BookView Review

Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we interviewed Jeffrey L Carrier about his writing and recently released book, Coal Dust on Purple Asters: A Trilogy of Short Fiction, an evocative trilogy about Appalachian families negotiating poverty, loss, and the dangerous industry that sustains them (Read the review here).

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How often do you base your characters on real people? 

Up to this point, my published work has been entirely non-fiction, so my subjects have naturally been real individuals. When I transitioned to writing fiction last year, I drew from the tapestry of people I’ve known or stories I’ve heard to flesh out my characters. For instance, in my short story Rain on Chinquapin Holler, the character of Wiley Hicks is loosely inspired by my grandfather. Similarly, in Red Snow in the Kentucky Woods, the character of Granny Stidham was born from family lore, specifically, stories about my mother’s grandmother, who lived high on a mountain and famously smoked a corncob pipe.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

I currently have an unpublished manuscript called Echoes of Wildwood, which I am still meticulously tinkering with. It is a connected work of Southern Gothic fiction comprised of three distinct novellas. While each story is fully capable of standing on its own, they are all anchored to the same farmlands of Northeast Tennessee, share a recurring cast of characters, and collectively span nearly a century of history. Rather than a traditional novel, I view it as a project bound together by shared narrative tissue. Beyond that, I have three short stories in various stages of completion that dive into different genres, ranging from horror to a fictional biography of a 1920s Hollywood star.

What does literary success look like to you?

I was told a long time ago that you can only truly call yourself a writer if you are making a living from your pen. While I have several books with my name on the cover, I’ve always maintained a conventional nine-to-five career. I have one friend who hit it big with a single book and never had to work again, and another who has published twenty-seven books and still works full-time. Financial independence is certainly one metric, but the measurement I prefer to use is much more intrinsic: it’s the pure enjoyment of the craft, the quiet thrill of seeing your name on a cover, receiving thoughtful reviews, or hearing from a stranger who was genuinely moved by your words. By that measure, I consider my career an absolute success.

How many hours a day do you write, and does writing energize or exhaust you?

I’m not a rigid writer who adheres to a strict daily timetable.; Treating creativity like a timeclock to punch makes it feel entirely too much like a chore. Perhaps I lack that specific brand of discipline, but my mind is always teeming with ideas. For me, the hardest part of the process is simply sitting down to write those first few words. Once I find my groove, however, I can lose myself for hours, letting the narrative flow onto the screen. Yet, when I am in the thick of that creative momentum, I find it deeply exhausting. It’s akin to ditch-digging, except instead of straining my muscles until they ache, I am taxing my imagination and creative stamina until my brain simply can’t go any further without a long rest.

Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?

What a fascinating question, and I think the answer is beautifully complex. It largely depends on the nature of the work. Drafting a technical manual or a textbook doesn’t require a great deal of emotional resonance — it demands dedication and rigorous research. But writing fiction is an entirely different landscape, as it requires a profound capacity for empathy, a willingness to inhabit both devastating heartbreak and radiant joy. History’s greatest artists — whether painters, composers, poets, or novelists — frequently lived lives marked by immense sorrow and acute happiness. I truly believe that feeling emotions deeply is a prerequisite for producing enduring art in all its forms.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

Without a doubt, it was hiring a professional editor to whip my memoir into shape. Because I was writing about my own life, I was simply too close to the material. I desperately needed an objective eye. It was a significant investment, but every single dollar was worth it. The manuscript required rigorous polishing, tightening, and structural revision. It certainly wasn’t easy to cut lines or delete entire paragraphs that I originally deemed essential, but the process was vital. Far too many self-published authors rely solely on their own judgment when editing, which is a critical mistake. A great editor doesn’t dilute your voice. They distill it.

How do you select the names of your characters?

For my short fiction trilogy set in the 1930s Kentucky coalfields, it was vital to choose names that felt authentic to the period. Fortunately, that wasn’t a difficult task — my mother grew up as the daughter of a coal miner, and my own family tree is filled with names unique to that specific time and place. I ended up drawing directly from distant relatives, incorporating beautifully evocative names like Deard, Evvie, Estill, Eula, Vergie, and Clarence. Using family names honors the history I’m writing about and roots the characters in reality.

Do you read your book reviews? Do they please you or annoy you? Do you think you can learn a lot from reading criticism about your work?

Oh yes, I read every single one. Whenever I receive a notification that a new review has been posted, I click the link, take a deep breath, and dive in. I confess I always brace myself for a negative critique, so when it turns out to be positive, the sense of relief is exhilarating. When constructive criticisms are woven into a review, I consider them very carefully. Sometimes I agree with their assessment, and sometimes I don’t, but I deeply appreciate a critic who engages honestly with the text. No book is perfect from the first word to the last, and when a reviewer points out a perceived flaw, it shows they truly read the work rather than just skimming it. Objective criticism can be incredibly valuable, though I did learn early on a vital lesson for any writer: you simply cannot please everyone.

What are your favorite books?

I wouldn’t label myself a voracious reader. Rather, I am quite selective. Some books I pick up purely for the joy of escapism, while others leave a profound, lasting imprint on my soul. A novel I first discovered in high school that I still revisit every few years is The Mystery of the Haunted Bridge, a classic Nancy Drew story that offers a wonderful dose of nostalgic comfort. On the other end of the spectrum is To Kill a Mockingbird, another high school discovery, which affected me so deeply that I’ve only been able to bring myself to re-read it once in the decades since. Other titles that hold a permanent place on my shelf of favorites include Shirley Jackson’s masterwork The Haunting of Hill House, Dickens’s David Copperfield, and James Still’s beautiful paean to Appalachian life, River of Earth.

Who and what ultimately inspired you to become a writer?

I have to say it was my father. He was a Baptist preacher who had very little appetite for fiction but possessed a deep passion for real-life narratives — presidential biographies, accounts of World War II, and anything deeply historical. He always had a book in his hand and encouraged me to follow suit. While I eventually developed an appreciation for fiction that he didn’t share, it was his love for the written word that first inspired me to read. That early immersion in books naturally evolved into a desire to try my own hand at writing them.

What’s more important: characters or plot?

I find them to be entirely codependent and equally vital. It is easy enough to sketch out intriguing characters and place them on the page, but there must be a compelling plot that forces them to act, giving them something to investigate, fear, conquer, or discover. Conversely, even the most gripping plot will fail to come to life without deeply realized characters to carry it forward. Plot and character rely on one another completely. The plot tests the characters, and the characters give the plot its heartbeat. 

Tell us a little about how this story first came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?

It started entirely with a voice, specifically, my grandmother’s heavily accented cadence. She was a mountain woman who spoke plainly in a thick, rhythmic Kentucky dialect. As a boy, I used to spend sweltering summer evenings on her front porch, watching the coal trucks rattle past and listening to her stories about her youth and the people she had known. Her tales were steeped in pathos, hardship, and loss, yet they were also deeply inspiring and dramatic. The people she described were poverty-stricken but fiercely strong of character. Decades later, it was her voice I heard when I sat down to write fiction. I drew directly from those front porch memories to form the emotional foundation of my trilogy, Coal Dust on Purple Asters.

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