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WORK TITLE: Love, Alice
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1961
WEBSITE: http://www.barbaradavis-author.com/
CITY: Rochester
STATE: NH
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.barbaradavis-author.com/About-Us.html * http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/228651/barbara-davis
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2013030307
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2013030307
HEADING: Davis, Barbara, 1961-
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046 __ |f 19610628
053 _0 |a PS3604.A95554
100 1_ |a Davis, Barbara, |d 1961-
670 __ |a The secrets she carried, 2013: |b ECIP t.p. (Barbara Davis)
670 __ |a Email from publisher, May 28, 2013: |b Barbara-Ann Davis b. June 28, 1961, first book
953 __ |a rg14
PERSONAL
Born June 28, 1961, in Fair Lawn, NJ; married; husband’s name Tom.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked as an executive in the jewelry business until 2010.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, music, football, travel.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Barbara Davis was born in New Jersey and raised in Florida. She spent much of her adult life somewhere in between: two years in the historical port city of Charleston, South Carolina, and more than a decade in Raleigh, the inland capital of North Carolina. When her job in the jewelry industry evaporated in 2010, Davis decided to pursue a lifelong dream. She began to write, not about the jewelry business, but about the memorable characters she met and the places she explored during her odyssey from South Florida to New England, where she lives now.
The Secrets She Carried
The Secrets She Carried takes place in North Carolina, the “heart of tobacco country,” Davis told the author of the Cynthia Lott Web site. New Yorker Leslie Nichols returns to tobacco country when she learns that her grandmother died and bequeathed her the old family homestead, Peak Plantation. Out of work and nearly out of money, Leslie plans to sell the property and use the proceeds to launch a new career. It will not be easy. Grandma Maggie left half of the former plantation to Leslie, and the other half to Jay Davenport, the old lady’s partner in a wine-making venture. Jay convinces Leslie to become his business partner until the flat real estate market improves.
In her spare time, Leslie delves into a treasure trove of “found” documents, paintings, and a mysterious photograph of an unmarked grave. The old picture sparks her curiosity and launches Leslie into a family history project that reveals one secret after another about Grandma Maggie’s past, not to mention her own. It turns out that Jay also has a mysterious background that could affect their business partnership as well as their budding romance.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews seemed distracted by “too many superfluous characters and ‘secrets,’ along with a narrator who reveals too many of them ‘from beyond the grave.'” The critic did, however, commend Davis for a style that “is heartfelt and effective.” Interviewer Cynthia Lott described The Secrets She Carried as a story of “loss, reunion, hope, love, and the desire to create an unforgettable and cherished life.”
The Wishing Tide and Summer at Hideaway Key
In The Wishing Tide, the tiny community of Starry Point is the setting for Chicagoan Lane Kramer’s seashore bed-and-breakfast establishment. There she hopes to earn a living and rejuvenate her outlook on life following a series of heartaches. Located on the Outer Banks, the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, her inn is empty now at season’s end, and Lane is alone with her thoughts. A knock at the door signals the unexpected arrival of one professor Michael Forrester, seeking shelter from the imminent onslaught of Tropical Storm Penny. Lane’s solitude is further interrupted by Dirty Mary, an oddball local woman who appears daily to observe the sea from the nearby dunes and offer piecemeal bits of wisdom whenever the muse strikes her. Both arrivals unleash a deluge of secrets and memories—intensified by guilt and pain that could destroy them all. Above the voices of the alternating narrators is the relentless crashing of the storm, behind them the rhythm of the sea.
In an interview by Allen Mendenhall in the Southern Literary Review, Davis observed: “I’ve always been drawn to the sea, to its primal nature, its vastness and timelessness.” She added: “It feels like the perfect metaphor for life—turning and returning, giving and taking … with a built-in pulse.” Mendenhall complimented Davis for “a gift for prose and a talent for shaping characters.”
The sea also features prominently in Summer at Hideaway Key, set in South Florida, where Davis spent much of her childhood. Like Leslie in The Secrets She Carried, Lily St. Clair is drawn to the coast by a bequest. She has inherited from her father a beach cottage that he had kept secret from both her mother and her. In the cottage Lily discovers a huge cache of memorabilia connected to Lily-Mae Boyle, the mysterious aunt whose very name had been a forbidden topic of conversation for years. As she pores over the scrapbooks and diaries, Davis told Mendenhall, Lily uncovers “a story of betrayal and sibling rivalry” quite different from the version she had learned at her mother’s knee.
