Monthly Archives: April 2025

Patrice Gopo’s New Picture Book Is Now Ready to Be Enjoyed

April 26, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Ripening Time, Patrice Gopo’s new picture book, is all about anticipation. The central character in the story is a little girl who loves eating the fried plantains that her mother prepares, but before the plantains can be fried, they need to ripen first. The story traces this entire process, from purchasing the unripe plantains at the grocery story, to putting the plantains in a hanging basket where they can ripen over the course of a week, to watching the plantains gradually turn from green to yellow, to finally slicing, frying and serving the plantains much to the girl’s delight. 

For Patrice, the process of seeing this book through to publication also involved experiencing a series of stages, from recalling a childhood memory, to writing an initial draft, to rewriting the text multiple times, to waiting for the illustrator (Carlos Vélez Aguilera) to complete the pictures, to working with the publisher as the book went into production, to the launching of the book. Patrice and her many fans have waited a long time for the release of the book, but the waiting is over. The book is launched and ready to be enjoyed.

I contacted Patrice and asked her for more information about how she came to write Ripening Time.  Here is what she sent to me:

In my experience, the stories I write—essays or picture books—often have layers of emergence. The beginnings may come from one time in my life, but the way they take shape and form happens at another time. My second picture book, Ripening Time, is no exception. In Ripening Time, I tell the story of a little girl who is waiting across a week for plantains to ripen. It’s a celebration of food and family and connecting across generations. Every bit of this book is rooted in experiences from my childhood. My parents are Jamaican immigrants, and I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, a place where—at the time—it wasn’t always easy to find plantains. My mother used to go to the grocery store across town in search of plantains, sometimes finding the food we longed to eat. Their presence in our home was always a special treat.

This memory forms the first layer of emergence for Ripening Time. It began during my childhood in Alaska. However, additional layers of emergence needed to happen to make this story a picture book in the world. And those additional layers happened right here in Charlotte. As I mentioned above, I write essays and picture books. In fact, aspects of my essays inspire most of my picture book manuscripts. Probably a decade ago now, I took a writing class with local Charlotte writing teacher Maureen Ryan Griffin. In that class, Maureen gave us a prompt to write a letter to someone. I ended up writing a letter to my sister. That letter blossomed into the essay “Plucked and Planted” in my first essay collection, All the Colors We Will See. At the surface, “Plucked and Planted” is about plantains, but beneath the surface, it is about my sister and me and our varied relationships with our Jamaican heritage. That essay includes a couple of paragraphs where I describe how my mother used to search for plantains, and then we would wait for the plantains to ripen. These paragraphs served as the springboard for the creation of Ripening Time.

For me, taking essays and reimagining them as a picture book takes time. While essays are often “thinking work” happening on the page, picture books are much more grounded in a particular story. With Ripening Time, I was struggling to bring this story to a satisfying conclusion. I ended up applying for and receiving a Charlotte Mecklenburg Arts & Science Council (ASC) Artist Support Grant to work with a picture book writing coach. That move was a game changer for my manuscript, and it moved from a great story with a flat ending to a submission-ready manuscript that soared!

I’m grateful for the rich literary community that exists here in Charlotte—great writing teachers and wonderful organizations that support creatives. I know both of these elements have had an impact on my broader writing life and the emergence of Ripening Time as a picture book in the world!

I would love to see you at my book signing at Park Road Books on May 10 at 10:30am.  For more information about this free event, please click on the following link:  https://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/book-signing-author-patrice-gopo

For more details and a complete list of book events, please visit my website: https://www.patricegopo.com/

I congratulate Patrice on the publication of Ripening Time. It’s a beautiful story that celebrates family traditions, favorite foods, and the pleasures associated with anticipating something special.  Ripening Time is something special, and it’s a welcomed addition to the growing library of picture books by Storied Charlotte authors.

Tags: Patrice Gopopicture book

Judy Goldman Reflects on the Stages of Life in Her New Memoir 

April 20, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The Rest of Our Lives, Judy Goldman’s new memoir, grew out of Judy’s response to turning eighty, but it is not really an account of the trials and tribulations of being an older person in contemporary America. Instead, Judy focuses The Rest of Our Lives on the many connections between her past experiences and her current life. As she stated in a recent interview, “Life is simply a series of passages where you find yourself in new, uncharted territory. You can almost connect the dots, see how that final stage of life is similar to all the previous stages.”  By focusing on the ways in which her past and her present experiences interrelate, Judy shows how key moments in her life have prepared her to face the challenges associated with old age.  

In many ways, however, The Rest of Our Lives, is not limited to the particularities of Judy’s life.  If it were, the book would not include the words “our lives” in the title.  Judy’s new memoir provides all readers with insights on navigating the life passages that we all face as we age. Throughout her memoir, Judy invites readers to reflect on the meaning of their own experiences.

