All Comments on 'Inspiration from the Piney Woods'

Damn hot. Got to love the set up and backdrop. Excellent work on that.

Lots of words without much context, I was expecting more. Nice ending though.

Remember those red roads of North Carolina!

I Don't usually read the interracial stories, a lot of the stories are too ignorant, skin colour is only like hair, comes in different colours. Everybody is the same with only cultural backgrounds being different. When as white British I started dating my black British girlfriend I was aware that people would notice us just because we were different. After a few weeks I realised I didn't care. I didn't have a black girlfriend, I just had a girlfriend. 34 years later I love her just as much. This was a great story, loved where it went, and pleased where it ended.

IF this were a true story then true respect to couples who were together in those difficult times. Crazy that mixed marriage was illegal till 1967, but even more crazy that in 2000 when state laws were being reformed, to remove the 1901 ban on mixed marriage, 40% of the state voted for NO. Still too much ignorance. Well had my rant. Good story. 5 star 🌟

I believe this is the first of your stories that I have read, and it was a very good introduction. I certainly believe you crafted a very fine, high-quality story that certainly is one worthy of Interracial Romance. In fact it's going to be one of the few good outputs in that category, as I've not seen many of my favorite authors produce anything in there for years, and every time I poke my head back in there, I usually just find some meaningless drivel published by certain authors, so to read something like this that explores at least a little bit of the opposite side is quite refreshing to read. I'm also a little bit taken aback as to why a quality story of this kind only had four comments as of this date, as that just strikes me as tremendously short-sighted on the part of perhaps certain readers or perhaps some other factor I can't name.

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First of all, anytime we're talking about historical fiction, I do certain spot checks of the narrative to see if it's trying to place certain historical markers accurately. Of course your Superman part was spot on as he came out in the late 1920s; then you mentioned the bar of Ivory, which was first available to the public in the United States in 1879, so that one was a real no brainer; you then talked about pit production of charcoal, which is kind of borderline... as it quickly depleted forest areas, although the article I was able to find mentioned that average production in Alabama was 30-35 bushels per day I believe. The part that kind of stretches the believability, as the last charcoal

-fired smelter was shut down in 1945 which basically means that to place this in the 1940s puts it very close to the end. The one however that did stick out like a sore thumb was the Gene Autry show, which did not air until July of 1950 and went through about August 1956, so I'm not sure if you got your time period confused with being able to say okay he's talking about modern day 1950s Alabama. However when the initial story took place it was in the 40s. So that one piece kind of messes things up a bit. However I don't believe it sinks your story at all.. but I would be careful about using that in the future, because there's always going to be one or two like me that's going to check up the historical facts when there's this kind of historical fiction piece.

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One thing I kind of find intriguing but that you didn't talk much about was the promise Carla made to Audrie about teaching Jesse about sex. While I believe that was an important thing that should not have been omitted, I'm not going to necessarily rail against it.. however, I believe 5-6 sentences could have sufficed to explain why she made that promise or why Jesse's mother felt it so important. Also, it would have been nice to have gotten perhaps three or four sentences as to why Jesse was defending the Black man, in terms of what his crime was. Of course, It kind of sounds like he may have been accused of murder or some kind of manslaughter, but since the story doesn't provide it, it's a little bit of a stretch. I don't believe that any author has to take and lead the reader to every last fact, but some things like that should be explicitly stated.

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Now, for one thing, I really appreciate how you so richly described the experience of working in the charcoal pits. From the sweats, to talking about how Rebecca kind of sashayed among them confidently, to the very common practice of chewing tobacco.. along with swimming in the pond, and walking along the red dirt roads, you provided a realistic and believable setting. Sometimes though I do think for example stating things about the charcoal bag being sewn up wasn't necessarily vital to the story, and certainly not to what you posited, which was a coming-of-age story and how this Jesse was going to stand up for the American way. There definitely some elements in there that could have been cut out and paved way for a little bit more description on why Jesse believed there should be better treatment of Blacks, as this story hints at really and why it was so important to him. For example, when you mentioned Superman, you have to actually know of a Elseworlds trade paperback called The Nail, where somehow Superman does not become a superhero, yet he's raised in an Amish community in Kansas instead of by the Kents. Having that huge gap in the Justice League without him, the Justice League is almost defeated by a Kryptonian-spliced Jimmy Olsen of all people! In fact Jimmy's plan is nearly so perfect that he almost pulls it off, because he incapacitates and has the entire Justice League captured, excluding only Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Atom and Catwoman. It turns out that Superman does come to the rescue, but he doesn't even know he's Kal-el. So what happens is he outlasts Jimmy, who crumbles into dust. The only way the Justice League ever gets back their credibility is precisely because the whole world comes to know that Superman is an alien that decided to adopt Earth as his home, and is now willing to protect it with his very life and is very service. So you should have also had something about that as a part of Jesse's ideology to becoming a lawyer and serving the community and the underserved population. Despite that, I really loved how you humanized Rebecca at the end by having the story manifest she supported Jesse's studies by reading and helping digest legal precedent to help him understand and to succeed in obviously graduating from the University of Alabama, and obviously becoming qualified as a lawyer of the time. At first, I have to admit that you kind of tried to misdirect the audience into thinking that Rebecca was going to be a one-time fling, and Jesse was just going to some kind of memory forward to help him move into being a lawyer as a way of life. So it was a very welcome and lovely gesture to include her as such an integral part of his life, because yes if we were talking about real life.. it would have been extremely difficult for Rebecca to have continued living in 1940s or even 1950s Alabama, as the worst states for Blacks at that time before the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 would have been Mississippi as the worst, then Alabama, then Louisiana. So, we have to suspend a little belief, but you created a world plausible and believable enough to get past that.

****

I have to admit that upon a little further reflection on evaluating this piece that if the circumstances were different, and I had read a few more of your works beforehand, I would be rating it lower. However, because this is a very largely and well executed tale, I'm going to say it's worth a 5. Despite that, I would recommend in the future that for any historical fiction pieces, you be exceptionally careful about the things you place in it as markers, so it doesn't seem like something is deliberately missed or omitted that should be there, or that is somehow misplaced and therefore can subtract from the story. There is one author here that writes excellent historical fiction pieces, and he succeeds very well because he researches his stuff very well. It's kind of a shame he hasn't won any awards in his return to Lit, but hopefully that will change. I would strongly recommend you read a few historical pieces from Ronde, who excels at this time of story. I regularly fact-check his stuff, and it's obvious that there's very few times he ever loses a detail critical to building the credibility of his story. So, because of this largely well written story, I'm going to say that this is worth a 5. I will be reading some of your other stories, and I definitely appreciate the richness of detail and willingness to describe most of all the important things needed to have a story reach the level of that kind of score. In reality, I don't feel that you left anything super super important out, although they're certainly some spots you can improve upon. So thank you for sharing a well-composed piece with us!

I have to that I appreciate this gem far more now, because at least one or two other entries in the category in general are just plain awful.. and your work really deserves to be spotlighted a lot more. I know the comment percentages are low- - basically being 1% or less probably - - but know that you have a reader here that is rooting for you to do more in this category, if you wish to write more in it of course. I'd love to read more of your stuff and certainly you have gained a follower! Hope to be reading more from you soon.