Blog No. 4 - Jessica Quinn

In Prince of Tides I absolutely loved Pat Conroy’s use of narrative voice. I loved how he would lead you through the pages and without even realizing it you would go from a remarkably crafted description of your location to an engaging conversational dialogue between characters. It was the ideal flow. As a reader, there wasn’t a gap or any misunderstanding of where you were or who was speaking. You knew “I” meant Tom and the rest went on from there. I’m writing my book in first person and I hope that I can set the PR stage of my book with even a smidgen of description that Conroy so eloquently uses and then tell the parts of the story I have to tell through dialogue and interviews as the book carries on.

What impacted me most though, through reading the dynamics of this family’s plight, was that it made me want to write a fictionalized account of many of the events of my youth. It was a reminder of what I mentioned in my discussion that there is nothing new under the sun, and that is what we are drawn to as readers. We’re drawn to stories with universal themes we can all relate to, but written in a unique way—set apart in some fashion. I want to do that. I want to try to accomplish that. Conroy does that with his descriptive settings—apparent he knows these places intimately, his character conflicts—another place where you see the truth of his past interwoven into the story, and his style—the man is truly Southern. For Conroy he writes what he obviously knows. I want to do that. However for me, I’ll wait a few more years until all who would be hurt by my fictional truth will be gone and I can write with peace of mind about an obsessive-compulsive, hoarding mother and a hurricane in the panhandle of Florida—maybe I’ll title it Scattered Treasures. For Conroy, his recent ex-wife Barbara was alive and well had to live with her ex-husband’s incredible success based on a book highlighting the main character’s affair. A main character based on himself. Even though they were divorced when he wrote it—that must have been painful. She already knew he wrote what he lived.

(And yes, Raymond, The Water is Wide was quite autobiographical. Barbara lived that story with Pat. Barbara used to be my husband’s boss at the DeKalb County DA’s Office. She is now retired and remains a dear friend. She and Pat are still close and he is a wonderful father to their three daughters—funny he gave Tom Wingo three daughters, a wife with long dark hair and in reality it was law school instead of medical school. ☺ Pat’s daughter, Melissa, also has a children’s book out, Poppy’s Pants, that gives great insight into her relationship with her father. Her parents are very proud of their now author daughter.)

Photos: Following Hurricane Ivan and the loss of my parent's home, the Red Cross brought us hot meals during clean up. I'm forever grateful to them!;My sister, Caron, deemed "Princess Ivan" wearing an old bridesmaid's dress from another sister's wedding, wielding my father's Navy sword, and Mardi Gras beads crowning her head--all found in the pile of "treasures" surrounding the house;Me standing in what was once my childhood bedroom. Two other rooms used to separate me from a view of the bay...