The mind of an author Local writer discusses newest fiction works

The mind of an author Local writer discusses newest fiction works

By Pamela Rigaux
News-Post Staff


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Staff photo by Marny Malin

Allison Pollack Alexander, shown above, has already authored two novels:"Return to Suicide" and "Dance of the Misbegotten."Her third work of fiction is due to be released later this year.
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On a recent winter evening, author Allison Pollack Alexander was conferring with another Frederick writer about gold mining.

She wanted to know how miners went about staking claims. "If you found gold, how much could you stake a claim to?" Ms. Alexander asked.

The other writer didn't know.

"I'm going to have to get some books out of the library," the 40-year-old Ms. Alexander said, explaining that she likes to know enough about the period of time she writes about to sound realistic.

She left her coat on as she sat at a table waiting for other writers to come to the writers' group meeting at The Mudd Puddle, a Frederick cafe.

Ms. Alexander almost didn't come this particular Thursday because she was typing away in one of those creative moments writers live for when she noticed the time.

But the evening's poetry by Jeff Curtis of Shepherdstown, W.Va., Bruce Waldron of Libertytown and others inspired her, she said. When she got back to her Mount Airy home, she sat at her computer and did some more work. "I did two chapters really fast then stopped ... I feel awful when days go by and I don't write anything," she said.

Ms. Alexander has already written more fiction than many people do. "Dance of the Misbegotten" was published by 1stBooks in 2002. "Return to Suicide," her first book, was published by AmErica House in 2001. She just put the finishing touches on her upcoming novel, "Snakeman Cometh," and expects it to be out by the end of this year. It is being published by AmErica House.

Writing is therapeutic, she said. "Every bad character in my books is based on someone I know."

In "Dance of the Misbegotten," she wrote about her antithesis. The leading female character, Iona, takes her sons away from her abusive husband, but nearly starves in Appalachia. Her effort to be independent is stymied by her need for food and shelter and she accepts the help of a married landowner, Sam, who puts them to work.

Readers can imagine what happens next. The two fall in love.

"Sam has a great big farm that belonged to his father-in-law. He is not going to give that up," Ms. Alexander said.

Iona retreats from Sam by moving to a mountain cabin but can't emotionally distance herself.

"She waits for him, which is also sad. You shouldn't need anybody to live your life. That's a burden. She is exactly what I'm not," the author said.

Sam inspired more than one e-mail from irate readers, she said. "That guy was such a jerk," was the gist of one such response. At the end of the book, Sam almost leaves his two girls, those he had with Iona, in the woods to die.

The youngest girl, Justine, does something grotesque to stop him from abandoning them.

"She tries to chop her foot off," Ms. Alexander said, adding that at first she was going to have the strawberry blond girl chop her whole foot off.

Is that based on how Ms. Alexander was raised?

No, not at all, the author insisted. "I was from a very loving household."

Fiercely independent, at the age of 15 the author, who grew up in Pikesville, left home, hitchhiked to Florida and got a job on a shrimp boat.

"I sorted out the shrimp. My job was to keep the shrimp on the deck and throw everything else back over: crabs, baby sharks, other fish."

Granted, her parents didn't know how to handle her, she said. "I hated school. My parents kind of didn't do anything. ... They split when I was 15."

The author's experiences as a teenager and young adult gave her much material to write about, she said.

She relied on her own resources to earn a living without a high school diploma for a few years and her insight from that struggle is reflected in a few of her characters.

The plot of her next book, "Snakeman Cometh," is based on a cult, Children of God, that the author and her former husband joined after they met each other in Florida.

The couple had four children and lived around the world in a commune as members of the cult. They could only eat healthy food which is why Ms. Alexander gorged on pizza when she left it, she said.

Her novel shows how the cult twisted scripture and manipulated people, she said. The main character is a preacher who starts a cult. He is a snake handler, which was common back in the '20s, '30s and '40s, Ms. Alexander said. "People believed if you're close to God, they (the snakes) won't hurt you. In the Bible, it says that."



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