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For Book Clubs
Vicki is happy to talk with book clubs who are discussing one of her books. Send her an email ( vicki_lane@mtnarea.net ) if you want to pre-arrange a phone call for your meeting time. If you live in the Asheville area and would like her to come to your meeting, she will do so if her schedule allows. Discussion Questions
Caution! Contains spoilers! Don't read until you've read the book!
Signs in the Blood 1) One of the central themes of this book is faith – faith in a leader and/or an idea. What are some examples of this in this book and in real life? When is blind faith good? When is it dangerous? 2) What are Elizabeth 's feelings toward her late husband and why? What are her feelings toward Phillip and why? Does she change over the course of the book? 3) Vicki populates her imaginary Marshall County with a diverse set of characters. What would draw such wildly different groups to the same area? Which groups are the most believable? 4) Many readers have told Vicki that they wish Elizabeth had gotten together with Harice, “even just for a one-night stand.” What's your opinion on this? Why or why not? 5) What do you think the title means? 6) Whom did you first suspect of Cletus's murder? 7) How did you feel about the Little Sylvie story? Was it confusing to you to jump back and forth in time? Does it add to the present day story? 8) How does the Little Sylvie story echo the theme of the danger of blind faith? 9) How do you feel about the resolution of the Little Sylvie plot? 10) What, for you, was the most memorable scene or most interesting character in the book? Why?
Art's Blood
1) After some readers said Phillip was “boring” in the first book, Vicki tried really hard to liven him up and make him loveable. Or at least not so boring. What do you think? Is he worthy of Elizabeth 's affection? What sort of fellow do you think would be better for her? 2) Who decides what Art is? How does Phillip's appreciation of art differ from Laurel 's? What kind of art do you think Elizabeth has on her walls? 3) Why does Jessica's glass sell better than Jess's? Why do all of Rafiq's sculptures sell so quickly after Boz's death and why does that depress Rafiq? 4) As in Signs, there is a secondary story set in the past. Do you enjoy this excursion into earlier times? Why or why not? 5) Why do you think Lily Gordon made the choices she did – the move to Appalachia , the sudden decision to leave the women's center, the decision to marry? Did you like Lily Gordon? Why or why not? 6) How did you feel about Willow ? Is there more to her than the stereotypical aging hippie Elizabeth sees? 7) Was there a character you really liked or really hated because they reminded you of someone in your life? 8) What are the good things about where Elizabeth lives? What are the drawbacks? (Aside from all the murders, I mean.) 9) What could explain Reba's actions? 10) Will Elizabeth and Phillip finally get together? What does it say about each of them that they haven't yet? EXTRA CREDIT! The original draft of Art's Blood had a different ending – a different murderer. Vicki's editor didn't like it and suggested a change. When Vicki asked who the murderer should be, the editor said the name of a well-known mystery (book and movie) from the middle of the previous century. With that suggestion, Vicki knew who her murderer should be. High praise for coming up with the one word title of this well-known tale. Really high praise for pointing out two tiny hints in the proper names of two characters in Art's Blood.
Old Wounds
1.) There are numerous secrets and numerous wounds caused by these secrets. What's your opinion on some of them? Who kept what secret(s) and what harm did the secrecy do? Is there eventually a satisfactory resolution – is justice done? 2.) How did you feel about Elizabeth and Phillip finally becoming lovers? Too much restraint to wait so long? Should they still be waiting? Did you want more heavy-breathing details? Why do you suppose Vicki chose not to give them? 3.) Do the characters of the young Rosemary and Laurel match their grown up personalities? Where are there hints of the adult in the character of the child? 4.) When Vicki began writing Old Wounds , her editor insisted that Elizabeth had to grow and develop and face her failings during the course of the book. Do you think Elizabeth does this? Why or why not? 5.) What do you like about the main characters (Elizabeth, Phillip, and Rosemary)? Dislike? 6.) Originally Vicki wanted to title the book The Booger Dance and her editor and agent nearly fell over themselves to say that this was A Very Bad Idea. What do you think? Would you be put off or intrigued by that title? Why do you suppose Vicki thought it was appropriate? 7.) Members of one book club told Vicki that they thought that Elizabeth was too ‘hands-off' in her relationship with her daughters. Do you agree? What could explain her parenting style? 8.) Old Wounds differs from the first two books in that instead of seeing everything in the present day plot from Elizabeth 's point of view, we also see the book from the point of view of two other characters. Do you like this? What does it add? What is lost? 9. About that ending. What do you think is going to happen between Elizabeth and Phillip? (Note from Vicki: When I wrote this I thought that my 2009 offering would be another Elizabeth Goodweather. But, as you may know, at my editor's request, my Miss Birdie book comes next -- in, I'm sorry to say, 2010, as I was late getting done with it -- or Miss Birdie getting done with me. We'll have to wait till 2011 to find out what happens when Elizabeth finally hears that puzzling message from Aunt Dodie. Yikes! I will give you a hint, though, and say that there's a pretty fair clue in Old Wounds. Somewhere.) 10.) Which minor character(s) would you like to see return in a future book? Why?
