Roseflower Creek by Jackie Lee Miles

If the prologue of ROSEFLOWER CREEK doesn’t pull you in, nothing ever will.

This dramatic story is told through the thoughts and memories of the 10-year-old protagonist, Lori Jean, who has been killed.

Your heart will ache for the hardships this child had to endure in her short lifetime. There are only a few rare moments she enjoyed happiness or felt loved.

The relationship she had with her grandmother seems to give her the strength and wisdom she had. The relationship with her best friend, Carole, was where she found happiness and enjoyed life as a child should. But even that time was marred with sadness.

Her closeness with her step father’s brother, his wife, and their children gave Lori Jean a taste of what family was and what she craved most for her own family unit.

Author Jackie Lee Miles gives readers a glimpse of the hardships endured by poor families living in the 1950s in a rural Southern town. She also gives a pertinent view of the cycle physical abuse can have in a family, along with the destruction it causes.

ROSEFLOWER CREEK is an easy read as to the writer’s use of the dialect of the region and era, as well as the engaging plot. It’s a hard read because of the nature of the story. You start with the outcome and look back at Lori Jean’s life to see how it got to that point. Knowing where it’s going, you can’t help but hope there’ll be a different ending after all.

After reading ROSEFLOWER CREEK, I think readers will feel the need to hug their children and grandchildren a little longer and a little tighter. Lori Jean is a strong and remarkable character that will stay with the reader long after they’ve put down the book.

Author Jackie Lee Miles’ website is http://jlmiles.brinkster.net/

Roseflower Creek by Jackie Lee Miles, Cumberland House, @2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-4001-0, Paperback, 256 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - I requested this book and it was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Guest Blogger, Jackie Lee Miles

It’s my pleasure to welcome author Jackie Lee Miles as the special guest blogger here at Thoughts in Progress on her tour of blogdom.

I’m especially pleased to open the blog up to Jackie as she is a Georgia girl so I’m happy to extend a warm welcome to a “home state” author. As we Southerners say, “She lives just down the road from me” when in reality it’s about a two to three hour drive.

Jackie is the author of ROSEFLOWER CREEK and COLD ROCK RIVER. She stops by today to answer some questions for me about her writing and ROSEFLOWER CREEK. Be sure to check at the end of the post for a giveaway.

First, could you give us a brief summary of ROSEFLOWER CREEK for those not familiar with it?

Roseflower Creek follows the short life and death of ten-year-old Lori Jean, a sensitive dreamer of a child who longs for a normal family life. After a fire she discovers a secret surrounding her step-father and pays the ultimate price.

What lead you to write this ROSEFLOWER CREEK?

It was inspired by an actual death penalty case in Athens, Georgia. A ten-year-old boy lost his life at the hands of his mother and step-father when he stole five dollars in the lunch room. When I read of his sad life my heart went out to him. I remember thinking, you poor little boy. It must have hurt so bad (physically, spiritually, and mentally). A little voice in my head called out to me: Yes, it did, and the morning I died, it rained.

I went to my computer and wrote the first fifty pages of Roseflower Creek without stopping. The article was such an inspiration.

What inspired you to write it from the child's point of view?

I thought telling the story from the grave in the protagonist’s own
words would be the most effective way to get the story to the heart of the reader. Lori Jean was so real to me, I hung on her every word. She said things like: My real daddy left when I was five on a day so hot they was giving out free fans.

Later when her mother decides to marry Ray, a no-good alcoholic who treats her badly, she says: I couldn’t understand my mama’s way of thinking. Ray was a terrible boyfriend. What made her think he’d be any better a husband?

Her wisdom astounded me.

What were the pros and cons of writing from the child's point of view?

The easy part was listening to Lori Jean as she spewed out her story. She was so deeply imbedded in my heart this part wasn't hard to do.

The really hard part was trying to keep the story an adult book without losing Lori Jean's voice. There's a fine line between Young Adult books and a main stream book when you're writing in the voice of a child. The Lovely Bones is a good example as is Peace Like a River and A Glass Castle. 

