Odessa: “I’m not sure if it’s an angel who visits me in the night. All I know is I pray for knowledge, to see things as they really are. Then the insight comes, and I see people and events clearly, and It makes me sick. It makes me sad. Seldom do the revelations bring me joy. I get to feeling life is just one big lie. Momma, can you hear me? I try so hard to be good like you. But, I’m not so sure anymore who I am meant to be. All those years you suffered glimpses of what was to come. And yet, you were strong. Momma- Bizet, can you hear me?”
THE FRINGES is Southern Gothic through and through. A subgenre of Gothic fiction in American literature, the story takes place in the American South. The elements of deeply flawed, disturbing & eccentric characters, hoodoo, decayed & derelict settings, grotesque situations, & sinister events stemming from poverty, alienation, crime & violence are knitted like a finely spun web.
REVIEW: “Put down that Harlan Coben or James Patterson book you’re reading and instead pick up this novel by Elizabeth Mozley.
Why? We read to escape, but we also read to connect with characters who are a little bit like us. The distance that words written on a page provide allow us to experience excitement and danger vicariously.
There is plenty of treachery in this novel, and there is an abundance of love. There is something about stories set in the American South like this one is.
Like any good Southern Gothic there are graveyards and bastard children and nostalgia for the past. Through the five women around which this story unfolds, Mozley examines the values of the South such as loyalty and deeply ingrained decorum.
That is not to say that all is well in Memphis. With the mix of strong women and coarse men, violence is never far away and the bonds of loyalty fray. There are entanglements aplenty with the usual culprit at the center…money and sex.
The passages of dialogue ring true and the pacing of the story keeps you turning the pages. There is even travel to a place far away from Tennessee–both distance and culturally–that came as a surprise.
If the old adage to write what you know is true, Mozley knows a thing or two…
I think this book is worth your time reading…compelling dialogue makes an interesting movie.
So what are you waiting for Hollywood? Option this book. It will be a hit on Netflix…
Seriously, order it today.” Don Jacobson @BigSurfDon
DANCING ALONG THE FRINGES TO THE SIGN OF SILENCE is Southern Gothic through and through.
A subgenre of Gothic fiction in American literature, the story takes place in the American South. The elements of deeply flawed, disturbing & eccentric characters, hoodoo, decayed & derelict settings, grotesque situations, & sinister events stemming from poverty, alienation, crime & violence are knitted like a finely spun web.
Join me in reading Dancing Along THE FRINGES To The Sign Of Silence! (A whole lot of Southern & more than a little wicked.)
“Put down that Harlan Coben or James Patterson book you’re reading and instead pick up this novel by Elizabeth Mozley.
Why? We read to escape, but we also read to connect with characters who are a little bit like us. The distance that words written on a page provide allow us to experience excitement and danger vicariously.
There is plenty of treachery in this novel, and there is an abundance of love. There is something about stories set in the American South like this one is.
Like any good Southern Gothic there are graveyards and bastard children and nostalgia for the past. Through the five women around which this story unfolds, Mozley examines the values of the South such as loyalty and deeply ingrained decorum.
That is not to say that all is well in Memphis. With the mix of strong women and coarse men, violence is never far away and the bonds of loyalty fray. There are entanglements aplenty with the usual culprit at the center…money and sex.
The passages of dialogue ring true and the pacing of the story keeps you turning the pages. There is even travel to a place far away from Tennessee–both distance and culturally–that came as a surprise.
If the old adage to write what you know is true, Mozley knows a thing or two…
I think this book is worth your time reading…compelling dialogue makes an interesting movie.
So what are you waiting for Hollywood? Option this book.
DANCING ALONG THE FRINGES TO THE SIGN OF SILENCE is now available on AMAZON in paperback & Kindle editions: https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Mozley-McGrady/e/B00J7KJWIU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Dancing along THE FRINGES to the Sign of Silence is an adult, Southern novel.
The novel opens in Memphis, Tennessee. Marilyn’s husband, Hudson Donati – born of old money and a powerful name- has died. In an attempt to retain the family estate, Marilyn has become a keeper of many men. She and her loyal friend Odessa Barnes are set to experience a passage they never expected.
