A Talk With Ramey Channell

I get to read and review a lot of marvelous new books on my Smoky Talks Books blog. None have been more delightful than Sweet Music on Moonlight by Ramey Channell. (You can read my review of the book here.) I do not make a habit of comparing emerging writers with superstars, but Ramey’s voice is so like Harper Lee’s it startled me. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Ramey about books, writing, and Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge.

Tell us a little about Sweet Music On Moonlight Ridge. Where did you get the idea for this book?

The book is set in 1950s rural Alabama in a fictional town called Eden. The story is full of laughs, adventure, mystery and a touch of supernatural. The main characters, Lily Claire and Willie T., are eight-year-old cousins who explore the woods around their home on Moonlight Ridge, and come to the rescue when members of their family and community find themselves involved in a dilemma.

This book opens a window into an environment where people fit into their natural place on the earth. This is how I grew up. People, wildlife, domestic animals, cats, dogs, and of course, possums, all inhabit the same plane.  It’s a closeness that defines and informs our entire way of life and development, from birth to the final return to nature at death.  It’s a delightful place of constant revelation and discovery, with not infrequent mysteries and contradictions.

Setting plays such an important role in Sweet Music On Moonlight Ridge. How did you research the setting?

I grew up in this setting, listening to my parents and grandparents telling stories about the mountain. So I knew Moonlight Ridge long before I began writing about the adventures of Lily Claire, Willie T., and their families. It’s a magic place where magical things happen every day, and if you live there, or visit there, the magic seems almost commonplace. It’s as much a feeling, an atmosphere, as it is any specific occurrence.

Which character in the book is your favorite, and why? Were any of them you, or based on you as a child?

All the characters are so dear to me; each one has a special place in my heart, just as they have a special place in the story. My first impulse is to name Henry Hope Nash as my favorite. Henry Hope’s character is based on my father’s cousin, Henry, who meant so much to me when I was a child. He was soft spoken and gentle, and my daddy loved him so much; I guess that’s why I loved him. The memories I have of Henry are precious to me, and I made Henry Hope as much like the real Henry as I could.

Author Ramey Channell

There are two characters who are actually me. Great Granddaddy W.T. Greenberry is one of the few purely fictional characters in the book, and yet he is really a fabricated version of me. Everything he does is based on how I feel, think, how I relate to the natural world around me. Singing “Don’t I Know This Possum” is straight from my personal bag of tricks.

Then, there’s Lily Claire, who has my voice, who is my voice. She is observant, well-grounded and without guile. Through Lily Claire, I’m able to tell the story.

What do you think is the most important thing for your books to accomplish: to entertain, to educate, to instill moral values, or to enlighten? Why?

The most important thing for my books to accomplish is to entertain. All my life I’ve been an entertainer at heart. I have my father to thank for instilling in me the love of silly songs and acting a fool, and my sister to thank for going along with me and adding her own personal contribution to many childhood performances, songs, dances, and jokes. There is nothing I love better than telling a story that brings joy and touches the heart.

You know, I have my father to thank for instilling those same qualities in me! Let’s talk a little more about Ramey, the author.  What inspires you?

Ramey with a friend

Children inspire me. That’s why I gave Lily Claire and Willie T. the spotlight in this book. I’m inspired by the bond of love and respect between children and the individuals who are loved by children. The intuitive wisdom of children inspires and delights me.  And most of all, memories of my own childhood inspire me.

What made you choose to become a writer? Was it a favorite book, and if so, what? A favorite teacher? If you couldn’t write, what would you be doing to express your creative self?

I chose to become a writer at about the age of four or five. It was before I had started school, and before I could actually write, so I was very anxious to hurry up and start to school so I could write stories and poems. I can’t even imagine being unable to write. What I can imagine is not having enough time to get everything written down.

What is your favorite work of fiction, and why?

It’s really hard to remember all my favorite books when asked! To the standard question of “If you were stranded on a desert island, what book would you take with you?” I might well answer Dances With Wolves, or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which I don’t mention in my list of favorites because it’s TOO complex. I first read it when I was about 14 or 15, and I still can’t accurately describe it.

I loved reading The English Patient, because the language is poetic and like looking at a beautiful, intricate tapestry. I was so impressed and awed by Michael Ondaatje’s writing. I think Dracula by Bram Stoker is one of the best books ever written. People of the Whale by Linda Hogan is incomparable, absolutely perfect. I was impressed by Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad because it’s a story of a flawed individual who willingly sacrifices himself for others; A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole because it’s absolutely crazy, and The Awakening Land: The Trees, The Fields, and The Town by Conrad Richter because it’s the story of a strong, intelligent, competent woman.

You sound like every author I’ve ever known (including myself)—you can’t name just one favorite work of fiction!

No, I can’t!

Where, and when, do you write? What are your writing rituals?

