Margaret Maron

Margaret Maron is the award-winning author of the Deborah Knott mystery series.

Hard Row, given a starred review by Library Journal, is the thirteenth book in the Deborah Knott series. It was also nominated for an Agatha Award.


Winter's Child, given a starred review by Publisher's Weekly, is the twelfth book in the Deborah Knott series and is now available in paperback.



Site updated 23 April 2008


Welcome to my Web site!

Malice Domestic, the convention that celebrates the traditional Agatha Christie type of fair-play mysteries, will meet the weekend of 23 - 27 April in Arlington, VA. This is the convention’s 20th anniversary and it shows no sign of slowing down. I’ve been to most of them because a) they’re fun, and b) Arlington’s nicely drivable from Raleigh. No need to get on a plane, something that always fills me with fear and loathing.

I don’t remember if it was the 1988 or 1989 that we shared the hotel with a large contingent of attorneys. Riding up the elevator with Susan Dunlap and Carolyn Hart one afternoon, one of the attorneys leaned over and squinted at our name tags. “Malice Domestic?” he said. “Is this about violence in the home?”

“You could say so,” Susan replied dryly.

It will be fun hanging out with old friends — the writers and the readers, the booksellers and the librarians. Four or five hundred people will attend and if you’re one, I hope you’ll come by my signing table and say "Hey."

And drop in here next week for pictures.

P.S.: If you would like to be added to the Margaret Maron E-list, click here. Please put "Add to E-list" in the subject field. You will be notified about book releases, etc. If you provide your city and state, we'll try to notify you if I'm coming to a town near you. Your privacy is important to me, so the information you provide will be jealously guarded and never given to a third party, other than my publisher, who will use it only to send announcements of my new books. Note: For those of you who have already signed up, unless you've told your server that letters from Margaret-Maron@nc.rr.com aren't spam, my letters to you are going to bounce!


Letters to Margaret


It has been pointed out to me that these questions now cover several years and that someone new to my books (and to the website) might learn more than they want to know if they read from this point down. Therefore, I am going to reverse the order. From now on, the newest letters will be at the end of this section and the oldest here at the beginning of this section. Further down, I'll indicate which books you should have read before you scroll too far and inadvertently hit a "spoiler." We've sorted and regrouped the older letters and merged some that ask similar questions.

 

Do you have a question for Margaret? Send her an email here.


*From Minnesota:
I'm halfway through Bootlegger's Daughter and loving it -- except we have company coming for Thanksgiving and I should be cooking and cleaning. But I just have to ask you. What is a "yellow dog Democrat"? I asked my cousins from Virginia, but they didn't know either.

A sorry old yellow dog is about the most worthless kind of dog imaginable, but a "yellow dog Democrat" would go ahead and vote for one before pulling a Republican lever. My grandfather was such a man.

As a magistrate and a justice of the peace around the turn of the century, it was his job to register new voters in his township. In one instance, he jumped the gun and registered a man who intended to move into the township but just hadn't done so yet. My grandfather's cousin, who was as ardent a Republican, swore out a warrant against him for misconduct and abuse of office. The sheriff was waiting at the county line when Grandpa came home from selling his watermelons that day and escorted him to the county seat. Fortunately for Grandpa, the sheriff and all the other elected officials were Democrats and understood excessive zeal in service to the party. He was sent home with a mild warning not to register any more voters till they were actually settled in their new homes.

At that point, Grandpa would have voted for a skunk had it been running against his cousin.


*From Vermont:
Much as I like your Deborah Knott character, I have to confess that Sigrid Harald is my favorite. You really nail the NY art scene. There's a rumor going around that you won't be writing any more. Please say it's not true. (Oh, and by the way, what's with that quote in German from Elizabeth Peters on your Sigrid Harald page?)

I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the Sigrid Harald books. I do miss her, which is why I don't want to say I'll never give her another adventure. Realistically though, I also enjoy writing about North Carolina and Deborah Knott. Since I'm such a slow writer, I'm afraid she has priority right now. But in the future? Who knows?

About that German quote: Many people said nice things about Bootlegger's Daughter when it first came out. Elizabeth Peters was kind enough to write, 'Margaret Maron is one of the best writers in the business. Read her. That's an order.' When the German edition came out, this was the only quote they used. 'Read her. That's an order!' This sounds so Teutonic that it tickles my funny bone.


