by Leah Weiss
15. What do you think comes next for Lucy and Bert and the rest of the Brown family? How do you think their experiences and decisions will affect their futures?
A Conversation with the Author
Eastern North Carolina comes alive throughout the book. How do you give the landscape a voice?
I was born in the land where this book is set, and lived there until I was ten years old. Then we moved five hours north to Virginia to be with my daddy’s people. In those early years, I was surrounded by Mama’s sprawling family of fifteen siblings, my aunts and uncles who begat cousins. They were a kind and hard-working lot who stayed close to their roots. Only Mama moved away. I remember featherbeds, the outhouse, the ice box, the hand-cranked ice cream, and “putting in tobacco.” Dinner was at noon, supper was at six, and everybody had well-tended gardens. Recreating the book’s setting was as natural as breathing.
What inspired this book?
Before Mama died in 2005, I had begun “interviewing” her about her childhood years. My first published stories were about her memories. But, specifically, it was her comment about German POWs helping at tobacco markets in ’44 that planted the seed for All the Little Hopes. I learned that between 1942 and 1946, forty-five states had POWs working farms, fertilizer plants, and in timber and canneries. Wikipedia estimates half a million prisoners were shipped to camps and governed by the humane laws of the ’29 Geneva Convention. Seven hundred camps stretched across America. Eighteen camps were in North Carolina. One was in my birth town of Williamston.
Did you know much about apiarists before you started All the Little Hopes? How did you learn about beekeeping, honey, and wax production? Did you invent purple honey, or is it really possible?
My husband, Dave, began tending bees in 2017 and maintains three hives. I’ve absorbed some of his enthusiasm and research for bee knowledge and have come to understand the challenges. Then on a trip to Williamston, Rita Harden gifted me with three little-known facts from her childhood: Russian test pilots trained in Elizabeth City, her daddy’s beeswax deal with the government, and purple honey that appeared one summer and was sold to bootleggers. I now know purple honey has been found only in central and eastern North Carolina, and is a genuine mystery. Two hives side-by-side can yield purple honey in one and amber in the other. I chose to make purple honey the medical salve for the Brown’s gall-double-dang flu.
How did the mythical wolpertinger find its way into the book?
Research about Oma’s birth place in the nineteenth century, her connection to German handmade marbles, and the Brothers Grimm and masterful storytelling from the Black Forest led me to an image of a wolpertinger. I was enchanted by its mythology, its appeal to tourists back then willing to pay to “hunt” them, and knew my storytelling Brown family would benefit from having one. Who could doubt Grimm’s fairytales were true after they saw a “real” wolpertinger?
Both Bert and Lucy resist growing up in their own ways. Did you have any similar experiences as a teenager?
I don’t remember being enamored of my childhood enough to want to stay there. In contrast to the 1940s of my mother’s time, my transition from girl to woman happened in the sixties when the Women’s Rights movement was making strides. Naïve, I looked forward to being a grown-up only to discover it was challenging, harder than I dreamed, and even boring. What I gained from my experiences over the ensuing decades is perfect 20/20 hindsight, and my writing benefits from those lessons learned.
Lucy would be best friends with Nancy Drew if she could. Are there any characters you wish you could bring into the real world and befriend?
I, too, loved Nancy Drew. I still have nineteen of my childhood Nancy Drew books (the blue book edition) and occasionally re-read them for nostalgia’s sake. In my carefree summers in the late fifties, I spent days lost in Nancy’s world. I’d sit in the shade of an oak tree and be so transported that I didn’t hear Mama calling for supper. I yearned for the respect that Nancy garnered and the confident risks she took. I think all girls’ dreams should hold those qualities.
You bring up interesting questions about redemption when it comes to the German POWs and the Real Bad Men. Is there a difference between redemption and forgiveness? Do you think it’s always possible to make amends?
Redemption and forgiveness are gifts, aren’t they? We can choose to give and receive salvation and mercy, but it takes wisdom to know they even exist. And for amends to be healing, it should never be a game of manipulation or win-lose. Bert learned that truth when she returned the things she stole. Helen was slow to forgive, and she suffered more than she had to. And who would have thought that German POWs could live peacefully among us?
Reading and writing are often seen as lonely activities, but throughout the book they bring people together. How do books foster connections? Who’s in your book community?
I write stories to be read out loud like the Brown family tradition, and I encourage readers to sharpen that skill. Then there’s the energy and connection through book clubs. I have five wonderful girlfriends in my club (Sheila, Shannon, Sally, Dominique, and Glennys), and we meet once a month, drink wine, eat good food, and talk books. We don’t always agree on what books are best, but disagreement makes for interesting discussions. We all agree that when we meet an unforgettable character in an unforgettable book, it brings pleasure of great magnitude.
Do you come from a family of bibliophiles?
I come from a family of readers and conversationalists. My dad was a thinker who read about religions, philosophy, and history. My mother loved books that transported like the Mitford Series, Roots, and The Thorn Birds. My parents believed reading expands understanding, dispels prejudices, and teaches empathy. Mama didn’t trust people who didn’t like to read.
Do books have a designated place in your home? What’s in your reading stack these days?
I have overflowing bookcases and messy stacks of books here and there (not the alphabetized order like the Browns). I love historical fiction and relish Southern voices like Vicki Lane’s And the Crows Took Their Eyes, the unique writing style of debut novelist Ashley Blooms’s Every Bone a Prayer, the 2020 Southern Book Prize winner Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handler, and everything by journalist/writer/Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg. In my yet-to-read stack is Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris and The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. So many books, so little time…a wonderful quandary to have.
