Did you always want to be a writer?
Could you name a few writers (and which books) whose work interests you at the moment, or who have influenced your work?
Have any of your books ever been turned down by a publisher? What was that like and in what ways did it affect your writing?
Have you also written nonfiction and, if so, explain how the process is different for you?
What was the moment that led you to begin writing fiction?
How did you arrive at the idea for this book?
When you wrote the book, was there a specific plan for how the story would progress or did you let the story direct itself?
Is there something of an autobiographical element in your work?
What do you want readers to come away understanding from your book?
How do you think your readers view your work?
Do you enjoy readings and tours, and hearing from readers?
What advice can you give to aspiring authors?
Are you working on anything new and, if so, what can you tell us about it?
a discussion with Julie Cannon
What I always wanted to do was tell stories. As soon as I could talk I was telling stories, and in grammar school I started writing my stories down into these little books I made out of construction paper and staples.
At the moment, I'm knee-deep in a book called The Christ-Haunted Landscape : Faith and Doubt in Southern Fiction, edited by Susan Ketchin. It's a compilation of stories by 12 southern authors ranging from Harry Crews to Lee Smith. So, at the moment, all of these folks are my favorite authors. That's how it is, I get totally immersed in whatever or whomever I'm currently reading. This book was given to me by a dear friend and fellow author, Augusta Trobaugh, whose books Resting in The Bosom of The Lamb and Praise Jerusalem! I only discovered in the past year. Her beautiful way with words was and is a great inspiration to me. The Bible tops my list of influential books as it does for scores of well-known contemporary writers. When I write my stories, I like to ponder what I call "the human condition" as it pertains to the mystical relationship between the Creator and the created. The Bible answers a lot of life's big questions for me.
The first time I got a fat manila envelope with my manuscript and a polite form rejection letter inside, I was sure there was some mistake. Obviously they had failed to read the brilliant work enclosed. Probably, I thought, the particular editor whose desk my story had landed on was on cold or allergy medicine and not in their right mind. After this happened a half dozen times, I had to stop and look deep within myself, and then, deep within my writing. That hurt. But I realized then that my blind naiveté was going to be a stumbling block. In a way, having that determined and impatient attitude of "this is done and I'm sending it off," was good. My stupidity actually made me much braver than I should have been. I had no need for what some folks call crippling perfectionism. I tended to scribble down a story, hastily fling it into an envelope, and just kind of arbitrarily send it off somewhere. The good thing about all this was that by the time the thing came back to me, I hadn't seen it in 3 to 6 months and I could look at it with an outsider's eye. I could see what needed fixing.
I write letters constantly, which are mostly nonfiction. I pour myself out emotionally in my journals and I've written one Op-Ed on tomatoes at the request of my publisher, which I don't think ever made it into print, and I'm currently in what I call "the hunting and gathering stage" of a nonfiction book on the spiritual aspects of gardening - the enormous healing power therein. The process of nonfiction is more difficult for me because it seems like I have to use this different part of my brain - a rational, orderly, thinking part which does not get as much exercise as the story-telling part.
Well, to me it seems a natural progression from loving to hear and read stories to craving to tell them. Reading stories for me, as a child - a painfully timid and shy child - were the avenues of great adventure. When I read, I was experiencing life safely from my cushioned chair in the den. It was a way for me to see the world without risks. The most joyous escape I can imagine. When I write stories, that's how I feel, too. I get caught up in the world I created and I can do and say things I'd NEVER do in real life. I feel pure pleasure when I am writing stories.
For me, the impetus for a fictional story can come from anywhere. Generally, when I see people or situations, I entertain myself by playing the "What if?" game. I make up scenarios in my head about them. The heart of Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes came from a busload of senior citizens stepping off a bus in the McDonalds parking lot in Thompson, Georgia. It was a church bus and as they inched down the steps and crept across the parking lot, I noticed there were only 2 elderly men amongst a couple dozen women. That made me wonder - where would an elderly widow go to hunt for an eligible man? That is, if she wanted to find a companion, or a new relationship. Where would she start? Because for many southern women of that generation, their role as nurturer of the family WAS their career and their identity was as someone's wife - Mrs. Fred Simmons, for example. So, I created this sad widow, Imogene Lavender, who's grieving for a beloved husband of 48 years. At first, I put Imogene out into her vegetable garden, figuring that the hard work would offer her some distraction, but then her battle with grief touched me so deeply and I decided to let her "see" the spiritual side of composting, which is that life springs from death. Ultimately it is her garden that gives Imogene a sense of hope for the future and a connection with departed loved ones.
