By
Janie Franz (Guest Blogger)
Music
is a huge part of my life. My new novel, Sugar Magnolia,
offers homage to the artists who make the songs come alive.
Music
journalist and artist Shivaun Corbin is on assignment at Sugar
Magnolia, the Mississippi home of classic rocker Daniel Madux. She
has been charged with creating a retro cover for Daniel’s latest
album, a comeback CD that incorporates a more modern sound with his
70s rock. When she enters the household on this sprawling plantation,
she encounters an odd assortment of characters with secrets of their
own while she works hard to avoid being another of Daniel Madux’s
conquests. Young instrumental protégé Connor is determined to
protect Shivaun from Daniel’s pursuit. Shivaun is distracted by
Connor’s attentions and those of one of the female backup singers
as more secrets are revealed and the past comes rushing into the
present. Sugar Magnolia offers an inside look at the music industry
and one woman’s place in it.
I wish to thank Peter Himberger, of
Impact Artist Management, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), and Joe
Lopez (Deploi) for allowing me to portray them in this work of
fiction. I have the utmost respect for Dr. John and Deploi and hope
their appearances here are an enhancement to their musical canon.
And,
a special thanks to all of the musicians I’ve interviewed
throughout my career as a music journalist. I’m privileged to have
had relaxed conversations with all of you.
Excerpt
Shivaun caught her
breath when she saw the massive, four-posted bed tucked behind the
door, draped in a white voile canopy with white, bed linens. A pair
of bedside tables, also painted white, flanked the bed. There was no
closet, but double French doors led out onto an iron-railed balcony.
Part of Shivaun
rejected the fussy, feminine frills that were a part of the clichéd
Southern charm tourists came to expect of the region. Still, it was a
lovely room with its beige wallpaper with clusters of tiny red roses.
Shivaun set her
camera and purse on the bed and propped her laptop case on the floor
against the night table closest to the door. She moved around the
large bed to fling open the French doors and stepped out onto the
balcony. Oaks and willows along a muddy river framed a well-mowed
lawn, stretching all around her. The garden shrubbery that dotted its
surface needed pruning, and the blue hydrangeas, surrounding two
concrete benches by the river, needed weeding. In the middle of the
lawn, a nude sculpture of a young woman, with well-developed breasts,
spouted water into an algae covered pool.
“That’s Daniel
Madux’s virgin,” Connor said near her. “Probably the only one
left.”
Shivaun jerked her
head to look at him as he lounged against the rail beside her,
looking over her head at the garden. “The sculpture or virgins?”
Connor shrugged.
“Nothing remains pure around Daniel Madux,” he muttered, still
staring out at the sculpture.
Shivaun raised an
eyebrow. Seeing he wasn’t going to explain, she returned to her
bedroom. “It’s very nice,” she told Madge. “It’s rather
like the years passed over this place, like it could still be 1865.”
“It’s a great
place to get away from everything,” Madge said. “That’s why
Daniel likes it so much.”
“When do I get to
meet the man?”
“Later, after you
get settled. He’s out wandering the grounds, trying to collect his
head. He partied pretty hard last night.”
She should have
been prepared for that. She had been warned. She wasn’t sure how
long they would let her be a voyeur, though. Her hard-drinking
friends at the magazine didn’t like her sitting out their binges.
Trying to be casual, she pulled out a stick of gum from her pocket,
unwrapped it, and asked, “Drugs?”
“Beer and pot are
all Daniel allows,” Conner explained as Shivaun rolled the gum into
a circle and popped it in her mouth. “Occasionally, we get some
local moonshine, but that stuff’s hard to come by. Daniel says if
we use anything else, we can’t create…. He’s got a few more
rules he’ll lay down when you meet him.”
Madge headed for
the door. “We better let you get settled. The john’s across the
hall. Sometimes, you have to bang on the door to get the room
cleared…. Somebody’ll come for you when Daniel’s presentable.”
“Fine. I’m
still living in another time zone and another climate. It’ll take
me a bit to get used to the heat and the humidity here.”
As Connor followed
Madge out the door, he called back, “Maybe we could have a toke
together later.”
“Thanks, but no.”
Shivaun smiled. “I quit smoking—anything—a long time ago. Gum’s
my only vice now.”
“Only?” Connor
asked. “You know I’ve got a coffee pot down there that’s more
fun than you are.”
Shivaun gave him a
big-sister look. “I came to work, not play.”
Connor swept his
gaze over her body. “Yep. You’re a hybrid tea rose. It’s a damn
shame…. Listen, if you’re hungry, come on down to the kitchen.
I’m throwing something together for later anyway.”
She smiled at his
invitation and thanked him as he left. Alone, Shivaun sat on the
edge of the bed and began to worry. She got some really hard intel
from an ex-roadie whose sole job had been to procure more than weed
for Daniel Madux and his hangers-on. There had been coke and crystal
meth and all sorts of prescription drugs. The guy did say Daniel
cleaned up two or three years ago. But if Daniel were still using
something, he could be one lost weekend away from spiraling down into
that toilet again. Of course, getting detoxed would explain the
year-long gap in his tour schedules she’d noticed.
Beer and pot. Who
said pot anymore? These people didn’t behave like musicians she’d
worked with before. They seemed to be players in a 70s sit-com, all
caricatures of the music scene. The rest of them had to be as strange
as these two.
How could she put
up with this crazy household for almost a week?
Buy
Links:
“The
characters were… well, hilarious! The cheeky bare a$$ed bass
player/cook was just one of the characters that got me giggling.
You’ll love Mama, the Reverend and all the others. Secrets unravel
and things rapidly spiral out of control as the reader is taken along
for the ride. If you want to journey into the world of retro rock
stars you’ll enjoy this tale and it appears the author is very
familiar with the music scene having reported on it as a journalist
for many years.”
~
Killarney Sheffield, historical romance author.
About
Janie Franz
Janie
Franz comes from a long line of Southern liars and storytellers. She
told other people’s stories as a freelance journalist for many
years. With Texas wedding DJ, Bill Cox, she co-wrote The
Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book and The
Ultimate Wedding Reception Book, and then
self-published a writing manual, Freelance
Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid! She
also published an online music publication, was an agent/publicist
for a groove/funk band, a radio announcer, and a yoga/relaxation
instructor.
Currently,
she is writing her twelfth novel and a self-help book, Standing
Strong: Becoming a Woman of Power---Honoring
unexpected changes in our lives
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