THE FRINGES is the collective story of five women – white, biracial, and Creole -and the loyalty between them, a bond which allows strength against an often heinous and brutal world. Together, they move against the expectations of society.
How much disappointment and hardship does it take to get to the truth of who a person is? What is salvation without sin?
A Southern spring is a capricious thing. Cerulean skies darken quickly, mottle like variant hues of paint spilled onto slick glass. Surreal, warm winds suddenly chill, then growing in strength lift the skirt, steal away a hat; pull new tulips from the stem, dogwood blossoms from tender trees to toss them about like a child on the verge of a tantrum. Often arriving unheralded, sinister storms reveal a vein of indifference found in most Southerners, whom overly accustomed to foreboding go about paying no heed. And yet, unpredictable as the storm, these same unconcerned people may turn callous at a moments notice, thus revealing a commonality found among the inhabitants of an area where the untamable blood of its earliest settlers -English, Scotch-Irish, German, French, Spanish and African -continues to concentrate, coagulate as passions of the heart, or desire for retaliation. Like those in nature, personal storms surprise the careless. But, only because people act without thought of repercussion and those who take, and take, and take suddenly turn.
For some, life is the result of a preconceived plan, objectives set and attainment contrived. For others -such as Marilyn Abbot Donati -life was revealed, born perhaps, like unpredictable seasons.
And yet, Marilyn chose.
The theme of the novel is the satisfaction of loyalty and the suffering born of it.
The novel is harsh. It is meant to make one uncomfortable, and begs the reader to question ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’
I hope you will join me in ~Dancing along THE FRINGES to the Sign of Silence.
How much disappointment and hardship does it take to get to the truth of who a person is?
This is Marilyn Abbot’s story. A once small town, Southern girl, poor and neglected, forever tied to a childhood love – Frank Livingston, now sheriff of Shelby County; a man who represents all that is good in the world, yet a man who refused to claim the woman he loves and the child they conceived.
The novel opens in Memphis, Tennessee. Marilyn’s husband, Hudson Donati – born of old money and a powerful name- has died. In an attempt to retain the family estate, Marilyn has become a keeper of many men. She and her loyal friend Odessa Barnes are set to experience a passage they never expected.
There are lessons in everything, every situation. It does not matter if one is following the path they are meant to or not; there are always difficulties, opportunities for learning the lessons well. And it’s just this- the further one strays from what is ‘right,’ the longer it takes to get back to what is ‘good.’
THE FRINGES is the collective story of five women – white, biracial, and Creole -and the loyalty between them, a bond which allows strength against an often heinous and brutal world. Together, they move against the expectations of society.
The novel is harsh. It is meant to make one uncomfortable, and begs the reader to question ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ And yet, I hope you will join me in ~Dancing along THE FRINGES to the Sign of Silence.
Joe Wood & Susan Stone Evans guess what came in today~ the proof! “Dancing along THE FRINGES to the Sign of Silence” is in hand. Thank you, Joe for the gorgeous cover & Susan, thank you for interior layout.
FB post 2 years ago today, January 1, 2019: ——Bill Bradley said, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” Didn’t make my self-imposed deadline, but I am 352 pages in & one chapter shy of finishing the novel. Then on to the re-write.
AmWriting after I play with the oldest granddaughter! #TheMemphisNovel ——
TODAY, I am excited to announce that Dancing Along THE FRINGES To The Sign Of Silence will publish in a few weeks!
Honestly, of all I’ve written, THE FRINGES has been the most enjoyable. I never knew in advance what Marilyn, the main character, would do. It wasn’t until pencil touched paper that the scene became clear; for once created, characters take control of their lives on paper, leaving the writer to document what they reveal.
Many times, I shook my head, paused and asked myself, “Am I willing to write this?”
You see, Marilyn Abbot Donati is unscrupulous, cunning, vengeful -and yet she is protective, caring, loyal. She does the unthinkable, unabashedly.
Don’t we all wish we could, at times?
THE FRINGES begs the reader to question ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ The story is meant to make you uncomfortable.
A huge ‘thank you’ to Susan Evans for interior layout design & Joe Wood for painting such a fantastic cover- ah, the blood spatter!
I am so looking forward to seeing it in print & hope you all will join me in the reading.
Elizabeth Mozley Partridge, Alabama Author 