Hi Megan! Great to have you here and to be a part of your ongoing tour - I am looking forward to learning more about you and your work. Let's get started...
1.
What do you wish men understood about women?
Ha! Wow!
Starting this off with a bang! There are so many things that men don’t
understand about women (and women don’t understand about men). My husband and I
have been married nearly eight years, and one of the issues with which we still
struggle is communication (like SO many couples). We have very different
communication styles. At the end of a tough day at work, I might want to just
come home and vent. I don’t expect any feedback or any solutions, but my
husband wants to tell me what he would do or say in the situation. I hear this
from a lot of other women, too, so I wish men understood that women don’t
necessarily need them to come along and fix everything—sometimes we just need
to unload.
2.
Do you only work on one book at a time?
Yes and
no. I might start two (or even three) books at the same time, but ultimately
the plot in which I’m most interested pulls ahead. At the beginning of this
summer I had started writing three very different novels, but a couple of weeks
in, I found my groove, settled on one that I thought had the most promise, and
shot off with that one.
3.
Who is your favorite fictional couple?
This is a
great question! Okay, so my favorite couple is not so because of their
wonderfully functional relationship, but it’s because of the torment and pain
they cause one another. No, I’m not a glutton for punishment in relationships,
but let’s face it—dysfunctional relationships make for good reading! I think Heathcliff and Cathy from
Wuthering Heights are my favorite couple because they are the epitome of a
relationship that cannot work out. Either because they are too much alike or
because they are hell-bent on self-destructing, these two characters are doomed
as lovers. Even though this novel was written in the 19th century,
the characters can be found in modern society—in those relationships where
people are selfish and controlling. I like seeing the parallels between the
modern and the classic.
4.
Do you have a favorite quote that sums up how you feel about
life?
“To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to
make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all
entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But
in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be
broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to
be vulnerable.”
―
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
I
know it’s a long one, but it rings true for me. I used to live my life like
that—not letting anyone in. I’ve found that allowing vulnerability—living and
loving everyone knowing that they may disappoint, leave, or die, is how God
really designed us to love.
5.
Do you set daily writing goals? Word count? Number of
chapters? Do you get a chance to write every day?
I
do set writing goals and try to write every day Monday through Friday. During
the summer, I try to write at least ten to fifteen pages a day; as a matter of
fact, I try to complete first drafts during the summer months and spend the
rest of the year revising, editing, polishing, etc.
6. What do
you like better, Twitter or Facebook? Why?
Definitely Facebook. I don’t know what I’m doing on Twitter… or
why, really. Facebook is more relational. Twitter feels like a giant vacuum
where I’m callously self-promoting. But I do both.
7.
What are you working on now?
My
current work in progress is slated to be a little on the scary side. It’s a
contemporary Gothic novel set in Virginia wine country. The story is narrated
by Chassie, a woman who lived much of her young life in a cult, and now, newly
married to vineyard owner, Nicholas Dunraven, she is experiencing all sorts of
strange people and phenomena at the Dunraven Estates. Terrifying events unfold
both inside and outside the house as Chassie discovers her husband’s past with
a wife who was involved with witchcraft and strange occult groups, and who
mysteriously disappeared four years earlier. I’m only about half way into it
right now.
Publishing 1st
August 2014
Attorney Landon Kingsley craves order and normalcy, and aside from his
well-hidden vice of smoking, he lives the life that everyone expects from him
in his hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. Recently engaged to beautiful nursing
student, April May, Landon’s new fiancée is everything he could want in a wife.
She is devoted to her faith and family and truly loves him.
April’s cousin, Ella Casey, has returned to Kingsport after ten years
of pursuing a career as a country music singer in Nashville. Ella’s failed
career and affair with a married music producer scandalizes her in the eyes of
the town, but her legal troubles drive her to Landon for help. Landon finds
himself increasingly attracted to Ella and more discontent than ever with the
path he has chosen for his life. Amid a firestorm of family and town gossip,
Landon is tormented by his past and the complicated decision of whether to
listen to God’s voice or follow his own desires.
