Storied Charlotte

Thanksgiving and family reunions go hand in hand.  This pairing is reflected in Lydia Maria Child’s famous Thanksgiving poem “Over the River and Through the Wood,” which first appeared in Child’s 1844 book, Flowers for Children.  This poem is all about children traveling through the woods in order to visit their grandparents on Thanksgiving Day.  As is stated in one of the stanzas, “When Grandmother sees us come, / she will say, ‘O, dear, the children are here, / Bring a pie for everyone.’” 

The topic of family reunions is of special interest to Charlotte poet Grace Ocasio. In fact, her 2020 poetry collection is titled Family Reunion.  For more information about this collection, please click on the following link:  https://www.broadstonebooks.com/shop/p/family-reunion-poetry-by-grace-c-ocasio

I recently contacted Grace and asked her if any of the poems in Family Reunion have connections to Thanksgiving.  She said yes, and she shared the following story with me:

Thanksgiving wasn’t Thanksgiving unless we (my family and I) attended one of Great-Aunt Esther’s family gatherings.  Of course, she wasn’t the one cooking on these occasions—it was my Great-Uncle Calvin who prepared all the foods.  As soon as we walked through Great-Aunt Esther’s door, we could smell the goodness of all the great food. There was sliced ham, turkey roasted golden-brown crisp, string beans, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and a panoply of cakes and pies.

After we had all eaten, some of us got up to dance.  The Bump was the latest dance craze then.  My female cousins giggled attempting to execute other dances besides The Bump while my male cousins stood on the sidelines watching.  Uncle Arnold, fresh from South Carolina, one of the few relations coming up to New York from the South, performed a simple dance of placing his hands on his belt and slightly pulling up his pants while stepping from side to side.  Again, there were giggles from my female cousins.  Uncle Arnold’s dance might have passed for just enough movement on Soul Train.

Bored after a while from dancing, I’d wander around Aunt Esther’s three-storied house, gazing at family photos.  Chastity, one of my cousins, loomed larger than life in one of the photos, posing like a model with hands on her hips, her right leg extended slightly with her right foot tilted in front of her left foot.  In a different photo, Tanya, her older sister, sat on her father’s shoulder. She looked to be about four years old.  These are the memories that linger, tease me, and turn on like an old television show when I least expect them.

I then asked Grace for permission to reprint the poem in which she wrote about spending Thanksgiving with her Aunt Esther, and she kindly agreed: 

I thank Grace for sharing her poem and her memories of celebrating Thanksgiving at her Aunt Esther’s home in Mount Vernon, New York, and I wish everyone in Storied Charlotte a happy Thanksgiving. 

Charlotte children’s author Alicia D. Williams has a new picture book that came out this fall.  Titled The Talk, this powerful and timely book is illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu and published by Simon & Schuster. The Talk tells the story of Jay, a young Black boy who is growing up in an American city with his tight-knit family and his regular group of neighborhood friends. He likes pretending to be a superhero, skateboarding with his friends, and listening to his grandfather’s stories.  In the beginning of the story, he is brimming with energy and joy. 

At first, Jay is more or less oblivious to the realities of racial prejudice, but as he matures, his parents and grandparents take him aside and talk to him about how to respond to racial profiling and other forms of prejudice that Black children, especially Black boys, often encounter when they make the transition from childhood to pre-adolescence. The Talk is a book about racism, but at its core, it is a celebration of a loving Black family. All of the family members in The Talk do everything they can to protect their boy as he grows up.

After reading The Talk, I wanted to know more about what motivated Alicia to write this book.  I contacted her and asked her for more information about how she came to write The Talk.  Here is what she sent to me:

The subject of the talk has been in my mind for several years. Yet, I didn’t think I should write the story because of potential blind spots as a woman. I held no experience living as a Black male nor had I raised one. But I raised a girl and knew my worries were almost the same. I gave my own daughter the talk when shopping, when she got her driver’s license, and when she stayed at Airbnb’s. Still, I tried to give the story away to male peers. Even tried to enlist a male poet to co-write it. Eventually, I let it go figuring the story will ride the wind and land at the hands of the right writer.