* From Wyoming:
In the Sigrid Harald section of your web page there are four books listed. In the description below Fugitive Colors it says "eighth" book in the series. What are the names of the other four not listed? I have just started reading the Sigrid Harald series and would like to read them in order. If I enjoy them half as much as the Knott series I will be one very happy reader.

Thank you. As you're not the first person to query the titles, I guess I'd better add this list to the site. Here, then, is a list of the Sigrid Harald books in chronological order:

  • One Coffee With
  • Death of a Butterfly (out of print)
  • Death in Blue Folders (out of print)
  • The Right Jack
  • Baby Doll Games
  • Corpus Christmas
  • Past Imperfect (out of print)
  • Fugitive Colors

* From various readers:
Will you ever be coming West/Northeast/to Florida, etc.?

If you would like me to visit your library or local store, you need to have your stores or libraries put in a request to the Warner Books Publicity Department (1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.) They are the ones who set my touring schedule and decide where I'll appear.


*From Indiana:
I found a sale listing for "Lt. Harald and the Treasure Island Treasure," but have never heard of this novel before. I checked your web page for Sigrid and found no mention of it there either. Is this legit?

It is legit, but it's a long short story, not a novel. In 1991, Pulphouse Publishing printed Mystery Scene Short Story Paperback #3, which paired the Treasure Island story with "My Mother, My Daughter, Me" in a small chapbook form, in paper and in a limited edition leather bound version. (Both stories are in my collection Shoveling Smoke.)


From Maryland:
I'm a big fan of both the Deborah Knott and the Sigrid Harald series, but I'm having trouble finding some of the SH books. I've read the beginning and end of the series, but would like to read more in the middle... Past Imperfect, Death of a Butterfly, Corpus Christmas, and Death in Blue Folders. Short of paying arms and legs via Amazon or Barnes and Noble, do you have any suggestions?

Corpus Christmas came back in print in time for Christmas 2001, but the others are currently in limbo, so why don't you do what Amazon and B&N do when someone orders an out-of-print book from them? Go to the source. There are several web sites that sell used books, both paperbacks and hardbacks, at reasonable prices. I've had success with www.bibliofind.com and also www.abe.com. (Another reader suggested www.half.com as an inexpensive source for books, too. Be careful though. They list books that don't exist, i.e., One Coffee With was never in hardback except, possibly, in large print.) Good luck!
NB: 2005 update on One Coffee With: It has been published hardback by Severn House in England and may be ordered through Amazon.co.uk.

*Another Sigrid source suggestion:
We miss [Sigrid] so much and want to know how she is doing. It's been so many years, and we were only able to share one year of her life. Please tell us how she is and what her life is like. Death in Blue Folders is one of the finest mysteries I have ever read and Fugitive Colors runs a close second.
-- Bonnie and mystery fans from Pegasus Books
-- PS: I do book searches and can locate Sigrid Harald books for fans.

Bonnie Scott
Pegasus By-the-Sea Books, Inc.
www.PegasusBooksOnline.com
books@pegasusbooksonline.com
PO Box 219
Flagler Beach, Florida 32136
(386) 439-1535

So many readers have asked about locating the out of print Sigrid Harald books that I am passing on a letter from a Florida bookseller for those who are unable to search the Internet themselves. This is not an endorsement because I've never dealt with Bonnie, but I'm trusting enough to hope that one Sigrid Harald fan will always do right by another.

 

*From a former book dealer now in NY:
Not a question but rather a suggestion for others trying to locate the out of print Sigrid Harald books. I suggest that anyone who is as desperate as I was to read and own them try emailing mysteryhouse@pathwaynet.com. I can't promise success, but I now own every Margaret Maron book published.

 

*From Washington:
As a new admirer, I have gathered both series and switch back and forth between the two series. Plus I have read your non series books too. I wanted to remind your other readers one of the best sources for out of print books is their local library. That's where I found the three of yours that are out of print.

Excellent suggestion!


*From Charlotte, NC:
Something I read this past summer made me wonder if Sigrid and Deborah are somehow related. I know they have a connection through Kate Bryant, and Anne Harald is from North Carolina, I just couldn't put it all together.