Love, Alice
Love, Alice is a story set in the picture-perfect tourist destination of Charleston, South Carolina, where Dovie Larkin works as the curator of the Museum of Cultural Arts. Her heart is elsewhere, at the grave of her beloved fiancé William, who took his own life just days before their wedding. Dovie spends so much time at the Magnolia Grove Cemetery that her job is on the line, unless she can win a huge donation from the prominent Tate family. Family representative Austin Tate is not receptive to her overtures, for reasons that she cannot understand.
William’s grave happens to be adjacent to the Tate family plot, which is graced by an imposing memorial known to locals as Alice’s Angel. Dovie is curious about Alice, the Tate family nanny who died thirty years ago surrounded by mystery. When she observes an elderly woman leaving a letter at the grave, Dovie cannot restrain her curiosity. She reads the letter, and its contents plunge her into a mystery of far-reaching proportions.
Dovie learns that the elderly woman at the cemetery is Alice’s long-estranged mother Dora, who recently located her daughter only to learn of her death—too late to patch up their broken relationship. It was Dora who banished her pregnant daughter to the Blackhurst Asylum for Unwed Mothers back in England in 1960. There Alice fell victim to the then-secret abuses of the Magdalene Laundries before being forced to surrender her newborn baby for adoption. Her curiosity fully aroused, Dovie unearths a collection of letters that Alice wrote to that child, and she shares them with the grieving Dora. Somehow Alice learned that her daughter was in Charleston. She traveled from England to South Carolina and wangled a job with the wealthy Tate family to work as a nanny for their baby Austin. Alice died under suspicious circumstances—until Dovie and Dora combine forces to learn what happened and how she earned eternal rest in her employer’s family plot with a weeping angel standing guard over her grave.
Once again, a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted “overreliance on secrets and plot gimmicks.” Bette-Lee Fox hinted in Library Journal, however, that “romance fans might forgive the flaws.” Writing in Booklist, Stephanie Turza rated Love, Alice a “perfectly paced tale of betrayal, acceptance, and the power of forgiveness.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2016, Stephanie Turza, review of Love, Alice, p. 17.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2013, review of The Secrets She Carried; October 1, 2016, review of Love, Alice.
Library Journal, October 1, 2016, Bette-Lee Fox, review of Love, Alice, p. 69.
ONLINE
Barbara Davis Home Page, http://www.barbaradavis-author.com (August 2, 2017).
Cynthia Lott Web site, http://cynthialott.com/ (July 21, 2017), author interview.
Southern Literary Review, http://southernlitreview.com/ (November 13, 2014), Allen Mendenhall, author interview.*
Barbara was born in New Jersey, and grew up in south Florida. Eventually, work led her north, to the Carolinas where she lived in Charleston for two years and then Raleigh for ten. After twelve years in the jewelry industry, she finally surrendered to the muse, leaving the business world in order to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a writer. She now lives in Rochester, New Hampshire with the love her of life, Tom, and their ginger cat, Simon, where she continues to write tales set in the gorgeous south.
When she isn't writing she is an avid reader and lover of music, a football fanatic, and a devoted Florida Gator fan. She also enjoys travel with her sweetheart, Tom, who over the years has learned much more about the craft of writing than he ever wanted to know.
Barbara is currently working on her fifth novel, which is anticipated in 2017.
After twelve years in the jewelry industry, I finally surrendered to the muse, leaving the corporate world in order to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a writer. I was born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, but grew up and attended school in Florida. Eventually, work led me north, where I lived in Charleston for two years, and in Raleigh for fourteen, before eventually making my home in Dover, New Hampshire, which makes me a Yankee turned southerner, who now lives in New England but still writes southern women's fiction. (yes, it's been quite a journey!)
When I'm not writing I'm an avid reader, foodie, and lover of music, a rabid football fan, and a devoted Florida Gator. I also enjoy travel with my sweetheart, who, over the years, has learned much more about the publishing biz and the craft of writing than he ever wanted to know.
I am currently working on my fourth novel for Penguin, titled, Love, Alice, which is set in Charleston, South Carolina, and is scheduled to release in October of 2016.
