A couple of years ago (well, November of 2022, to be exact), I wrote a column about Martin Hegwood winning the Faulkner Award for his then unpublished novel, Memphis. The Faulkner is one of the most prestigious and highly contested writing competitions in the United States, so that accomplishment made us all “Pascagoula Proud” of our native son.
Ah, but Martin’s novel is no longer unpublished. The newly titled Queen of Memphis came out this past autumn, and it has lived up to its Faulkner Award billing. So much so that the book has recently been named as Read of the Month for January by Southern Literary Review. Having read it as soon as I could (OK, Martin sent me an advance copy), I can absolutely see why Queen of Memphis has received such recognition.
“The Southern Literary Review called Queen of Memphis ‘the must-read Southern novel of the year’, and I feel really good about that,” Martin told me. “After my Jack Delmas private eye series, my writing bug went into remission for years, but out of the blue, I experienced a flare-up and once again got the urge to write something.”
Writing is hard work, and it took Martin several years to bring Queen from a storyboard idea to fruition. Along the way, we’ve discussed the progress of the project, so I have been particularly interested in watching the final product appear on the pages. Recently, I asked Martin what gave him the idea for the storyline for Queen of Memphis.
“For me, characters are the starting point (with setting coming next), because I have found that if I can create characters who come alive in my mind, they will go a long way toward telling the story for me,” Martin explained. “I had been in and around the world of lobbying for years, and there was a lot of material there with which I was familiar, so I decided the novel would revolve around a lobbyist.
“I thought I would make him a thirty-something man from a wealthy, socially prominent Memphis family. This family was typical of such families everywhere, and they were fairly predictable and therefore boring.
“So, to spice them up some, I made the family matriarch a complete outsider. Her name is Lu Ann, originally from a small town in the Mississippi Delta, and she’s a former beauty pageant winner now in the entertainment industry. Having married into the family, she’s a total departure from what they’re used to—the antithesis of what a staid, stuffy bunch of blue bloods would want. That adds some much needed conflict, and spices things up.”
Hoo, boy, does it. As I read Queen of Memphis, I was struck by how familiar so many of the characters were to me. We’ve all known somebody like Lu Ann and many of the other folks found in the narrative. . One of the charms of Martin’s books is the grasp he has on his characters and his ability to make us know them, like them, or not like them.
In fact, here’s what I wrote for the blurb I was privileged to have been asked to provide for the back cover of the novel:
“Author Martin Hegwood is back, and we as fiction aficionados are all the better for it. Hegwood brought us the terrifically entertaining Jack Delmas series a few years ago, starting with the stellar Big Easy Backroad, and we’ve been waiting for his words to reappear ever since Jackpot Bay concluded. Now, Hegwood returns to the pages with a vengeance through Queen of Memphis. This tale is part Southern Gothic, part a lifestyle commentary, and in totality, consuming, hilarious, and thought provoking.
“Queen of Memphis is populated by characters we who grew up in the South (or perhaps anywhere) all know. We went to school with a Lu Ann. We early on played ball with an Ike, then later on in life did business with him. As you read about the Winnforths of Memphis and all those in their orbit, you will experience a knowing familiarity.”
Hmmm—“…waiting for his words to reappear…”; “…a skilled yarn spinner…”—maybe I should have a side hustle as a blurb writer. Nah, but it was fun and gratifying to weigh in on my friend’s excellent new piece.
“All of us have stories in our subconscious minds,” said Martin. “The writer has to tap into that , and the more often he or she does so, the easier it becomes. I’ve heard it referred to as ‘the writer’s muse’, and I picture it as a sort of elfin creature who sits on your shoulder and whispers in your ear, directing you as you write.
“The more you write and work at tapping into your subconscious, the better you get at pulling it up. In the case of Queen of Memphis, once the cast of characters and setting were in place, the story just began to flow.”
Indeed it did. Bravo, Martin—and please keep ‘em coming.
Richard Lucas may be contacted at [email protected].