Most readers (and writers) are interested as to an author's process of writing. Do you have a system for writing or a schedule you keep when writing?

First of all I try to write every day but Sunday, not always an easy task. Life tends to get in the way. But I work hard to stay on schedule. I’m a firm believer that keeping ones fingers on the keyboard is the perfect way to ward off writer’s block.

Initially, when I begin a book, I listen to the voice of my character and what they have to tell me. Usually these characters are inspired by an incident in my own life or something that I’ve read, as in Roseflower Creek. In my second novel Cold Rock River, the story came from the time my baby sister choked on a jelly bean. She survived, but fifty years later when I was trying to go to sleep, I recalled the memory and it was fresh as newly skinned knees. I got up and wrote the opening line:

I was five-years-old that spring Annie choked on a jelly bean. She was twenty months old; she wasn’t supposed to have any. Mama made that quite clear. Sadly I wasn’t a child that minded well, so I gave her one anyway. I figured she should taste how good they were. I figured wrong.

Once the protagonist is firmly planted in my mind I keep writing until they have nothing else at the moment to say. That’s when I sit
down and start outlining the story, where it’s going, the story points that will get it there and what the best possible ending might be. Often times as I’m writing I don’t end up following the initial outline, but it does give me some type of structure to follow, and if I move outside the lines, I’m not concerned. Characters do have a habit of running away with the story and I usually follow them wherever they’re going.

Toward the end, I take another look at the story arc and see if I’ve fulfilled the promise I made to the reader when they picked up the book. Will it take them to a spot where they’re happy with the story? If I am extremely pleased, I have confidence that my reader will be, too. If I’m not, I go back and fix whatever it is that I feel is missing.

Then I start the process all over again with a new book and a new premise.

What is the best advice you've received that has helped you in your writing?

Read, read, read and write, write, write. That’s the best advice I’ve received and the best advice I can give.

What is next for you? Do you have any books in the works?

I have a new book debuting in January that I expound upon in the next question. In the interim I am working on Summer Ridge, my latest. In this novel, twelve-year-old Mary Alice Munford struggles with the knowledge her mother plans to marry her father, a man who abandoned them before she was born.

Anything we haven't touched on you'd like to share with the readers?

I hope they’ll check out my latest novel that debuts January, 2011. It’s titled ALL THAT’S TRUE. Sourcebooks calls it “an authentic coming-of-age tale with a terrific takeaway.”

It follows the life of thirteen-year-old Andrea St. James (Andi for short), who discovers in the summer of 1991 during the first Desert Storm War, that her father is having an affair with her best friend’s sexy new step-mother. With equal joy and equal sorrow, the book celebrates Andi’s coming of age where she uncovers the allusive nature of truth and the devastating consequences of deception.

Here’s the opening:

My life was close to being perfect until my brother Alex got killed. Then my mother started drinking and my father started having sex with Donna, my best friend’s stepmother. She not even thirty years old. Me and Bridget—that’s my best friend—we saw them through the window of the pool house and nearly stopped breathing. You would not believe the moaning. For a life that was moving along really well, right now everything sucks.

Look for it in January 2011 and pick up a copy! All great best,
Jackie Lee Miles

Jackie, thanks so much for stopping by today and guest blogging. Your writing process sounds intriguing. I like that you write until the characters stop talking.

For a little background on Jackie. As I said, she and her husband live in Georgia where she is a featured speaker at book clubs, schools, and writer’s workshops. The author of three novels, Roseflower Creek was Jackie’s first, published to critical acclaim. When not writing, she tours with the Dixie Darlin’s, four nationally published book-writing belles. Her next novel, All That’s True, will be published by Sourcebooks Landmark in early 2011. For more information, please visit her at http://jlmiles.brinkster.net/.

Now for the giveaway, thanks to Jackie and Danielle at Sourcebooks I have two copies of ROSEFLOWER CREEK to giveaway to two lucky visitors commenting on her post between today and 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 17. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only (sorry). Be sure to include your e-mail address with your comments if it isn’t included in your profile.