For more about me and my books, please visit my website at: www.barbaradavis-author.com, or find me on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbaradavisauthor OR on Twitter: @bdavisauthor.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After spending more than a decade as an executive in the jewelry business, Barbara Davis decided to leave the corporate world to finally pursue her lifelong passion for writing. Love, Alice is her fourth novel, following Summer at Hideaway Key, The Wishing Tide, and The Secrets She Carried. She currently lives in Rochester, New Hampshire, with her husband Tom, and their beloved ginger cat, Simon, and is working on her next book.
Interview with Author, Barbara Davis
2 Replies
About-Us~~element52Barbara Davis is yet another one of those amazing North Carolina Authors (in the same camp as both Barbara Claypole White and Jason Mott). Her debut novel, THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED, was riveting and so wonderfully written that I found myself saying out loud, “My gosh. What a beautiful book!” And I was alone. On my sofa. This novel touches on so many emotions and situations: <
CL: Barbara, this book was so beautiful and cleverly written. What was your inspiration for this novel?
BD: One day my husband and I were out running errands and we stopped to buy chemicals for our hot tub. I chose to wait in the car while he ran in, and while he was inside I happened to notice a grave set back from the side of the road on the other side of the busy city street. It was all alone, no structure on the property or anything—just a single lonely grave. I don’t know why I happened to zero in on this particular grave, since there are others just like it all over the state of North Carolina, but all of a sudden I found myself wondering about who had been buried there and why. How had he or she come to be there, alone? Was anyone looking for this person? The next thing I knew, in less than ten minutes, Adele Laveau’s story was in my head, fully formed with a beginning a middle and an end.
CL: Tell me about some of the research that went into your book.
BD: Since Peak Plantation, the setting for The Secrets She Carried, is a tobacco plantation, the first thing I needed to learn about was the day in/day out operations of a tobacco plantation, particularly during the 1930’s. Luckily, living in North Carolina, the absolute <
CL: Can I have that job? 😉 What was the single most important thing you learned while writing this novel?
BD: I think the single most important thing for me in the process was learning the importance of working on a character’s voice until you get it pitch perfect. Because Adele’s character and story are SO central to the novel as a whole, I knew I needed to find her true voice, not just one I put in her mouth, so that when she told her story it was HER speaking, and not me. It generally took four to five passes on each Adele chapter to get it right, but I feel it was so worth the effort. I’ll take that with me into every book I ever write.
CL: You come from a corporate background…what made you switch gears and move into fiction writing?
BD: Growing up, I never wanted to be a ballerina. I wanted to be a writer. But as happens for most of us, life gets in the way and we find we have to make a living. And so I found the jewelry business, or rather it found me, and while I made a very good living at it, I also wound up giving up what most people would call a life. I became the poster child for corporate burnout—numb, exhausted, and sick to death of just being a set of numbers. Then, in 2010, the recession hit full force and I found myself unceremoniously “downsized.” All of a sudden I had some decisions to make. Thankfully, with a little prodding from my hubby, I decided to pursue the old dream of writing. The Secrets She Carried is the result.
CL: There is a quote that is mentioned more than once in this book. “The heart wants what it wants.” I believe this too. Tell me of something your heart wanted and received.
BD: Aside from meeting Tom, my hubby and soul mate, I guess I’d have to say the one thing my heart has always ached for was the dream of becoming a published author, to have the chance to put words down on paper that would actually touch people, as authors have been doing for me my whole life. The fact that I get to do this as a profession still makes me wake up and pinch myself every day.
CL: What is your next book? Tell me something about it.
BD: My next book, The Wishing Tide, is due out September 2nd, 2014, and was such fun to write! It’s set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and is the story of three rather unlikely characters who find themselves thrown together as a tropical storm threatens to make landfall. Lane Kramer is a recent transplant from Chicago, who is fleeing a string of disappointments, including a disastrous marriage, and hopes to start over as the owner of a seaside bed and breakfast in teeny, tiny, Starry Point, North Carolina. Tropical storm Penny is blowing full force when Michael Kramer, a literature professor from Vermont, appears mysteriously on her doorstep, asking for shelter from the storm at the now deserted inn. Meanwhile, a local eccentric known to island locals as “Dirty Mary” has all but taken up residence on the dunes behind the inn. Suddenly, Lane finds herself tied to these two strangers in ways she could never have foreseen, and in possession of long-buried secrets that threaten to change all their lives.
