Elizabeth Thomas Author Of "Arden's Act" - Books And Company Writers Series

Writers Series with host Elizabeth described only by the best! We devour Elizabeth Thomas's book, "Arden's Act". We discuss love, betrayal, and feminine struggles.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to the writer series podcast calledBooks and Company. The podcast is presented
by Single to Do and the SaintPeter's Episcopal Church here in Laga Vista,
Texas. I am your host,Elizabeth Colvin. Every month we will showcase
the art of writing, focusing onboth fiction and non fictional stories. You

(00:35):
can visit us live or listen toour podcasts. Please like, share,
and enjoy the show. Have anamazing day, and I just want to
say we welcome you wholeheartedly to SaintPeter's Episcopal Church. Welcome to the Point.

(01:02):
The reason why we call it thePoint is that this is the highest
point in Lago Vista right now,it's in the evening time, but we
have a beautiful lake view, wehave a laborrith, we have lots of
wildlife, and we have a wonderfulauthor here today. We have Elizabeth Thomas,

(01:25):
and I just want to say,guys, welcome her. We'll be
able to hear about her wonderful booksand writings, and we'll be able to
take a few questions. And wealso want to say welcome to a vendor
that's here. And the vendor actuallyhas some goods that we'll be able to
talk about is Istamo's crafting, andwe'll be able to share some of her

(01:49):
business information. We'll be able totake a break. We'll be able to
let you know when that break is. But for right now, let's get
started. Welcome Elizabeth. I'm gladto have you here. We know that
you have several books that you've written, a major novel, some short stories.

(02:13):
We want the audience to get toknow you as a writer and a
person. So can you just kindof tell us what are you working on
now and give us an overview asfar as your writing style. Ah,
my writing style is a little bitall over the place. One of I

(02:38):
don't seem to confine myself to onegenre like Arden's Act is a historical romance.
I'm working on two different novels rightnow through the Kindlevella program on Amazon,
and one of them is a veryvery contemporary, almost free associating I

(03:07):
would call it a cross between irmaBombback meets John Dies at the end.
But I'm also working on a fantasynovel called The White Squirrel. Well when
did you start writing? What wasyour inspiration? I was nine years old

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and I had just finished a reallyyou know, fairly advanced chapter book for
a kid my age. It wasDotie Smith's novel version of one hundred and
one Dalmatians, and I had reallyloved the book, and I wanted something

(03:55):
else to read that would make mefeel like that, and I couldn't find
anything, so I decided to writemy own stuff. Okay, tell us
a little bit about yourself. Whereare you from? How long you've been
in Texas. I was born andraised in Michigan. I moved here over

(04:19):
over twenty five years ago. Now. And as far as places that you
live, you've lived in Cedar Park. Is that correct. That's great.
Well, that's over twenty five years. Yeah, that's awesome. So you
came from Michigan to Texas. No, actually there was a stopover in Arizona,

(04:42):
in Tucson. I lived in Tucsonfor a while when I was married,
and and that's where my kids wereborn. Amazing. Yeah, Well,
we're glad that you're here. We'reglad that you're here in Texas.
Now, I want to talk alittle bit about Arden's act. This is
Arden's act. Beautiful novel, beautifulnovel. I really liked how you were

(05:08):
able to bring out an essence ofbeing a woman in the sixteen hundreds in
London. What gave you the motivationto start with that time period? That
was the period my favorite period tostudy. While I was getting my English

(05:30):
degree at u of M. Ihad the best professor who just really made
the history of that period come tolife, and it fascinated me that this
was the time when women were allowedto be on stage. In Shakespeare's time,
they had men playing the female roles. And in sixteen sixty when when

(06:00):
King Charles the Second came to thethrone after about ten years of the protectorate,
after they had decapitated his father andit was no longer there was no
longer a king. There was OliverCromwell, the Lord Protector and because they

(06:21):
were Puritan, they shut down allthe entertainment. There was no theater.
But when it was ready to comeback under the king, women were finally
allowed to act on stage and playthe female parts. So that's amazing.
Yeah, Well, you definitely createdarm West. That's that's the name of

(06:44):
the character, to be a veryfeisty, determined individual. Now she could
definitely walk into a room and demandwhatever she wanted, even though she went
through a lot of stages. Ijust really you know, liked her development
as a character. What went intothe process of developing her as a character?

