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Home-Grown Talent
Carolyn Haines breaks away from her popular Bones series to weave a tale of racial tensions and family eccentricities.
Those who love a good whodunit, or just appreciate homegrown talent will be happy to know that internationally celebrated local author, Carolyn Haines, is releasing her latest book this month, Penumbra. Haines is best known for her Bones series, which includes Hallowed Bones and Them Bones. The star of the series is the plucky private detective Sarah Booth Delaney, who lives on a haunted plantation in Zinnia, Miss. and keeps company with the advice-giving ghost of her great-great-grandmothers nanny, a spirit named Jitty. Diverging from the popular series, Haines newest release Penumbra, which is also the name for the shadow cast by an eclipse, is a stand-alone novel addressing racial tensions and family eccentricities in Drexel, Miss. during the 1950s. I wanted to write a book about the effect of a crime in a community, says Haines. When the main character is kidnapped, she begins to see the underlying motivations of different people in the community. Its a shadow world almost. Whether in Drexel or Zinnia, the 1950s or the 21st century, the Mississippi Delta holds endless inspiration for Haines, who is from Lucedale, but has been fascinated with the Delta ever since her first visit there as a young photojournalist. She says shes always known that she wanted to write about that land of stark contrasts and strange beauty. The daughter of two journalists, Haines early writing followed the same path. I always wanted to write fiction, says Haines, but my parents thought I needed a career to make a living. Now after two major career changes, Haines is doing what shes always dreamed, but credits those early years as a journalist for giving her discipline as a writer. The tradition of the daily deadline was a blessing because I never got afraid of it. I write every day;

RIGHT: Writer Carolyn Haines with her horse, Cogar, at her home in Semmes. The word Cogar means whisper in Gaelicor so she was told in a pub in Ireland. Photo by Vicki Valosik ElZarrad. FAR RIGHT: Haines new book, Penumbra, will be released later this month. Jacket design: David Baldeosingh Rotstein.

50 | April Mobile Bay Monthly

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Haines writes about a land of stark contrasts and strange beauty.

even Christmas day I write a little. Its the only way I know to not let it get me. This July, Haines will be releasing the latest addition to the Bones series, Bones to Pick. Haines, who has spent the last five years with the Zinnia characters, recalls the day that she got the idea for the series. I was sitting at the computer and heard these two women [Sarah and Jitty] fighting in my head. I wrote the first book and sold it at auction. Random House got the bid and asked for a three book contract. Currently working on the seventh Bones book, Haines doesnt know when the series will end because, she says, Im not tired of the characters yet. For now, she continues to write daily, take care of her dogs, cats and horses, as well as teach creative writing at the University of South Alabama. When asked what she most hopes readers will carry with them after reading her books, Haines responds, Even as a child I loved to tell stories so I hope that they get the joy of the story and a sense of the place that I love very much, which is the South. Vicki Valosik ElZarrad

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Mobile Bay Monthly April | 51