Meet Sally Whitney! Her new novel, When Enemies Offend Thee, takes her readers on a thrilling ride. In this interview, she discusses how her narratives evolve into spellbinding mysteries. Some of her answers may surprise you!
Although Sally Whitney has spent most of her adult life in other parts of the United States, her imagination lives in the South, the homeland of her childhood. Both of her novels, When Enemies Offend Thee (Pen-L Publishing 2020) and Surface and Shadow (Pen-L Publishing 2016) take place in the fictional town of Tanner, N.C. The short stories she writes have been published in literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest 2017 and Grow Old Along With Me—The Best Is Yet To Be, the audio version of which was a Grammy Award finalist. She currently lives in Pennsylvania and can be reached at www.sallywhitney.com, www.facebook.com/sallymwhitney, www.Twitter.com/1SallyWhitney, and www.Instagram.com/smwhitney65.
Your new novel When Enemies Offend Thee is in a different genre than your first one. What 
caused you to shift to the thriller vein? Who are your favorite writers in that genre?
I didn’t actually set out to write a thriller, but as the story developed, that’s what it became. My first novel, Surface and Shadow, is a suspense/mystery novel, and I thought this one would go in the suspense direction. As the main character became bolder, however, and her efforts to secure justice grew riskier, I realized the novel had taken on a different tone and would appeal to readers of thrillers. My favorite authors of thrillers include Gillian Flynn and Stieg Larsson.
When was this novel released?
March 1, 2020—twelve days before most of the country shut down for the pandemic.
How have you been promoting it during the pandemic?
The launch party for When Enemies Offend Thee was scheduled for March 15 at a local bookstore, but of course it and any other in-person events I had planned had to be canceled. Since then, I’ve learned many new skills in social media, including Facebook live, Twitter live, and Instagram stories, and I have a few YouTube videos. I’ve also done podcasts and online interviews like this one, plus an online book tour. I’ve really missed the in-person events, but the online activities have been fun and probably reached more people.
What were the seeds for the characters in this novel?
I create all my characters from bits and pieces of people I’ve known and people I’d like to know. Clementine, the leading character in When Enemies Offend Thee, grew from many middle-aged women I’ve known with the addition of more daring than I’ve often seen.
Who are your literary influences or inspiration?
I draw inspiration from several authors for different reasons. The first is Anthony Doerr for his elegant use of language. The entire time I was reading All the Light We Cannot See, I marveled at the way he puts words together. It’s like poetry. The second is Lee Smith for the way she’s able to capture the essence of southern characters and places in all her stories and novels. The U.S. South has an aura all its own, and it’s one thing to feel it, but to be able to convey it the way she does is remarkable. The third is Barbara Kingsolver for her ability to address important issues in her stories and novels so skillfully. Her concern for the environment is palpable in her work but never detracts from the characters or the stories.
Do you work from an outline? Do you know how the narrative is going to end before you start writing?
I don’t work from an outline, but I do work from a plan. I need to know who the major characters are and what their primary challenge is going to be before I start writing. I also need to know at least a few of the scenes I’ll use to develop that challenge to make sure I make it believable. Usually, I have ideas for one or two subplots. For both Surface and Shadow and When Enemies Offend Thee, I had no idea how the narrative was going to end. I just knew the characters had a lot to deal with, and the endings came to me as I wrote. I like the analogy that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. Your headlights only show you 20 feet in front of you, but they’ll get you where you’re going.
Do you have a favorite character from one of your novels, and if so, why is s/he a favorite?
Of course, I love my leading characters. They’re the ones I put through the ringer, and I know how hard they work to solve the problems I give them. But I also have special feelings for the quirkiest supporting characters because they’re so much fun to create. For example, Pete Ritchie, who owns the hardware store in When Enemies Offend Thee, is dear to me. I can easily see his long, thin face, and I loved writing the mangled Bible verses he likes to recite so much that the title of the novel comes from one of them.
Who or what is your muse?
I like what Barbara Kingsolver said about muse: “My muse is a 12-year-old kid in a backwards baseball cap who comes up behind me when the school bus leaves and says, ‘All right, writer lady, you’ve got six hours to get something on the paper before they come home.’” I also think muse is the lady who will join me at the desk if I make her comfortable and give her enough opportunity through concentration and imagination.
Do your novels have an underlying message?
Yes, my novels have a message, but I hope it’s not underlying. I hope it’s right there for the reader to sink her teeth into. One of my goals in writing fiction is to encourage readers to think about themselves and others in ways that they haven’t before. With When Enemies Offend Thee, I hope readers will question what they would do in the same circumstance and just how far they would go to right a wrong that had been done to them.
What writing mistakes do you find yourself making most often?
Writing too much description. I love details—the sights, scents, sounds, tastes and feel of a scene. Once I get going on all that, it’s hard to stop, but I know too much detail can slow down the narrative, so I have to rein myself in.
What final word do you want to leave with the reader of this interview?
Thank you for being a reader of interviews, and I hope you read novels, magazines, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, too. The world needs readers because if they are selective about what they read, then that’s where wisdom comes from.
