The Darling Dahlias Backstory

BookScapes 14, September 2024. Part 1.

Several readers have reminded me (thank you!) of my promise to write several posts on the Darling Dahlias series. Here’s the first post, the backstory, with plot synopses and—for supporters—a few questions about historical fiction and (drumroll please!) the September Book Bundle drawing.

Dear Reader,

The author of this book has kindly asked us--the officers of the Darling Dahlias Garden Club--to write this letter to you. She wants us to let you know that we’ve read this story and agree with her version of what went on during the month of May, 1930, when some things happened which shouldn’t have happened in any God-fearing town, much less in Darling, Alabama, which has four churches, 907 good Christian people (soon to be 909, because Mrs. Perkins is expecting twins), and only a few Bad Apples.

Of course, in a story, it’s usually the Bad Apples who get all the attention, so we want to warn you not to pay too much attention to them. You should look instead at the way everybody else is behaving and doing what they ought to do, which is to help one another and follow the Golden Rule, even though (as a certain few would like to have you believe) it turns that he who has the gold, rules. In this case, silver and gold, both. But we won’t say anything more about that, since we don’t want to spoil the story for you . . .

That’s the first page of the first book in my 10-book Darling Dahlias series. The year was 2008, also an election year, and the national anxiety had reached record highs. The unregulated shadow banking system was crashing, Lehman Brothers had folded like a bad bet, and panicked Americans were wondering how in heaven’s name we were going to dig ourselves out of what the history books would call the Great Recession. Jobs, houses, IRAs and savings accounts—it was all threatened. Where were we headed? Were things going to get as bad as they did in the Great Depression of the 1930s? Serious times, serious problems, serious questions.

Maybe not the best time to jump into a new multi-year writing project.

But Bill and I had wrapped up our Robin Paige series. I had just finished Wormwood and was working on the final book in the Cottage Tale series. In my spare time (!) I was reading about life in the 1930s, thinking ahead to the project that would become the Depression-era novel, A Wilder Rose.

And I was beginning to play with an idea for a 1930s mystery series. My editor might not think it was the right time for a new series, market-wise, but I had something to write about and an empty slot in the writing schedule. I wanted to get started.

That’s where I was—where we all were—in 2008, an even more chaotic year than this year. in full retreat from the daily financial news, I plunged headfirst into the 1930s, when times were even tougher but fathers held on, mothers made do, and neighbors looked out for neighbors.

And by the time Bill and I had finished that year’s book tour (three weeks in the van and dozens of libraries, clubs, bookstores in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic states), I knew where I wanted to set the project. We had stopped in Monroeville, Alabama, the fictional Maycomb, site of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I was fascinated by the town and the people. I wanted to write about a town like that, peopled with characters like Atticus and Calpurnia and the kids. And the town, which (in my mind) was a character in its own right, starring the Courthouse. In ways that might be hard for us to understand today, it was the heart of the town.

Historic Monroe County Courthouse, Monroeville AL

The first book would be set in 1930 and involve a garden club, the Darling Dahlias. At that point, I was thinking of a twelve-book arc, in four sections spanning roughly a decade, tracing the town’s adventures—and misadventures. These were mysteries, after all, and life in Darling (as it was in fictional Maycomb) was more than garden parties and pink lemonade. Somebody was always getting into trouble, often serious, sometimes fatal.

Here’s how the first half of that series arc would eventually play out in the completed books.

Books 1-3. 1930-1931

It’s the first full year of the Great Depression and Washington seems incapable of coping with the economic disaster that began with Black Tuesday, October,1929. Prohibition has led to the rise of crime lords, and their influence threatens to spill over into America’s small towns. But the Dahlias Garden Club manages to find sunny spots in the lengthening shadows.

• Book 1. The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree. May, 1930 (published 2010) The Dahlias have just inherited a new clubhouse—and with it, a bushel of mysteries. When local blond bombshell Bunny Scott is found dead in a suspicious car wreck, the Dahlias decide to dig into the town’s buried secrets, and club members Liz (Benton Mosely’s legal secretary), Ophelia (reporter, wife of the local feed store owner), and Verna (secretary to the County Probate Clerk) soon find leads sprouting up faster than weeds. The town is abuzz with news of an escaped convict from the prison farm, rumors of trouble at the bank, and tales of a ghost glimpsed digging around the Dahlias’ cucumber tree.

