The Secret Sense of Wildflower (26 page)
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Just about every professional writer today will tell you that they hate the marketing and self-promotion part. I’m basically a shy person who spends a lot of time by myself writing stories, so trying to find the attention of readers in a tidal wave of new titles is a challenge. I’m not one to toot my own horn, as they say. But I believe in Wildflower’s story and if her story helps only one reader feel more hopeful and have more courage, then I’ll shout it from the rooftops if I need to. I know the book has helped readers already, so I am committed to "shouting." We need fiction out there that will help us transform our own lives and take our own hero’s journey.
By the way, something that readers can do when they love a book is to tell friends about it and even write short reviews at places like Amazon, Goodreads, Nook, iBooks, Audible, etc. They don’t have to be long, literary reviews. They can simply say: “I loved this book!” and a sentence or two saying why. Reviews help other readers take a chance on an author or book they haven’t heard of. Thanks, in advance, for considering this!
Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
I had a huge debate over this with a screenwriter once. She swore that none of her work was autobiographical, but my argument was that your work can’t help but be autobiographical, simply in terms of what you notice as a writer. I notice sounds and smells and see things in a way that is totally unique to me. My imagination is the instrument I use to tell a story, so it can’t help but be a reflection of me in some way. Length of paragraphs, turn of phrase, word choice, my choice of metaphors are all, in a way, my tiny fingerprint. That said, Wildflower’s story is not my personal story.
What is the environment like where you write?
I live in the mountains of North Carolina, so everywhere I look are trees like oaks and wild dogwoods and every other kind of deciduous tree and pine in the southeastern United States. In the winter I can see seven mountain ridges from my office. In the summer, it’s just a blur of green. My office has two giant windows and just off my office is a screened in porch, so lots of times I have sliding glass doors open to the outside. I am very lucky that I live in a beautiful place. It’s a humble place, but the setting is one I love, which really helps since I spend a lot of time at home writing.
However, I don’t need beautiful scenery to write. I also write anywhere that I can take a laptop or iPad with a keyboard: coffee shops, libraries, by a river, in a car, you name it. Barbara Kingsolver wrote her first novel in her bedroom closet! I haven’t tried my closet, but I’ll write anywhere.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of writing
The Secret Sense of Wildflower
?
I’m pretty accessible through my website and blog so people email me and tell me how moved they were by the book and how Wildflower’s courage gave them hope in their own lives. That means a lot. If they take the time to email me, it is usually because they really liked the book and they’ll tell me why. I’ve had people say about my novels that they couldn’t put them down. That’s always a really good sign. It means the story kept them engaged. That’s a huge compliment to a writer.
On a professional level, Kirkus Reviews gave
The Secret Sense of Wildflower
a starred review (for “books of exceptional merit”) and it was voted a Best Book of 2012. When I got the email about this honor I thought there must have been some kind of mistake. A switch-up in books or something. It still shocks me to this day. After all, I’d been writing in utter obscurity for almost two decades, so to have such a respected reviewer give out this kind of praise rocked my world and has opened a lot of doors for me.
But honestly, hearing from readers that they enjoyed the book means even more.
Reading Group Guide
1. As the novel opens, Louisa May “Wildflower” McAllister says, “There are two things I’m afraid of. One is dying young. The other is Johnny Monroe.” What role does fear play in the story? Where did these fears originate?
2. Loss and grieving are key elements in this story. What role does loss play in the novel?
3. In Wildflower’s ritual to get across the footbridge, she calls on a rabbit’s food, her dead father and a gold medallion. What is the significance of the medallion in the book? What does the footbridge symbolize?
4. Wildflower constantly questions God, and especially Preacher and the self-righteous in the congregation. What role does God play in her coming-of-age?
5. How does Ruby Monroe (and what happens to her) impact Wildflower’s life?
6. After Wildflower is attacked, why does she go back to her given name and refuse to be called “Wildflower” anymore?
7. Wildflower says: “Like a friend who goes away because you never listen to them, my secret sense seems to have left me, too.” Why did the “secret sense” go away? What is the significance of when it comes back? Are there any other words that you would use for the “secret sense”?
