Local Author Awaiting Response
To First Novel, Out This Week
HY SUSAN USHER
You may stumble upon Maurice
Stanley late of night in a local rest
aurant. He's the intense fellow with
the glasses and the shock of unruly
salt-and-peppcr hair leaning over
the table in the back corner, drink
ing coffee and scribbling with his
favorite pen, a Bic Ultrafine.
Like many of the classic writers
he admires most, that's the way the
46-year-old nightowl works best.
Surrounded by people and their
conversation, but not with them.
Why? "At home I don't get much
done," he says. "If the TV is on I
want to watch it and I feci too alone
with it off. So I go where there are
people, but they aren't talking to
me."
Stanley doesn't let it bother him
that his behavior might appear ec
centric to others.
He doesn't want
anything to in
terfere with his
goal ? to write
and to write suc
cessfully. When
not teaching or
working on a
book, he's usu
ally reading ?
either favorite Stanley
authors or books about writers and
their craft.
He writes and rewrites, encour
aged by feedback from others, in
cluding the agent who returned a
manuscript with a three-word note,
"Keep at it."
He docs and now has something
to show for it.
This week John F. Blair, a small
but respected publishing house in
Winston-Salem, releases Stanley's
first novel. The Legend Of Nance
Dude. The firm had rejected an earli
er draft of the book, but Stanley's re
vised version caught the staff's eye.
Available last month in Waynes
villc area stores and this month in lo
cal bookstores, the book has won fa
vorable review in Publisher's Weekly
and mixed praise and constructive
criticism in Kirkus Reviews.
Briefly, it is the fictionalized ac
count based on an event that actual
ly occurred near Waynesvillc: The
charging of a 65-year-old mountain
woman named Nancy Ann Kerley,
known in her. later years as Nance
Dude, with the murder of her 2 1/2
year-old granddaughter.
In The Legend of Nance Dude,
Stanley said he wanted to get as
close to the truth as he could with
out invading the privacy of any liv
ing persons. To make the story flow
more smoothly, he invented some
characters and left out others, and
wrote only about those individuals
who have died.
But the kernel of his story is true
to the legend he first came to know
as a young boy growing up in Watcr
ville, in Haywood County near the
Tennessee line. Mothers, his own in
cluded, would caution their unruly
children to behave, lest "old Nance
Dude" came and took them away.
Five years ago he began adding
to the lore with the sparse facts
available in goverment archives, de
tails from newspaper articles and
personal interviews with people
who had known Nance.
"She is what Carl Jung would
call aii archetype of the wicked old
witch," said Stanley, "i basically
traced the myth, the fairy tale, to its
origins in fact and realty."
Unlike many in her community at
the time, the writer's point of view is
sympathetic to his main character as
he traces the desperate times and
poverty she must have endured ?
STANLEY'S NOVEL explores the possible motivation behind the
gruesome murder of a child by her grandmother.
that may have motivated her actions.
He describes her as a "survivor"
above all else, though suggesting a
possible darker side.
"I do expect readers to sympa
thize with her," he says. "If you can
shed a tear for her then it may not
be so hard to forgive yourself for
your own failings."! think some of
the most dangerous people in the
world arc those who can't forgive
themselves ? they turn that anger on
others."
Stanley earned a Ph.D. in philoso
phy at the University of North Caro
lina at Chapel Hill and now tcaches
part-time at Brunswick Community
College adn the University of North
Carolina at Wilmington. White-'HC
someiimes admits to a sense of fail
ure for not having a well-established
career, the schedule Stanley follows
does accommodate, to an extent, his
passion for writing and the necessity
of paying bills.
He also writes a twice-weekly col
umn for The Laurinburg Exchange
and has authored two philosophy
textbooks. All were penned by hand,
then typed by his wife, Glana, who
teachcs in Scotland County, on a
Smith-Corona. Stanley says he prob
ably never will lcam to use a type
writer or word processor himself.
Seeing The Legend of Nance
Dude in print is different, somehow,
from his other publishing successes.
"It's prettier and I feel more like
a writer," he said. "A textoook is
more prosaic, matter of fact. With
fiction your soul has the freedom to
be creative."
His first novel, partly autobio
graphical, "never saw the light of
day". Stanley has already completed
the first draft of another book, a sto
ry that turns around a grandfather
he never knew.