If you are an author, what are your thoughts on writing from the POV of a child? If you are a reader, do you enjoy books that are told from the child’s point of view?

Ramblings

Today I’m rambling still trying to get organized, but at least moving in the right direction (or was that the left direction, oh well).
 
The artwork (I borrowed from Romance Author, Terry Spear's blog) depicts how I feel at times trying to get organized, so I’ve decided that being scatterbrained and befuddled isn’t all that bad. It seems to be a permanent state of being for me anyway. And, it does tend to make life interesting.

I have a couple of items I want to take care of and then I have a question/favor to ask of you. First I want to thank Maryann at It's Not All Gravy for presenting me with the You Are
My Sunshine Supportive Commenter Award. Maryann has a beautiful blog and if you haven’t visited, please be sure to do so. You won’t be disappointed. Thanks so much Maryann.

I’d like to pass this along to all who visit and comment here. Without you I’d just be writing to myself. Thanks for taking time to stop by.

Next I have some winners to announce. Drum roll, please. Congratulations goes to: Yvonne B. of Alabama, Armenia F. of Texas, Ann of Cozy in Texas, Christine H. of Missouri and Sigrun S. of Canada for winning a copy of Cara Elliott’s latest release, TO SURRENDER TO A ROGUE (ISBN:9780446541312).

Now for my question/favor. Has anyone heard of or is anyone using Calibre to keep track of your books? I find a post about Calibre on the Dear Author blog and it talked about how you can not only keep up with your e-books (which it is designed for), but also your print books.

I don’t have a Kindle or Nook, but I have several e-books in PDF form on my computer that I’m reading for reviews. I don’t have so many that it is hard to keep up with. However, when it comes to print books - now that is a completely different story.

I downloaded the Calibre program from the Dear Author link, but I haven’t installed it yet. I was hoping to find someone that has used it to see if it really works. Years ago I found a program to help keep track of print books, but it only accepted so many entries and once you got to that you had to purchase a full version. When I reached that point I tried to purchase the full version but the link and e-mail noted in the program no longer worked.

I realize to input all the information about each book into a program will take time. But, in the long run I think it will help (if the program works right) to know exactly what books I have so that I don’t purchase a duplicate copy (like I have done several times).

With this blog I am reading more books each month than I use to. I don’t have a listing of the books that I’ve read or what date I finished them. I wish I had. I’ll have to go back and do some checking to see if I can get close to the date I finished the books.

I really started thinking about it this week having received several packages of books to review in the coming weeks. It would also help me keep the books in order of what needs to be read when. I have a number of great books from authors that I’m also working in between the reviews I’ve promised.

There are just so many great books to read and so little time. I feel like a kid at Christmas when the books come in and I open the packages. I want to read that book right then and I feel that way about everyone I receive.

Thinking about all the books I had a difficult decision to make this week.

I was thrilled and delighted to find out that I had won an Amazon gift card giveaway from Dorte at DJS KRIMIBLOG. I started browsing Amazon to pick a book and realized I couldn’t. There are way too many wonderful books from great authors I’ve meet in blogdom to select from. So I decided on my second choice - classic movies.

I found a DVD of an old classic that I always enjoy watching every chance I get. It’s not played that often anymore and compared to the new sci-fi thrilled it probably pales in comparison but in its day…. I’m eagerly waiting the arrival of THEM. Anyone know this movie?

Thanks Dorte. I’ll enjoy watching this classic and know it came from a new friend far, far away  in Denmark. If you haven’t visited Dorte’s blog, be sure to do so. She’s expanding into cozy mysteries from American authors.

Well, I’ve rambled on for enough today. Thanks for stopping by and visiting for awhile. Tomorrow author Jackie Lee Miles will drop by to talk about her latest release ROSEFLOWER CREEK. Remember if you smile, you’ll make people wonder what you’re up to. :) :)