Yes, Anne Harald, Sigrid's mother, was first cousin to Kate Honeycutt Bryant's late husband, Jake Honeycutt. Sigrid's Grandmother Lattimore and Deborah's mother may have been cousins (I haven't yet decided), but if not blood kin, Deborah certainly knows Mrs. Lattimore.


*From Illinois:
I am rereading the Deborah Knott series (for about the fifth time!) and came across the reference to the engraved cigarette lighter that belonged to Deborah's mother. It mentions that this was the only item her sons fought over, although they did not know where it came from. I seem to recall reading about the lighter in another book (was it a short story?) and was wondering if you could point me in the right direction.

How sharp-eyed of you to pick up on the cigarette lighter. I know there's a story about it sometime in the future, but I haven't gotten around to writing it because I don't exactly know what the story is yet myself. And yes, you're quite right that there's at least one mention of the lighter in another book, but again, I can't quite put my hands on it. Maybe one of my other readers will be able to tell us both!

 

*From Cleveland, Ohio:
I'm intrigued by the way Deborah grew up among so many brothers. Did you ever think of writing a short story about when she was a little girl? Maybe you could use it to tell us the significance of her mother's cigarette lighter?

Deborah as Nancy Drew, girl sleuth? I'll have to think about that. But it might be an interesting approach. And it would certainly satisfy my own curiosity about that lighter!

October 2003 update -- Deborah Pickens of Alabama has reminded me that the cigarette lighter first appears in the hands of Will Knott in Chapter 6 of Bootlegger's Daughter and again in Chapter 8 of Up Jumps the Devil. Leave it to another Deborah to know!


*From Canberra, Australia
Your books are elegant. They're like Mary Stewart's novels, in the sense that while you read them to follow the fortunes of the characters and to watch the plot unfold; what separates them from other novels is the music of the language which stands on its own, and the atmosphere that it evokes. I read once that when you lose yourself in reading, it has a similar effect to meditation. It happens all too rarely, and I wanted to thank you for it.

And, finally, you've convinced this Australian that one of the things I must do, is take a wander through the Southern states of America. I feel weird sending such an effusive email to a stranger, but since compliments tend to be rare and you may sometimes wonder whether it's worth writing another novel (it is!), I will take the plunge and send this.

It really does cheer a writer to know that the books aren't being dropped down a rabbit hole. (And I'd like to say here that no one should ever feel weird writing to me. I especially enjoy hearing from my readers overseas.)


*From a reader "living in Ontario, but a Southerner at heart":
...just had to tell you how much I love the Deborah Knott series... . The characters are so real I feel like I know them. I would especially like to be able to join the Knotts in one of their gatherings.

Sometimes I wish I could invite everyone down for a Knott-style party. Grilling a whole pig outdoors is a daylong event and the easiest way to entertain (no polishing silver, no worrying if a drink tips over, no rush for spot lifters if a slice of chocolate cream pie falls off a plate.) Guests usually range in age from babies to nonagenarians. Those who can be torn away from the grill play basketball, badminton, bocce, horseshoes or croquet. There's often singing afterwards and those who can't sing can at least tap their toes.

But hey, Ontario's in the south of Canada, right? No reason you couldn't throw a pig-picking yourself. All the instructions are right there in Chapter 28 of Bootlegger's Daughter and Chapter 15 of Home Fires!


*From New York
I almost feel that the author (I almost typed "authors") of [your two series] is two different people. The Deborah Knott series is filled with people, events and rich detail, all comprising an involved daily life tapestry. The Sigrid Harald series involves a rather lonely person who only becomes involved in the lives of those around her when she is drawn in through her work. The detail is spare and the writing more direct. It's so interesting. Not only are the protagonists so opposite but the author's voice and writing style are so different for each series.

I prefer SH because I understand her personality and New York lifestyle better. But I have spent a lot of time with lawyers and judges in the South and get a real feeling for southern life in your work.

If I were writing fiction, my work would probably be more like that of the creator of SH and I would wish it could be more like the creator of DK. Do you write so differently for each series because the styles grow naturally out of the personalities and lifestyles of the characters, or did you set out when you began to develop styles for each?

