Carolyn Haines

8/14/2019 Carolyn Haines

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12 • south mississippi scene

personalit ies: award-winning author

STORY BY ROBYN JACKSON

PHOTOS AND ARTWORK COURTESY THE AUTHOR

I

This Writer’ s Southern Roots Run Deep

C AROLYN H AINES

EUDORA WELTY. WILLIE MORRIS. MARGARET WALKER ALEXANDER.

SHELBY FOOTE. BETH HENLEY. JOHN GRISHAM. SOON, LUCEDALE

NATIVE CAROLYN HAINES WILL BE ABLE TO ADD HER NAME TO THAT

EXCLUSIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRIOUS MISSISSIPPI AUTHORS.

In February, Haines will

receive the Richard Wright

Literary Excellence Award from

the Natchez Literary and

Cinema Celebration. The award

recognizes living authors with

strong Mississippi ties for their

body of work. Since 1994, some

of Mississippi’s most acclaimed

writers have been honored.

Haines’ name might not be as

familiar as Greg Iles, Barry

Hannah or Ellen Douglas, who

have also received the Richard

Wright award, but she has built

a steady, successful career as a

novelist over the past threedecades. She has written fiction

and non-fiction, but is probably

best known for her “Bones”

series of madcap mysteries set

in the Mississippi Delta and

starring Sarah Booth Delaney, a

private eye with a flair for the

dramatic. The eighth book in

the series, “Wishbones,” was

released this summer by St.

Martin’s Minotaur, and the

ninth, “Greedy Bones,” will be

published in summer 2009.

Haines began her career as a

photojournalist for the

Hattiesburg American and

Mobile Register in the 1970s,

after graduating from the

University of Southern

Mississippi. In addition to the“Bones” mysteries, which start-

ed in 1999 with “Them Bones,”

her books include “Summer of

the Redeemers,” (1994), and

“Touched,” (1996), which were

both works of general fiction

with a strong element of mys-

tery and suspense. Her first

non-fiction book was “My

Brother’s Keeper,” (2003) the

true story of Mississippi native

Peggy Morgan, who heard the

confession of the assassin of

Medgar Evers and had to testi-

fy against him despite the

threat to her own life. She also

has an essay in “Growing Up in

Mississippi,” edited by Judy

Tucker and Charlene McCord,

and an excerpt from her novel“Shop Talk,” appears in “A

State of Laughter,” a collection

of Alabama authors’ humorous



south mississippi scene •

stories edited by Don Noble.

Haines credits her gift for

storytelling to her grandmoth-

er, Hulda Johanna Nyman

McEachern, who told her ghost

stories at bedtime, which shewould then share with her girl-

friends at slumber parties.

“She emigrated to the U.S.

when she was 6 years old from

Sweden,” Haines said. “She

was a marvelous storyteller

and the county historian in

George County for a number of

years. She was, at that time,

one of the better educated peo-

ple in that part of Mississippi.”

Haines, who now lives in

Semmes, Ala., on a farm filled

with a menagerie of horses,

dogs and cats, sat down recent-

ly to answer a few questions

about her writing career for

South Mississippi Scene.

SMS: Congratulations on the

Richard Wright award. What

does it mean to you to get an

award that’s based on your

body of work?

HAINES: I’ve been writing a

long time, and this award - to be

honored and acknowledged by my

home state - has touched me

deeply. I live this dual life, where I

reside in Alabama, a state I’ve

grown to love and one that has

honored me with an Alabama State

Council on the Arts writing fel-

lowship. I’m active in the arts

world in Alabama and Mississippi.Because most of my books are set

in Mississippi. I’m one of these

lucky people who can claim dual

citizenship. But to receive this

recognition from the place of my

birth, and a state that obviously

holds such a large part in my con-

sciousness, is a terrific honor.

SMS: When did you know

you wanted to be a writer?

HAINES: I grew up telling sto-

ries to the neighborhood children.

My parents encouraged an active

imagination, playing make-believe

games and reading stories. My

father made up stories about Leo

the Friendly Lion. (He didn’t par-

ticipate in the scare-athons that

were the joy of my mother, grand-

mother, brothers and neighborhood

kids.) And I can’t remember a time

when I didn’t read at some point

during the day. I love fiction. I

love the way a writer can tell the

whole truth in fiction that simply

isn’t available in non-fiction or

journalism. Because fiction deals

with emotional truth, not just fact.

SMS: Your mystery series is

set in the Mississippi Delta, and

in your bio, you say that you

first went to the Delta when

you went to Parchman peniten-

tiary for a story. Was that while

you were at the Hattiesburg

American?



HAINES: No, I’d graduated from college and was

working as a photojournalist for the Mobile

Register.

SMS: Do you make trips to the Delta for

research when you’re working on one of your

books?HAINES: I go to the Delta any time I can. I trav-

eled this summer with another Hattiesburg

American alum, Fran Hawkins Utley. We were both

photographers back in the day. She photographed

some of the blues musicians while I did some

research and signed books.

SMS: In “Wish Bones,” the main character,

Sarah Booth Delaney, is cast in a remake of the

Kathleen Turner movie “Body Heat.” Why did

you choose “Body Heat” as the movie that’s

being remade?HAINES: I love that movie. The script is great.