(07:10):
That's that's a that's a really hardquestion because in a way it some
of the right some of my writing. It's almost like it just comes to
me that I'm not one of thosepeople that draws out this big outline and
and this has to happen back then, and then I just kind of write

(07:33):
it all out. And I mean, you can't publish a romance or well,
you see, I originally this iswell actually this was picked up a
small publisher at first. Then theylet me have the rights back to it,
so I put out this this selfpublished edition of it. But you

(07:56):
can't sell a romance to a publishingcompany if there's not a happy ending.
So I mean, oh, spoilersof but you know, I knew eventually
she had to wind up here.Well, she definitely went through a lot
of trials, tribulations, situations asa woman. I mean, especially for

(08:22):
the time period, and you wereable to use I would say, really
great imagery, thank you, AndI really liked several parts, especially when
you were describing her. So justfor our audience, would you like to
read page thirty four. Sure,I think I haven't marked in my book

(08:50):
just so they can get an ideaof what the part that I have highlighted.
Okay, I think that that givesa very good example of the I
laugh a little because you know,one of the things they tell you is
like, never have a mirror scene, but do I listen? Arden took

(09:11):
another look at herself in the mirror. Yes, her green eyes recalled the
color of emeralds, and the lushdarkness of her hair gratified no matter what
Sir Williams said about fashion. Withher tresses piled on top of her head,
the widow's peek on her forehead stoodout more, emphasizing her heart shaped
face. Still a miracle really thatRobert Courtney found her attractive despite this garb.

(09:39):
He'd never have noticed her but thebut for the degeneracy of his friends.
So that tells you that she wasa beautiful woman, and she really
caught the eye of the society,and even though she had to go through
some elements in life. I reallyliked how you were able to describe her.

(10:03):
Now, as far as the othercharacters in the time frame, what
were you, what were you whatwas your thought process as far as the
conflict, What would you say wasthe conflict moment in the book? I
mean, there's so many, becauseshe has conflict with different people. The

(10:28):
thing that starts everything off is thatshe runs away from her puritan step father,
takes uh Lord Robert Courtney up onhis offer to become his mistress,
and that does put tread Well herstepfather off the trail for a time,

(10:50):
but he comes back. He windsup kidnapping her child. So she has
she has a lot of conflict with, but she also has conflict with the
hero of the story. He can'tquite I mean, for one thing,

(11:11):
he's he's supposed to be betrothed toa young a very very young woman,
basically waiting for her to grow upto be marriageable age before they solemnify the
thing, and he has every intentionof going through with that for a while.

(11:35):
You know, well, I thoughtit was a very well written.
Well, thank you. I appreciatethat a lot. Yes, And you
know, and I've read that you'vedone several different things. You also have
worth on an actual stage play calledThe Circle, and tell us about that.

(11:58):
I love that play. I'm hopingthat somehow it catches on because one
of the thing I think is reallycool about The Circle is that there is
a role for a male actor thatrequires so much talent because there's a character

(12:22):
who is a ghost and for almostthe entire play he doesn't speak, and
the audience can see him, butthe other people on the stage can't see
him. And I just think it'sa really fun idea and I really enjoyed

(12:50):
it's been in like like the versionthat actually was put on at the Way
off Broadway Theater that was in CedarPark. Now it's in Leander, but
that's kind of an earlier version ofthe play. I've kind of I've kind

(13:11):
of finalized it and and and publishedit. And I had had the idea
of trying to approach it a littledifferently and like cut out the middleman.
Uh, like, you know,I could I could give discounted rights because

(13:37):
I'm not Samuel French, you know, I don't need to pay a staff
or you know, and I justthought i would try and do something a
little new in the in the realmof playwriting. Well, what what are
your ideas as far as actually havinga place as a woman in this industry

(14:03):
in Texas. Do we see alot of women that are actually creating stage
plays. Do we have a lotof avenues in this area. What would
you like to see different? Iwould like to see more chances for new
work. I mean, I mean, I understand it. I understand that