SONG FROM THE ASHES, a modern retelling of the classic Edith Wharton
novel The Age of Innocence, explores
the dilemma between the pursuit of dreams and personal happiness versus
contentment in God’s plan for marriage and love.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The snow was already forming crusts on
the unsalted parts of the road that January evening. The weathermen had talked
of a dusting, or perhaps even showers, but the severity of the precipitation
was wholly unexpected. It was only
a high school event—a talent show held at the local civic center. Even so,
Landon Kingsley was upset with himself and his late arrival. Landon always made
a point of being on time, but tonight he had lingered over the reading of a
brief. At least that was how he rationalized it. In all honestly, he hadn’t
wanted to stub out his cigarette prematurely. He always enjoyed a smoke when
his mind was preoccupied.
Landon
knew his girlfriend and her parents would be waiting for him. He slipped into
the rear of the auditorium and scanned the mass of people for April and her family.
She had texted that they were sitting near the front, and he cringed thinking
that would make his entrance all the more embarrassing—everyone would see him
entering late.
April’s
two younger sisters were both in high school, and although he had not heard
them sing, Landon understood they were talented. In fact, April’s Aunt Julia
informed him that the entire family possessed great musical talent.
“On her daddy’s side of the family,
everyone tends toward musical talent in piano and guitar. On her mama’s side,
nearly everyone has beautiful singing voices—especially that Ella—she’s out in
Nashville right now, you know. She’s been out there for years singing country
music. I guess she does all right.”
Landon had never met Ella, but he had
heard about her, and he understood that through some circumstance or other she
would actually be attending the talent show that night.
As
he made his way down the sloping aisle, he saw familiar faces—many of them
flashing him a smile and a wave. In a town of this size, people knew each other
or at least knew of one another. Part of the tri-cities area in Northeastern
Tennessee consisting of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol, Kingsport was the
second largest of the three—a town of around fifty-thousand that had grown a
little over the years but was no booming metropolis either. It retained a
small-town feel, a place where people still smiled and greeted one another on
the streets. A town where people spent their whole lives. Retirees from up
north settled down there, and people who had lived there most or all of their
lives called it home and heaven. The downside was that gossip spread like
wildfire, and no one was ever free from the scrutiny of folks who wanted what
you had or who didn’t think you had enough.
Mid way down the rows of seats, Landon
glimpsed the face of Dora Feldman. He had represented her husband last year
when he was sued for a property line dispute. A little further down, he saw the
scowling face of Dawson McMurphy, who had never forgotten that Landon
represented his arch rival in a nasty court case several years ago. Landon
couldn’t even remember the specifics of the case now, but Mr. McMurphy had
never allowed him to forget the outcome of it. Landon and his client had
won—Mr. McMurphy had lost and exhibited sour grapes ever since.
Sitting
at the end of the third row, craning her neck to see him and then waving wildly
was the lovely, smiling face of April. She looked relieved when she saw him and
rasped in a stage whisper as he fell into the seat beside her, “I was worried
you’d forgotten.”
He
shook his head, returning the whisper. “I got caught up with some business.” It
was mostly true.
Her
forehead and nose wrinkled simultaneously. “Have you been smoking?”
Desiring
to avoid another half-lie, Landon simply smiled and patted her leg. “I haven’t
missed your sisters have I?”
April
shook her head. “No, but you almost did! They’re up next.”
Landon
turned to the act finishing their pitiful version of an old Led Zeppelin tune,
“Stairway to Heaven.” He couldn’t believe teenagers in this day and age knew
and still appreciated the tune. The boy on the stage fumbled his way through an
acoustic version of the song, interspersing his performance with “oops!” and
“I’m sorry” and “I didn’t mean to do that.” Finally, the boy’s misery was over
and the crowd applauded, more relieved than entertained.
Landon cast a glance down the aisle to the left of
him. April’s mom sat beside her daughter, and she smiled at him sweetly. It had only been this week that Mrs. May had said to him
shyly, “I know it’s not really my place,” her Tennessee accent drawing out the
vowel of plaay-ce, “but I just want you to know that April has so enjoyed the
last few months ya’ll have been dating.”
