Straight Chatting from the Library: Charlotte Whitney

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

READ THE INTERVIEW

What first book made an indelible impression on you?

Like many girls of my generation I absolutely loved Little Women and it has stayed with me for all of my adult life. It was the first book that I cried over—when Beth dies of scarlet fever. It is also was a book with strong female characters. I identified with Jo, an ambitious young woman and writer. I never quite understood, however, why the author felt compelled to have Jo marry the German boarder and have children. I never expected it. If I were to rewrite the book, in 2022 I might write the ending a bit differently.

How do you develop your plot and characters?

With my characters I start out deciding which ones have a large arc and which ones are basically flat. With Polly Forrest, hers is a large arc and while writing the book I was worried that she changed too much over the course of about nine months. Was this realistic? So far, no one has challenged that assumption. This was, of course, the Great Depression, and people had to change their course, alter their behavior, and reinvent themselves, way before “reinvention” was a concept. The plot works the same way. I start with a basic inciting incident and as I write I continue on, adding new wrinkles, going back and setting the stage for each one, and then revising, revising, revising.

Describe your writing space.

The most noticeable area of my office is the area above my desk where I have four gorgeous bunny rabbit dolls, made by Native American artist, Sally Thielen, from Michigan. The bunny rabbits have raku heads and they are dressed in native garb, one in white fur, another in buckskin, another with a papoose on her back and the fourth is raspberry lady who has been out gathering berries in her wicker basket. They are so beautifully crafted and I love having them prominently positioned in my office. I might say they are my muses, but I’m not sure I actually get inspiration from them. It’s more that I love to take a short break and admire them. Another conspicuous piece of art in my office is a Hopi katsina collection above my bookcase. I live in Arizona and cherish the Hopi tradition. What I have is a collection of four clowns sitting on branches, swinging and eating watermelon. They are dressed in black and white stripes, much like jailbirds depicted in very old movies. I love the whimsical nature of the katsinas. They always seem to generate a smile.

But where do you actually do your writing?

Oh, this is so boring. I actually sit at a desk and write on my computer with my chocolate Labrador retriever lying at my feet. Does this sound idyllic? Well, actually it is. I enjoying writing and frequently take a quick break to grab a hot coffee from the kitchen or an ice tea, if the weather’s warm, and in Arizona we have lots of warm weather.

READ THE BLURB

Rural Michigan, 1934.

During the throes of the Great Depression Polly marries for money. After her husband Sam dies in a bizarre farm accident, new bride Polly assumes she is set to pursue her dream of opening a hat-making business. Instead, she becomes the prime suspect in Sam’s murder. Secrets abound and even Polly’s family can’t figure out the truth.

READ AN EXCERPT

Sarah Wolcott Johnson
Thursday, May 24, 1934

I couldn’t hold back. “Polly, you’re such a liar. You kept making excuses for all your bruises and now you’re still hiding stuff from us. Sam’s letter. And now the coffee. When will it all end? All these lies. All this deception.”

Contrary to what Wes said, I was not going to apologize for anything. She was the one who needed to make amends.

Polly stiffened, put the coffee cup on the table, and stood rigid, arms crossed. I looked out the kitchen window and could see Sailor Dog in the yard a few feet away, probably drawn close by our voices.

Polly wrinkled up her nose. “Well, sometimes deception is the best course of action. Fewer people get hurt.” She was making no sense.

“I think not,” I responded. “Deception only builds and builds until you have such a mess you can’t get out of it. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.”

“That’s enough, Sarah,” Wes said to me. He was speaking as if I were a misbehaving child, which perturbed me even more.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Charlotte Whitney is the author of historical fiction set during the Great Depression in the rural Midwest. Her most recent work, The Unveiling of Polly Forrest, a stand-alone historical mystery follows her groundbreaking novel, Threads A Depression-Era Tale, which was met with both critical acclaim and commercial success. Raised on a farm in southern Michigan, she often She received a master’s degree in English at the University of Michigan, and after a short stint of teaching at two community colleges, worked at the University of Michigan where she was an associate director of the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts. Currently living in Arizona with her husband and two dogs she enjoys hiking, bicycling, swimming, and yoga.

Author’s website: https://www.charlottewhitney.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Whitney/e/B001KCTFWQ
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/CWhitneyAuthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-whitney-8235463a/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CWhitneyAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottewhitney65/

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Unveiling-Polly-Forrest-Mystery/dp/B09SNSGWJ3/

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Straight Chatting from the Library: A Character Interview from Threads by Charlotte Whitney

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Charlotte Whitney will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

ENJOY AN INTERVIEW WITH NELLIE YODER FROM THREADS: A DEPRESSION-ERA TALE

Give us some background on your role in the novel THREADS.

