Carolyn Dingman is here to discuss the forces at work in her
debut novel CANCEL THE
WEDDING and what's next for her as an author and reader. Welcome, Carolyn!
Much of CANCEL
THE WEDDING takes place against the backdrop of a rural Southern town. What
drew you to this setting for this story?
I wanted to place Olivia in a welcoming and nurturing environment for her
imminent breakdown. Poor Olivia, I really raked her over the coals, but at least
she was in a charming locale! This setting, the town and the people in it, act
like the extended family she never had. The people of Tillman embrace her
immediately and show her kindness and compassion. In a small Southern town a
stranger is welcomed graciously, someone you just met will go out of their way
to help you, strangers will be greeted with smiles and often hugged when they
leave. I didn't have to manufacture this type of civility and charm because it
already exists in small Southern towns. So if I had to conjure a place that
would welcome Olivia by day one then a close-knit Southern town was the obvious
choice.
In CANCEL THE
WEDDING, your protagonist Olivia journeys to her recently-departed mother’s
hometown. As she learns about her mother’s secret past, she discovers the truth
of what she wants her future to be. Have you ever taken any journeys that have
led you to the realizations that Olivia faces in the novel?
I haven't taken quite as drastic a journey as Olivia, but sometimes it's the
seemingly insignificant choices that lead you to understand what you should be
doing differently. Sometimes you grab the cremains of your mother and hit the
road on a spontaneous road trip, but sometimes it's as simple as deciding to go
to that class, change your route to work, make that phone call. I think the most
interesting facet of these choices is that we can't see the shift as it's
happening. We can usually only view it properly with some time and distance. For
me, when I look back with some perspective, I can see that deciding to call
someone back was the moment that shifted my path in life. One call.
Olivia, her late mother Jane, and her niece Logan all seem to be
complex and moving characters. Did you draw inspiration from any particular
women in your life while crafting the female characters in this novel?
I can't say that they were inspired by the women in my life because in a strange
way the characters in the novel are very real to me. It's as if they are actual
people who came knocking on my door one day so I let them in and spent time with
them until we got to know each other. I realize that admitting to having
imaginary friends at my age is tricky business, but we're going to pretend that
you view it as "creative" and not "crazy." So I would say that they aren't
modeled after anyone because they are themselves, if that makes sense. I will
admit, however, that I am surrounded by strong, complex, loving women and I
can't deny that everything about them influences my perspective. So if they
choose to take credit for the better qualities in some of the characters then
I'll let them. I have noticed that no one likes to imagine that the less
flattering characteristics could possibly be attributed to them though. Not even
my bossy older sister. (She knows that I say that will love.
Now that your debut novel has been released, do you have any other
projects you are working on?
I'm at work on my second novel now. My fist novel kicked off with a dead mother
and the second one opens with a dead husband. My family is getting
understandably nervous. But I hesitate to say too much about it. I learned from
writing CANCEL THE
WEDDING that the end result is rarely what it looked like at the beginning.
For now I'll just say that I'm working on the next story.
Fresh Fiction readers want to know: When you aren’t writing, what do
you like to read?
I'm a genre-hopper and read all sorts of things. I just finished Andrew Weir's
THE MARTIAN, which I
read in one day. The opening line had me hooked. I love Diana Gabaldon. I've
read the whole series, but I think I've read the first book OUTLANDER four times. I love
Jojo Moyes, Deb Harkness, and Liane Moriarity. When I read Maria Semple's WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE? I pouted for a few days because
it was so funny and clever and I was bummed I didn't think of it! I'm waiting
(very impatiently) for the next Justin Cronin book in The Passage
trilogy. I followed a clerk to the back of a bookstore to cut open a box of Brad
Taylor's books so I could start reading DAYS OF RAGE the day it came out. I have reread this one
chapter out of Jonathan Tropper's THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU so many times I have it memorized.
I also love Jane Austen and sometimes binge read her like it's my job. And I
have David Sedaris in my bag right now. See? Genre confusion.
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