In 2020, I, along with so many others, was deeply impacted by George Floyd’s and Ahmaud Aubrey’s murder, as well as the last words of Elijah McCain. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t focus. But one night when I did manage to rest, a little chatty voice woke me and wouldn’t let me rest until I grabbed a pen and paper. The boy, the character Jay, introduced me to his friends, family, and everything he was proud of. Then, those same moments of pride came with a warning or a talk. The story literally unfolded that night.

The interesting backstory of writing this story is the chatty boy that woke me. I recognized him. He was, in fact, a little boy who attended the independent school that I taught at. He was one of the small percentages of Black boys attending lower school. And from the start of kindergarten, he was always being pulled out into the hallway and given a talk for being too wiggly, too chatty, too much. I had noticed that the other kindergarteners were just as wiggly, chatty, and too much. This talk for him had carried on to first, second, and third grade. I realized that the talk given at the school was indeed given so that he could manage himself at a predominantly white institution.

What I am no longer teaching, my experiences and all that I’m exposed to direct the stories I tell. For instance, just a few weeks ago, I was shopping at the Arboretum and my car was stopped by security. The security guard prompted me to roll down my window and then began asking if I was lost or knew where I was going. This, no doubt, was racial profiling. I realize that had this been an older “Jay,” the outcome might have been different.

The Talk is Alicia’s fourth children’s book. Alicia burst on the children’s literature scene in 2019 with the publication of her novel Genesis Begins Again.  She received both a Newbery Honor Award and the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for this novel. She has quickly followed up her novel with two picture book biographies of prominent African American women: Jump at the Sun:  The True-Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston and Shirley Chisholm Dares: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress. For more information about Alicia and her books, please click on the following link:  https://www.aliciadwilliams.com/  In just four years, Alicia has established herself as one of Storied Charlotte’s leading children’s authors.

Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate and a one-time resident of Charlotte, recently contacted me about a new film project that deals with veterans from North Carolina.  Titled Brothers Like These, this film tells the story of a creative writing class that Joseph taught to a group of veterans.  Given that Veterans Day is just around the corner, now is a perfect time to spotlight this film and the veterans whose voices are featured in the film.  I contacted Joseph and asked him for more information about the film and his work with North Carolina veterans.  I also asked him to comment on the experiences of veterans from the Charlotte area. Here is what Joseph sent to me:

During my stint as North Carolina Poet Laureate, from 2012-2014, my signature project was working with returning combat veterans, all veterans, really, and their families to harvest their stories through poems, short stories, memoirs, plays, you-name-it. In 2014, I teamed with the extraordinary Dr. Bruce Kelly, now my great friend, a primary-care physician at Charles George VA Medical Center; and, in 2016, he and I co-founded the creative writing program there at the VA for Vietnam veterans with PTSD.

A very short film about that program was released in July of this year. It’s titled Brothers Like These, produced by Red Light Films & The Documentary Group and directed by Academy Award-winning director, Ross Kaufman. You can also read “The Church of Classroom B” on Thrive Global. What happened at Charles George is not about Bruce and me, but about those men, all from North Carolina mountain counties, who had literally stayed silent and tortured for half a century about their service in Vietnam, and the cruel reception they received upon return to the U.S, until they opened up on paper. I’m greatly oversimplifying the story, but as I say in “The Church of Classroom B,” I have never seen such a miraculous transformation in nearly 46 years of teaching creative writing, and the film says it all.

Thousands of men and women from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County served in the military, in a variety of capacities, during the Vietnam War, and 105 gave their lives. In the very heart of Charlotte, at Thompson Park on East 3rd Street, is the Mecklenburg County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. What’s more, I hope it goes without saying that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are home to thousands of additional veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and, of course, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of whom struggle with PTSD and would profit from a writing program – not to mention the thousands that lost their lives in those wars. Charlotte hosts two VA clinics, and local colleges and universities all support veterans upon their reentry from the military. Johnson C. Smith University has the Veteran’s Hub; the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has a Veterans Services Office; Queens University, has a Student Veterans Association; and Central Piedmont Community College, its Military Families, and Veterans Services.

When I was just beginning my work with veterans, I wrote, out of the blue, for advice to Ron Capps, the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project in Washington, D.C. Ron, a combat veteran who has been to five wars and a fine writer himself, served 25 years in the Army and Army Reserve. He instantly replied to this perfect stranger: “Your target audience will be found in every imaginable venue in the state. You’ll find them and reach them in schools, hospitals, and Veterans Services Organizations … old folks homes, on and around military bases of course. Everywhere.” Including Charlotte. But they can often be invisible.

