That Dog Won't Hunt (Dearing Family Series) (16 page)

Readers ask me, “Is the Dearing Family series based on your real childhood family?” Others wonder, “Why is the author known for her Seatbelt Suspense® now writing Southern family fiction?”

Okay, okay, if you really wanna know …

No and yes. Mostly no. Here’s a list of factoids:

I grew up in a small town in Kentucky, population about 3000. Its “downtown” consisted of one block, much like the downtown in my fictional Justus, Mississippi.

My family does love getting together for reunions. And we’re a close family. However, we don’t argue like the Dearings do. In fact, we get along so well, we’d make a rather boring book. And we’re not as loud as the Dearings, either. (My niece Laura says that last sentence is a lie.)

My mother’s name is Ruth. To many outside the family she’s known as Mama Ruth. Ruth Dearing is like my mom in a couple of ways: my mother tends to be a worrier, and she’s warm and loving—a true friend to all.

I have three sisters—six, eleven, and fifteen years older than I. (Clearly, my parents saved the best for last.) None of the Dearing family members are named after my sisters or are based on them.

There are no boys in our family. Hence, Ben is also fictional.

Christina is an entirely fictional character as well.

My sisters and I used to play Liverpool Rummy when I was a kid. Later we got into Scrabble, which we’ve now played for years. We’re competitive. And good.
Don’t
play Scrabble with us. You’ll die.

Lady Penelope was my childhood dog. However, she was a Chihuahua, not a Yorkie. The personality quirks she possesses in this book are straight out of Penny’s real doggie life. Except for sighing about having to go to her bed while the family eats. That quirk was taken from another dog of mine named Mallie.

Much of the food the Dearings eat is from my childhood. My mother is a wonderful cook. At the time of this writing (December 2012), Mom just celebrated her 96th birthday. She lives in an assisted living apartment and no longer has to cook for herself. But she misses it.

My mother made pickled watermelon rind. I liked it as a kid. Although I suppose it’s an acquired taste.

Mom also made incredible buttermilk biscuits. And fried chicken and gravy. And sausage with biscuits. And apple pie. Family reunions have been a time of lip-smacking weight gain.

Yes, there is a coffee snob in our family—me. I take my own coffee to reunions and years ago bought an espresso maker to leave at my parents’ house. My coffee is always too strong for everyone else. When I make it, they’ll pour it into a cup, then water it down. There’s just no accounting for taste.

No one in my childhood family played golf. My dad coached soccer and played tennis. He managed to play doubles tennis until he was 84. He passed away from Parkinson’s at the age of 88.

My father did not own a car dealership, far from it. He was a missionary, then a professor of missions at a seminary.

My family does have strong Christian roots and beliefs, as do the Dearings.

My husband, Mark, and I follow the same marriage principles of Sy and Ruth: place God in the center and put each other’s needs before our own. As Ben said: this takes two.

Remember Syton Dearing’s look-right-look-left silent message to Ruth that she’s the prettiest in the room? That comes straight from my husband. Like Syton, when we first started dating, Mark would look around and say, “You’re the prettiest one here.” Years ago the words were no longer needed. He can send me the message across a room—and still does.

For years I’ve been gathering family photos and putting them into a calendar, which I give each family member for Christmas. Each summer reunion I try to come up with a new crazy venue for taking a picture of my mother and us four daughters. One year it was pink bathtubs at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Another year is was—yup, you guessed it. Lined-up toilets. I’ve had a hard time topping that one ever since.

There is no one in my family with horrendously smelly feet like Pogey. For this I am grateful.

Years ago a friend told me of someone he knew in a Southern town who drove a banana yellow hearse. I filed that away in my brain, knowing someday I’d use it in a book.

I used to know a couple named Christina and Ben.

Like Lacey, my little great-niece Breanna takes dancing lessons and tends to walk around on her toes.

Breanna’s mother—my niece—is named Jessica. Jess for short.

I have always loved mixed metaphors and other mangled sayings, and was waiting for the day I could create a character who tended to say them without realizing it.

A good friend did once say to me, “That’s like putting the cart before the egg.” I still think that’s the greatest mixed metaphor ever.

Syton Dearing looks like my next-door neighbor.

In the town where I now live is a coffee express named Mocha Ritaville. I don’t know the owner. But I’ve convinced myself she’s a woman named Rita in her mid-fifties or so who loves Jimmy Buffett.

The lobster story really did happen—in the household of my oldest sister.

I heard the dead rabbit story from a friend and later learned that snopes.com says it’s an urban legend. Whether or not it really happened to Tamel Curd is up to you to decide.

There are no lawyers in our family. There is a doctor (my oldest sister). I was supposed to be the attorney. Every family should have a doctor and a lawyer, don’t you think? Makes life so much more convenient. But somewhere I took a wrong turn and ended up writing fiction. Maybe that’s not so far off from being a lawyer after all …

When I first began to be published in fiction in 2001, I was writing in both the suspense and women’s fiction genres. After a three-book women’s fiction series—the Bradleyville series—I turned to writing suspense full time. But I always had a hankering to return to women’s fiction. I love exploring relationships, especially those of family in small towns. In fact I had the idea for the Dearing Family series way back when I wrote in both genres, and the books were contracted with my publisher. When the publisher’s marketing team and I decided I should write only suspense, the Dearing Family books were set aside. Now that today’s technology makes self-publishing so easy, I’m able to finally write this series.

As for my Seatbelt Suspense®, those books are written with a four-point brand promise in mind: fast-paced, character-driven suspense with myriad twists and an interwoven thread of faith. You can read more about them, including the first chapter of each, on my website. (See below.)

You do? Great! E-mail the story to me, giving me permission to use it, and you just might see it show up in a novel.

Twitter: @Brandilyn

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