Landon had been contemplating asking
April to marry him, but not before he was absolutely certain of her answer. He
was quite a bit older than her--thirty-seven years to her twenty-five—and his
past was much more checkered. April had taken great pains to let him know of
her purity and plan to stay that way until she was married. He wished he could
come to her in the same state, but his life had taken him other places and
there had been many women. Therefore, he was concerned his past might have
scared her away, and he said as much to her mother.
To this confession, Alissa May sweetly
patted his hand and told him if he and April ended up together, the family
would be only too happy to welcome him as one of them. “April’s father and I
are ten years apart, and things have turned out good for us. And I know April
is not nearly as concerned with your past as she is with the man you are right
now.”
Landon looked over and smiled at the
lovely dark-haired girl beside him. Beyond her he could see April’s father—a
man of few words—quiet, but infinitely wise and well-read. Charles May had
worked for Eastman Chemical Company his entire life. He rose up through the
ranks to become an executive with the company—a career which had given him
wealth and allowed him to approach his retirement with ease.
Landon noted a few other relatives that
he had seen at various family functions over the past three months while he had
been dating April, but then he noticed the new face at the end of the aisle.
She, too, locked eyes with him and waved a stilted salute.
“That’s
my cousin Ella,” April told him. “She’s just come into town from Nashville.”
Landon
nodded. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Your aunt said she’d be here tonight. She’s
visiting with your family?”
“Well,
sort of. It’s a long story. But basically, things haven’t worked out so well
for her in Nashville. Mama told me she’s back in Kingsport to stay for now.”
“I
see.” Landon thought Ella looked the part of the country singer. She was
dressed in jeans and a suede jacket, but he couldn’t help his eyes being drawn
to the top she wore underneath and all it revealed. Ella’s brown hair was
highlighted with blond streaks and fell in soft waves over her shoulders. From
the reflection of the stage lights, she looked like she had clear blue eyes and
a straight, white smile. She reminded him a little of a country star he
couldn’t put a name to at that moment. He could sort of see a family
resemblance in the profile. Both April and Ella had straight sloping noses that
turned up at the tip. They possessed strong chins and adequate cheek-bones, but
the overall effect of their appearance wasn’t much alike.
“Oh,
here they go!” April said, redirecting his attention to her young sisters
appearing on the stage. The oldest one held an acoustic guitar and the other
stood close beside her. It seemed to take the two girls a long time to begin.
One was still fiddling with the tuners on the guitar, and the other one giggled
nervously beside her.
During this tense interval, Landon
considered the possibility of proposing to April. It was early on, he knew, but
it was certainly not unheard of. She had, at the commencement of their
friendship, conveyed to him that she felt ready to marry and start a family.
April had graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee
in some generic discipline that he couldn’t remember, but now she was pursuing
a nursing degree at East Tennessee State University, having decided that she
really wanted to be in the medical field.
Landon found it attractive that his
future wife should have some sort of profession. It gave him respect for
her—that she had something going on in her life besides him. His own mother had
a talent for gardening and writing, and for years she wrote articles for the
magazine Gardens of America. Occasionally she had traveled, giving seminars on
landscaping, gardening and planting, and dispensing advice on what kinds of
flowers grew well in what types of soil, etc.
Landon did wish that April was a little
more conversational on the matters that interested him, but one couldn’t have
everything. And he assumed that it was this sort of pickiness in the past that
caused him to remain single into his thirty-seventh year. Landon loved
books—especially classical literature; he loved music of all kinds, but
especially old seventies music and country; he also enjoyed wine and the
occasional cigar or cigarette. Maybe April didn’t share these interests, but
she was a wonderful and stunningly beautiful Christian girl who wanted
marriage, a home, and a family, and at the end of the day, that was all that
mattered.
BUY LINKS:
About the Author
Megan Whitson Lee grew up in Tennessee
but moved to the Washington, D.C. area as a teenager. She worked for criminal attorneys before earning her
master’s degree from George Mason University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Previously she received a Bachelor of Arts in Music followed by a year-long
residence in London where she worked as a Literary Assistant. Her self-published
first novel All That is Right and Holy
won second place in the 2009 Christian Choice Book Awards. Megan teaches high
school English in Fairfax County, Virginia where she lives with her husband and
two greyhounds.
Author
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