You can hear Rebecca Wells as she talks about her new novel, “The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder” in an audio interview on KAXE radio by clicking here…

Selections from the review:

"…there’s something down-to-earth and comforting about this novel. When Calla and her friend Sukey go to visit Ricky and Steve for brunch one morning, Calla devotes a page and a half to how the omelet is made and another half-page to how the table is set. When a funeral occurs, pages are devoted to what to wear, first to the viewing, then to the service. This may be an etiquette book, as well as a novel, a manual for correct living."

"I think the audience for this good-hearted, wishful-thinking book is probably young mothers, staying home with their kids, beginning to feel the existential loneliness sink in and striving to make the best of the hands life has dealt. For them, being told to turn up the boombox and dance in the moonlight, trusting that life is basically good, may be sound advice indeed."

Read thefull  review of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder at washingtonpost.com

My grandmother, Nanie, fed me books as often and as easily as she fed me fried chicken and gravy. I remember the day she gave me
Heidi. It was a small hardback book with a green cover, the green of a young lima bean, just the right size for a child’s hand. It wasn’t so heavy that I had trouble holding it, but it was just big enough that I felt I was a big girl to be reading it. I entered a world that I would never forget. The sound of wind through the trees, up on the mountain with grandfather. I could feel the soft safety of Heidi’s eiderdown bed. So warm, so secure. Read more…

When I write, I see the scenes in my head. Coming from a theater background, I work more like an actor-writer than a pure writer. I am always interested in what a character might have dreamed the night before the scene takes place. I see movements of characters like blocking on a stage. I have my own movies in my head. It is fine if other people make movies of my work, but I have my own movies in my own mind and heart. The music I play while writing is sort of a soundtrack. Sometimes I can’t play any music at all; I need total silence. Other times I crave music.

When I want some pure Louisiana music, I’ll radio stream to the music played on KBON 101.1 FM Louisiana Proud Radio, a locally owned Louisiana Music powerhouse situated in the heart of Cajun Country, in Eunice, Louisiana. Their programming is a unique blend of Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, Oldies, and Swamp Pop and can be heard all over.

If my body is strong that day, I’ll get up and boogey till I’m tired, then rest a bit, then go back to the computer. If they play a bittersweet Cajun waltz, I’m a sucker for the emotionality that fiddle can evoke. I once gave a Cajun waltz to a character in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood just before he left for World War II. I cried listening to the waltz and while writing that scene. I have also been known to listen to Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Solo Cello Suites at least 500 times.

Music is so good for the soul. What was the last piece of music that you listened to that just made you stop in your tracks?

84,000 sweet songs,

Rebecca

Harper Collins is proud to present these links to reviews of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder:

USA Today
The Kitsap Sun
The New York Times
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The Seattle Times
North Kitsap Herald Interview
The Times-Picayune/Nola.com
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Bellingham Herald
Austin-American Statesman
The Columbus Dispatch
The Town Talk
The Pulpwood Queen blog interview