Extra Credit (Only if you've read Signs in the Blood) Can you give another explanation for the markings on the stone in the Cave of The Two Sisters – markings that Maythorn says are a snake, a flying bird and an arrowhead?
Discussion Questions for In a Dark Season 1. One reviewer said of In a Dark Season : “the mountain-speak is a questionable choice. For readers not from the area, the written interpretation of the accent might be interesting, but then again, whole chapters filled with “a-tall,” “hit” (for it), “yaller” and phrases like, “I just have to hug yer neck” smack of poking fun. Lane isn't, and perhaps the decision to instill her characters with backwoods lingo was necessary for authenticity, but dialect conveyed through phonetics is always a tricky territory to navigate.” What‘s your opinion on the ‘mountain-speak'? Did it diminish or enhance your reading experience?
2. What do you think about the relationship between Elizabeth and Phillip? Why did she turn down his proposal? Is Phillip's reaction believable or is this an example of a woman writing a male character behaving as she would like him to rather than in a believable male fashion? Do you think women in general like to read about “ideal' men? And what is ideal in a man anyway?
3. How do you feel about the “woo-woo” bits in the book – the paranormal encounters with an alternate reality (Elizabeth's meeting with James Suttles and later, when Elizabeth finds shelter in the little house near the river.)? Vicki thinks that if you try hard enough, you can construct a rational (if slightly far-fetched) explanation for these events if you choose not to go the paranormal route. Do you agree? Which would be your choice – rational explanation or woo-woo?
4. In the first installment of Lydy's story ( Drovers' Road I) the professor refers to Belle Caulwell as “Circe and John Keats' merciless dame , the two subsumed into one.” (See Keats' poem at end of questions) Why would the professor see a similarity to Keats' poem? Check out the third paragraph of Drovers' Road XIV for another similarity.
5. (Optional hard one) Belle also has many similarities to Circe, the enchantress with whom wandering Ulysses/Odysseus dallied. (A reader who's not familiar with the story of Circe isn't missing anything major – this is just Vicki having fun and adding another layer to the story) If this sort of thing amuses you, look for similarities between Lydy's story and that of Ulysses/Odysseus, beginning with Ulysses/Odysseus's encounter with the king's daughter who is washing clothes. There are also parallels to the Laestrygonians, the Lotos Eaters, Scylla and Charybdis, and of course, Circe. An English major's delight! (Here's an on-line short version of the Odyssey just in case you don't remember how it goes. http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/book06s.html )
6. So – what happened at the stand, that night back in 1859, according to the ballad Lydy had the Professor write? What's Luellen's story? Why didn't Lydy insist on his innocence?
7. In the present day of the novel, who are the various groups living in Marshall County ? What are their various interests and how do the groups conflict?
8. Which of the minor characters are the most vivid to you? Why?
9. About that ending. What do you think is going to happen between Elizabeth and Phillip? (Note from Vicki: When I wrote this I thought that my 2009 offering would be another Elizabeth Goodweather. But, as you may know, at my editor's request, my Miss Birdie book comes next. We'll have to wait till 2010 to find out what happens when Elizabeth hears that puzzling message from Aunt Dodie. Yikes! I will give you a hint, though, and say that there's a pretty fair clue in Old Wounds. Somewhere.)
10. I came across the following quote just a few weeks before Dark Season's release, and realized that it must have been in the back of my mind when I wrote one of the scenes that takes place up on Max Patch. What scene do you suppose that was? Why could this quote be uses as an epigraph (quotation at the beginning of a book suggesting its theme) for Dark Season ?
“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
The Book of Job 14:7-9 *** La Belle Dame Sans Merci , 1819 by John Keats Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, I see a lily on thy brow, I met a lady in the meads, I made a garland for her head, I set her on my pacing steed, She found me roots of relish sweet, She took me to her elfin grot, And there she lulled me asleep I saw pale kings and princes too, I saw their starved lips in the gloam, And this is why I sojourn here |