It’s Friday again and that means it’s time to find out what really happened or only happened in mine and Christy’s imagination. This week we’re up to Chapter Five: She looks like she was inside the outhouse when the lightning struck.
This chapter deals with the first time Bessie meets Fletch at her Uncle Robert’s farm while she helps with the molasses making and I can tell you there’s not much about it that is true except the fact that Bessie did indeed have an uncle named Robert. Was he a farmer and did he have a farm in Walnut (the next town over from Hot Springs)? Honestly, we don’t have any idea. We found the names of Mama’s family in the Census report for 1880 and when the time came to introduce Fletcher into the story, we decided to have him working on Uncle Robert’s farm. The rest of Uncle Robert’s family (his daughter Caroline, wife Nell, and two more children) is entirely fictional–at least as far as we know!
As for the most important part of the chapter, Bessie meeting Fletcher and her instant attraction to him, that’s about 50/50. From everything she and Daddy told us over the years, the instant attraction was true, as well as Fletcher’s quiet, unassuming manner. In fact, the story we heard most often about the two of them meeting was Bessie saw him at the sawmill when she was walking home from school one day and liked his looks. She told us he was very shy and she was determined to make him talk to her. Obviously, she was successful. Oh, and she really liked the fact that she was his first girlfriend!
So, there you have it; Chapter Five, a few tidbits of fact mixed with quite a lot of fiction.
Hot Springs Resort, the Bluff Mountain Festival is held annually in the field to the left.
Christy and I were at the Bluff Mountain Festival in Hot Springs over the weekend and we had a wonderful time. We met quite a few people who had read the book and they had a lot of really nice things to say about it. Needless to say, we enjoyed that a lot! While we were there we started talking about Fact or Fiction Friday and realized that as we go through the chapters, we’re going to be running into spoiler territory pretty soon. We definitely don’t want to give anything away! We haven’t yet decided how we’re going to handle that but hopefully we’ll come up with a solution before we get that far. Any ideas and/or suggestions are welcome!
CTHodges
christytilleryfrench
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June 21, 2013 at 8:59 am
Friday Fact or Fiction…or maybe not! | Christy Tillery French
[…] Friday Fact or Fiction…or maybe not!. […]
June 22, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Joe Perrone Jr.
I sure do admire your tenacity and willingness to put yourself out there! I’m afraid I’ve lost some of that old “get up and go” that I used to have. I’ll just have to follow your example…
June 23, 2013 at 1:35 pm
CTHodges
Hi Joe,
I was just thinking I really need to do more to promote this book so I don’t know how much you would gain by following my example. Both Christy and I are extremely shy and don’t like face-to-face promoting, but we do find it easier when we do it together. As far as on-line promotions, we’re slowly getting the hang of it!
Thanks for dropping by and leaving us a comment! Always nice to hear from other authors!
Cyndi
June 23, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Joe Perrone Jr.
I actually prefer face-to-face promotion to online (isn’t that weird?). However, I am not good at asking bookstores to stock my books and being told that I have to jump through a series of hoops in order for them to do so. I would love to do book signings and readings, but haven’t a clue about how to set them up (without facing rejection. Ugh!). Also, I don’t have the resources to go on the road promoting, unless it were to be a one-day show type situation. If you hear of any opportunities for in-person promotion, like a show, I’d love to hear about it. I tried sending a couple of “Tweets” while I was away on vacation, fishing, but it’s not really my thing. Facebook works a bit better, because I have the opportunity to actually establish a kind of relationship with folks out there in the ethos. Now, writing, that’s something I enjoy.
June 23, 2013 at 5:05 pm
CTHodges
Ugh, face-to-face is a nightmare for me but like I said, it’s not as bad when it’s two of us together. I know authors who do multiple signings but I’m with you, I hate the hoops you have jump through to set them up. We’ve had more success with Whistling Woman on-line and since both of us are introverts I think we’ll probably stick with that.
The only signings we’ve found where the people were actually anxious to have us have been in Hot Springs and the Marshall area where the book takes place.
As for bookstores, I’ve heard the B&N in Asheville, and the two indies also, plus Mountain Made, are fairly easy to get into if you’re a local author and especially if your book takes place in western NC. Also, City Lights in Sylva and the one in Brevard (can’t remember the name right now) are, I’m told, very approachable. I know City Lights approached us on our Facebook page. The only bookstore I’ve heard negative things about is the one in downtown Hendersonville. I haven’t actually approached them but I’ve been told they don’t want to even talk to you if you’re self-pubbed or with a small indie press which leaves me out entirely as Christy and I self-pubbed WW and my other books are with a small press.
I don’t know of any book festivals or fairs coming up in the immediate future but I know there are several of them around in the fall. Most of the time, if one of the members of the Guild knows of one they’ll share it with the group at the meeting or John will send out an email about it.
I never really got into the Twitter thing–there are just so many people on there and a high percentage of them seem to be authors who are far more savvy at tweeting than I’ll ever be!