A Beautiful Mind Dual Audio
Serge Moquin
With The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara sustains a major achievement that distinguishes this trilogy from most other Civil War novels: He gives a balanced experience of the temperament, sensibility, and character of generals on both sides of the battle lines. Shaara also proves once and for all that, though influenced by his father, he has a voice and talent all his own.
BP: Of all the generals in the trilogy, who is most like your father?
JS: Two men, not just one. As a man, my father was most like Joshua Chamberlain. I think my father felt an affinity with him. My father was idealistic (although he became a cynic in his later years), an intellectual, a scholarly kind of man, like Chamberlain. . . . And then the other side of my father that I was quite aware of as I wrote comes out in General Hancock. Hancock is very good at what he does. After Reynolds died, he was perhaps the greatest Union general in the field. Like Hancock, my father had no patience for incompetence, stupidly, inefficiency. You know that scene [in Gods and Generals] in the newspaper office when Hancock reaches across the desk and grabs the newspaperman by the throat? I felt my father guiding me as I wrote that scene.
Many have likened novelist Anne Rivers Siddons to Margaret Mitchell, a comparison that prompts a chuckle in Siddons, the author of such blockbusters as Outer Banks, Colony, and Peachtree Road. "We don't write remotely about the same thing," Siddons says, only to reconsider, "Well, she wrote about the profound loss of one society and the need to live in another one, and I have too a little bit, but we really are not the same. I guess it's because we're both from Atlanta and we both write long books."
However, they won't be from the same city for long. In November, Siddons, her husband, and their four cats will move from Atlanta to the heart of historic Charleston, South Carolina. "It's an enormous move," Siddons admits. "I have lived in this area for seven generations and in this house for 30 years. I may end up in Prozac City. Who knows? We have lots of friends in Charleston, but it's going to be an enormous shock."
Low Country's heroine, Caroline Venable, has one precious thing left in her life: a pristine island inherited from her grandfather. In addition to the family cottage, it's home to a small Gullah settlement, a band of wild ponies, and other wildlife, including a mysterious panther. Caroline's husband, Clay, has made a fortune developing resort communities in various locales, but when his empire faces bankruptcy, he is convinced that financial salvation lies in developing Caroline's island. For Caroline, this is unacceptable, which means she must face one of the biggest challenges of her life.
The seeds for the plot were born years ago when Siddons worked as a copywriter for the first island resort on Hilton Head, South Carolina. "I watched the land turn from almost primeval forest to what it is now, which is Manhattan South," Siddons remembers. "It isn't that any developer sets out to ruin a place, it's just that even the best and most ecologically sensitive plan requires something fragile to be lost. I have always wanted to write about this clash."
Once Siddons knew she was moving to Charleston, she began spending a lot of time in the surrounding islands, especially in the vicinity of Ace Basin. Describing the area as primeval, she says: "It's a real experience to go out on a warm summer night. You come back thinking you've been back to the dawn of the millennium. It's one of the wildest places I've ever seen. And the idea that someone might build a Disney World-type place there is just abhorrent. I really would like to do what I can to help the area stay intact."
Specifically, she applauds the efforts of a group called the Carolina Coastal Conservancy for buying and preserving large tracts of wetlands. Meanwhile, she preserves the feel of such natural treasures in her fiction, having Caroline, who has faced great tragedy in her life, find solace on her island, where she is free to relax and paint.
Ironically, when Siddons herself seeks peace, she heads north instead of south, to a peninsula on Maine's Penobscot Bay, a summer retreat that's been in her husband's family for years. "I'm very drawn to that severe, cold, rocky beach [of New England]," Siddons says, "and I'm equally drawn to that blood-warm water [of the South]. But I'm never so happy as I am on the waters of Maine. I have a sense that whatever is looming or bothersome can be put off until I get home. Also, it's physically a long way from any other entanglements I may have, so if anybody gets upset and needs to be comforted, it had better be good."
Why do islands have such prominent roles in her novels? "I think it's the idea that they're totally apart from the world," Siddons explains. "An island has some sort of magnetic pull. It makes all these promises that it will keep you safe and nurture you. Of course this is not true, but I still never sleep as soundly as I do on an island or on our little peninsula in Maine."
