8.05.2008
TRAMBLINGS...
Have I ever told you guys how much I love GENO DELAFOSE? I haven't? Really? I find that hard to believe but I'll take your word for it. My mother introduced me to Zydeco music and I loved it from the first chord. About ten years ago, she and I traveled to New Orleans on a impromptu mother-daughter trip. It was one of the first times I remember seeing her as a woman separate from me, my life, the lives of my sisters or my father. It was nice. I mark that trip as the beginning of our friendship. The fact that it happened in her home state of Louisiana is not lost on me. I am California born and raised but I've always felt like a southern girl in my heart. The south was very present in our household but it ruled my grandparents house. I used that dynamic to shape the Redfield clan and, even after all this time, the contrasts intrigue me.
Anyway, one night after an afternoon of sightseeing through the French Quarter and the Garden District, we decided to grab some dinner and find a place to listen to music. We found an out of the way joint with great food and a live zydeco band. We weren't in the door two minutes before three different men rushed over to ask my mom to dance. For the next hour I sat on the sidelines and watched. She was beautiful out there and I keep that as a very nice memory. We stayed up late that night and she told me stories about Louisiana, the music, the sweltering summers she spent with her family, the wicked battles my sharp-tongued grandmother would launch with her equally ferocious sisters. Some of those tales have made their way into the Maceo books and some are just waiting their turn.
Either way I've been in love with Delafose (blazing crush on Geno) and his father, John, ever since that trip. Here's a taste for those of you who've never indulged.
This evening I spent the better part of the night reading through the notebooks I kept while writing THE DYING GROUND and THE LAST KING. I am looking for snatches of dialogue, pieces of history, ideas, words, phrases, musical references, characters, whatever, that didn't make it into either book. Man, I could write a book on the things I've forgotten. There are twenty notepads and another box I plan to go through this weekend. I read a few things to the Crown Prince, rattling off character names I plan to use for Book Three. He raised an eyebrow and said, "You've been holding out on me. Those are great names." They are. Can't wait to shape a couple characters around them.
I'm also going to re-read both of the novels in order to address any hanging chads I may have left. It's fun deciding what the characters have been up to in the five years since we've seen them. A lot will change but one thing (or couple) that I hope survive all the rewrites are (wait for it)...Clarence and Yolanda. Wouldn't it be nice if the two of them found love together? I think so. I've been holding onto that for a few years now. Hope it works.
Lastly, it's nice to be back in this world. Feels like a protective shield and if you've read this blog from the beginning you know Maceo was instrumental in guiding me through the grief over losing my father. Ya'll think he's up to being called back into duty? I. Hope. So.
Until next time...
Have I ever told you guys how much I love GENO DELAFOSE? I haven't? Really? I find that hard to believe but I'll take your word for it. My mother introduced me to Zydeco music and I loved it from the first chord. About ten years ago, she and I traveled to New Orleans on a impromptu mother-daughter trip. It was one of the first times I remember seeing her as a woman separate from me, my life, the lives of my sisters or my father. It was nice. I mark that trip as the beginning of our friendship. The fact that it happened in her home state of Louisiana is not lost on me. I am California born and raised but I've always felt like a southern girl in my heart. The south was very present in our household but it ruled my grandparents house. I used that dynamic to shape the Redfield clan and, even after all this time, the contrasts intrigue me.
Anyway, one night after an afternoon of sightseeing through the French Quarter and the Garden District, we decided to grab some dinner and find a place to listen to music. We found an out of the way joint with great food and a live zydeco band. We weren't in the door two minutes before three different men rushed over to ask my mom to dance. For the next hour I sat on the sidelines and watched. She was beautiful out there and I keep that as a very nice memory. We stayed up late that night and she told me stories about Louisiana, the music, the sweltering summers she spent with her family, the wicked battles my sharp-tongued grandmother would launch with her equally ferocious sisters. Some of those tales have made their way into the Maceo books and some are just waiting their turn.
Either way I've been in love with Delafose (blazing crush on Geno) and his father, John, ever since that trip. Here's a taste for those of you who've never indulged.
This evening I spent the better part of the night reading through the notebooks I kept while writing THE DYING GROUND and THE LAST KING. I am looking for snatches of dialogue, pieces of history, ideas, words, phrases, musical references, characters, whatever, that didn't make it into either book. Man, I could write a book on the things I've forgotten. There are twenty notepads and another box I plan to go through this weekend. I read a few things to the Crown Prince, rattling off character names I plan to use for Book Three. He raised an eyebrow and said, "You've been holding out on me. Those are great names." They are. Can't wait to shape a couple characters around them.
I'm also going to re-read both of the novels in order to address any hanging chads I may have left. It's fun deciding what the characters have been up to in the five years since we've seen them. A lot will change but one thing (or couple) that I hope survive all the rewrites are (wait for it)...Clarence and Yolanda. Wouldn't it be nice if the two of them found love together? I think so. I've been holding onto that for a few years now. Hope it works.
Lastly, it's nice to be back in this world. Feels like a protective shield and if you've read this blog from the beginning you know Maceo was instrumental in guiding me through the grief over losing my father. Ya'll think he's up to being called back into duty? I. Hope. So.
Until next time...
Labels: Geno Delafose, Louisiana, Redfields, Writing, Zydeco