Given Judy’s interest in writing a book that relates to all of “our lives,” it is not surprising that the book is tied to her experiences as a writing teacher at Charlotte Lit and elsewhere.  When commenting on how she came to write The Rest of Our Lives, she specifically mentions how working with her students inspired her to write this memoir: 

At 80, I felt I’d written everything I had to write. What was left? I was sad to give up writing. Writing keeps me nice. If I’m not writing, you don’t want to be around me. But then it came to me: If I tell students in my memoir workshops, “Write about what keeps you up at night,” I need to take my own advice. I was thinking a lot about aging. I needed to write about it.

The official launch of Judy’s The Rest of Our Lives will take place at Park Road Books on May 6 at 7:00 pm. For more information about this free event, please click on this link: https://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/judy-goldman-discusses-her-new-book-rest-our-lives

For more information about Judy and her books, please click on the following link:  http://judygoldman.com/

In thinking about Judy’s The Rest of Our Lives, I am reminded of Erik Erikson’s “Eight Ages of Man” chapter from his book Childhood and Society. In this chapter, Erikson writes about the “life cycle” and the road to becoming “a mature adult.” In Erikson’s model, mature adults who achieve “ego integrity” during their late adulthood find meaning and satisfaction in their lives, and often become known for their general “wisdom.” In pre-industrial societies, people would often turn to their village elders for wise advice on dealing with life’s challenges. Well, Storied Charlotte is a far cry of a pre-industrial village, but we still have our own wise village elder, and her name is Judy Goldman. 

Tags: Judy Goldman

Keeping Up with Gail Z. Martin and Her Husband, Larry N. Martin

April 12, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Gail Z. Martin is one of Charlotte’s best-known authors of fantasy books. She is a frequent featured speaker at fantasy conventions, and her work is often anthologized in both the US and the UK. Her first big success came in 2007 with the publication of the epic fantasy novel The Summoner, the first of the four novels in her Chronicles of the Necromancer series. She then, she has gone on to write many more fantasy novels, including dozens of books that she has co-authored with her husband, Larry N. Martin.

The other day my wife mentioned something about a new book by Gail, so I decided to investigate. I contacted Gail and asked her for more information about her new work and her connections to Charlotte.  Here is what she sent to me:

Thank you so much for inviting me to be on the blog! Although our books take place in many different locations, my husband and I have lived in Charlotte for almost twenty-five years and love it here.

I’ve actually got two new books—Equalizer, written under my Morgan Brice romance pen name, and Dead of Winter, co-written with my husband, Larry N. Martin.

First, a bit of background. I love the research part of writing. In my case, that leads to some unusual tidbits since the books all incorporate paranormal elements—ghosts, legends, magic, monsters, and more. I’ve found that the best way to ground a book in its time and place is to draw on the folktales and lore of that location, even if those need a little tweak to fit the story.

I have loved spooky tales all my life (Dark Shadows was my favorite show when I was a kid), and now I’m having a lot of fun telling new ones.

One of my other favorite shows back then was Wild Wild West, which followed the adventures of two handsome Secret Service agents who traveled the country in a fancy Pullman car fighting villains. That show was a definite inspiration for Equalizer, with a few twists.

First of all, the bad guys in Equalizer (book two in my Sharps and Springfield series) are all paranormal. Second, it’s male-male romance, so the two Secret Service agents are “together.” Technically, it qualifies as steampunk romance, which means a version of 1800s history with magic, fantastical gadgets, and technology that didn’t exist but would have been amazing. Equalizer is set in Chicago, so I had lots of fun doing the research on local hauntings, unsolved murders, and other lore.

It’s full of found family, paranormal Pinkertons, intrepid reporters, body snatchers and resurrectionists, Mob witches, vengeful spirits, dark spells, unholy inventions, and a love that won’t be denied. (And yes, the series and the individual books are named for famous guns.)

Dead of Winter is part of our Spells, Salt, and Steel series and follows the adventures of Mark Wojcik, mechanic and monster hunter. While there’s plenty of action, there’s also a lot of humor, so that series qualifies as horror comedy.

The Mark Wojcik series is set in northwestern Pennsylvania, where my husband and I grew up. It’s a lot of fun drawing on the history of that area and its ghost stories, haunted places, and abandoned locations. We try to make sure that the stories couldn’t be told in the same way if they happened anywhere else. That includes foods, local expressions, references to history, and the quirky little details that are a wink and a nod to people who are also familiar with the area.

Found family and a circle of close friends are big factors for the heroes’ success in all our books. Dead of Winter has creepy cryptids, spooky magic, supernatural secrets, paranormal plots, and lots of explosions! (You can read more about Mark in Spells, Salt, and Steel Seasons 1 and 2.)

I haven’t used Charlotte as a location for a book…yet. I’m sure it will happen since favorite places find their way into the series, including Charleston, Myrtle Beach, the Adirondacks, and the North Carolina mountains. I’m just waiting for the right story to claim the city for its own!

For readers who want to know more about Gail and Larry and their various books, please click on the following link:  https://ascendantkingdoms.com/

I congratulate Gail and Larry on their new publications, and I thank them for their many contributions to Storied Charlotte’s veritable library of fantasy novels.