Even though I’m only seven-years-old, I’m a major character in this historical novel for adults. The reader hears the story through my voice and the voices of my sisters, Irene (11) and Flora (17). The story is set on our family farm in 1934, the height of the Great Depression. Wonderful and horrible things happened to our family that year.

Give us some examples of those wonderful and horrible events.

When I was digging for pirate treasure I uncovered a dead baby so my sisters and I formed a club to find its parents. It takes the whole book to get the answer. But there are lots of other high and low points: a food thief who gets into our cellar, a barn fire, my friend Pa Bear dies, and at the climax of our book, a child molester traps my sister and me and we are scared for our lives.

But you haven’t told me any of the wonderful things that happened to you.

On the 4th of July we went to a church picnic and as it was sunset, and the sky opens up with rainbows dancing and I could see dancers up there. I’d been seeing this all summer, but it was the first time other people saw it. Also, my sister’s wedding and Christmas were high points that year. Ma wouldn’t want me telling you this, but my sister got her comeuppance when she snuck off one night to go to a religious revival meeting. Our parents were furious; I got a bit gleeful about that.

Tell us about your life on the farm?

I have lots of imaginary friends: a boy from outer space name ZeeZee; two Pottawatomi Indian boys who used to live on our farm, and the sky dancers. Life on the farm can be boring, so I talk to the animals. I can speak Cow, Gopher, Dog, Cat, and Chicken. My favorite places are at the back of the second meadow and the crick. I try to catch pollywogs there, but you have to be careful because a rattlesnake might show up.

Why do you like the back of the second meadow?

There are oh, so many special things there. First, a wooden style that goes over the fence so you can take the trail through the woods to the crick. Then there’s an old bus that my uncle gave us. Also, there’s a foundation to an old log house; I think they used it to hide slaves during the Underground Railroad times. My family were all Quakers. I usually lie down in the foundation to that old house and talk to my imaginary friends. ZeeZee comes and sometimes we fly together to the top of the nearby old oak tree.

What is your favorite book?

Definitely PETER PAN. Ma and Pa gave it to me for Christmas that year. Mr. Goldberg, the peddler, had come around with his horse and cart filled with all kinds of stuff for sale. He’s one of my favorite people, Mr. Goldberg. Anyway, Ma bought it from him and I read it cover to cover many times. I especially like that Peter flies, just like ZeeZee and me.

What happens to you after the book is finished?

You’ll have to read the epilogue, set forty years later. There’ll be some surprises there.

READ THE BLURB

It's a boring, hardscrabble life for three sisters growing up on a Michigan farm during the throes of the Great Depression. But when young Nellie, digging for pirate treasure, discovers the tiny hand of a dead baby, rumors begin to fly. Narrated by Nellie and her two older sisters, the story follows the girls as they encounter a patchwork of threatening circumstances and decide to solve the mystery.

READ AN EXCERPT

When I got home from high school today, Jeepers, I knew immediately that something wasn’t right. Aunt Hazel and Ma were sitting out by the milk house on a couple of turned-over pails, and Irene and Nellie were sitting on the ground close by. All of them were looking towards the lane that goes down to the two meadows and onto the woods and crick. The county sheriff’s car sat empty near the silo. No one was talking.

Worried, I raced across the yard. Could Pa have gotten hurt? As I ran toward Ma I looked over at the west field and saw Ace and King hitched up to the wagon piled with brush. Rover was sleeping near the wagon.

It looked like Pa had finished about half of the field, but he was nowhere in sight. Pa never leaves the horses hitched up when he isn’t working. When he comes up for noontime dinner he al- ways puts them in the barnyard so they can rest, too. Naturally, I panicked.

When Ma saw me running over she jumped up and walked over to me, a strange look on her face.

“Is Pa all right?” I blurted out.

“Yes, yes,” Ma answered. “He and Elmer are down in the woods with Sheriff Devlon.” Nellie pushed me aside and threw her arms around Ma’s legs.

“Nellie thinks there’s a dead baby in the woods,” Irene piped up, all knowingly. “The Sheriff’s gone with them to look at it. Who in their right mind would bury a baby in that woods? Nellie musta gotten it all mixed up.”

MEET THE AUTHOR

Charlotte Whitney grew up in Michigan and spent much of her career at the University of Michigan directing internship and living-learning programs. She started out writing non-fiction while at the University and switched to romance with I DREAM IN WHITE. A passion for history inspired her to write THREADS A Depression Era Tale chronicling the stories of three sisters on a farm during the throes of the Great Depression. She lives in Arizona, where she loves hiking, bicycling, swimming, and practicing yoga.

BUY LINK:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/THREADS-Depression-Tale-Charlotte-Whitney-ebook/dp/B07ZBN35JF/ref

Author’s Website: http://www.charlottewhitney.com
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=charlotte%20whitney%20author
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottewhitney65/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-whitney-8235463a/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CWhitneyAuthor

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