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From
http://www.myshelf.com
A MATTER OF TRUST
An Interview with Letha Albright
By Susan McBride
Susan McBride is the author of And Then She Was Gone and
Overkill. |
Letha Albright made her debut on the mystery scene with
TULSA TIME, a powerful story of trust. It’s no wonder the title received
critical acclaim with its vivid descriptions of northeastern Oklahoma, the
setting for the novel, and strong characterizations, particularly that of
Viv Powers, the reporter who must investigate the possibility that her lover
is a killer. Letha follows up her powerful first novel with DAREDEVIL’S
APPRENTICE, officially a June release from Avocet Press. Once again, the
theme of trust—and friendship—is at the heart of the tale. I wondered what
prompted the author to tackle the subject a second time around.
Susan
McBride: Tell us about DAREDEVIL'S APPRENTICE and how the idea for this
second Viv Powers' mystery was born?
Letha Albright: DAREDEVIL’S APPRENTICE explores friendship and
its boundaries. When reporter Viv Powers is asked to help cover up a murder
committed by her friend Lucie Dreadfulwater, she is torn between loyalty to
her friend and growing evidence that she has been drawn into something with
far-reaching consequences. When Lucie winds up dead, Viv’s sense of guilt
forces her into an investigation that puts her own life at risk.
The seeds for this story were planted more than two decades ago when I lived
in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Even when I lived there, I realized it would make a
great setting for a book. The land was harsh but beautiful, the people
complex and surprising. Nothing was ever as it seemed on the surface. I was
surrounded by well-educated drunks and artists. I knew moonshiners, dope
growers, cockfighters and petty thieves. These same people partied with
musicians, artists, priests and professors. Almost everyone claimed some
Native American ancestry. It was a freewheeling, heady society, where all
kinds of excesses, failings and miracles were accepted.
While living there, it seemed impossible to get started writing about the
place. I imagined a book that featured a strong, tough woman and her shallow
sister, but I was never able to sit down and write. How would my friends
feel, I wondered? Would they act differently around me if they thought they
might end up in a book? In a way, it seemed like a betrayal. It wasn’t until
years later and miles away, that I allowed my mind to play with those
characters and create some “what if?” situations.
SM:
Like love, trust can mean different things to different people. What does
it mean to you and why do you like to play with it as a theme in your
writing?
LA: In my first mystery novel, TULSA TIME, Viv Powers’ trust and
loyalty was put to the ultimate test when her lover was accused of murder.
DAREDEVIL’S APPRENTICE deals with the bonds of friendship. Both books
examine a more basic issue that we all face: How well do we really know the
people who make up the fabric of our daily lives?
I keep returning to these themes — these intimate, basic ways in which
people relate to one another — because I wrestle with these issues in my own
life. And, as is often the case, the answer to your question lies in the
past.
I recently sat my parents down and asked them to recount every place we had
lived from my birth until I left for college at age 18. They came up with
25. All my young life, I was the new kid. It may be to the advantage of a
writer to always feel like an outsider, but as a child, it’s a painful
experience. Looking back on it now, I wouldn’t change anything. It’s all
part of growing up, and it has provided a rich storehouse of memories and
characters from which to draw stories.
At the same time, it gave me a distorted view of security and the longevity
of relationships. When you’re in fifth grade and have a falling out with
your best friend, no big deal. You’ll be moving soon and making new friends.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I was able to form lasting, significant
friendships. And I’m still learning about what that means, which may be why
those themes crop up in my books.
SM:
What did you learn in the process of promoting TULSA TIME that you can put
to use this time around?
LA: It’s more fun to go on the road with others. I’m part of the
Deadly Divas, a group of four mystery authors who tour together and give
talks at bookstores and libraries. We have a lot of fun together, and we’re
all fans of each other’s work, so it makes promotion seem like a great
adventure.
SM: Do you think having to be a promoter of your own books is contrary
to the "solitary" personality of a writer? How do you deal with it?
LA: It is certainly contrary to my solitary nature. But I
learned long ago that I have to get out of the house, or I go quietly
insane. I start imagining a darker, more unkind place is outside my doors if
I don’t get out on a regular basis and see evidence to the contrary.
If I ever get to the place where I can make a living staying home and
writing novels, I will have to make a conscious effort to be a part of the
larger society – whether it’s through a part-time job or volunteer work.
Sometimes I imagine being a full-time writer and having the luxury of time
to sit on a barstool in the afternoons and listening to the stories of the
people who stop by. Kind of like the resident roadhouse shrink.
SM: When do you get your writing time in between family obligations,
your full-time job as a magazine editor and promotional events?
LA: I wish I could say that I’m very organized and never
procrastinate. But that would be a lie. I do set a schedule and try to stick
to it. Sunday is my fiction-writing day, and if I’m really in the zone with
a scene, my writing time can extend to weekday evenings. I could never write
early in the morning, though. That takes too much active brainwork, and the
only thing I’m good for before 8 a.m. is reading and drinking coffee. Pots
of it.
Unfortunately, I’m no saint when it comes to keeping my schedule. If it’s a
beautiful, sunny day, and someone invites me to go rock climbing, it’s
almost impossible to say no. Instead, I vow to work harder and make up for
it later. That usually works.
SM: What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about being a
published author?
LA: No. 1: That we’re rich.
No. 2: That our books will automatically be available in every bookstore in
the country.
No. 3: Since we have a book out, the “Today Show” must be begging us to book
an appearance.
SM:
What are you working on now?
LA: I’m wrapping up a book called BED OF STONE. It’s set in
Oklahoma (again!) during the Great Depression, and it tells the story of a
woman whose baby has been sold. She turns to robbing banks in order to raise
money to find her child.