I wake up in the middle of the night and grab any scrap of paper I can find; I write on cash register receipts while I’m driving, I write on envelopes and old pieces of mail while I’m at work.

What do you do when you aren’t writing?

Mostly, I wish that I was writing! Also, I sword fight with my five-year-old grandson, paint and work on illustrations for some children’s stories I’ve written, and walk around outside looking at things.

What’s the best compliment you’ve received as a writer?

Can I list more than one? First, a friend from high school once announced “Ramey’s brain is like Star Wars.” Then, an enormously talented fellow writer said I had written the best doodle-bug scene in the history of fiction. A talented and beautiful cousin of mine said that I write like Truman Capote.

Truman Capote? I think more like Harper Lee, to be honest with you—and I don’t hand out praise like that lightly. But I interrupted; you said there were four?

Yes. The fourth, but not least of all, my two sisters—who are accomplished writers themselves—continue to praise my writing and put up with my paroxysms of worry and panic.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers that I may have neglected to ask you about?

There is magic all around us, all the time. If you recognize and acknowledge even the tiniest manifestation of magic, it will begin to multiply, and reproduce and expand, until you’ll see magic happening everywhere.

Where on the Internet can fans find you? And where can they buy your book?

My book blog is www.sweetmusiconmoonlightridge.blogspot.com. My personal blog, The Painted Possum, is www.rameychannell.blogspot.com. I’m a member of SheWrites www.SheWrites.com, and I have short stories on http://www.shortbreadstories.co.uk  My books can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Would you share an excerpt of Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge with our readers?

I’d be happy to!

Chapter Two—Coming Into This World                         

 Willie T. and I were born on the same day, in the same hospital, and would have been delivered by the same doctor, but Dr. Carlisle called in help when he saw how things were going.

My mother, Sara Onselle Nash, and her sister, my aunt Rachel Bodicea Nock, were in the same hospital room when they went in to have me and Willie T.  The way the story goes, my daddy, Sam Nash, and Willie T.’s daddy, Buddy Nock, had been out drinking all night the night before, and so they spent most of that day we were born sleeping on the gray leather benches in the hospital waiting room.  So it was mostly Granny and Dr. Carlisle that tried to handle things when my mama and her sister both went crazy at the same time and started throwing bedpans and lamps and water pitchers.

And cryin’ and cussin’!  Granny said that if it hadn’t been for her upbringing with the bugs and the possums and Rich Man and Poor Man, that she never would have lived through the day me and Willie T. were born.  I guess it just goes to show you.

By the time pitiful old Dr. Driggers, drunk as a lord, came stumbling into the Eden Hospital to help out Dr. Carlisle, the floor of the hospital room was covered with broken glass and spilled water and all the pitchers and bedpans and medical supplies, and my mama and Aunt Rachel had each other by the throat trying to strangle each other.  The gray metal table that had been between the two hospital beds had been thrown through the window, shattering glass and landing in an arby-vida bush.  With no obstacle between the two hospital beds, Mama and Aunt Rachel were able to get ahold of each other, ripping hospital gowns, pulling out each other’s hair, and giving each other black eyes and busted lips.  I don’t guess anybody really knows why they lit into each other like that.  Mama and Aunt Rachel both claimed it was a reaction to some drug they were given, and neither one of them would ever trust a doctor again.  Granny says they both had always been a little high-strung.

So, when it finally came time for me and Willie T. to be born, Dr. Driggers did the best he could with Aunt Rachel, and Dr. Carlisle told my mother she had absolutely no normal maternal instincts.

They say that Willie T. and I were born at the very same time, that we both started crying at the very same moment, and that we looked so much alike we could have been twins.

As soon as they saw us, Aunt Rachel and Mama started crying again, because Aunt Rachel wanted a girl and Mama wanted a boy.  But after a while, they both settled down and even smiled a little when Granny said we looked for the world like two baby possums.

Dr. Carlisle, who had one green eye and one brown eye, cried too, after wrestling all day with mama and dodging flying objects.  He threatened to give up the medical practice  altogether, but then he went to laughing and said, “Well, I’ll tell you, this beats all I’ve ever seen!  Don’t this beat all?  I’ve got to get a picture of this!”

He was so tickled by the whole affair that he called his wife on the telephone and told her to grab her Kodak and hurry to the Eden Hospital and take Mama and Aunt Rachel’s picture.  The photograph, which is still hanging on the wall of Dr. Carlisle’s old office to this day, shows the two beat-up women sitting up in the hospital beds, side-by-side, holding me and Willie T. and smiling sheepishly with their swollen lips and black eyes.

My daddy brought Mama a bouquet of white lilies-of-the-valley that he’d picked out of Granny Rilla’s garden, and that’s when they decided to name me Lily Claire Carlisle Nash.  Uncle Buddy brought Aunt Rachel a bunch of yellow stink-weeds that he’d pulled by the side of the road, and that’s when she decided to name my cousin William Theophilus Greenberry Nock.