Highlands native and author of The Abolitionists Daughter, Diane McPhail will be holding a book talk and signing at Shakespeare and Company bookstore on Thursday, June 16 at 5 p.m., to promote her newest novel The Seamstress of New Orleans.
The novel, set in 1900 New Orleans, follows the lives of a wealthy widow Constance Halstead, who’s husband’s mysterious death leaves her vulnerable to the Black Hand gang of Storyville, and the broke and pregnant Alice Butterworth, who has freshly arrived from Chicago after being abandoned by her husband and left to starve.
Together, the two women learn how to navigate their new lives as the dawn of a new century brings about a sense of change and the suffrage movement continues to gain ground. When Constance hires Alice to sew her gown for the first ever all female krewe at Mardi Gras, Les Mysterieuses, the gown becomes symbol of strength and a path towards more independence, but as the Mardi Gras festivities reach fruition, a secret emerges that strengthens the bond between the two women, even as it threatens to destroy everything about the new lives they are building.
The novel was inspired by McPhail’s personal experiences living in New Orleans and participating in an all-female Mardi Gras krewe.
“New Orleans and Chicago are among my favorite cities,” McPhail said. “In my twenties, I rode the overnight train from Memphis to Chicago, the first of many visits to that wonderful city. More recently, I kept an apartment in the French Quarter. There I experienced the excitement of riding on my friend’s float in the Krewe of Iris parade, a modern all women’s krewe, which sparked my interest in researching the history of the women’s krewe of Mardi Gras. Research for this novel generated great memories, but more importantly, led to exciting new discoveries. Essential among those were the inventive efforts of women to make a vital difference for themselves and others, paving the way for ongoing advances in our collective culture.”
McPhail grew up being surrounded by the stories of her family, stories which would eventually inspire her first novel, The Abolitionist’s Daughter, and would ignite the spark of writing within her.
“Growing up, I was haunted by a tale of terrible violence in the history of Webster County, Mississippi, where both my parents originated,” McPhail said. “It was not until my middle adulthood that I discovered the woman in that history, left to bury five men of her family in one day, was my great-grandmother. I began researching and writing from my background as a therapist, trying to understand the motivation for such violence and the effects of its aftermath. Out of that came my first novel, and from there, I simply couldn’t stop writing.”
McPhail developed her writing style over the course of her life, having always been a voracious reader being exposed to numerous examples of good writing because of it. In addition, she has attended multiple writing workshops that all contributed to her writing style.
“Beginning writers are often advised to choose a passage from an admired author and attempt to write something like it, working to understand phrasing, pace, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other qualities of the writing,” McPhail said. “There are volumes and volumes on how to write, most of which are helpful in different ways and on different levels. Writing groups are invaluable for input and critique. Workshops, as well. My first writing teacher was Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time. It was she who convinced me that, indeed, I could write.”
McPhail, who has lived in Highlands her entire life, has always been a patron of the arts within the community and she is a firm believer that the arts help to enrich a community and the lives of those living in it.
“People working together in creative endeavors toward something larger than themselves tend, not inevitably, but for the most part, to find cooperation, inspiration and a broader sense of community,” McPhail said. “These things are intrinsic to our nature and enrich the fabric of our communities and our lives. They renew in us a deeper sense of who we are and of who we are meant to be.”
An example of people working together towards creative endeavors can perhaps best be seen in the writing community within Highlands itself.
“Highlands is a community that has long had a thriving writers’ group, meeting regularly to write, read, and discuss to encourage one another’s work,” McPhail said. “Out of that history of good writers and this wonderful place we call home, there is a nurturing spirit for authors.”
McPhail continued, discussing how the sense of community and the strength one can find within, has permeated her writing.
“Out of this basic humanity that we share, we are all called on to live courageously every day and when hardship or tragedy strikes, as it often does, we often find our strength in community,” McPhail said. “It is the centrality of this courage and strength that I hope to convey in my work. I love this town, this community, and the richness of its commitment to the arts of all kinds.”
- By Kaylee Cook