I’m not a person who watches movies over and over,

but “Body Heat” is one that I can always watch. It

has a great twist to it.

SMS: The movie is being filmed in Costa Rica.

Why did you set it there? Is it a favorite vaca-

tion spot for you?

HAINES: Actually, I vacationed in Nicaragua and

had the opportunity to travel a bit in Central

America. I won’t bore you with my political rants,

but I was in Nicaragua in the late 1980s. Central

America is a geographic paradise. “Body Heat”

required, in my mind, a hot climate. So why not pick

one of the most beautiful settings I’d ever seen?

SMS: “Wishbones” is the eighth book in the

“Bones” series. Have you set a number, like

you’re going to only write 10 or 15 in the series,

or do you see it going on forever?

HAINES: I don’t have a termination point. If I’m

lucky enough to keep good sales and get new con-

tracts with publishers, then I’ll continue to write the

stories as long as I have ideas. Sarah Booth and the

gang are my friends (I know how nutty that

sounds). I love spending time with them. But should

those feelings fade, I’d stop the series. I’m one of

those very, very fortunate writers who write more

than one book at a time. And my readers have been

tremendously generous to follow me to “the dark

side” with books like “Penumbra” (2006) and “Fever

Moon” (2007). But what this does is it allows me to

stretch as a writer, to grow and explore. So that

when I start a “Bones” book, I’m fresh and, hopeful-

ly, a better writer and eager to tell the story.

SMS: How long does it take to write one of

the mysteries?HAINES: Usually a year. But I do work on other

things, too.

SMS: Do you have it all figured out before

you start to write or do you solve the mystery

along with Sarah Booth?

HAINES: I usually write a synopsis, and then I

let the book happen. Knowing the direction of the

story helps me focus, but I allow the characters to

behave naturally. Sometimes that throws a few

curves into my original plans, but it’s all good. I

love to just sit down and write, but a mystery takes

a bit of planning for the clues and red herrings to be

properly set.

SMS: The Kirkus review said it’s a glimpse

into an alien culture. What do you think of that?

HAINES: I’ll take it as a compliment, though the

South is often the “whipping boy” for a lot of unjus-

tified smugness from other parts of the country. I

grew up at a time when the world wasn’t so homoge-

nized, and there were unique aspects to the South

that I relish. Those are things I include in my books,

that sense of a world apart filled with rich and

eccentric characters. I grew up in a household that

valued such things.

While there are aspects to the Southern culture

that I loath, find me a single place in the world

where that isn’t true. Human nature is human

nature, geography doesn’t change that.

SMS: You’ve written a variety of fiction and

non-fiction books now. Is mysteries it for you

now, or do you still want to write general fic-

tion and maybe even another non-fiction book?

HAINES: I read in many different genres, so I

write in different areas. I love to read mysteries,both dark and light. Within that genre there are

many different sub-genres. Like “Penumbra” and

“Fever Moon” were called “literary thrillers.” Crime

novels, cozies, psychological thrillers - there’s a lot

of territory just within the mystery fold. But I’m

also dallying with an idea for what is either a psy-

14 • south mississippi scene

personalit ies: award-winning author



chological thriller or horror. And I’m working on a short

story for a collection I’m editing for Bleak House centered

around the Mississippi Delta Blues and a crime/noir ele-

ment. This is going to be a great collection of short stories by

some of the more prominent writers working today, as well

as some authors who haven’t gotten as much ink. We are going to have a blast.

SMS: What books influenced you as a child?

HAINES: I read anything about horses. The Black Stallion

books, the “Blood Bay Stallion,” “Silver Birch,” “King of the

Wind,” “My Friend Flicka,” and I loved stories of adventure

such as “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.” I collected

the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series (the Hardy Boys had

better toys!) and Edgar Allen Poe (“Murders in the Rue

Morgue,” “The Gold Bug”), which I think honed my love of

mystery and the macabre. Sir Author Conan Doyle’s “The

Hound of the Baskervilles,” was a favorite.

In middle school, my teacher, Carolyn Nyman (she was

my mother’s best friend and I was named for her) caught me

reading a Harold Robbins novel in class, a scandal at the

time. Instead of ratting me out, she took my paperback and

gave me a copy of Eudora Welty’s short stories. “The Wide

Net” was the story that did me in. Reading that story, the

germ of actually writing stories was planted. I’d read mostly

fiction which almost exclusively dealt with characters far

removed from the small Mississippi town of Lucedale. Miss

Welty brought me home. She showed me that the things I

knew about and loved - the land, the woods, the people, the

values of a community - that this was grist for fiction that

moved into complex and wonderful terrain.

Later I was exposed to Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee’s

wonderful classic, Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Doris

Betts, Lee Smith - these wonderful Southern voices so unique

and yet so comforting to my ear.

In recent years, I’ve become a devotee of James Lee Burke -

he’s simply incredible in the power of his story, character

and language - Dennis Lehane, John Irving, Barbara

Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood. I read many, many things for

different reasons. A book fulfills so many needs. In fact,

there’s not a “type” of book I won’t give a try.SMS: Anything else you want to add?

HAINES: I have 20 animals, mostly rescue, and I continue

to urge everyone to please spay and neuter their pets. Also,

I’m on the lookout for my clone. If anyone sees her, please

restrain her and send her back to me. I need some help on the

farm.

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Carolyn Haines