Who would speak of Hannibal Lecter and blues from the Mississippi Delta in the same breath? Or simultaneously imagine teaching children and subduing an opponent with a roundhouse kick? Or dream of pitting an ordinary mother against a villain as utterly chilling as one in a Thomas Harris’ novel? All of them together?
Never…unless you are a writer.
In fact, I’m a writer with a blue belt in karate and a background in teaching, a singer and a pianist who composes blues lyrics and melodies, and an admirer of Thomas Harris’ thrillers, particularly Silence of the Lambs. I’m also a mother of two very fine adult children, and the grandmother of four.
In the writing courses I taught as an adjunct at Mississippi State University, I emphasized the importance of authenticity—best achieved by drawing on personal experience and writing about what you know. Careful research is also necessary to give the reader the sense of being inside the story, involved in every scene along with the characters.
In Black Crow Cabin, I poured myself into Rachel, an ordinary mother and elementary school teacher who ultimately found herself pitted against a villain as dark and twisted as Hannibal Lecter. The emotions Rachel felt as a mother and the teacher of elementary school children threated by the evil Collector are my own. I was inside her skin, seeing through her eyes, feeling with her heart.
Although I set the book in Colorado, I used by own Southern roots and love of music by giving Rachel’s mother, Delilah Broussard, a background as a blues singer and composer, born near New Orleans, the cradle of the blues.
The blues lyrics credited to Delilah are my own. I play an antique baby grand that had only one other owner, a jazz musician whose family kept his piano after his death. When I bought it from the estate after his wife died, I wasn’t interested in a piece of furniture: I wanted a musical instrument. Unbeknownst to me, the jazz musician’s staff lined up in the doorway when I sat down to play. Afterward, they were all clapping and crying. One of them said, “We haven’t heard it played like that since he died.” That was the moment I knew the piano was mine.
I was at that baby grand, playing those yellowed ivories while I composed blues lyrics so many years ago. Who knew I would use them in Black Crow Cabin?
Also, who knew I would use my lessons in karate in the same crime thriller?
My white karate suit and blue belt still hang in my closet. When Grand Master Greg Luna came to Tupelo, Mississippi, my son Trey, then a teenager, wanted to take classes. Greg taught Tansui karate, a form of self-defense he created as a means of protecting himself in his own neighborhood. Tansui is practical and can be applied to everyday situations such as walking alone through a dark parking lot at night.
I enrolled, along with my son. I started as a white belt and earned two more, yellow and blue. Advancing to the higher belts required fighting in tournaments. You’ll be happy to know that I never risked rearranging my face and breaking my hands by fighting in tournaments. I need them every day on the keyboards, computer and piano (one my career, both my passion).
When I created the Collector, my Black Crow Cabin villain, I let him unfold, as I do all my characters. It was fascinating to watch his descent into madness and feel the same chilling sense of evil surround him that I felt when I read Silence of the Lambs and saw the movie. The Collector is equally as complex as Hannibal Lecter, a quality I hope will make him memorable.
I’m thrilled that Black Crow Cabin, published by Bookouture, is now available, and you can discover my five surprising influences as you read the story.
Peggy Webb is the USA Today Bestselling author of more than 100 novels in numerous genres.
Peggy’s love of writing goes back to her roots in northeast Mississippi where she grew up on a farm and fell in love with words by reading everything she could get her hands on while sitting in her daddy’s hayloft. Peggy is an accomplished pianist and singer, and has starred in numerous roles in her local community theater. She is known for her chilling, filmic scenes, and her latest crime thriller features blues lyrics she composed and credited to one of her characters.
Peggy’s love of both writing and music is so strong, she says, “I hear the music of words in every novel I write.” You can hear her discuss the link between the two arts in her music videos on Facebook and visit her at her website.
