went on
sub with Book #2, and instead, started and finished Book #3. In mid-February
2015, Book #3 went on submission and was getting rejected. One editor who
rejected it liked my writing enough to see something else. My agent took a
chance and submitted DIXIE DUPREE to him. Six weeks later on April 1st, 2015
came an offer. Phew – when I think on how THAT happened, I realized what I had
been told was true. Always, always have
something else to offer agents and editors.
Do you have a manuscript(s) in your drawer? If so, will it
ever see the light of day?
I do, and it’s Book #2, as well as Book #3, although that
one did see a few editors. I really like both of those stories, and I wouldn’t
mind, with some hard work, polishing them up and seeing what might happen. Book
#2 takes place in 1928 in the North Carolina mountains and is about a young
couple who lose their son in a tragic accident, and their inability to cope
with his death. It’s about the impact it has on them. Book #3 might have to go
out under a pseudonym should my agent ever agree to resurrect that one. It’s a
hard crime novel and I’d have to tone it down some, I think, to get any
interest in it.
What are you working on now?
I am under contract for Books #6 and #7. Book #6 takes
place during the Civil War, and it’s so fresh and new, I can’t say much more
about it because it’s in that ugly stage of development. The “yuck,” this can’t
be writing, stage.
Do you
have any advice for aspiring writers?
Write the way that is comfortable for YOU. Writing is an
individual activity and what works for one person might not work for another. Some
people still like to take a legal pad and write long-hand. Not me! Some like to
write 1,000 words a day – that is me! But, that might not work for you. You
might want to write more, or less. When you sit down, and if the words are
coming, keep going! If you’ve barely added a hundred new words and you’re
moving commas around mostly, get up, and do something else for a while, then
come back to it.
The one thing that does ring true, a book does not get done
unless there is real work put towards it, so you have to know your work rhythm
and what resonates to begin to build your stories.
Place
you’d like to travel?
Many! My husband and I want to travel the United States –
particularly out West. I have a bit of a travel bug/itch going on right now. I
want to see the Grand Canyon, travel Route 66, go to the Pacific Northwest, see
the great sequoias, and many other places. I want to return to my mother’s home
state of Maine. I haven’t been since I was seventeen, but I recall it like it
was yesterday. I want to see the rocky seashores, and smell the evergreens.
It’s very distinctive, and she used to call it “God’s country.” I have
relatives up there, too, so it would be nice to reconnect.
Is there
anything you’d like to say to your readers and fans?
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my
stories! I wrote a sort of “review” for THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL out on
Goodreads – which was done mostly so I could “talk” to readers about the book,
but it truly speaks to what I am trying to accomplish with my stories overall.
What I wrote was this, “It's true that I
never write easy stories, however, I like to think I write honestly about
troubles, worries, about souls lost, and then found. I write about hardships,
friendships, honor, and truth. I hope to create characters you love to hate,
and those you want to root for, cheering them on to The End.”
And so, dear readers/fans, if that sounds like you, then
I’m glad you found my work, and I appreciate your support so much! As always,
happy reading!
To connect with Donna:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnadaviseverhart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wordstogobuy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donnaeve2/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/donna-everhart
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14930589.Donna_Everhart
