personalities: award-winning author

C AROLYN H AINES
This Writer’s Southern
Roots Run Deep
E UDORA W ELTY. W ILLIE M ORRIS . M ARGARET WALKER A LEXANDER .
S HELBY F OOTE . B ETH H ENLEY. J OHN G RISHAM . S OON , L UCEDALE
NATIVE CAROLYN H AINES WILL BE ABLE TO ADD HER NAME TO THAT

EXCLUSIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRIOUS M ISSISSIPPI AUTHORS .

I In February, Haines will

receive the Richard Wright
Literary Excellence Award from
the Natchez Literary and
Cinema Celebration. The award
recognizes living authors with
strong Mississippi ties for their
body of work. Since 1994, some
of Mississippi’s most acclaimed
writers have been honored.
Haines’ name might not be as
familiar as Greg Iles, Barry
Hannah or Ellen Douglas, who
have also received the Richard
Wright award, but she has built
a steady, successful career as a
novelist over the past three
decades. She has written fiction
and non-fiction, but is probably
best known for her “Bones”
series of madcap mysteries set
in the Mississippi Delta and
starring Sarah Booth Delaney, a
private eye with a flair for the
dramatic. The eighth book in
the series, “Wishbones,” was
released this summer by St.
Martin’s Minotaur, and the
ninth, “Greedy Bones,” will be
published in summer 2009.
Haines began her career as a
photojournalist for the
Hattiesburg American and
Mobile Register in the 1970s,
after graduating from the
University of Southern
Mississippi. In addition to the
“Bones” mysteries, which start-
ed in 1999 with “Them Bones,”
her books include “Summer of
the Redeemers,” (1994), and
“Touched,” (1996), which were
both works of general fiction
with a strong element of mys-
tery and suspense. Her first
non-fiction book was “My
Brother’s Keeper,” (2003) the
true story of Mississippi native
Peggy Morgan, who heard the
confession of the assassin of
Medgar Evers and had to testi-
fy against him despite the
threat to her own life. She also
has an essay in “Growing Up in
Mississippi,” edited by Judy
Tucker and Charlene McCord,
and an excerpt from her novel
“Shop Talk,” appears in “A
State of Laughter,” a collection
of Alabama authors’ humorous

STORY BY ROBYN JACKSON

PHOTOS AND ARTWORK COURTESY THE AUTHOR

12 • south mississippi scene

stories edited by Don Noble.
Haines credits her gift for
storytelling to her grandmoth-
er, Hulda Johanna Nyman
McEachern, who told her ghost
stories at bedtime, which she
would then share with her girl-
friends at slumber parties.
“She emigrated to the U.S.
when she was 6 years old from
Sweden,” Haines said. “She
was a marvelous storyteller
and the county historian in
George County for a number of
years. She was, at that time,
one of the better educated peo-
ple in that part of Mississippi.”
Haines, who now lives in
Semmes, Ala., on a farm filled
with a menagerie of horses,
dogs and cats, sat down recent-
ly to answer a few questions
about her writing career for
South Mississippi Scene.
SMS: Congratulations on the
Richard Wright award. What
does it mean to you to get an
award that’s based on your
body of work?
HAINES: I’ve been writing a
long time, and this award - to be
honored and acknowledged by my holds such a large part in my con- when I didn’t read at some point
home state - has touched me sciousness, is a terrific honor. during the day. I love fiction. I
deeply. I live this dual life, where I SMS: When did you know love the way a writer can tell the
reside in Alabama, a state I’ve you wanted to be a writer? whole truth in fiction that simply
grown to love and one that has HAINES: I grew up telling sto- isn’t available in non-fiction or
honored me with an Alabama State ries to the neighborhood children. journalism. Because fiction deals
Council on the Arts writing fel- My parents encouraged an active with emotional truth, not just fact.
lowship. I’m active in the arts imagination, playing make-believe SMS: Your mystery series is
world in Alabama and Mississippi. games and reading stories. My set in the Mississippi Delta, and
Because most of my books are set father made up stories about Leo in your bio, you say that you
in Mississippi. I’m one of these the Friendly Lion. (He didn’t par- first went to the Delta when
lucky people who can claim dual ticipate in the scare-athons that you went to Parchman peniten-
citizenship. But to receive this were the joy of my mother, grand- tiary for a story. Was that while
recognition from the place of my mother, brothers and neighborhood you were at the Hattiesburg
birth, and a state that obviously kids.) And I can’t remember a time American?

