The Joy of What If

I had two inspiration points for When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. (Of course, I did–it always has to be complicated with me.) Both involved “What If.” This concept is when we set our imagination on “Go” and take off. At least it is for me. The joy of What If has inspired tons of novels, often in the “alternate history” genre. For example, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America has FDR losing the presidency. Lindbergh wins and anti-semitism takes over our country. Roth’s What If was based on his Jewishness and lived life. My What Ifs were personal, too, but a lot less heavy.

My first What If: I was thinking about my three mid-1800s ancestral grandmothers: a wealthy Southern belle in Jackson; a famous writer in Vicksburg; and, a pioneer in rural Lawrence County. The women lived during the same time but with distinctly different personalities in dispersed regions of the state. I wondered, what if they had met? I plucked facts from their lives, ladled them into a blender, and hit frappe.

My second What If: During the years I was living in the Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans, I walked everywhere. Given my terrible sense of direction, I came up with a ditty to keep the order of the streets straight. “Ancient Charters decree the Royal Dauphine drink Burgundy on the Rampart of the castle until St. Claude rises from the dead, again.”

I thought, What if a young woman on her way to her favorite coffee shop recites this ditty and inadvertently calls back the last Dauphine of France who arrives with an assassin on his tail?

Thus is the joy of what if. You can split open the fabric of reality and sew it into new cloth. That’s the experience of When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. I do hope y’all will enjoy it. (it’s releasing on April Fool’s Day–how perfect is that?)

p.s. here’s the pic of one of my “book benches” for the new Substack book reviews