(14:26):
community theater you know, almost everywhere, not just in Texas, but they're
going to fall back on the sameold standards because they know they can get
an audience and they can make themoney. I would like to see more
opportunity for more original work, morenew work. I think that would be

(14:50):
great, that would be really good. Well, I would like to also
talk about the crossing. I reallyliked your short stories. But before we
go into that, we want togive the audience an opportunity to write some
questions down. We can go oversome of their questions that they have for

(15:13):
your book, and we will givethem an opportunity to peruse your area.
So we're going to take a breaknow, and then when we come back,
we'll talk a little bit more aboutthe crossings. Do you have any
questions or anything that you would liketo post to the audience before we come
back. Really, we'll go aheadand take a break. Well, welcome

(15:43):
back from the break. You know, before the break we were talking about
your stage play Circle. I wantto just go a little bit more about
the Circle. As far as thestory, you know, as far as
I can recall, the story isabout school reunion. Yes, it was
an overview about that. Well,it's a very It's set in a very

(16:06):
particular time. It is the twentyyear reunion of the class of eighty one,
which just happened to be right beforenine to eleven. One of the
characters talks about looking back, itwas like all the all the balls on

(16:29):
the eve of World War One.Yeah, this time of fun and innocence
before something very drastic happened, youknow, right right, I know I
remember what it was like after nineeleven. You know, I think all
of us that are probably over fiftyI can remember that very well. But

(16:53):
you know what, what storyline wasIt based on your child? Childhood gave
you the idea. It actually wasbased on my twentieth reunion. In the
play, the heroine has a datewith somebody she has had a crush on

(17:18):
for years, and the ghost Imentioned earlier, his mission is to get
them together. That's like his hisgood deed that he wants to do.
And because he the ghost was alsoa member of that class, you know,
and the friends talk about, yeah, he made it to the fifth

(17:41):
year reunion. I don't know ifhe was at the ten, but you
know, he's not here, buthe is here, you know. So
it was basically his depiction of whathis class was like, encouraging them to
do things or get involved in theirown reunion. I think that's an excellent

(18:06):
story, you know. And Ithink now we want to just move forward
to the Crossings, And can youhold that book that's the short stories of
the Crossing And I love the actualphotography or the art work that you have
on the book. Tell us whatwas the thought process of the Crossings when

(18:30):
you developed? Well, I wantedto to me the stories in here are
about crossing boundaries, like between lifeand death, between social taboo and normality.

(18:55):
I like to I mean, there'sa little description on the back.
I can read it. Crossings takesus from one point to another, and
these stories journeys are made between differentstates of being. Boundaries are broken,
envelopes are pushed, beliefs are abandonedand replaced, and transgressions are entertained.

(19:15):
And occasionally acted upon. All ofthis is done by fairly ordinary people,
just like the ones sharing space withyou, even if their realm is not
your own. I love that's excellent. If that was excellent, you know,
I love the stories it goes fromthe early part of the book.

(19:38):
It makes you feel like you're thatperson, You're in that life. As
far as what it was like beingmarried, working, packing, moving,
just lived. I really liked thatpart of the first the first story in
the book. Now what intrigued mewas Lot's daughter. That story was amazing.

(20:06):
Thank you. I think that thatstory, you know, in most
modern day settings, it would becontroversial because it deals with homo sexuality.
But I think that's a subject thatwe have to talk about, and I
think you did it in a superbway. You brought the characters alive.
What was your thought process when youwere writing Lots Darter. Well, you

(20:33):
know, I had heard about theseplaces that or you know, organizations that
tried to you know, you know, fundamentalist Christian organizations that tried to cure
or reprogram gay people. And Ithought that that, in addition to the

(21:02):
obvious problems with that, that thisis going to be really horrible for the
people. You know, like saya gay man goes through one of these
programs and is convinced he's cured oryou know, he can he can fight

(21:25):
his temptation. So so he marriesa girl. So what's that going to
be like for her? And Ithought that, you know, it's not
only the obvious victims, you know, the gay people, but like in
Lot's Daughter, the heroine of thestory is the daughter of a minister who

(21:48):
is very much involved in one ofthese programs and brings his his projects home
to dinner and different things that andshe winds up marrying one of them,
and it falls apart. Yeah,it falls apart. But at the same

(22:11):
time, it has a lot ofconflict throughout the story. You know,
right now we're talking, we're righthere in a church, but we're in
a church that supports everyone, sowe know that there's going to be situations
where there's going to be married,lesbian relationships. There's going to be conflict.