This is an especially interesting question for me because while I'm interested in the creative process, I don't like to analyze it too closely for fear of becoming self-conscious about it. Sigrid Harald came first and I remember thinking of her as someone whose emotional development had become stunted at an early age, rather like a butterfly newly emerged from its chrysalis. If one of those lovely creatures is startled into flying before its wings have fully inflated and dried, it may manage to fly well enough but it will never soar. So when I put myself inside her head, I had to cramp my spirit somewhat, too. It's not that she doesn't yearn to relate, it's just that she's never learned how. Over the course of the eight books, she finally does achieve connection and companionship.

When I came to create Deborah Knott, I tried to make her the antithesis of Sigrid: confident, emotional, surrounded by a loving circle of family and friends, with practical common sense and less reliance on intellect. I also tried to induce in myself the slightly-relaxed, governors-off, state of mind one gets after a couple of stiff drinks so that Deborah would blurt out things the more repressed Sigrid never would.

This probably isn't very helpful to you, but other than this, all I can say is that it "just feels right" to set them down on paper as I hear them in my head. One speaks with a New York accent; the other drawls. What can I say?


*From Pennsylvania:
Thought you might like to know that for the past few years, we've been using your books as "tour guides" when we drive down to visit relatives in South Carolina. We've toured the furniture museum in High Point (loved the miniature rooms!), eaten "eastern North Carolina" barbecue in New Bern (didn't see Kidd Chapin's cabin on the Neuse River though!) and bought T-shirts at East'ard's on Harker's Island. In a couple of weeks, we're going to do a little Christmas shopping at some Seagrove potteries, just like Deborah.

Hmm-mm-mmm. Wonder if I should tell Triple A to add a subsection to their North Carolina guides?


*From Davidson College, NC:
On page 31 of Killer Market, you use the phrase L-M-N (as a substitute for blunter language). We are baffled . . . can you tell us what those letters stand for?

I have a friend who, instead of saying, "What the hell is he doing?" always says, 'What the L-M-N's he doing?" --- the M and N taking away the impression that she's actually said Hell. My aunt had similar euphemisms. She wouldn't said Damn, nor would she say Darn because that was a substitute for Damn. Instead, when thoroughly vexed, she'd say, "Oh, sew it!"


*From Virginia:
I just finished Corpus Christmas, and thoroughly enjoyed it as I have all of your books. My question is: even though there is a disclaimer in the front of the book regarding people and places, I felt certain all through the book that the "Erich Breul House" was a real place. However, when I checked the Internet I could not find any information on it. Is it a real place or another example of your outstanding ability to place your readers in a fictitious environment that seems real?

What a lovely compliment! No, the EB House is strictly mine. It's an amalgam of several similar houses: the Theodore Roosevelt House in Manhattan, the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill, the Gardner in Boston, the Sloane in London, etc. etc. And that book gave the copy editor fits. I'd included a list of proper names, stating which were real and which were fictional, but somehow the list got separated from the manuscript and the poor copy editor spent frustrating hours trying to verify all the "artists" that the Bruels had collected.


*From Pine Knolls Shore, North Carolina:
After reading Shooting at Loons I was particularly curious to know if your early years had much in common with Deborah's?

Indeed they did. Deborah and I both grew up right here in "Colleton County," going to a rural school, chopping corn and cotton after school in the spring, working in tobacco all summer, attending a small country church. Like me, if someone else will kill the chicken, Deborah can take it from there and put it on the table in fifteen different ways. As a teenager, the one and only time I tried to wring a chicken's neck, the poor thing got up, shook her head and ran off to tell the rest of the flock, "Girls! Girls! You won't believe what just happened to me!"


*From Illinois
Please........we need a Knott Family Cookbook!!! I've looked in all my cookbooks (and I have many!) and can't find a recipe for Chicken Pastry, which was mentioned in one of the Deborah books, but since I read and re-read them, I can't remember which one.

I can't remember either since chicken pastry is such a integral part of so many Sunday dinners, but here's the way Maidie Holt would make it:

  • Start with a big pot of salted water, a cut up stewing hen or the largest fryer you can find, a chopped onion, a healthy sprinkle of black pepper, and a handful of chopped celery. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the meat is falling off the bones.