I commend Joseph and Bruce Kelly for providing the veterans in their class with opportunities to give voice to their experiences.  As we observe Veterans Day here in Storied Charlotte, it is important to recognize that our community’s veterans and their families have powerful stories to tell and important insights to share.

Halloween is just around the corner, so now is a perfect time to check out Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle, a collection of four Halloween-themed novellas, all of which take place in and around the ancient but restored Caynham Castle located in western England.  These four spooky, witchy, spirit-filled stories are set against the stunning background of Caynham Castle’s epic Halloween Ball and Bonfire Night!

Even though Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle is set in England, the collection has significant Charlotte connections since two of the four contributors call Charlotte home.  These Charlotte writers are Nancy Northcott, whose contribution is titled Mr. Never Again, and Morgan Brice, whose contribution is titled Secrets and Ciphers.

Nancy’s story is tied to her Arachnid Files romantic suspense series.  I asked her for more information about Mr. Never Again. Here is what she sent to me:

Mr. Never Again, my contribution to Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle, offers its hero and heroine a second chance at love. They’re spies guarding a weapons designer, so the story includes intrigue and action-adventure. I really do love a good battle scene. And, of course, a happy ending.

Because the Caynham Castle series is set in England, our Halloween theme offered me a chance to incorporate a holiday we don’t have here in the U.S., Guy Fawkes Day (though it’s more commonly called Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night now). It commemorates Guy Fawkes’s failure to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. The November 5 holiday culminates in Bonfire Night when people stand around bonfires while eating Parkin cakes (made of oatmeal, flour, ginger, and molasses) and drinking beverages of choice. I really think we should import this holiday because it sounds like great fun!

All the stories in this anthology and its siblings are set in and around Caynham Castle, an ancient castle that’s now a modern boutique hotel. It’s near the Welsh Border and has a small village, Caynham-on-Ledwyche, and an Iron Age hillfort nearby. The collaboration has been fun for us, and we hope it will be for readers.

Morgan Brice (a pen name used by fantasy writer Gail Z. Martin) provides a story that combines mystery and M/M romance.  I contacted her and asked for more information about Secrets and Ciphers.  Here is what she sent to me: 

Lovers from Cape May, New Jersey, take a Halloween holiday at the magnificent Caynham Castle in Secrets and Ciphers. Erik Mitchell and Ben Nolan both left dangerous careers for a chance to start over. Erik parlayed his expertise as a former art fraud investigator into owning an antique shop in Cape May. Ben left the Newark Police Department disillusioned over corruption, and took over the family rental real estate business. When they met, sparks flew between them—and they teamed up personally and professionally to solve a series of cold case murders and disappearances of 1950s Mobsters that spilled over into modern-day mayhem. 

They celebrate surviving their case—and falling in love—by taking a trip to Caynham Castle. Together they uncover a 700-year-old mystery, a family secret, a historical treasure, and the angry ghost of a Knights Templar guardian. (M/M Paranormal Romance by Morgan Brice with ties to her Treasure Trail series.)

The other contributors to Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle are North Carolina author Caren Crane and North Carolina native Jeanne Adams.  In Caren Crane’s tale, Murky Waters, a landscape architect from Massachusetts finds much more than he expects, both in a floral designer from his friend’s shop and in the woods south of Caynham Castle.  In Jeanne Adams’s Trouble Under the Tower, an archaeologist witch from Idaho gets involved with a sexy photographer from the witchiest town in America, Haven Harbor, Massachusetts.  In the process, they discover a hidden chapel, fend off thieves, and help put a dark entity to rest.

Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle is one of three holiday-themed collections that take place in Caynham Castle.  The others are Christmas at Caynham Castle and Ring in the New Year at Caynham Castle.  Plans are in the works for a Valentine’s Day collection and a Midsummer’s Day collection.  Like Trick or Treat at Caynham Castle, these other collections have Storied Charlotte connections, and all have stories filled with adventure, romance, and castle intrigue.    