CL: What is your advice for debut authors?
BD: I think the very best advice I can give is to NOT BE IN A HURRY. It took me more than two years to write Secrets, and another year to get it on the bookstore shelves, but I don’t regret a single day of the process. I’ve noticed a tendency among some debut authors to get that first book out there as quickly as possible. That’s totally understandable. We all long for that sense of completion and accomplishment—that “ta-da” moment. And so, the temptation to shortcut the process, especially when our peers all seem to be beating us to the finish line, can be overwhelming. We’re afraid we’ll get left behind, that we’ll miss our window. Just remember, this is your firstborn, your one and only chance to make a first impression. So, before you consider foregoing traditional vetting, like the feedback and insight you’ll gain from publishing professionals such as agents, readers, and editors, (the kind you won’t get from you mom or BFF) because you dread jumping through the hoops of the submission process, or can’t bear to hear your darling criticized, or worse, the thought of yet another rewrite, remember that this is the ONLY first book you’ll ever write, your entre into the world of published authors. Both you and your readers deserve the very best book you’re capable of writing. Don’t be afraid to slow down. Improve your story, study your craft, bite the bullet and listen to honest, professional feedback. I promise you, you’ll never regret it when you finally hold that firstborn in your arms.
To find out more about Barbara Davis, check out her website here.
Her Twitter site is here.
You can purchase Barbara’s book, THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED below.
Barbara Davis: LOVE, ALICE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 1, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Barbara Davis LOVE, ALICE Berkley (Adult Fiction) 16.00 ISBN: 978-0-451-47481-0
Grief remains the strongest bond in Davis (Summer at Hideaway Key, 2015, etc.) new novel.A year after her fiances unexpected suicide, Dovie
Larkin is still desperate for answers. Ignoring the concern of friends and family, Dovie is a frequent visitor at the cemetery, often bringing her
lunch there. During one of these visits, she's struck by the sight of an older woman who is visibly distraught over a popular town monumenta lifesized
statue known as Alices Angel. This grave has always been surrounded by an air of mysterywhy did the young maid of one of Charlestons
wealthiest families warrant such an elaborate memorial in the family plot? The strangers grief at the gravesite is curious to Dovie, as Alice Tandy
has been dead for more than 30 years. When the old woman drops a letter at the grave, Dovies curiosity gets the better of her and she snatches it
up and reads it. The woman turns out to be Alice's estranged mother, and learning about the rift between mother and daughter, and the
circumstances that led Alice to cross the sea from the Blackhurst Asylum for Unwed Mothers in England to Charleston, South Carolina, is far too
compelling for Dovie to ignore. She discovers a trove of letters from Alice, somehow still tucked away in the cemeterys lost and found, and
learns just why Alice earned such a grand monument after all. Dovie admits what she has learned to Dora Tandy, and together they dig into the
secrets that have been buried away for years. On the topic of grief, Davis writes, It was inconvenient and intrusive, not quite contagious but the
next thing to it. Though they met merely by chance, together Dovie and Dora delve into the mysteries of the past and start on the long and
complicated path toward closure and healing. While Davis crafts compelling characters, her <
the narrative.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Barbara Davis: LOVE, ALICE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA465181960&it=r&asid=d11eec1a6c8a3558e70f5f92c8943b76. Accessed 7 July
2017.
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Love, Alice
Stephanie Turza
Booklist.
113.4 (Oct. 15, 2016): p17.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Love, Alice. By Barbara Davis. Dec. 2016.432p. Berkley, paper, $16 (9780451474810).
Dovie Larkin knows it's not normal to spend her lunch breaks at the cemetery, but her current situation is anything but normal. Her fiance,
William, killed himself two weeks before their wedding, and being near his grave is the only thing that makes her feel calm. Her boss is running
out of patience, and her job is in jeopardy, but Dovie has one last chance to prove herself worthy of her museum-curator position--a huge fundraiser
with the Tates, one of the wealthiest families in Charleston. When Dovie uncovers evidence at the cemetery that links the Tates to an old
local mystery, she's forced to decide if she's finally ready to move on. Davis has crafted a warm and witty novel of self-discovery, splicing in old
letters written by a young woman who finds herself in equally trying circumstances. Fans of Liane Moriarty and Annie England Noblin will adore
the stubbornness of Davis' heroine and the contrast between the sordid mystery and Charleston's refined high society in this<< perfectly paced tale
of betrayal, acceptance, and the power of forgiveness>>. --Stephanie Turza
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Turza, Stephanie. "Love, Alice." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 17. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771229&it=r&asid=adf856b6f3d5ee959e869e31c35ceac5. Accessed 7 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468771229
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Davis, Barbara. Love, Alice
Bette-Lee Fox
Library Journal.
