![]() My favorite scene in the book is near the end when Aurilla and Darlene meet. ![]() The accident is the ripple in the proverbial pond that upends the lives of these characters.ĭid you know Aurilla’s story was going to be one of redemption, or did that unfold as the story progressed?Ĭharacters are like anyone else - you have to hang out with them for a long time before you get to know them and then they can surprise and shock you as they evolve and become more of themselves, sort of like children growing into their own person. It was Margot Livesey at Sewanee Writers Conference where I was a scholar who advised me to begin with Clayton and his discovery of the tragedy and let everything unfurl emotionally from there. That change somehow gutted the book and then she declined the manuscript. I played for years with who would speak first and from what point in time as there are dual timelines.Īt one point the book was optioned by a major independent publisher and that editor wanted me to put everything in third person. She told me it felt like it was happening in a closet, that I needed to build a world around the stories and I followed that advice. ![]() Kelly Cherry read that version when I was a fellow at the Duke Writers Conference. This work began as a series of interconnected short stories. That’s what happens when you go through five rewrites over a thirty+ year period. What was your reasoning behind starting with Clayton’s POV? And yet, the fourth narrator is a man, Clayton, and in fact, he is the introductory speaker. The crux of the story ostensibly weaves through the lives of Aurilla, Berta Mae, and Darlene - a cast of strong, stubborn, and acutely different women. Judith Turner-Yamamoto is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Snake Nation Review, and American Literary Review, among others, and in many anthologies, including Walking the Edge: A Southern Gothic Anthology, Show Us Your Papers, and Gravity Dancers, as well as The Boston Globe Magazine, Elle, Interiors, Art & Antiques, The Los Angeles Times, and Travel & Leisure. What could be construed as a novel of unlikeable characters and their poor choices, Loving the Dead and Gone is actually a story of redemption, and how we make the most of our lives when so much is out of our control. Set in rural North Carolina, Turner-Yamamoto introduces us to the lives of Aurilla, Berta Mae, Clayton, and Darlene, and their intertwining stories. Judith Turner-Yamamoto’s debut novel, Loving the Dead and Gone, follows the trajectory of multiple characters and multiple generations as they navigate life and the emotions provoked through love and loss.
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