Tags: Gail Z. MartinLarry N. Martin

Jonathan Heaslet and the Story of How a Whispered Secret Turned into a Novel 

April 05, 2025 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Hannah Larrew, one of the co-hosts of the now defunct but deeply missed Charlotte Readers Podcast, recently sent me an email with a tip for my Storied Charlotte blog.  She wrote, “I wanted to touch base with you about a Charlotte author I’m working with, Jonathan Heaslet, whose debut novel, East of Apple Glen, may make for an interesting piece on Storied Charlotte. It deals with several relevant topics, including the role of the church in our culture, LGBTQ inclusion, and sexual assault. He has an interesting background in that he served as a minister for many years, which gave him a unique outlook on organized religion and some of the major issues that can be found within the system.” 

Intrigued, I did a little research on Jonathan (Jon) Heaslet and his soon-to-be released novel. Jon has lived in Charlotte since his retirement from the ministry in 2014, but his novel is set in a small town in Ohio in the heart of Amish country. Jon served as a minister in this part of Ohio. One day a member of the congregation whispered a secret to him involving sexual exploitation in the local community. This secret haunted him for years, and he eventually decided to use it as the starting point for his novel. 

In writing East of Apple Glen, Jon drew heavily on his experiences as a minister. I contacted Jon and asked him for more information about his background and how he came to write East of Apple Glen.  Here is what he sent to me:

I grew up in what is now Silicon Valley. My grandfather once owned a farm that’s now headquarters for Google. My parents sold their house in the 1960s after I left for college. It’s now worth 10-figures. I should be writing you from a Caribbean island instead of a modest home in Charlotte.

My undergraduate degree is from the University of Iowa, mathematics. My wife and I left Iowa City the day we graduated and came to North Carolina, Linda to teach in the Durham City Schools the first year they desegregated and me to earn a master’s in economics at Chapel Hill. 

After a stint in the Army, stationed in Kansas, Indiana, and Fort Bragg I (not Fort Bragg II), I began work with the North Carolina Medicaid Program. An offer from the organization that now goes by Premier Healthcare brought Linda, our son, and me to Charlotte in 1981. 

After ten years at a computer terminal, I longed for a vocation that involved engaging with people. I went on a yearlong sojourn that ended with my answering a call to Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. After being ordained in the United Church of Christ, there followed a call to serve a small church in Amish country Ohio. It was a Swiss-German congregation where historically (as in 125 years), they had alternated between French speaking and German speaking pastors. 

I did a lot of listening, eating a lot of sponge cake, drinking a lot of lemonade, learning that an Amish haystack was both a conical pile of hay and an open-faced sandwich topped with meat, mashed potatoes, all awashed in gravy. I learned to be alert to whispers. In a town of 279 residents, it’s nobody’s business means that it’s everybody’s business.

Amish bonnets do a good job of focusing whispers while hiding faces and lips. A mother approached me regarding an Amish bishop who had sanctioned incest in his district as a means of preventing teenage boys from “going English” (leaving the Amish sect). This mother, who had taken me aside, steadfastly refused any outside intervention by police or social services or any government entity. “We take care of our own” was her pronouncement. She was seeking a different — the proper, can I say? — Biblical exegesis to take to her bishop. 

I never saw her again, but her whispers are etched in my mind. 

Following retirement and return to Charlotte in 2014, I took up writing. Write what you know is the cliche. Write what you have heard is what I began to do. The whispers. The anguish. The losses. The regrets. They eclipsed the weddings and baptisms. For over twenty years, I had been like the Receiver of Memory in Lois Lowry’s The Giver.

But the whispers of that Amish mother never left me.

Maureen Ryan Griffin finally sat me down and focused my efforts in her class titled Under Construction. With her help and the perspicuity provided by women in the group, there emerged a novel of abuse, rape, and incest, all shrouded in secrecy: East of Apple Glen.

I wrote the story through the eyes of a young man, Nathan, fatherless and bullied as a child, who escaped his small hometown after college, but is forced to return when his mother and grandmother die unexpectedly. Added to the mix was a childhood friend, herself with a history of abuse, to accompany him on his journey through grief. I intentionally avoided the words “victim” and “survivor” to reinforce that recovery is not a noun, but a verb, as in “surviving.” A day-to-day effort to get beyond trauma.

As with the biblical Nathan, the question was would he have the courage to reveal the truth.

After discussions with Hannah Larrew, we intentionally decided to launch East of Apple Glen in April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We are hopeful that a novel, my novel, can be a positive supplement to the nonfiction resources for those “surviving” sexual assault.

I am excited to have Nancy Stancill interview me at my book launch at Park Road Books, Saturday, April 26, 2025, at 2 PM.

For readers who want to know more about Jon and his writing career, please click on the following link: https://www.jonathanheaslet.com/

I congratulate Jon on his new novel, and I commend him for shining a light on the often-hidden issue of sexual assault.  East of Apple Glen is not a light-hearted story, but it is a novel that is likely to make a difference in Storied Charlotte and beyond. 

Tags: Jonathan Heaslet