Many
thanks to you, Dawn, for hosting me on your blog today. When I first stopped
by several weeks ago, I was very impressed with your use of music on the
website. That struck me as a special inspiration you could turn to at any time
to refresh your mood or energize your writing! Songs that we love and melodies
we remember from long ago are a rich source of imagery for many writers, I
think. You inspired me to look back at my novel, Our Orbit, to consider how I used music in that story.
The
first instance comes in the opening scene. It's just a small point, but I think
it helps to reveal the main character. Miriam Winslow is a girl of nine, the
youngest child of a close-knit working-class family. Before the plot takes off
with Miriam's forced removal from her home and placement in foster care, I wanted
to give a glimpse of how her intimate family members knew her. Rather than
spend a lot of space of this, I tried to choose a telling detail. Miriam's
feeling for music helped me out—
[As
Miriam's mother, Emaline, drives through a snowstorm to pick up an older
daughter, they bypass the turn for their home at Friendly Village Mobile Home
Park.] Emaline suppressed a sigh. Instead
of slowing for the turn, she tapped the horn and called out, “Hold the fort,
Friendly!”
“Friendly, holding
steady—” sang little Miriam from the back seat, quick to answer the cue in this
family routine of forgotten origin, homage to the home where Emaline arrived as
a bride half her life ago.
In
this short passage, my aim was to show that Miriam is a happy child who enjoys
melody and is not shy about sharing her voice. She expresses loyalty to her
family by singing a "ditty" they invented for fun before she was born.
As the story goes on, readers will learn that Miriam's older brothers and
sister have largely given up such family rituals as they began to deal with
mainstream culture at school and among their peers. Miriam is the one who keeps
family traditions alive, and she will bring them to her new foster family.
As
a motif in our writing, music can play a wonderful role in revealing cultural
differences between groups of people. Our
Orbit is a story that explores these differences on a small, local scale:
Miriam's birth family and her foster family have a great deal in common, and
yet they belong to separate groups with limited contact. Both families have
lived in the same Ohio county for generations. They are of the same race and
similar heritage from northern Europe. And both families are Protestant
Christians of weekly church-going habits. Even so, the barriers between them
are economic class and educational background.
When
Miriam first attends church with her foster family, she is awed by the large building,
bright chandeliers, and long hallways for Sunday school classes and meeting
rooms. People are more dressed up than she is accustomed to, and all their
clothes are new and brightly colored. But it is Miriam's reaction to the music
at this big, new church that makes clear to readers: She grew up on the other
side of the tracks—
While Miriam ran up
the church steps…she heard a choir strike up a song inside. Sounded like a
hundred people! Across the bright lobby…you could see the flash of
white-and-gold robes as the singers stepped left, right, back, front, clapping
their hands on each move. A rock band with guitars and drums was playing along.
Tambourines rattled…
This must be the
hugest church in town, Miriam thought, All we have back at Holy Redeemer is one
little piano. And even with every person singing, there were only a few dozen
voices…
Miriam's
home church was a small, "backwoods" congregation without paid
professionals to direct a choir or perform on the instruments. Although she
soon comes to appreciate the music at her foster family's prosperous church,
her first impression is mixed. Based on her experience, the "loud, peppy
music" seems more like a performance than a call to worship. More like a
"dance party" than an occasion to repent one's sins.
When
Miriam's foster father, Rick, takes her back to visit her home church, Holy
Redeemer Tabernacle, we see the tradition through his eyes—
[It was] a tiny white-washed church on Key Ridge, south of town… The piano’s
tinny chords rang out… There was no choir director and no hymnals, but harmony
swelled from two to four parts. The voices were strong for such an elderly
crowd—
To Canaan’s land
I’m on my way,
Where the soul of man never dies,
And my darkest nights will turn to day,
Where the soul of man never dies…
People embraced.
Some laughed, others wiped away tears…
Here
is a list of a few songs that played in my head as I worked on Our Orbit. I've hunted up those I could
find on YouTube to give an impression of how they sound. Some of the hymns are
quoted in the book (as in the scene above), while others served more to set a
mood for my writing.
"The
Soul of Man Never Dies" performed by Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs. From the
DVD "Legends of Flatpicking Guitar,"- view on youtube.
"There
is a Balm in Gilead" performed by Mahalia Jackson - view on youtube.
"The
Stable Song" performed by Gregory Alan Isakov - view on youtube.
And
to close on a happy note, here is "Dreams" performed by the
Cranberries. This is the favorite song of Miriam's teenage sister Rachelle. It
becomes embarrassing to Rachelle when her friends make fun of the band because
they are Irish and "talk funny"! So we see that Rachelle's musical
taste is a bit more open-minded than some of the people around her - view on youtube.
BIO: Anesa Miller is a recipient of a Creative
Writing Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council. She studied writing at Kenyon
College and the University of Idaho. Her work has been published in The Kenyon Review, The California Quarterly,
the Southern Humanities Review, and
others. Her debut novel, Our Orbit,
releases from Booktrope of Seattle in June 2015.
Book blurb: Nine-year-old
Miriam Winslow never wore new clothes, never had a haircut, and believes that
sinners must repent with dramatic displays of remorse, or harm will come to
their loved ones. Now thrust into foster care, Miriam must adapt to a
secular lifestyle while struggling to keep in touch with her past. Foster parents Rick and Deanne
Fletcher quickly come to love their “new little girl.” Soon they meet the rest
of Miriam’s family. Uncle Dan believes he was abducted by aliens. Sister
Rachelle, just out of juvenile detention, harbors painful secrets. Brother Josh
is outraged that the Fletchers disrespect Christian teachings. He vows to take
Miriam out of their home and put a stop to meddling in his family's way of
life.
Now a
finalist in the Next
Generation Indie Book Awards for Best Regional Fiction, Our Orbit captures
the tension between modernity and tradition in the Appalachian corner of southern
Ohio. "A literary novel that reads at the pace of a thriller."
Anesa Miller's new novel, OUR ORBIT, is available at:
and by order from most brick-and-mortar stores.
You can always find Anesa at:
Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!
