Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 1 Question 1

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 1

Instructions: Write out the following information about yourself in detail. The more candid and complete you are in your responses, the more resource material you will have to draw from for writing ideas. Be liberal rather than conservative in your estimation of what should be included, and leave room for further additions later. For the purpose of this exercise, there is no such thing as an insignificant experience, and reticence is inappropriate. Include specific scenes or dramatized recollections wherever possible.

1). What is your ethnic background, especially your culture experience of that ethnicity, its language, customs, foods, rituals, etc.?


My ethnic background is Southern American Caucasian. Try finding that selection on a standardized form. Caucasian is the politically-correct, scientific terminology for white. United States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and land of my birth. The South is a region of America unlike anywhere else on Earth.

I grew up when it was still safe to play outside, before parents became hawks eyeing their dinners. A country girl, my great-grandmother had 21 acres next door to my parents' one to romp on.

Romance lingers in the South. I don't mean men wooing women, but the older tradition of the word. Magic and mystery decay and fill the air with heady brooding. The Gothic tradition is still alive. Is it any wonder that the South produced Edgar Allen Poe and William Faulkner, and has attracted so many others?

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