141.16 (Oct. 1, 2016): p69.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Davis, Barbara. Love, Alice. Berkley. Dec. 2016.401p. ISBN 9780451474810. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9780698191990. F
Dovie Larkin is the curator at the Charleston Museum of Cultural Arts, SC, but she eats her lunch at the Magnolia Grove Cemetery. It's been a
year since her fiance William committed suicide, and she's hoping for answers. A major donation to the museum by the Tate family should be top
priority for her, but every interaction with family scion Austin Tate ends in animosity. One day an older woman leaves a letter on the grave of
Alice Tandy, a young woman who worked in the Tate household in the Sixties and is memorialized with a giant statue of a weeping angel. In a
moment of madness, Dovie takes the letter and discovers the woman is Alice's mother, come all the way from England to make amends to her
daughter, whom she didn't know was dead. Then other letters are unearthed in the cemetery's lost-and-found, letters Alice wrote to a child she
gave birth to in 1962 at the Blackhurst Asylum for Unwed Mothers in Cornwall. VERDICT Davis's (The Secrets She Carried) tale of lost letters
and the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries too soon telegraphs its secrets so that little mystery remains at book's end. <
Fox, Bette-Lee
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Fox, Bette-Lee. "Davis, Barbara. Love, Alice." Library Journal, 1 Oct. 2016, p. 69+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464982212&it=r&asid=e60d38330ed00c8c93dfe8aa5258a75a. Accessed 7 July
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464982212
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Davis, Barbara: THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 1, 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Davis, Barbara THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED NAL Accent/Berkley (Adult Fiction) $15.00 10, 1 ISBN: 978-0-451-41877-7
An old tobacco plantation buries past secrets and unearths opportunities for new beginnings in Davis' romantic generation-spanning debut. Leslie
Nichols returns to her North Carolina roots to claim an inheritance left by her estranged grandmother. Once a darling of the luxury lifestyle
magazine world, 38-year-old Leslie's fallen on hard times since glossies have succumbed to electronic media, and she's eager to unload Peak
Plantation, head back to NYC and start anew. Sounds like a solid plan, but the heiress runs into some major stumbling blocks. First, she discovers
Grandma Maggie's ventured into the winemaking industry and left half of her estate to a handsome, younger business partner, Jay Davenport.
Second, Leslie's determination to unload the large house and make a quick killing is thwarted by a real estate market that's as bottomed out as
Leslie. Third, a sepia photograph of an old grave and a set of keys pique Leslie's curiosity, and suddenly, she's all hot to uncover secrets about her
ancestors. And there are secrets everywhere. After resisting, Leslie agrees to partner with Jay in the wine business and puts her marketing skills to
good use. Of course, romantic sparks fly while Leslie discovers old paintings, papers and the unmarked grave in the photo. She also uncovers a
tragic event that could hold the key to unanswered questions and searches for witnesses who might know more. Maggie's father, Henry Gavin, his
wife, Susanne, and her hired companion, Adele Laveau, are at the crux of the secret, but Leslie has trouble piecing together the nuggets of
information she obtains. That's because she doesn't have the same advantage the reader has: Adele narrates much of her story<
Although several paces behind the reader, she's preoccupied with extraneous complications. Jay hasn't been forthcoming about every aspect of his
own life, and haunting memories of her childhood pop up along with her good-for-nothing father. Davis' writing <
adds<< too many superfluous characters and "secrets">> to the plot.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Davis, Barbara: THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2013. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA341243782&it=r&asid=f70da7b92c56bf4f29c5905cdacbb463. Accessed 7 July
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A341243782
You are here: Home / Author Profiles & Interviews / Allen Mendenhall Interviews Barbara Davis, Author of “The Wishing Tide”
ALLEN MENDENHALL INTERVIEWS BARBARA DAVIS, AUTHOR OF “THE WISHING TIDE”
NOVEMBER 13, 2014 BY ALLEN MENDENHALL LEAVE A COMMENT
Click here to purchase The Wishing Tide
APM: Through my fault.
