Fiction Scribe

*Click on the book cover to visit the author’s site.

Hello and welcome to Fiction Scribe, Ms. Miles. Let’s stat with getting to know you a little better. List five things you feel define you as a person.

I’m organized. I’m sentimental. I’m loyal, industrious and optimistic.

What inspired the initial idea for Cold Rock River?

Cold Rock River was inspired by an incident in my own life. Like Adie’s sister Annie, my baby sister Vick choked on a jellybean when she was twenty months old. It was the week following Easter and we three older girls had our little baskets squirreled away. Our mother insisted we weren’t to drag them around the house, but she was gone for the evening and our daddy let us roam about, baskets in hand, to our hearts’ content. I don’t recall that any of us actually gave Vicki a jelly bean. More likely she picked on up off the floor.

I do remember I panicked when I saw her put one in her mouth, and I tried to grab her. She started giggling and running as fast as her little legs would allow. The next thing I knew, she was choking and her face was blue. She survived, but as I grew older I was very much aware of how our lives would have changed had she not.

One evening, lying in bed, something made me think of it; how fifty years had passed and yet the memory of that night was still as raw as fresh-skinned knees. I closed my eyes, ready to drift off, when I “heard” the opening lone of what became Cold Rock River. I got up to write it down, so I wouldn’t forget a single word. I was still at it the next morning. I had forty, maybe fifty pages. I realized then that this young, beautiful, delightful creature, who I chose to call Adie, might have something to tell me worth hearing. And if I was quiet and listened closely, maybe her ghosts would help me purge mine.

Cold Rock River not only spans the life of two women but two women separated by a century. Yet they are united by war. Why did you choose the Civil War and the Vietnam War?

Initially Cold Rock River was to be the story of Adie Jenkins, seventeen and pregnant and unmarried during the early 1960’s. I know today if you’re in her condition, they throw you a shower. During the 1960’s the Vietnam War was a major factor in our daily lives, so it naturally came to play a role in the book.

As Adie’s story began I decided she would do some chicken farming to feed them when it became apparent Buck wasn’t going to be one she could count on. I went to the library to research Georgia chicken farming and stumbled onto the Slave Narratives. The complete collection— which contains more than two thousand first-person accounts—is housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. They were commissioned by President Roosevelt during the depression years, in order to record the journey of those freed slaves still alive. Writers ere sent across the nation to search for them.

Their accounts are as fascinating as they are poignant. Over the years, there’s been a good deal of controversy as to their accuracy, based on the fact that some of the freed slaves were fearful or perhaps suspicious of the government—brings to mind “forty acres and a mule”—and hesitant to speak candidly regarding the treatment they may or may not have received at the hands of their sometimes still powerful former masters. The collective consensus is that somewhere amidst the vast amount of material lies the truth.

After months of reading, reviewing, and re-examining all of the narratives I could locate, Tempe’s portion of Cold Rock River emerged. Her story, based on what I found, is remarkable. Everything that Tempe experiences was lifted from the lives of actual people who wore the chains and bore the scars of slavery.

I won’t ever forget her; nor am I able to forget those I ‘met” through the narratives, who bravely shared their life stories so that Tempe could tell me hers. Since Tempe’s story begins as the Civil War was well under way, it seemed to be a good parallel to the Vietnam War of Adie’s journey.

Did setting the book during two different wars require twice the research?

Yes, but most of the research was in relation to the Civil War and the way of life for the slaves in order to present Tempe’s portion of the story. Since I grew up in the fifties and sixties portraying Adie’s part was not as difficult as I had lived those years.

Tell us about Adie and Tempe.

Adie begins her young marriage quite naïve and unaware of what it takes to have a good marriage. She feels that if she can cook well, find a way to keep Buck entertained then he won’t want to wander off to other women. She hadn’t considered the fact that he was a product of a father who was a philanderer and what that example could do to Buck. At one point she even says, “I didn’t consider that the sins of the father are often planted in the heart of the son.”

As she matures she comes to realize that it’s Buck’s problem, not hers and it’s his choices not hers that leads to his infidelity. However, Adie is a loyal person and is reluctant to leave Buck, even though she is deeply in love with Murphy. Buck needs her. He’s been gravely wounded in the war. She feels her place is with him. She tells Murphy in a letter, “I want my children to know that the promises we make are meant to be kept.” I don’t know if I could be that honorable in a marriage with a husband who couldn’t be faithful.

Tempe on the other hand grew up fast. Being a slave and constantly under her master’s control she learned quickly to survive by doing what was expected of her without complaint. The thing I like best about Tempe is that she insisted on having her joy despite all her sorrows. She lost three children when her master sells them to the speculators, yet she lives on to build a life for herself and those that she loves. She is a remarkable woman and was fashioned after many of the women I “met” through my research of the Slave Narratives.

How much of Adie’s and Tempe’s experiences come from your own life experiences?

That’s always hard to say, but I will say that the one central time of my life that had the most impact on me was when I lost two of my own children. I had some very bad times. It was a near-fatal wound. The loss was like being shot in the heart with a torpedo and somehow surviving. That in itself is not what’s significant the walking wounded are all around us. But when I started writing, I noticed I was taking the pain from my life and translating it onto the page in a number of different ways. And I found that it felt wonderful to sift through the debris and find something incredibly beautiful hidden in the ashes.

Strange as it sounds, sorrow has a duty and obligation to us. If we respond to it well, it helps us stay soft and pliable. It can teach us to get better, not bitter, to have breakthroughs, not breakdowns. It helps us to empathize with others who are hurting, those we know well, and those we don’t know at all. These are some of the qualities I tried to instill in Adie and Tempe.

What are your dreams for your writing? Where do you see yourself in five years both as a writer and as a person?

Well, Of course I’d love to hit the New York Times Bestsellers list, but wouldn’t all authors!! Mostly, I want to write stories that make a difference. For me it’s not acceptable to simply write good stories.

I feel compelled to include a gift with the writing; something readers can take with them that may make a difference in their life or the lives of those they love. It’s not enough to be entertaining. I need a reason or a purpose for the entertainment. It can be subtle and unobtrusive— I much prefer that it is, but it needs to be there. If you ask specifically what it is that I like to give my readers I’d have to say good stories that warm their hearts and question their brains, but a little something extra. It’s hard to put into words.

I write poetry, not for publication, just for myself and I once wrote about what it was that I wanted to do with my life. It ended with, “Share truths, touch hearts, bring joy.” That’s what I want to do with my life and perhaps my writing will help me to do that.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given or learned in your life as a writer?

Read, read read! And write, write write! And I was told to always remember that those talented authors who we think were born to write, well maybe so, but they were never born published. Also, I always remind myself that there are only three simple steps to writing a good book:

Put a tiger under a tree.
Get you protagonist up that tree.
Get your protagonist out of that tree.

Best to you in all your endeavors and bless your reading and writing hearts.