I had a good idea of where I wanted the story to go. I outline and plot heavily at the front of all my stories, but in the end, it's the characters that drive the story onward. It's the emotion that moves them to different paths and the story reveals itself only as I write it. Also, as I was ending this novel, someone close to me kept on saying, "Julie, I don't want to be a burden on anyone as I get older. I just want to go in my boots," and so as this person told me that over and over, it just kind of worked itself into the story.
Yes, I don't see it as I'm writing it, but every time I look back at it, I realize that it's all autobiographical. My fears are in my stories. Growing up, I was like Loutishie in Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes. I had this enormous fear of the Rapture of the Saints. I was sure it would happen any moment, and I would not be ready because I had sassed my mama or told a lie or something and be all alone down here on earth. Imogene Lavender is a composite of the many strong southern women I've had the good fortune to know over my lifetime. These women are more at home in the kitchen and the garden than anywhere else on earth. They believe that hard work and prayer are the best remedies for life's troubles. They are thrifty and industrious, nurturers of the family, sitting on that church pew every Wednesday and Sunday unless they're half-dead. My Great Aunt Doris raised foster children, mainly teen girls like Jeanette in Truelove. And they were pretty tough girls. I was scared of them and I always wondered about their past. My 13 year old daughter Iris is a lot like the character Loutishie in Truelove. She is a child in love with the pure wonder that plants can come from seeds. She is a very spiritual child. There's a lot more autobiographical elements in Truelove. One in particular makes me cry rivers when I am asked about it at "book talks." My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was 34. I couldn't imagine a life without him in it. Thankfully, he survived, but I'm still tender about that whole struggle. Silas Lavender, Imogene's late husband, passed away from cancer. He was a thoughtful, man-of-the-farm type like my dad.
I want them to see someone grieving who eventually emerges from that battle with the joyful hope of life on the other side where they'll see departed loved ones again. I want them to see the spiritual side of gardening. To see the therapy of putting seeds into the earth and seeing tall, green shoots of life emerge. There's hope in a garden. Hope for the future and therapy for the present. Like Imogene, tomatoes have strong survival instincts. Both my dear grannies were avid gardeners in rural Georgia. They had to garden to put food on the table for their large families, particularly during the Depression, but these women loved it. I believe they worked out a lot of troubles out there in the dirt. The garden was a therapist/psychologist for the southern gentile. And for them, the joy from giving away a mess of beans or a bushel of sweet corn could not be equaled. They took great pride in their gardens.
I hope they see it as coming from my heart. I hope and I pray that each story will reveal truth as it was intended to enlighten and make straight our paths.
I love to read from my stories and I could do that "till the cows come home", as they say. Slowly I am easing into the "author-talk" required to sit on panels and discuss literary stuff. But I am a writer, after all, and I'd prefer to hear a question, scuttle away to a solitary place with it and write my response, return and just read it aloud. I am always afraid I will disappoint folks who come to hear me talk, afraid I won't be witty or entertaining. Hearing from readers is one of the best things about writing. Secretly, I think, all writers yearn to touch readers in their hearts, and I save all the cards and letters I receive. Most I answer.
The first thing I always say to folks who want to write is: Keep a journal. This is about becoming conscious. I look through my journals often and use stuff I've written years ago and the funny thing is, lots of it I don't even remember writing down. Next, I say to collect metaphors. These you can keep in the margin of your journal, or on note cards. Another thing important is to kill your sense of perfectionism. I look at things I wrote awhile back, things that even made it into print, and I see terrible things. You can always make something better, infinitely, but there is a point where you just fling it out there and move on to another story. Don't look back except to learn from it. Also, you need to read like crazy. I'm always frantic to read piles of books, soak it in. Read a bunch of different stuff. Read the newspaper and clip ideas and store them in your journal. Join a writer's group so you will be inspired and held accountable to produce. Listen to their praises and to their criticisms and develop yourself a thick skin. Finally, when you do sit down to write, make sure it is about something you are passionate for and care deeply about. Try to put it in one sentence. For example, I wrote, Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes as a down-home story celebrating the enormous healing power of the southern garden.
I recently finished the sequel to Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes, tentatively titled ‘Mater Biscuit, which will be released in 2003 or 2004 by Simon & Schuster. I am working on the aforementioned non-fiction book on the spiritual aspects of gardening and also I have passed the mid-point of a new novel set in rural Georgia. It is a family saga, a multi-generational commune of sorts, and at its heart is a teen-aged girl searching for passion among a very practical, religious family.