  • Remove chicken from pot, return the skin, fat and bones to the pot to boil a little longer for a richer flavor. Reserve the good meat for later.

  • While the stock is bubbling, mix together 2 cups of plain flour, salt to taste, and enough water to make a very stiff dough. (Some people beat an egg into the water for color.) (Sorry not to be precise, but I've never measured nor known anyone who does. You use more flour if there's a houseful for dinner, less if it's just you and your mate, and adjust the salt and water accordingly.) Knead the dough till smooth, then roll out flat on a floured surface -- about a quarter-inch thick. Cut the flat dough into long strips about two fingers wide and let sit a half-hour to slightly dry.

  • Strain the stock, skim off as much of the grease as you can without getting too picky, discard the celery, bones, skin, etc., then return the clear stock to the pot. You should have at least a half-pot of rich broth at this point -- about what you'd have if you were going to boil lasagna strips. Add more water if you need to. When the stock's come back to the boil, lay the pastry strips on the surface one at a time. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and cook until the pastry strips have plumped up and are cooked through. Return the meat to the pot, cover, and turn off the heat till time to serve. If you got your water level right, it should be quite moist, but not soupy.

  • Best served with butter beans, chopped raw onions and sliced tomatoes fresh from the garden. (In the Southern part of heaven, this is considered tastier than ambrosia!)


*From Virginia
Although I was initially disappointed that Last Lessons of Summer didn’t have Deborah Knott, I now want to read another book about Amy and Beth. Any chance of it happening?

Sorry. I felt that I finished Amy’s story; and with the selling of the farm, the Barbour family will be scattered. However it is in the realm of possibilities that we might catch glimpses of Beth again!


*From a “Connecticut Yankee”:
Do you ever suggest to your readers that they ask their library to do a search for out of print Sigrid Herald mysteries? Most libraries provide a service called the inter library loan or ILL which permit local libraries to borrow from out of town and even out of state collections.

Good idea! Thanks!


*From Cadiz, Kentucky:
If the next Deborah Knott book is already finished, why do we have to wait almost a year for it? Why not go ahead and publish it now?

Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. Or that quick. After I turn in a manuscript, my editor goes over it, makes suggestions for minor changes, etc. It comes back to me to make those changes, then back to the editor, who gives it to the copy editor. That person checks for spelling, punctuation and consistency -- so that a character with blue eyes doesn't show up with brown eyes elsewhere or so that if Deborah says she left her robe hanging behind the door, she doesn't take it out of the trunk of her car ten pages later. After the copy editor has marked everything in question, it comes back to me again. Sometimes my misspelled words and bad grammar are deliberate, in which case I write "stet" beside the item in question, which means "let it stand as written." When I've agreed or disagreed with every mark the copy editor made on my manuscript, I send it back to Production, which sends it to the printer, who produces a plain paperback copy. These are the ARCs -- the Advanced Reading Copies that go out to reviewers and book stores. They are plainly marked "Uncorrected Page Proof: Material from this copy should not be quoted or used without first checking with the publisher, as some of this material may not appear in the finished book." That's because one ARC comes to me for a final check and another goes back to a copy editor who reads for typos, etc. This is our very last chance to catch any dumb errors. Finally, it goes back to the printer who produces the final hardback copy. Depending on everyone's schedules, each step can take several weeks, which is why I usually turn in a manuscript about ten or eleven months before it arrives in your bookstore. Yes, a timely and sensational book (think celebrity scandal or national tragedy) can be rushed into print in six weeks, but most books are on a schedule such as I've just outlined.


*From Georgia
How long after a book is published and on the shelf does it get turned into an audio book? I have absolutely no time to read anymore but all the time in the world to listen since my daily commutes hold me hostage in my car.

I never really paid attention, but your question made me ask Recorded Books about this. High Country Fall will be out in August of 2004 and Recorded Books hopes to have an audio version out in January 2005. The four-month lag time is probably because they have to wait for a finished copy of the book.


*From Alabama
Something has been puzzling me [about Last Lessons of Summer] -- I cannot figure out the cover. It just does not bring the house and furniture you talk about in the book alive for me. What am I missing here? What does that red chair and the floor lamp say?