(22:37):
And I like the fact how yougave the character's life. You gave
them individuality, you know. Imean, for instance, the father,
the name of his ministry was StraightLife Ministries, So you were able to
give a reader an idea of whatyou're talking and it didn't matter if they

(23:02):
were twelve, or if they weresixty, or if they were older.
They could get the idea of wherethe story was going. One of the
parts that I really liked was howyou used the conflict of Stacy the sister.
Yeah, because Stacy is a minor, so sometimes you don't see where

(23:23):
the miners are given a major rolein a story. But Stacy really added
a lot of debt. You know, she represented a lot of the pushback
that we would get in the worldtoday. So I really thought Last Daughter
was awesome. I liked how youstarted off with the actual scripture as a

(23:52):
comparison. I thought that was donevery well because that's what it reminded me
of. The whole situation was thebiblical story of of Lot having when he
has the visitation from the angels andthe people of I don't know, is
it Sodom or Gomora, one ofone of the I think it was.

(24:15):
I think it was Sodom. Andyou know, the people outside are banging
non Lot story, saying, hey, bring out your guests, we want
to party with them, you know, and he offers them his daughter instead,
you know, just kind of likewhat kind of father would do that,
right, a father that would thinkhis daughter is strong enough to change

(24:40):
them. And sometimes we don't thinkthat, We don't think that when we
hear that verse that that's what themeaning is. But the character, Laura,
she was very courageous. I thinkit's an awesome read. I think
anyone that's dealing with the situation homosexualitythat want to learn more about it,

(25:03):
they need to read that. Itgives you a really good idea of,
like you said, not only theindividual, the man that was faced with
the challenge, but also the peoplesurrounding within his world how they were dealing
with it. So I thought thatwas great, you know, and you

(25:23):
also did really good imagery in thatstory as well. And I want to
read on page forty four, wherewould you like? You can go from

(25:48):
the top the top of page fortyfour toward the living Piel, and I
think it's toward the middle. Okay, Oh, okay, I found it.
I found it. Okay. Iwatched him and when he reached the

(26:11):
invitation, I said, I'm sorryI opened that. I thought it was
addressed to both of us. That'sokay, Laura, he didn't realize yet
what he held. When he did, his face went first white, then
scarlet. He stared at the invitationand Vera's note for a long time.
The note brought wistfulness to his expression, and I trembled. Daddy would have

(26:37):
commanded me to speak, to tellRyan what a sin filled thing he held
in his hand, and to remindhim how horribly deceived this Vera was.
I said nothing. Neither did myhusband, thank god, and maybe thanks
to my furtive glare looking at Ryan, neither did Stacy. Ryan rose and

(27:00):
through the envelope and its contents intothe kitchen garbage. We managed to get
through dinner and the rest of theevening. In small talk. I wanted
to ask about the invitation, toextract Ryan's assurance he wouldn't attend this invitation
sacrament, but I didn't know howto say the words, not to mention.

(27:22):
I feared urging him to deprive Stacyof her alurid spectacle would provoke her
beyond resistance. I wanted Ryan totalk to me, but either he also
didn't know what to say, orhe wanted to avoid the subject. I'm
sure Stacy's presence at the table didnot help. Perhaps Ryan truly forgot the

(27:47):
invitation once he disposed of it,I could not while he slept, I
slipped from our bed and fished itfrom the trash. From some motive I
still do not understand, grated lemonpeel from it and put it in my
purse. Awesome, I mean,that is awesome. It just tells the

(28:07):
mindset of the storyline. I mean, without giving away too much of the
book, it's an invitation to alesbian wedding, and she's afraid that he's
going to go behind her back.So's she decides to take her sister because

(28:30):
her sister really wants to go.Ye, she just wants to see it.
She's curious. And this story wasyou know, one of the things
I do in this book is Iput little introductory remarks at the beginning of
the story. And this story waswritten in twenty twelve, before gay marriage