Caroline, like several of the author's heroines, risks losing the core of her existence. "I think my heroines will always be ordinary women who have made a journey," Siddons says. "Maybe it doesn't happen so totally and drastically to most of us, but I haven't seen many women fall into middle age without losing something that has always been a very important part of their lives, and either having to make a life around that, or find a way to go on, or change in order to go on. It seems to me that women are left to do the changing and accommodating."
Finally, she had an idea for a book, and slowly, hesitantly, began to write. "If I couldn't write, it would have killed me," she says, "but I had to try." The result was Homeplace, followed by a string of additional bestsellers.
Siddons has not only survived, but flourished. She excitedly talks about the prospect of moving into the antique Charleston single house, which is one room wide, two stories high, and about eight rooms deep. "The idea of living in a city with that kind of resonance and beauty is so exciting," she muses. "I feel spoiled to be able to keep that much of everything I love about the South. It's like a fairy tale."
Now firmly established as one of the royalty of romance writers, Fern Michaels began writing in 1973. When she submitted her first manuscript she was sure it was going to be published. Actually, I was greedy. I thought I was going to be a millionaire. Her second manuscript crossed in the mail with the rejection letter of the first. The second manuscript was published, and Michaels has never looked back.
"I made $1,500 on the sale of that book and bought some things for the house." A frog toilet seat stands out in her mind. Since then she has written over 50 books, been on the New York Times bestseller list many times, and sold approximately 60 million copies of her books throughout the world.
But as Michaels knows, the only thing constant in life is change. After being with the same publisher for 22 years, Michaels accepted an offer from Kensington Books, fired her agent, and moved from New Jersey to South Carolina, all at the same time. It was a traumatic move as she made a quantum leap from the known to the unknown, from the fast track northern lifestyle to a slower Southern pace, and endured the resulting culture shock.
The change turned out to be for the best. Michaels now lives in an historic home (the oldest part was built in 1702) near Charleston. It's an L-shaped house with an unusual, convoluted layout and a resident ghost. "She came with the house; her name is Mary Margaret."
"It's not scary or spooky but Mary Margaret does let you know when she's around." One Christmas Day, in front of several eyewitnesses, the ghost decided to pass the plate, lifting a decorative platter from a stand and setting it gently on the floor. "No one wanted to touch that plate," the author says.
Late on sultry, breezeless days an empty front porch swing glides back and forth. "Clocks stop on Monday morning at ten after nine, but not every Monday. Sometimes months will go by before it happens again," Michaels says.
Her latest book, Listen to Your Heart, has a supernatural twist and a Mother's Day theme. This delightful story about orphaned twin sisters is set in New Orleans where Josie and Kitty Dupr run a catering business. With Kitty about to get married, Josie finds herself alone and at a crossroads. At times, Josie feels that their deceased mother is trying to send her a message. She senses her presence and smells her mother's cologne.
On the eve of the hectic spring catering season, Josie's life is turned upside down by the arrival of mysterious Paul Brouillette and his rambunctious boxer, Zip. After one look, Zip instantly bonds with Josie's tiny Maltese dog, Rosie. Despite all efforts to keep them apart, the two dogs are inseparable, resulting in problems for their owners. As the story unfolds, Paul and Josie are challenged to deal with issues of death and emotional abandonment as each of them learns to Listen to Your Heart.
Her love for animals comes through in her writing and in her life. When she learned from a news broadcast that a local police dog had been killed in the line of duty, Michaels had bulletproof vests made for every dog in the police department.
When asked what she feels is the best part of her writing career, Michaels says it's her readers. "I get a lot of e-mail. I wrote a book called Dear Emily about overweight people. At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it because I might offend people; it's such a sensitive subject. But after it was published I received the nicest letter from a lady who was on her third copy of the book. She had read it so many times; she knew it by heart. She said, 'You saved my life.' " It doesn't get any better than that.
His housing situation is soon to change. "We just bought a much more commodious house in the Garden District," says Ford. "I was never good at living in the French Quarter. It makes a great story, great letterhead, but it was kind of a drag. Like living in a theme park."
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