(To view an original scan of this article, please see the attachment.)
This is a feature news article about me rather than by me that appeared in the Times Daily in Florence, AL (my hometown) on Sept. 20, 2004. You should be able to find the original online version of the article at this link: http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040920/NEWS/409200313/1011.
(To view an original scan of this article, please see the attachment.)
Former University of North Alabama student gets first book published
By Michelle Rupe Eubanks Staff Writer
Macey Baggett Wuesthoff describes her day job temping at a fertilizer company as "blah, blah."
It's that time in between, when what she'd rather be doing is writing. Standing at the fax machine or answering calls, her mind is only partially on the task. What she's really thinking about are all of the ideas for novels she has swirling through her mind.
"I get flooded with ideas," she said via telephone from her home in Savannah, Ga. "I get hit with them in the shower, when I'm driving down the road to work. I don't feel like I'll have the time to write them all in my lifetime, and I stay busy trying to market the new book. I don't get bored."
Her first novel, just published in July by Amber Quill Press, is titled "Sacrifice," and it tells the story of Angel Farrow and her up-close encounter with her hometown's gruesome past. It's horror; it's suspense; it's a page-turner worthy of a Steven King fan.
As Wuesthoff tells it, she began writing stories for fun at age 5, choosing paper and pen over cable television and toys.
"I didn't have siblings, and all I had to entertain myself was my own imagination," she said. "We had a TV, but we didn't get cable because we lived at the end of a long, dark road. There wasn't much on to watch anyway, but that's how I got started."
It was during the third grade that a teacher at Wilson School noticed her student's talent and brought it to the attention of Wuesthoff's mother, Martha Ann Lawrence, who still lives in the Shoals. This third-grade teacher, Mrs. McInnish at Wilson School, takes on the role of Mrs. Dumore in the novel.
The protagonist, Angel, and her best friend, Peter St. Thomas, are loosely based on the author's early adolescence and her experiences in grade and middle schools. They were difficult times, she said, but she realized she could build on those encounters to spark her creativity.
"A lot of people who read (the book) think it's my life story," she said. "All writers put a lot of themselves into their books, and there are parts of me that are in Angel. I was never physically abused as a child and never had any suicide attempts like she does. But it definitely a lot of it is close as far as the way I was treated in elementary school and junior high. I went through lot of verbal and emotional abuse there."
After the difficulties she encountered in school, Wuesthoff said things got better as she entered high school and then pursued her education at the University of North Alabama. Those environments, she said, gave her the education she needed to get down to the serious business of writing.
The author admits she worked hard to get "Sacrifice" published, contacting various publishing houses until finally coming across one, Amber Quill Press, that would take a look at her manuscript. The company, which is not of the brick-and-mortar variety, dealt with Wuesthoff and her novel through e-mails, even editing the book online.
"All of the editing takes place over the Internet," she said. "I think I get more of a chance to correspond, and it's more of a warm and friendly atmosphere. The disadvantage is that it is a small house and you don't get an advance. I could use money just like any author could."
Laura Abbott, a co-owner and managing editor at Amber Quill, said the company is still in its infancy, but authors like Wuesthoff help it grow.
"Wuesthoff has been with us since the inception of Amber Quill Press, one of an intrepid few who had the courage to join us in our new enterprise," she wrote in an e-mail interview. "We will celebrate our second anniversary in business October, 2004. Over the course of those two years, Wuesthoff has become a valued and beloved member of our publishing family."
The character of Angel is of special interest to Amber Quill; Abbott noted the author's skill in developing the character throughout the novel.
"The twists and turns as main character Angel Fallow embarks on her personal odyssey, only to find herself locked in a battle for her life, keeps the reader riveted from the first page to the last," she wrote. "We believe this break-out novel will lead to Wuesthoff becoming the hottest new voice in the genre of horror."
Because Wuesthoff has so many ideas for stories, she said she's not afraid to venture outside the novel and write short stories or novellas.
"I'm open to experimenting with new genres and styles, anything I can get a contract for," she said. "I wish I had more time to do a little bit of everything."
Wuesthoff has already completed the writing of her second novel, "The Box." Like "Sacrifice," it deals with the macabre and dark side of horror, this time invoking the history of the Salem witch trials.
'I'm already working on getting it published," she said. "It takes place in Chicago and deals with a 17-year-old drug addict who comes across a box that has been bewitched by a witch from Salem witch trials."
The seedier side of things, the horrific underbelly, has always fascinated Wuesthoff, she said. Watching classic chiller films and collecting cinematic memorabilia from movies like "Child's Play" and the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" have become hobbies and given her more inspiration for her books.
Even her courtship and marriage to Nathan Wuesthoff in 1999 had its foundation in the world of horror films.
"I met (my husband) at the Baptist Campus Ministries at a outdoor picnic on the UNA campus," she said. "We met through a mutual friend and started talking about horror movies." Their first date was almost mundanely traditional except for a couple of ironies.
"We decided to go see 'Halloween 6' that had just come out," Wuesthoff said. "It was our first date, and it was also Friday the 13th."
Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or Click here
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