• Book 2. The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies. November, 1930, published 2011) The hometown ladies (Liz, Verna, Bessie (landlady at Magnolia Manor), and Myra Mae (owner of the Darling Diner) meet Miss Lorelei LaMotte, the famous Ziegfeld Frolics dancer, and a mysterious man from Cicero, Illinois, the hometown of Al Capone. Can Nona Jean Jamison have anything to do with the infamous criminal behind the bloody Valentine’s Day Massacre? And how can anybody practice for the annual Talent Show if bullets start whizzing through the air? It looks like big-city crime has invaded Darling—and not even the indomitable Dahlias can stop it.

• Book 3. The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose. May, 1931 (published 2012) The Dahlias are at it again, trying to solve a whole bouquet of mysteries. Verna's in a jam over money missing from the county treasury, Beulah (of Beulah’s Beauty Bower must learn why Angelina Biggs' hair is falling out, and Bessie is trying to solve the puzzle of librarian Miss Rogers' real identity: Who was the Confederate Rose and what does she have to do with the Dahlias?

Books 4-6. 1932-1934

Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the 1932 election and starts to implement big national changes that affect even small towns. In Darling, the Savings and Trust is in serious trouble and the town considers a scheme for printing its own currency to tide them over until money is available again. There are even more changes when the Civilian Conservation Corps decides to build a camp nearby, giving Darling a boost but bringing trouble, too. Townfolk find their lives turned upside-down by the arrival of an air show and a female pilot, the possibility of new jobs for some of the Dahlias, and even by the weather, when a hurricane comes to town.

• The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star. July, 1932 (published 2013) The Texas Star herself—Miss Lily Dare, famous aviatrix and the "fastest woman in the world"—is bringing her Dare Devils Flying Circus to Darling. Unfortunately, she's also bringing a whole lot of trouble, especially for Mildred Kilgore, whose picture-perfect life is the envy of the town. As the Dahlias prepare for the annual Watermelon Festival—where they will present the famous female aviatrix with her own Texas Star hibiscus—rumors are . . . well, flying.

• The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush. May, 1933 (published 2014) Darling is trying to cope with the big threat to its little bank and to one of its local cottage industries, moonshine. Meanwhile, troubles of the heart plague Verna and Liz. The silver dollar bush (Lunaria) is one of my favorite plants, and the plot of this book is one of my personal favorites in this series. Many towns in the early 30s faced just this dilemma: how to come up with money to keep people alive when there simply wasn't any.

• The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady. June, 1934 (published 2015) The Eleven O'Clock Lady ain't no lady—at least, that's what Sheriff Buddy Norris and the Darling Dahlias fear. When she's found strangled, the roots of the matter seem to twist around everything else in Darling, threatening the uneasy relationship between the town and the new CCC camp. Then a hurricane blows into town and upends everyone’s carefully-laid plans.

And Then . . .

In publishing, the name of the game is change—especially in this era of rapidly changing information technologies. In 2015, Berkley (my publisher) underwent a major reorganization. A number of editors left and my longtime and very dear editor retired.

But by that time, I had created Persevero Press (2012) and had already begun to publish books in my Hidden Women’s series. While I finished the books that were under contract to Berkley, I thought about what I wanted to do with my two ongoing mystery series. Did I want to keep them at Berkley or include them in my own publishing plans? Was I ready to take the leap and become a full-fledged indie author or would I stay with my legacy publisher for the rest of my writing life?

Next time, I’ll tell you the rest of the story. [Update: click here for that post.]

In the meantime, Virgo Season is coming to a close. Virgos, did you get everything done that you planned to do? If not, you’re running out of time. (And you know how Virgo hates to run out of time!) Look for me again on Monday, Sep 23, with Growing Green with the Zodiac: Libra Season.

Supporters, stay tuned for some thoughts on historical fiction and (of course!) the September Book Bundle drawing. Others, if you’ve been meaning to upgrade your subscription, maybe now’s the time to do it.