It’s no secret that Mark de Castrique is one of Charlotte’s leading mystery writers.  A native of Hendersonville, North Carolina, Mark is the author of two popular mystery series in which he makes use of his familiarity with western North Carolina—the Barry Clayton Series and the Sam Blackman Series.  He has also written several standalone mysteries, including The 13^th Target and The Singularity Race, both of which are set in Washington, DC.  At first glance, it might seem a bit mysterious that a Charlotte writer would use Washington, DC, as a setting.  However, earlier in his career, Mark worked as a broadcast and film producer in Washington, DC, so he knows his way around our nation’s capital. 

Mark draws on his knowledge of the Washington, DC, area in his latest mystery, Secret Lives, which Poison Pen Press will release on October 11, 2022.  Secret Lives is the first book in Mark’s new Ethel Fiona Crestwater Series.  The central character in Secret Lives is a 75-year-old retired FBI agent who runs a boardinghouse.  For readers who want to know more about Secret Lives and Mark’s other mysteries, please click on the following link:  http://www.markdecastrique.com/

I recently contacted Mark and asked him how he came up with the character of Ethel Fiona Crestwater.  Here is what he sent to me:

A few months before Covid struck, I was flying back to Charlotte from Phoenix.  It was a long flight, and at one point I had a brief conversation with the young woman seated beside me.  I asked her if she also lived in Charlotte.  She said she was only connecting to a flight for Washington, DC.  Since I have two daughters in the DC area, I asked if that was her home.  She replied she was going to visit a great aunt who lived in the District.  Then she added, “She’s eighty-five-years old and lives in the house she was born in.” 

“Does any family live with her?” I asked. 

“No,” the woman replied.  “No family, but we don’t worry about her.  She rents out rooms to FBI and Secret Service agents.  There’s always someone in the house with a gun.”

There’s always someone in the house with a gun.  Music to a mystery writer’s ears.  My co-traveler had given me the outline of what could be an interesting character.  But what to do with her?

An older friend in Charlotte had told me that as a 14-year-old high school student in DC, she would ride the bus to the FBI after school where she would classify and categorize fingerprints using cards and a magnifying glass.  This was before computers.  Her experience inspired me to make my character more than a landlady for agents; she would be one herself.  She became a retired FBI agent who had spent her life in the Bureau and whose former borders included the heads of the FBI and Secret Service.

Her name is Ethel Fiona Crestwater, and she is a force to be reckoned with.  I imagine her as Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an FBI agent.  Feisty, brilliant, and protective of those she holds dear.  So, when one of her boarders is murdered in front of her house, there’s no stopping her pursuit of justice.

Thanks to a Charlotte connection and a chance encounter on a plane, Ethel debuts in Secret Lives on October 11th.

Secret Lives is not yet officially released, but it is already getting very strong reviews.  The reviewer from Publishers Weekly praises the central character as “an elderly Nancy Drew: sure of herself and her convictions, and ready to bend a few rules to achieve her goal of seeing justice done.  She’s off to a fine start.”  The reviewer from Kirkus Reviews describes the book as “a taut and crisply told thriller whose charmingly shady protagonist triumphs.”

Mark will be signing copies Secret Lives and talking about Ethel Fiona Crestwater at Park Road Books on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, at 7:00 pm.  I plan to be there.  Ethel Fiona Crestwater might be from the DC area, but I consider her an honorary member of Storied Charlotte.    

The American Library Association has been organizing its annual Banned Books Week since 1982. This year’s Banned Books Week will be held September 18-24.  One of the ways in which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is participating in this national event is by sponsoring a panel presentation focusing on the freedom to read.  This panel presentation will take place on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center.  

One of the organizers of this panel presentation is Becca Worthington, the head Children’s Librarian at ImaginOn.  I contacted Becca and asked her for more information about this panel discussion.  Here is what she sent to me:

Every year, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is thrilled to celebrate Freedom to Read Week during National Banned Books Week (September 18-24), and we are always excited to have a forum to safely discuss the dangers of censorship and what we can do to support and protect the freedom of information. This year, however, we’re kicking it up a notch. 

Attempts to ban books from schools and public libraries are rising at an unprecedented level across the country. In fact, as of September 16, the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (ALA’s OIF, the official organization for tracking book bans and challenges across the United States) reported 681 documented attempts to either ban or restrict library resources in school, university, or public libraries so far in 2022, which is on pace to break records as the highest number of challenges in a single year since the OIF began recording statistics twenty years ago. That’s not good. In fact, it’s terrifying.