Absolutely nothing! Okay, maybe that's too flip. When I was about halfway through the book, the publisher sent me a mockup of the cover. I loved the colors, which said "Late summer" to me, but that pseudo-Queen Anne armchair and tacky lamp certainly had nothing to do with the Mission Oak/Arts and Crafts furniture that was figuring so prominently in the book. I immediately asked them to change the chair and lamp to the proper style.

"Oh, but we like this. It looks ‘old-ladyish.'"

"It has nothing to do with the main old lady in book."

"But we really, really like it."

Rather than get into a pointless debate, I decided then and there to set one of the climactic scenes in the farmhouse that belonged to the protagonist's great-aunt, who was packing up to move. The stripped-down cover perfectly illustrates that scene.


*From Assorted Readers:
There is more bad grammar in High Country Fall than you should tolerate from your editor(s)." "When did 'won't' become the past tense catchall for 'was not' or 'were not'?" "The article 'a' should always be changed to 'an' when it precedes a word beginning with a vowel."

Ever since Bootlegger's Daughter first appeared, I've been getting letters with comments such as this. My answer to such grammar police was published in "The Writer Magazine" in May of 1995. Perhaps it's time to reprint it:

"I" Is Not Me (The Writer Magazine, May 1995)

Recently, an irate reader took me to task for my last book, Shooting at Loons. Offended when my first-person narrator remarked that someone was "not much taller than me," the reader acidly inquired if grammar were no longer important.

"It is clear that you don't know any better than to let your character - a judge with a law degree, for heaven's sake! - use bad grammar," he fumed, "but why didn't your editor catch it? Don't editors edit anymore?"

Fortunately for me, my editor is more astute than that particular reader. She knows the stylistic difference between an author's formal voice and a character's narrative voice and would never try to smooth away my "I" character's verbal idiosyncrasies. Nevertheless, that letter did make me stop and reconsider how, as writers, we often do use a first-person voice as a shorthand method to convey character and personality without actually having to spell them out.

The omniscient author's voice pays strict attention to the laws of grammar and punctuation; the narrative voice pays strict attention to the character of the "I" who is telling the story.

As someone who reads Fowler's Modern English Usage for sheer pleasure, I do know the difference between subjective and objective pronouns; and yes, I do try to use them correctly when writing third person or formally. (Actually, Fowler prefers "Not much taller than me" over "Not much taller than I," which "strikes the reader as pedantic. ") But that is neither here nor there. The truth is that when I write first-person fiction, I deliberately mimic language that will let my readers know this person's social class, present emotional status, and whether he is likable or mean-minded, brave or timorous, a whining pessimist or a cheerful optimist. This is especially useful in the short story form where every word counts.

In my short story, "Deadhead Coming Down," no third-person description of an easily bored trucker can match the immediacy of his own voice saying, "There's not one damn thing exotic about driving a eighteen-wheeler. Next to standing on a assembly line and screwing Bolt A into Hole C like my no'count brother-in-law, drivin’ a truck's got to be the dullest way under God's red sun to make a living. 'Specially if it's just up and down the eastern seaboard like me."

The trucker speaks in short blunt words and his coarse denial of his brother-in-law's worth foreshadows his truly callous actions in the story.

Conversely, when I wrote "On Windy Ridge," I hoped that the slower, dreamlike pacing and choice of elegiac language would help convey the image of a middle-aged mountain woman who possesses both intelligence and a slightly psychic sensitivity: "Waiting is more tiresome than doing, and I was weary. Bone weary. . . but my eyes lifted to the distant hills, beyond trees that burned red and gold, to where the ridges misted into smoky blue. The hills were real and everlasting and I had borrowed of their strength before."

In Shooting at Loons, the novel that so exercised my overly pedantic reader, my narrator is Deborah Knott, a district court judge in her mid-thirties. Even though she knows better, Deborah is a breezily colloquial Southerner who makes grammatical slips because she is the daughter and sister of semiliterate dirt farmers who will use dialect, split infinitives, double negatives, sentence fragments, dangling participles, and a host of other colorful grammatical errors till the day they die. True, she has a law degree; true, she is a judge. Neither has turned her into a grammarian. (I was once sent to the principal's office because I would not agree when the English teacher insisted that it's was the possessive of it. She, too, possessed an advanced degree.)

