a short story, One Minute Past Christmas, and two novels, Wyandotte Bound, and Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion.
Stay Co n n e c te d
Uncaged welcomes Christina Berry Can you tell readers more about your newest book, Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion? I am not certain how to catagorize it because it has romance, drama, and suspense. For readers who like romance, Forrest, the main male character, is cautiously caught up in a challenging new involvement while struggling with a long addiction to a perilous old love. For those who like rags-to-riches tales, Forrest turns a tragedy at age 21 into an obsessive drive for money that earns him almost a billion dollars by his early 40s. For admirers of drama, there is a magnificent but somewhat mysterious mansion whose presence provides the backdrop for the entire story. And for lovers of suspense, there is a sensational murder trial whose outcome determines whether an extraordinarily beautiful woman of dubious reputation will become the wealthiest widow in the state prison or will be free to spend her late husband’s millions any way that pleases her. What have you found the hardest to cope with during the pandemic? What are you looking forward to when a lot of restrictions are lifted?
I come from a very close family from West Virginia, and we are accustomed to spending much time together visiting and traveling with one another. That, by far, is the hardest thing. I also miss being with wonderful friends at church, eating at a variety of restaurants four or five times a week, and spending an occasional afternoon shopping at a nice mall. Most important, of course, is being relieved of the stress and worry I share with virtually everyone during the world’s first pandemic in more than a hundred years. You have been a professor at a university for 36 years. What inspired you to start writing novels? It came about mostly by chance. Perhaps more than anything else were a couple of casual remarks – one made by a sister and the other by a former student. I have been writing professionally (journalistically and academically) for more then 60 years. I turned to fiction writing when I was about 70 and was riding around with family members in my small town (Lancaster, SC) a few days after Christmas. We just happend to pass a deserted lot that had a few trees grown for the sole purpose of beautifully decorating someone’s home for the holidays. But there were a few lying neglected and unwanted on the ground because everyone passed them by. Since my childhood, when almost all families bought real trees for Christmas, I have always felt a deep sadness for the ones never given a chance to have their few days of glory. As we drove past one of the lots, I casually said, “You know, I have a perfect ending for a short story about these trees if someone would write it.” My sister, Patty Arnold Noll, immediately said, “You know how to write; why don’t you turn it into a short story? I replied that although I know how to write journalistically and academically, I had no clue whether I had the imagination and creativy required for fiction writing. But I gave it a try and wrote One Minute Past Christmas. Issue 56 | March 2021 |
73