As high-profile censorship challenges continue with worrying frequency, it is important to acknowledge that censorship in a variety of forms is also happening here in Charlotte and the surrounding areas. We decided to put together a panel discussion on the topic and open it up to the public. 

The event, “From Censorship and Silence to Celebration: A Freedom to Read Panel,” will take place on Wednesday, September 21st from 6:00-7:00pm in the Wells Fargo Playhouse at ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center. It will be moderated by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s CEO, Marcellus “MT” Turner, and panelists will include Jessica Reid, Media Coordinator at Eastover Elementary who has dealt with book challenges at her school library; Bridget Thomas, founder of the QC Banned Books Club with over 200 members; Dr. Mark West, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has been teaching courses on children’s and young adult literature since 1984 and who has written two books on censorship; and Alicia D. Williams, author of Genesis Begins Again, which received the Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris prize finalist, and won the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent. 

We would love for anyone interested in learning more about the dangers of book banning and censorship and the importance of free expression and first amendment rights to consider attending. And if you’re curious and would like to know about promoting and supporting the freedom to read, please visit https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/

As one of the panelists who will be participating in “From Censorship and Silence to Celebration: A Freedom to Read Panel,” I urge everyone in Storied Charlotte to join the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in celebrating and exercising our precious freedom to read.

For many Charlotte authors, their decision to pursue a writing career comes after working for years in another career.  My friend Landis Wade, for example, pursued a career as a trial lawyer before he penned Deadly Declarations: An Indie Retirement Mystery.  For Charlotte writer Gary Edgington, his decision to try his hand at writing a novel came after pursuing a forty-year career as a law enforcement and counterterrorism specialist. During his career, he served as an embedded advisor during America’s involvement in the Iraq War.  Gary draws extensively on his experiences in Iraq in his debut thriller novel titled Outside the Wire, which Köehlerbooks recently released.

The novel opens in Baghdad in 2008, and it immediately immerses the reader in the chaos and complexities of the war.   The novel is marketed as a military thriller, but it is also a story about a burgeoning relationship between a counterterrorism expert named Rick Sutherland and a military physician named Nancy Weaver.   For more information about Gary and his debut novel, please click on the following link:  https://garyedgingtonauthor.com/

When I learned about the publication of Outside the Wire, I reached out to Gary and asked him how he came to write this novel.  Here is what he sent to me:

Outside the Wire actually started life as The Baghdad Diet. Since my tour in Iraq helped me shed 25 pounds, I thought it would be amusing to poke fun at the latest trendy diets while exploring the realities of wartime deployment. This bit of sardonic humor was meant to warn the reader they were not picking up your average blood and guts war novel. I thought it was great – my agent – not so much.

The inspiration for this book came to me one stifling, dust-choked afternoon as I was walking back from dinner. I had just learned that yet another young soldier had taken his life on base. That, coupled with a recent attempted murder at another camp, got me thinking. What if a retired detective like me was brought in to assist on an Agatha-Christie-like murder investigation? When I returned stateside, I started roughing out an idea for a novel. However, my Agatha-Christie project quickly morphed into a “fate of the world hanging in the balance” military/detective thriller. The story is voiced by a quick-witted retired LAPD Lieutenant. Working entirely out of his element, it doesn’t help that he is constantly hindered by Army red tape, that is not only mystifying but downright scary.

Cops and soldiers share many similar traits, but their missions and methodologies could not be more different. In 2008, the military’s role was pacification and counter-insurgency operations which had to be done while working within the Iraqi Judicial system. That meant GIs now had to write detailed reports, collect evidence and conduct formal interviews. The US Army excels at many things, but Police 101 is not one of them. Part of my job was to share my thirty years of law enforcement experience with the Army and help them identify, track down and eliminate terrorist cells.

I started Outside the Wire while I was living in California, but I finished it after I moved to Charlotte. I’m a history guy and have always loved exploring this region. Many of my Scots-Irish ancestors settled in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge area, so I feel a deep connection to this place. My daughter, a teacher, and her husband, a surgical tech, were the first to move to Charlotte. So naturally, we made a few visits and soon realized this was an exceptional area. We moved here in 2020, and our little tribe was blessed with a grandson late last year. In our mind, Charlotte is a perfect blend of sophistication and southern hospitality, topped by a natural beauty that is second to none.

I congratulate Gary on the publication of his debut novel, and I welcome him to Storied Charlotte’s community of writers.