It’s a dark and violent book, and it’s one of the most satisfying projects
I’ve ever worked on – in part because it was sparked by family history. Back
in the 1920s in Oklahoma City, a landlady sold my husband’s aunt to a couple
who wanted to adopt her. Apparently child selling was rampant during those
hard times; the Oklahoma legislature even passed a law in the 1930s
outlawing the practice. Although my husband’s family tried to find the girl
and get her back, they weren’t successful.
That’s where the “what if” part comes in. What if the mother was so
desperate to find her child that she was willing to break the law? What kind
of woman would she be? How would she go about it? And BED OF STONE was born.
SM: Which contemporary authors most inspire you and why?
LA: John McPhee for his amazing research skills, his ability
to grasp very complex situations and write about them in simple terms.
Annie Proulx and Cormac McCarthy for the harsh beauty of their language and
unsparing depiction of the American West. Barbara Kingsolver for the
complex emotional life of her characters. They shine with truth and life.
Flannery O’Conner and Raymond Carver for their spare use of language. The
way they know when they’ve told you just enough. Less is sometimes more. I
also admire the courage with which they write: their subject matter and
their characters.
SM: What do you hope readers "get" when they dive into a Letha Albright
novel?
LA: I hope they say to themselves, “Yeah, she got that
right.” I hope they see my characters as real people, whose lives extend
beyond the pages of the book. I hope that when they finish the book they’ll
think about how some of the issues I’ve raised relate to their own lives.
SM: Share the best advice you ever got (with regard to writing or life
in general)?
LA: I like something I read by author Michael Chabon in the
Washington Post that reveals the lengths to which we must go if we want to
write anything meaningful. The quote is hanging on the wall in my office.
Here’s part of it:
“Literature, like magic, has always been about the handling of
secrets, about the pain, the destruction and the marvelous liberation that
can result when they are revealed. Telling the truth, when the truth matters
most, is almost always a frightening prospect. If a writer doesn’t give away
secrets, his own or those of the people he loves; if she doesn’t court
disapproval, reproach and general wrath, whether of friends, family, or
party apparatchiks; if the writer submits his work to an internal censor
long before anyone else can get their hands on it, the result is pallid,
inanimate, a lump of earth.”
Oklahoma reporter Viv Powers returns in Daredevil's Apprentice, the second
in the series by the talented Letha Albright. The novel explores friendship,
asking us how well we really know even our closest friends and how far we
would go to protect them. Viv's own beliefs are put to the test when she
finds her best buddy, Lucie Dreadfulwater, hovering over the dead body of
Dale Nowlin in her barn with a bloodied knife clasped in her hand. When
Lucie asks Viv to assist her in cover up the murder, what's a friend to do?
When Lucie herself
turns up dead not long after, Viv wonders about the choice she made. She
wonders, too, what troubles Lucie had gotten into that she'd never discussed
with her best friend. Once Viv starts looking under rocks, she turns up more
than she'd bargained for: questions about who Dale Nowlin was and his
strange family ties; the unsolved disappearance of Lucie Dreadfulwater's
grandfather; and the malevolent power of a mythical Indian spirit called
Utlunta on those drawn into the web of murders in Tahlequah.
Albright mixes rich
characterization, a northeastern Oklahoma setting ripe with history and myth
and a complex tale of murder, loyalty and cover-ups. For mystery fans who
like slightly edgy amateur sleuth novels, you can't do better than
Daredevil's Apprentice. |
http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com website
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows June 2002
A dusty little Oklahoma town forms the backdrop for a story of old
grudges, land deals gone sour, friendships lost, and always the Cherokee
Nation and, in the background but still perceptible the Trail of Tears.
Viv Powers is a reporter in Cherokee County. She has found a good friend in
Lucy Dreadfulwater, perhaps the only close friend she has. Viv arrives just
after Lucy has killed Dale Nowlin, apparently in self-defense, although Lucy
asks for a favor that makes Viv quite uncomfortable. Then Viv's boss assigns
her a story about unsolved mysteries of Cherokee County including the
disappearance of John Dreadfulwater in 1945. Lucie does not want her writing
about her grandfather but then she herself is found dead, an apparent
suicide. Viv cannot leave this death alone in spite of the fact that she
seems to be a current target.
This book is beautifully and magnificently written. It is filled with stark
and vivid images which remain distinct in my mind's eye. The prose flows and
in the process both tells a remarkable storyand creates characters and an
environment that live. The characters are clear, authentic, and intriguing.
Viv, of course, is fully believable. She is many faceted, sometimes
infuriating, sometimes lovable, with sharp angles upon which a person could
get cut. She is fiercely independent which is probably why she has only one
close friend. And she is like a dog with a bone; she will not give up once
she has started.
The sense of place is equally remarkable. Every sense is engaged as the
reader experiences this small Oklahoma town and the surrounding
countryside. The dusty streets, the forests, the ever
flowing river, and always the wind, blowing all the way down from Canada
bringing storms and thunder and lightning.
This is a place where the past commingles with the present until sometimes
you can hardly tell them apart. The Cherokee Indians have one of the saddest
of all native American tales. They actually accepted the white man's way of
life and adopted his culture, becoming farmers and teaching their children
English. It did not help. They were still uprooted from their farms and
their homes and driven along the Trail of Tears until they reached the land
no one wanted, Oklahoma. One out of four died along the way. While this is
not part of this story, its circumstances definitely affect and define every
person in this book.
I cannot praise this book highly enough. It penetrates the hearts of the
characters and mine as well. It is vivid, it is graphic, it is
compassionate. Above all it is true. |
