Contemporary to Historical ~ A New Slant on Research

I am delighted to welcome Ane Mulligan to my blog today. Ane has a wonderful sense of humor that translates into spunky, sassy characters in her stories. IN HIGH COTTON is definitely her best one yet! I know readers won’t be disappointed. Ane, tell us a bit about how you came to write IN HIGH COTTON.

Ane:
After writing five contemporary novels and two novellas, my agent liked the premise of In High Cotton. She said it fit my brand: ensemble cast of strong Southern women facing life’s issues together. She gave her blessing on the series.

I wanted a rural setting for In High Cotton, book one in the series. I discovered an area around Uvalda in southeast Georgia. There is hardly anything near it, except two rivers (the Ocmulgee and the Oconee) converge to form a third (the Altamaha). The Indians called this area “Where Rivers End.” That gave me my town’s name: Rivers End.

I like to set my stories in fictional towns. I draw a map and place the businesses and houses where I want them. That way, nobody can say there wasn’t a store on that street.

When I did my character interview for my heroine, Maggie Parker and her sister, Duchess Alden, I had to go back four generations to dig out their story. Maggie and Duchess are as different as chalk and cheese. However, the love between them is strong and surprised me at times. I love these characters.

The book took quite a bit of research, which I discovered I love. My method is writing until I need a point researched, then stop and find what I can online. I’m disciplined enough that I don’t allow myself to get lost in netsurfing (we won’t talk about chocolate). If I need more on the subject, I’ll put a note to the side, and move on.

I found I like the discipline of writing historical. My characters can’t grab a cell phone and get out of trouble. In my Chapel Springs series, my research was into geological probabilities, not everyday life. For In High Cotton, I originally wrote one scene where Maggie would take the grocery’s truck to drive about 200 miles. But when I realized that would take over five hours, I sent her by train instead.

Besides the restrictions of the year, there were also restrictions by the setting. While big cities had electricity in the late 1800s to early 1900s, small rural areas in Georgia didn’t get it until much later—some into the 1950s—yes, really.

However, I wanted the grocery to have electricity. There were cases in rural areas, with the right political and financial connections, electrical service could be run. The town had a railroad station, where farmers brought their crops to be shipped. The town grocer had married Maggie, whose sister was married to Mr. Alden, a powerful and rich Atlanta man. Stay with me here. Mr. Alden had the political connections, the most important being with FDR. The soon-to-be president traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia often. He also went through the Uvalda area on his way from Savannah to Warm Springs.

And so the tiny town of Rivers End got electrical service. There are always ways when one is a novelist.

♥♥♥

In High Cotton
Southern women may look as delicate as flowers, but there’s iron in their veins.

While the rest of the world has been roaring through the 1920s, times are hardscrabble in rural South Georgia. Widow Maggie Parker is barely surviving while raising her young son alone. Then as banks begin to fail, her father-in-law threatens to take her son and sell off her livelihood—the grocery store her husband left her. Can five Southern women band together, using their wisdom and wiles to stop him and survive the Great Depression?

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WOLShX

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Target: https://www.target.com/p/in-high-cotton-by-ane-mulligan-paperback/-/A-80663388

To read the first chapter free, go to https://anemulligan.com/georgia-magnolias-series and scroll to the DOWNLOADS

Ane Mulligan has been a voracious reader ever since her mom instilled within her a love of reading at age three, escaping into worlds otherwise unknown. But when Ane saw PETER PAN on stage, she was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. She submerged herself in drama through high school and college. One day, her two loves collided, and a bestselling, award-winning novelist emerged. She lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and The Write Conversation.

Thanks for visiting with me today, Ane. I’m excited about your newest release, and I know your readers are going to love it!
Folks, don’t forget, leave a comment here on this blog for a chance to win an e-copy of IN HIGH COTTON.