Do you see yourself in your characters? How do you get from the first idea of a character to the person who lives and breathes in the final draft?
I didn’t publish If the Creek Don’t Rise until I was seventy, and it was my age that gave me a broad scope of experiences to draw from. As a writer, I take the liberty to make characters wiser and smarter or more daring and tender than I’ll ever be. All the Little Hopes is dear to my heart because I got to turn back the clock and immerse myself in Mama’s world. I had two names for the main characters early on, but Lu and Bert are uniquely their own literary voices. I don’t pretend to speak for my mama, Lucy, or her mama, Allie Bert, who were extraordinary women in different ways.
What has changed for you as a writer since the publication of If the Creek Don’t Rise?
I coincidentally retired when my debut book was accepted by an agent, and I had abundant time to devote to a new career. My extrovert nature has made the journey a pleasure to meet the reading public and hear how strongly they react to characters spun out of words. But it is my equal love of solitary time that has made me a better writer. My greatest surprise is my patience to do the tedious work to complete a book and not to rush the process. My greatest joy is the self-imposed purpose that drives my free time.
How This Book Came to Be
Beyond my mother Lucy’s nugget of WWII history about German POWs working tobacco market in ’44, it was longtime friend Bill Davis who found historian Ila Parker in Williamston, North Carolina. Il
a showed me photographs and articles about the POW camp that had housed three hundred and fifty-five war prisoners. The men were more than Nazis; they were farmers, musicians, artists, and teachers. Before leaving Williamston at the end of the war, they presented a thank-you gift to the town—a sixteen-piece life-size wooden nativity scene. Sadly, that gift was destroyed in a fire in 1958. I have a brass Christmas ornament commemorating that scene, and it reminds me that war doesn’t only breed fear, hatred, and conflict.
I traveled many times to Williamston developing this story and staying with Marti and Bill Davis. Ann Phelps shared local history books, and Laurie Irwin-Pinkley arranged a meeting with people who remembered POWs working on family farms. Ila Parker joined Rita Harden, Raymond Silverthorn, his brother Irvin “Skeebo” Silverthorn, and Skeebo’s wife, Fernande, to talk about their unique memories. Becky Mills Sanderlin was the baby picked up and comforted by a German prisoner. LouAnn VanLandingham granted permission to spend a day in the Martin County Enterprise newspaper stacks reviewing 1943–1945. Bonnie Robertson sent me a copy of her sister’s POW camp menu of ’44 and told me where the mess hall still sits near the river. Faded paint on interior walls resembles a theater curtain. There, meals were eaten, plays performed, and music sung, but it now houses irrigation equipment. These memories became the heart of this novel.
Billy Yeargin’s book Remembering North Carolina Tobacco refreshed the hard life of “puttin’ in t’bacca.” Sergeant Walter Juopperi’s WWII account for his family in A Soldier’s Life in Battle helped me stand in his young, frightened shoes. Bear Moore answered my bee questions and Bill Tucker gave me a bee article he compiled from Robert Morse, Sue Hubbell, C. P. Dadant, and Sue Monk Kidd. Harold and Jenny Beirne patiently waded through early drafts to understand the tedious process of writing a book. Lara Turchinsky advised me on tarot cards and my sister Glo Swann cast a careful eye when I needed it most. She remembered Mama’s risqué toast that both shocked and tickled us (Here’s to the Girl in the little red shoes…).
When I was wrapping these facts in fiction, my patient agent, Rebecca Gradinger, and her assistant, Elizabeth Resnick, challenged me to move from the character-driven format of my debut novel, If the Creek Don’t Rise, to a plot-driven format for All the Little Hopes. Then my talented editor, Shana Drehs, and her extraordinary staff comprised of MJ Johnston, Jessica Thelander, and Sabrina Baskey, helped hone the book’s sense of direction. They asked insightful questions and double-checked my facts. Added to my gratitude for inspiration is the Wildacres Writing Workshop founded by Judi Hill (wildacreswriters.com) and the faculty there who help unlock creativity.
So many people contributed to this book in invaluable ways over multiple years, but it is my husband, Dave, who makes the writing journey easier. He is a gentle and supportive partner who understands without explanation. He will always be the honey to my days.
About the Author
Photo © Myers Photography
Leah Weiss is a Southern writer born in eastern North Carolina but lives near the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. All the Little Hopes is her second novel. You can follow her on Facebook and her website, leahweiss.com.
If the Creek Don’t Rise
He’s gonna be sorry he ever messed with me and Loretta Lynn.
Sadie Blue has been a wife for fifteen days. That’s long enough to know she should have never hitched herself to Roy Tupkin, even with the baby. Sadie is desperate to make her own mark on the world, but in remote Appalachia, a ticket out of town is hard to come by and hope often gets stomped out. When a stranger sweeps into Baines Creek and knocks things off kilter, Sadie finds herself with an unexpected lifeline…if she can just figure out how to use it. Fans of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek will love this intimate insight into a fiercely proud, tenacious community and relish the voices of the forgotten folks of Baines Creek.
With a colorful cast of characters and a flair for the Southern Gothic, If the Creek Don’t Rise is a debut novel bursting with heart, honesty and homegrown grit.
“Fascinating.…gripping…an immersive and deeply emotional reading experience, especially satisfying for readers who love richly drawn characters and a strong sense of place.”
—NPR
For more Leah Weiss, visit
www.sourcebooks.com
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