He has learned, he said, not to
wait to hear from publishers about
the fate of one effort before going
'"drt" to andther. "A watched pot
doesn't boil ? and besides, it would
drive you crazy waiting."
Now he's waiting to see how the
reading public reacts to the book.
"Writing fiction is like building a
house on spec," he said. "You don't
know if anybody will want to live in
it or not"
Whatever else, he would like to
think Legend is a solid enough story
to have an enduring quality. "I think
it's a good book. It is a small book,
but I hope it is one that will last"
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Watching The Pollen Blow
BY BILL FAVER
This is the lime of year we can see pollen settling
on cars and accumulating on
porches and yard furniture. Dusts
of the yellow powder can be
found floating on the surface of
meandering streams. The pines
and vines are some of the produc
ers along with oaks and many
others. Some folks spend the
pollen season all choked up and
sneezing from the spring pollen.
Recently I watched a mock
faver ingbird building a nest in a shrub
at the beach. It was sunny and clear and the tempera
ture was in the low 80S with a gentle breeze. The
mockingbird would fly from the shrub to a pine tree
and each time the bird landed on a new "candle" on
the pine a fluffy yellow cloud of pollen would be set
free.
I was reminded of the ways pollen C?;i "travel"
from one plant to another in order to fulfill its pur
pose. We all know about the bees and other insects,
butterflies, hummingbirds and moths who move from
flower to flower and help the plants on which they
feed. We can see the wind and the air movements as I
did last week. As in many other areas of the natural
world, there was an abundance of pollen-far more
than necessary to carry out pollination. Probably most
of the pollen never reached the intended plant parts.
The mockingbirds were intent on their nest build
ing and probably had little knowledge of their role in
releasing pollen from the pines.
I doubt that the birds and butterflies and bees
know they are taking a role in pollinating the plants
upon which they feed. Their concern is finding nectar
for the energy-giving sustenance they get from the
plant
Watching the pollen blow can be an interesting
pastime when we realize how important the pesky
pollen is to the plant world. Even when we sneeze and
cough and wail for rain to wash it away, we need to
know that without it we would have no fruits and
PHOTO BY BIU. FAVM
MOCKINGBIRDS help release pollen when
they land on pines and shrubs.
berries, flowers or trees. And much of our woodlands
in Brunswick County would be bare. Become aware
this spring as you watch the pollen blow.
Hope Harbor Home Volunteers
Raising Funds With Cookbook
Volunteers of Hope Harbor Home
Inc. are hoping their first cookbook
will be a best seller.
Work began last summer on A
Treasure of Recipes, said cookbook
committee member and Hope
Harbor employee Amanda McDon
ald. The books arrived in early April
and arc now available for S5 each
from the Hope Harbor Home office
in Shallotte or from volunteers. "So
far I'm amazed at how well sales are
going," said Ms. McDonald.
The cookbook is a collection of
approximately 250 recipes compiled
by volunteers from their own recipe
files and from friends, neighbors
and relatives. It also includes help
ful references such as a seasoning
chart, a dictionary of cooking terms
and household hints.
A volunteer, Cathy Guidry, the
agency's former director and pro
gram manager, headed the commit
tee that also included Ellen Doak,
Maxine Hammon, Harriet Hart,
Alice Smith, Laurie Webb and Ms.
McDonald.
A Treasure of Recipes is dedicat
ed to all battered and formerly bat
tered women and their children.
Proceeds from sales will be used to
help the agency's clientele, Ms.
McDonald said.
Volunteers hope to net at least
$700 from the limited (300 copies)
first printing. The proceeds will go
into the volunteer account to use to
help formerly battered women who
arc making a fresh start, to buy
equipment for the shelter, and to
buy materials for the Wednesday
night women's empowerment and
children's groups.
To order a copy of ihc cookbook,
call Hope Harbor Home Inc. at 754
5726, or write P.O. Box 230, Sup
ply, N.C. 28462.
Write Us
The Bcacon welcomes let
ters to the editor. All letters
must be signed and include
the writer's address. Under no
circumstances will unsigned
letters be printed. Letters
should be legible. The Bea
con reserves the right to edit
libelous comments. Address
letters to The Brunswick Bea
con, P. O. Box 2558, Shallot
te, N. C. 28459.
l?P4 t ' ?
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