Welcome Debut Author Carolyn Dingman | CANCEL THE WEDDING

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.