south mississippi scene • 13

personalities: award-winning author
HAINES: No, I’d graduated from college and was
working as a photojournalist for the Mobile
Register.
SMS: Do you make trips to the Delta for
research when you’re working on one of your
books?
HAINES: I go to the Delta any time I can. I trav-
eled this summer with another Hattiesburg
American alum, Fran Hawkins Utley. We were both
photographers back in the day. She photographed
some of the blues musicians while I did some
research and signed books.
SMS: In “Wish Bones,” the main character,
Sarah Booth Delaney, is cast in a remake of the
Kathleen Turner movie “Body Heat.” Why did
you choose “Body Heat” as the movie that’s
being remade?
HAINES: I love that movie. The script is great.
I’m not a person who watches movies over and over,
but “Body Heat” is one that I can always watch. It
has a great twist to it.
SMS: The movie is being filmed in Costa Rica.
Why did you set it there? Is it a favorite vaca-
tion spot for you?
HAINES: Actually, I vacationed in Nicaragua and
had the opportunity to travel a bit in Central
America. I won’t bore you with my political rants,
but I was in Nicaragua in the late 1980s. Central
America is a geographic paradise. “Body Heat”
required, in my mind, a hot climate. So why not pick
one of the most beautiful settings I’d ever seen?
SMS: “Wishbones” is the eighth book in the
“Bones” series. Have you set a number, like
you’re going to only write 10 or 15 in the series,
or do you see it going on forever?
HAINES: I don’t have a termination point. If I’m
lucky enough to keep good sales and get new con-
tracts with publishers, then I’ll continue to write the
stories as long as I have ideas. Sarah Booth and the
gang are my friends (I know how nutty that
sounds). I love spending time with them. But should
those feelings fade, I’d stop the series. I’m one of
those very, very fortunate writers who write more
than one book at a time. And my readers have been
tremendously generous to follow me to “the dark
side” with books like “Penumbra” (2006) and “Fever
14 • south mississippi scene
Moon” (2007). But what this does is it allows me to
stretch as a writer, to grow and explore. So that
when I start a “Bones” book, I’m fresh and, hopeful-
ly, a better writer and eager to tell the story.
SMS: How long does it take to write one of
the mysteries?
HAINES: Usually a year. But I do work on other
things, too.
SMS: Do you have it all figured out before
you start to write or do you solve the mystery
along with Sarah Booth?
HAINES: I usually write a synopsis, and then I
let the book happen. Knowing the direction of the
story helps me focus, but I allow the characters to
behave naturally. Sometimes that throws a few
curves into my original plans, but it’s all good. I
love to just sit down and write, but a mystery takes
a bit of planning for the clues and red herrings to be
properly set.
SMS: The Kirkus review said it’s a glimpse
into an alien culture. What do you think of that?
HAINES: I’ll take it as a compliment, though the
South is often the “whipping boy” for a lot of unjus-
tified smugness from other parts of the country. I
grew up at a time when the world wasn’t so homoge-
nized, and there were unique aspects to the South
that I relish. Those are things I include in my books,
that sense of a world apart filled with rich and
eccentric characters. I grew up in a household that
valued such things.
While there are aspects to the Southern culture
that I loath, find me a single place in the world
where that isn’t true. Human nature is human
nature, geography doesn’t change that.
SMS: You’ve written a variety of fiction and
non-fiction books now. Is mysteries it for you
now, or do you still want to write general fic-
tion and maybe even another non-fiction book?
HAINES: I read in many different genres, so I
write in different areas. I love to read mysteries,
both dark and light. Within that genre there are
many different sub-genres. Like “Penumbra” and
“Fever Moon” were called “literary thrillers.” Crime
novels, cozies, psychological thrillers - there’s a lot
of territory just within the mystery fold. But I’m
also dallying with an idea for what is either a psy-
chological thriller or horror. And I’m working on a short
story for a collection I’m editing for Bleak House centered
around the Mississippi Delta Blues and a crime/noir ele-
ment. This is going to be a great collection of short stories by
some of the more prominent writers working today, as well
as some authors who haven’t gotten as much ink. We are
going to have a blast.
SMS: What books influenced you as a child?
HAINES: I read anything about horses. The Black Stallion
books, the “Blood Bay Stallion,” “Silver Birch,” “King of the
Wind,” “My Friend Flicka,” and I loved stories of adventure
such as “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.” I collected
the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series (the Hardy Boys had
better toys!) and Edgar Allen Poe (“Murders in the Rue
Morgue,” “The Gold Bug”), which I think honed my love of
mystery and the macabre. Sir Author Conan Doyle’s “The
Hound of the Baskervilles,” was a favorite.
In middle school, my teacher, Carolyn Nyman (she was
my mother’s best friend and I was named for her) caught me
reading a Harold Robbins novel in class, a scandal at the
time. Instead of ratting me out, she took my paperback and
gave me a copy of Eudora Welty’s short stories. “The Wide
Net” was the story that did me in. Reading that story, the
germ of actually writing stories was planted. I’d read mostly
fiction which almost exclusively dealt with characters far
removed from the small Mississippi town of Lucedale. Miss
Welty brought me home. She showed me that the things I
knew about and loved - the land, the woods, the people, the
values of a community - that this was grist for fiction that
moved into complex and wonderful terrain.
Later I was exposed to Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee’s
wonderful classic, Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Doris
Betts, Lee Smith - these wonderful Southern voices so unique
and yet so comforting to my ear.
In recent years, I’ve become a devotee of James Lee Burke -
he’s simply incredible in the power of his story, character
and language - Dennis Lehane, John Irving, Barbara
Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood. I read many, many things for
different reasons. A book fulfills so many needs. In fact,
there’s not a “type” of book I won’t give a try.
SMS: Anything else you want to add?
HAINES: I have 20 animals, mostly rescue, and I continue
to urge everyone to please spay and neuter their pets. Also,
I’m on the lookout for my clone. If anyone sees her, please
restrain her and send her back to me. I need some help on the
farm.