With one foot in North Carolina's agrarian past and the other firmly planted in its high-tech present, Deborah is never going to "get above her raising. .. Not if I have anything to say about it.

After all, I have a classic precedent for claiming the right to a narrative voice that is not necessarily my own.

In a preface to one of his books many years ago, a certain writer used his formal voice to explain the technical side of creation: "In this book a number of dialects are used. . . The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork, but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech." Then switching into his first-person narrative voice, that same author wrote, "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. "

Had Mark Twain written the whole book as omniscient and highly literate author, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would be a forgotten piece of 19th-century esoterica. Instead he gave us Huck's distinctly ungrammatical "I" voice and the book remains a living, breathing masterpiece a hundred years later.

 


SPOILER WARNING:
Unless you have read Bootlegger’s Daughter, Southern Discomfort, Shooting at Loons, Up Jumps the Devil, Killer Market, Home Fires and Storm Track, you may not wish to read further in this column because you may come across comments that will spoil these earlier books for you.


*From Wisconsin:
I've just finished Storm Track and enjoyed it as I have the other Deborah Knott mysteries I've read. One recommendation for Deborah -- let her get a bike so she can ride it to get her newspaper or mail. No more half running/half walking or feeling guilty because she drives. You know there must be a bike on that farm somewhere.

What a great idea! It would have to be one of those fat-wheeled "dirt" bikes though because of the sandy ruts.


*From Maryland:
Is there any chance of a house plan of the passive solar bungalow with two bedrooms, with orientation, directions to her father's house, the pond, etc., in the next book?

Probably not. Just as I don't give dates in Deborah's family tree, so I hate to be pinned down too closely for physical terrain because it would limit my fictional flexibility. But thanks for the suggestion and maybe I'll do a general one on my web site some day.


*From an unidentified E-message back in 2002:
When are you going to let Deborah realize that Dwight Bryant is NOT another of her many brothers but is actually very much in love with her? (Or have I misinterpreted?)

You are not the first to have asked me this. Since I'm not sure of the answer, I suppose I've been sending ambivalent messages in the books. I guess we're all going to have to wait 'til Deborah herself tells us. Sorry.

 

*From an E-message (no state given):
Your characters all remind me of someone I've known. As a Southerner, they are as comfortable as an old shoe. But as an African-American, I must say I've especially enjoyed your last two books. You seem to have a special insight. (PS: I think Deborah and Dwight should get together, too!)

Thanks so much. It really pleases me when my African-American friends tell me I got it right. (PS: I'll record your vote for Dwight Bryant in the appropriate column!)

 

*From Florida:
Now that Deborah and Dwight are really going to get married -- they are, aren’t they? Please say you aren’t just scamming us? -- they’re going to need a dog. Please let them adopt from the Colleton County Animal Shelter.

A dog, hmmm? I’ve been thinking that Deborah could use a dog, whether or not she gets a husband. The only trouble is that she’s away so much, she’d either have to leave it with one of her family or board it. (As for whether I’m "scamming" you about a marriage, you’ll just have to keep reading!)

 

From Florida:
In the books, various characters often refer to Deborah as "shug". Can you tell me what that means? Is it a nickname? Hope this is not a dumb question.

Of course it's not a dumb question. "Shug" is short for "sugar" and falls in the category of generic pet names such as "honey," "sweetie," etc. I once had a great-uncle who had lost track of the great-nieces and nephews on my level, so he called each of us "duck," as in "Hey, duck, what grade you in now?" I found it very endearing.

 


SPOILER WARNING:
You should probably stop here if you haven’t yet read Rituals of the Season.


*From Baton Rouge, LA:
I'm concerned now that Deborah has married Dwight -- which I was all in favor of: What happens to the series with her name change? Please don't say there won't be another book, but how can it be the Deborah Knott Series, if she's Deborah Bryant now? Or maybe she'll keep her name? I like the name Deborah Knott and I vote to keep it!

I agree. She will definitely keep her own name for her professional life. And don’t worry, there will be at least four more books about her.

 

*From Vanderbilt University, Tennessee:
What song did Deborah's family play for her and Dwight's first dance as a married couple? Please, please tell me -- this is making me crazy! I've run through all the bluegrass and Southern gospel and folk songs I can think of, but I must be missing this.

