All Secrets

Secret #3 - Katrina & Shadowed Summer

In the original draft of Shadowed Summer, Iris and her best friend Collette had a pact to move to New Orleans and have a great salon-apartment there together. But that was before Katrina, and the devastation that came in the wake of that storm.

But rather than replace New Orleans as that place of dreams, I kept their plan intact, but obviously now broken, for two reasons. The first is simple- Ondine is a dead-end town, and it really highlights Iris and Collette's sense of being trapped if the one place they want to go isn't there to go to anymore.

The second reason, which is actually the main reason- is that there's no other city like New Orleans. With its unique history of Spanish, French, Caribbean and Native American influence, the unusual composition of the land, even its own language, there is no other city of dreams quite like New Orleans.

It's city where where y'at means how are you and children fais do-do rather than go nighty night; it's a city of bal masques and crewes, banquettes and neutral ground.

Replacing New Orleans just can't be done, but it can be rebuilt. Of course, writing about a place is nice, but I'm doing my part by helping to rebuild the New Orleans Public Library. A city is only as strong as her library.

After all, that's all we remember of Alexandria, isn't it?

Secret #2 - RC, No Moon Pie

Throughout Shadowed Summer, Iris and her friends can often be found spending the last of their allowances on a RCs. RC has always been popular in the south, and among working folks, because you got more soda for the same price you'd pay for a Cocola. It got a real hold when you could get an RC and a Moon Pie for 10 cents- a big treat for folks who didn't have a lot of money.

But if it was so popular, why doesn't Iris ever have a Moon Pie? Two reasons- they never really caught on in southern Louisiana (and why would they, when your mama makes beignets for breakfast?) and- see, because they're all marshmallow; I don't like them! However, I do still need my soda to keep going- so much that my husband bought me a USB fridge for my next caffeine fix:



If you take a peek at the screen there, you can see my next book in progress!

Secret #1 - No Voodoo

Now, I don't want to give a lot away before the book comes out, but I'll be putting little extra bits on this page for your entertainment. Right now, I'll take advantage of this space to tell you one thing that's not in the book.

Even though it's set in Ascension Parish, deep in Louisiana's cajun country, there's no voodoo in Shadowed Summer. Anywhere. At all. In the first draft, there was a line that read:

Y'all doing voodoo?

But I changed it. I did this for a reason- namely, Louisiana Voodoo was born from West African slaves mingling their native Voudoun religion with Catholicism. It's practiced mainly by older African-Americans living in New Orleans, people who generally also belong to Christian churches of various denominations. Voudoun is a living faith, and I wanted to be respectful of that

Tourist Voodoo- everything you'll find on display in Louisiana in tourist and charm shops is a spectacle and a show- which Iris and her friends would know, having grown up there and all.

So that's why there's no voodoo in my Louisiana-set book about magic, hauntings and blood oaths!