(28:51):
was legalized, but obviously some churchesdid it anyway, and that is the
situation in the in the book.Oh, and it's an amazing depicture.
I mean, I'm very proud togo to an Episcopal church. We've actually
had a lesbian marriage too here,and it was something that we were very

(29:18):
proud to be a part of.So I just want to include that it
was something that was educational where everyoneneeds to be open to see what the
process is like, not only forthe person that's going through the battle,
but the people that are part oftheir life. So we really thank you
as far as that particular part ofthe book. The overall book of short

(29:41):
stories is great. Was there anothersection or another story that you have a
favorite in Crossings? Oh, there'sthere's ah. I like so many.
I mean, that's that sounds soegotistical, but I had so much fun

(30:06):
writing a mediocre and fairly public place. That's about a young man who collaborated
on a musical with an older womanand they were friends, and she passed

(30:29):
away, and she tasked him withsneaking some of her ashes to scatter over
her boyfriend's remains, her married boyfriendsremains after he passes because she passed before
him, and he's sneaking in thecemetery and he happens to meet the man's

(30:53):
daughter and they it and she eventuallylets him do it. It's it's it's
there's a lot of humor in it. It's in the name of that story,
I think a mediocre and fairly publicplace. It's kind of a It's

(31:18):
I met it as a as aplay on Peter Beagle's uh Find and Fine
in Private Place, his story aboutthe two dead people in the who fall
in love in the cemetery. Butwe really appreciate that. And before we

(31:38):
close, are there other writing opportunities? Anything that you want to talk about
about Central Texas writing overall? Mmhmm. I I guess one of the
other reasons I liked that story.It was really my first story set in

(31:59):
Texas because I grew up in Michigan, and I tend to think of myself
as a Michigan writer. But I'mslow, I'm slowly acclimating, and so
I feel like I don't know thatmuch about Central Texas writers per se.

(32:22):
I kind of do this a littlebit in isolation. I was in a
writer's group with my friends here,but that was a long time ago,
because I eventually decided that with afull time job, I could not spend
all the time reading other people's stuffand critiquing it rather than just working on

(32:47):
my own stuff. I mean,I I needed the critiques. I enjoyed
the feedback I got but the timeto to actually put stuff out there,
I needed to concentrate on that.Well, we definitely understand that, and

(33:08):
that's one of the reasons why we'rehere. I mean, we have writers
like W. C. Jamison,Russ Hall, Rothia he came here just
last month, Rothia James. Andwe're just so glad that you're here,
Elizabeth Thomas. And eventually we maydo a writer's workshop and we will definitely

(33:30):
let you know and keep you postedin that. And so that will end
our writers series this evening, andwe just want to say thank you,
thank you for having me. Ohabsolutely, and again hold us the Crossings
as the Crossings guys, and pleasegive her a hand. She did such
a great job. Thank you.And we just want to be able to

(33:55):
say you will be able to seethis podcast on Seeing to Do and Saint
PETERSLV dot org. It will beavailable on a podcast with iHeartRadio and Spotify,
and you could also check out Elizabeth'sFacebook page and can you give us

(34:16):
your email address, It is emThomas sixty three at gmail dot com.
And again I'm Elizabeth Colvin with Singleto Do. We have nice goodies from
Chef in the House. We alsohave a beautiful business again Estamos Crafting.

(34:37):
She has some beautiful items and seein Cedar Park and I just want to
tell you something about her business aswell. She's a small crafting business Latina
owned with ants close family members inCedar Park. They have event information on

(34:59):
ins Instagram and next week she'll beat Red Horn Cafe Raffila. We welcome
you, We thank you, Weappreciate you being a part of Single to
Do tonight at Saint Peter's and againthank you everyone for being here with us
tonight. Hi. This Soliicath Colvinwas Single to Do. Thank you for

(35:30):
listening to our podcasts. And wejust want to say thank you to our
Single to Do team, the Cityof Laga Vista, our Bishop's Committee,
Sumner's Productions, all writers around theworld. We wish you peace, love
and tranquility. Remember to like andshare. Have a great day.