Through my fault.
Through my most grievous fault.
So opens your novel The Wishing Tide. This refrain is repeated elsewhere in the novel in chapters attributed to the character Mary. It’s a rhythmic reminder, I think, of the crashing and retreating tides of love and life. What about this opening scene frames the rest of the book?
BD: I love that you picked up on the rhythm of those opening lines, and how they mimic the sea. I really wanted to establish the sea as a presence in the book, and liked the idea of the sea as both Mary’s confessor, and the keeper of secrets. There’s also the religious connotation of the lines from the old Catholic Confiteor, which, growing up with nuns, would have been drilled into Mary from an early age. One of the recurring themes in The Wishing Tide, for all the main characters, but especially for Mary, is the damage guilt can inflict, and the healing that only forgiveness can bring.
APM: You have <>. To a certain extent the former can’t be learned or cultivated—some of it just comes naturally—but the latter, it seems to me, requires a lot of work. Would you mind explaining how you developed the three main characters in this book—Lane, Michael, and Mary? For instance, did you begin by outlining their traits, or did the characters just flow from mind to page and take shape as you worked?
BD: Mary came first, and was the product of a rather eccentric woman I met while walking along the cliff walk in Newport. She was at once forthcoming and evasive, telling me what she wanted me to know, but clearly withholding significant pieces of her life. Within an hour of that conversation’s end I knew who Mary was, and what she’d been through. Lane and Michael both evolved more gradually, their traits and scars building as the story progressed and I got to know them and how they fit into Mary’s story. I loved writing them all, but Mary was my linchpin.
APM: Tell us about your decision to alternate narrators from chapter to chapter.
Barbara Davis
Barbara Davis
BD: Each character in Tide is so unique, and, based on their life experiences, possess such different views of the world, that I felt the only way to truly convey them and their transformations was to let the reader see the world and events through their eyes. Also, there is knowledge each character has that none of the others possesses. Those bits of knowledge had to be carefully woven through the story in order for it to evolve naturally, and I hope, seamlessly. I especially wanted readers to be able to get inside Mary’s head, to get a sense of how wounded she is, and yet how wise she can be in moments of clarity.
APM: Which narrator is your favorite? Whose perspective was the easiest to write from?
BD: Hands down, Mary was my favorite narrator in Tide. I love creating a distinct voice for these types of characters, a pattern and cadence that is distinctly theirs. It can be challenging, and usually takes three or four passes to get the flavor just right, but when I finally find it, it’s so worth the work. The easiest narrator was definitely Lane. Parts of her character are a little autobiographical, so it felt easy to find her voice and share her take on the world.
APM: The coast can be a wistful setting, and a pensive one. What draws you to it?
BD: Personally, <
Allen Mendenhall
Allen Mendenhall
APM: You state in the Acknowledgements section of your book that the “writer’s journey is said to be a lonely one, but I never felt alone.” This seems like a statement of fact, but could it also be a form of advice?
BD: I actually cried when I first wrote that line, because I don’t think I realized how true it was until the words came off my fingertips. I’ve been so blessed to have support from so many wonderful people, both inside and outside of the literary world, and it’s made all the difference in the world. And yes, there is some advice there, and it’s this: surround yourself with people who “get it,” who get what you do, and why you do it. These are the people who will keep you sane, who will push you, and cheer you, and keep you moving on your own journey.
APM: Are you currently working on any projects that our readers will want to know about?
BD: My current work in progress is set on Florida’s Gulf coast, on a pristine strip of beach called Hideaway Key. It’s the story of Lily St. Claire, a young woman who inherits a beach cottage from her father, that neither she nor her mother even knew he owned. When Lily heads south to investigate, she finds boxes and boxes of memorabilia, all of it belonging to Lily-Mae Boyle, the infamously beautiful aunt whose name has been forbidden for as long as she can remember. As Lily sifts through journals and old scrapbooks, <> gradually comes to light, painting a very different picture of the infamous Lily-Mae Boyle than the one her mother has been painting for years.
APM: Thank you so much for taking the time, Barbara. I’m wishing you much success with The Wishing Tide.