If you mean the "corny sentimental" song they played as Kezzie led her onto the floor, just think of one of the syrupy songs they always play -- "Daddy's Little Girl" or "Where Are You Going, My Little One?" etc. I'm sure different parts of the country have particular favorites for this ritual.


*From California:
Could you please enlighten us about Southern manners and forms of address? Why are certain characters referred to as "Miss Emily" instead of "mom" or "grandma"? How about "Miss Kate" instead of "Aunt Kate"? ( PS: Did Sigrid attend Deborah and Dwight's wedding?)

Here in the south, it's considered bad manners to automatically call an older person by his or her first name unless specifically invited to do so. Older friends of the family (those on a first-name basis with one's parents, for instance) have the honorific placed in front of the given name to indicate both familiarity and respect. While Cal would call Emily Bryant "grandma", Deborah grew up calling her "Miss Emily" because she was a family friend — for the same reason that Dwight calls Deborah's father "Mr. Kezzie." As for the "Miss Kate" in Rituals of the Season, Deborah was just being funny since she was being called "Miss Deborah." Cal would of course call Kate “Aunt Kate,” and Jake would call her “Mom,” as does Mary Pat now even though she and Kate are actually 2nd or 3rd cousins. (And if Sigrid crashed the wedding, no one told me!)


*From North Carolina:
May I ask why you find it necessary to say that someone is white when you later describe her blond hair and blue eyes?

*From Texas:
I am currently enjoying Rituals of the Season. I find it very refreshing that you identify the ethnicity of all of your characters and not just black or other non-whites.

I am bemused by the fact that I get a lot of mail on this issue. No one ever called me to task for describing a character as black or Latino or Asian, but whenever I mention in passing that it’s a white nurse or a white businessman, I get letters like the first one quoted above. It’s not that I’m trying to be politically correct, but fair is fair. Why should white automatically get to be the default race? Deputy Raeford McLamb of the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department first appeared in a short story of mine ("Hangnail") back in 1992, but it wasn’t until Winter’s Child (2006) that I definitely described him as black. Several readers were surprised by that. "I always assumed he was white." Why? Because I didn’t say he wasn’t. Sometimes it’s good to shake up the mindsets.


*From Pennsylvania:
Why was your last Deborah Knott novel titled Winter's Child?

When I was first searching out wintry images in old quirky books, I came across a poem written during the Victorian era -- about how Spring's child was born of balmy breezes and cradled in newly green boughs and Summer's child was nurtured on ripe berries and lullabied by meadowlarks. Autumn's child had something similar, but the poem ended with a chilling description of ice and snow and the line "And who will comfort Winter's child?" Unfortunately, I didn't write it down and when I went looking for the source again, I couldn't find it. But I liked the image and thought it fit Cal's situation.


*From several different readers:
Deborah’s father’s name. I thought Keziah was a woman’s name. How did he wind up with it?

I'm afraid Kezzie’s parents were nearly illiterate back-country folks who liked the sound of the name and thought it was a Biblical male name. Unfortunately, the doctor was tired and just wrote down on the birth certificate what he thought he heard and headed back home. Kezzie’s sister says they told the doctor Hezikiah, planning to call him Hezzie, but not knowing Keziah was a woman’s name, decided they liked Kezzie better. Who knows?


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Margaret's Schedule .

 

8 May 2008 - Talk and Read for Literacy Council of Wake County
6:00 - 9:00 pm -- MacGregor Downs Clubhouse, Cary, NC.
$50.00 per person.
For more information, visit
wakeliteracy.org or call (919) 787-5559.

7 September 2008 - Sam Ragan Lecture Series
3:00 pm - Season-opening lecture. To be followed by a reception and booksigning.
Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines, NC.
Books will be provided by The Country Bookshop. For more details, contact Dr. Stephen Smith.


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Margaret Maron's books are available in bookstores, or they may be ordered online from most mystery bookstores, Barnes & Noble.com, or Amazon.com. For signed and/or personalized books, email Margaret's local bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, in Raleigh, NC. Give them an email address or daytime phone number where you may be reached, and they will get back to you with rates. Audiocassette versions of several of the Deborah Knott books are available from RecordedBooks.com.