8. What role do secrets play in the story?
9. How does Wildflower’s friendship with her friend, Mary Jane, evolve throughout the book?
10. What purpose does Aunt Sadie serve in Wildflower’s life? Daniel and Jo? How do these close family bonds help Wildflower? How do they hurt? Did you have a favorite sister in the story? A least favorite?
11. In the final scene, Wildflower and her mother reconcile. What is the meaning of this scene? What is the significance of it taking place in the barn and her daughter being called “Lily”?
12.How does the setting—a rural mountain town in 1941 Tennessee—impact Wildflower’s story?
13.
The Secret Sense of Wildflower
has been called “a quietly powerful story, at times harrowing, but ultimately a joy to read.” (Kirkus—starred review) What makes this novel “quietly powerful”?
14. In the same review, the reviewer called Wildflower “an adolescent Scout Finch, had Scout’s father died unexpectedly and her life taken a bad turn” comparing
The Secret Sense of Wildflower
with
To Kill a Mockingbird
. How do you think these two books are similar?
15. What do you imagine happens in the next chapter of Wildflower’s life?
16. On reader wrote: I’ve found a new heroine and her name is Wildflower! In what way is Wildflower brave? How can her story help others?
17. This novel has been said to “pack an emotional punch.” How might the emotive quality of a story be of benefit to readers?
18. Is there anything you wish had happened in the story that didn’t? What does the author do particularly well?
19. How is southern (gothic) fiction different from other genres, such as historical fiction and literary fiction?
20. Why do you think coming-of-age novels are such a popular sub-genre?
21. What does fiction offer to our modern world, as opposed to non-fiction?
Other Books by Susan Gabriel
A novel
Fans of
The Help
and
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
will delight in this comic novel of family secrets by acclaimed writer, Susan Gabriel.
Every family has secrets, but the elite Temple family of Savannah has more than most. To maintain their influence, they’ve been documenting the indiscretions of other prestigious southern families, dating as far back as the Civil War. When someone begins leaking these tantalizing tidbits to the newspaper, the entire city of Savannah, Georgia is rocking with secrets.
The current keeper of the secrets and matriarch of the Temple clan is Iris, a woman of unpredictable gastrointestinal illnesses and an extra streak of meanness that even the ghosts in the Temple mansion avoid. When Iris unexpectedly dies, the consequences are far flung and significant, not only to her family—who get in line to inherit the historic family mansion—but to Savannah itself.
At the heart of the story is Old Sally, an expert in Gullah folk magic, who some suspect cast a voodoo curse on Iris. At 100 years of age, Old Sally keeps a wise eye over the whole boisterous business of secrets and the settling of Iris's estate.
In the Temple family, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a secret.
Now available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
Southern Short Stories
This delightful collection of short stories from acclaimed writer, Susan Gabriel (
The Secret Sense of Wildflower
, a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews), is rich in humor, as well as mystery and meaning.
Whether white or black, living or dead, down home country or upscale urban, Gabriel’s characters are quirky, poignant and deep. They include: A Gullah woman using folk magic to cast her latest spell. A girl coming-of-age dealing with death in 1940s Tennessee. A wealthy Savannah matriarch with gastrointestinal issues guarding family secrets. A good ol’ boy observing himself shortly after his death. An agoraphobic woman striking up a unique friendship with the girl across the street. And a band of seventy-year-olds finding healing in a mountain stream.
Written in the tradition of Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty, the eight short stories in
Grace, Grits and Ghosts: Southern Short Stories
are all rooted in the southern landscape—from the steamy coast of Georgia, to the current day Atlanta suburbs, to the ancient Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
Pull up a rocker on the front porch, take a sip of your sweet iced tea and lose yourself in these original stories of soulful southerners and their sultry landscape.
