AN INDECENT AMOUNT OF FUN…
BY JEAN BRASHEAR
“Eudora Welty meets Sue Monk Kidd and they lunch with Fannie Flagg“…yes, indeedy, folks, a reviewer with serious college-professor-level expertise in Southern lit actually wrote those words about The Goddess of Fried Okra—totally swoon-worthy sentiments, and don’t you think I didn’t see nice little dots swirling before my eyes just before my body hit the fainting couch. 😉
Given that this book is truly The Book of My Heart, being on the receiving end of such a review was (still is!) just Too. Much. Fun.
But then, the writing of this book was an adventure all in itself. After having been under continuous deadlines for several years, I carved out three weeks to just let myself play with a story, simply to see if I could remember what it was like to write for the sheer joy of writing, with no thought to commercial appeal or my career or anything but just…you got it: Fun. I ditched my computer and sat on my deck in the cool morning shade with a glass of murderously strong Mexican iced coffee at my side, no idea at all what I’d write, and just let the words come.
Next thing I knew, here arrived this woman who had lost her job, her boyfriend and her place to live, all in the same day…and what does she do? She throws everything she owns (which ain’t much, I’m tellin’ you) into her beat-up car and sets off to find the sister who raised her.
Except, well, her sister’s, um…dead. But Eudora “Pea” O’Brien had consulted her sister’s psychic and was on the trail of the new body her sister now inhabited. Wherever that might be.
I’m sure we’d all make the same choice.
Along the way, Pea stops to read various roadside historical markers, looking for the hand of Fate to lead her (Here’s a Girl Power marker about WWII
female pilots) and picks up an odd band of companions—a starving kitten, a pregnant Goth teenager and a sexy con man trying to go straight. They encounter a gun shop owner named Glory (shop name: Guns ‘N’ Glory—natch) who is obsessed with warrior goddesses and is a big fan of Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. Glory is fond of wearing pearls with her combat boots and is a master of swordplay, something Pea decides she desperately needs to learn as she seeks to find her own strengths and make her way in the world.
When her car breaks down, Pea also meets the ultimate grandmother, a café owner named Lorena who is Glory’s polar opposite and who teaches Pea the art of perfect fried okra, something any Southerner would agree is both a necessity and manna from heaven.
So okay…this probably sounds like one weird book, huh? And how on earth did Conan the Barbarian ever come into play in my brain?
Beats me.;) Seriously, he’s not exactly my natural cup of tea, but let’s just say that on a road trip, my husband and I encountered the legacy of Robert E. Howard (who was one weird and possibly seriously disturbed dude) on the back roads of Texas in connection with—yep, the Conan the Barbarian Festival (here’s the sign we encountered) which appears in the book. Ditto the Robert E. Howard homeplace, which we visited.
Sadly, there is no swordplay contest…but there should be.;) Maybe they’d let me organize the next festival?
Ditto, a road trip fleshed out Glory’s gun shop—in a portable building, of all things. Here’s a photo of me 
at Farley’s Firearms.
At the end of the three weeks I had to get back to work on my paying gig. I continued to write this book off and on over the next couple of years when I could take breaks from my deadlines. I wish I could say the whole process was a Ton O’Fun…but that didn’t happen until I finally ignored my agent’s urgings and the opinions in New York about how to make this woman seem logical (not her strong suit, but we Southerners are proud of our eccentric relatives) and took my book to the place I always felt would be its best home: the wonderful and amazing Belle Books.
The day my personal idol author, Deborah Smith, told me she loved it and wanted to buy it…well, pull out the smelling salts, is all I can say. Working with her and Debra Dixon (who created this FABULOUS cover!) in the early days of the Bell Bridge Books imprint? Folks, that much fun oughta be illegal.
That the book has gotten so many wonderful reviews and letters from readers since it was first published, and that readers keep asking for a sequel (tell me I’m not intimidated by THAT prospect!)…yep, definitely Too. Much. Fun.
A thoroughly indecent amount of fun. For which I am now and forever grateful. Vive les Belles!
The Goddess of Fried Okra by Jean Brashear is today’s Amazon Kindle Daily Deal for only $1.99!
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