Thumper's Corner Home

Gloria Mallette Chat Transcript - February 4, Wednesday 8:00 p.m.

Gloria: = Gloria Mallette:

Gloria: Hi, Thumper


Thumper: Hello Gloria, how are you doing this evening?


Gloria: I'm fine. I'm excited to be speaking (typing) with you


Gloria: How are you?


Thumper: I am fine, thank you. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you. I should have had you here a long while ago.


Gloria: There is no better time than the present. Thank you for inviting me at all.


Gloria: Is that too light?


Gloria: I'm trying colors here.


Thumper: A little bit. As you already know, I love...LOVE your new novel The Honey Well.


Thumper: I like the green.


Gloria: Thank you, Thumper. I've read your review at least ten times. I love it.


Gloria: The Honey Well was fun to write


Thumper: Ah now, you're making me blush. How did you come to create the charcters in The Honey Well, especially Esther?


Gloria: Well, I'd heard a story years back about a woman back in the 1930's....


Gloria: down in SC who's husband died and left her with six daughters to raise....


Gloria: with no viable means of support, this woman turned her daughters into prostitutes


Gloria: and her home into a brothel. This is a true story.


Gloria: I wanted to know what kind of mother would do that?


Thumper: No kidding.


Gloria: So I created Esther. A manipulative, calculating, vindictive witch. No kidding.


Thumper: Esther's love for Arnell, I think, was twisted. She loved her but wanted to use her.


Thumper: Did Esther love Arnell?


Gloria: Exactly. Esther's money was initially tied up in Arnell.


Gloria: Yes, I believe Esther loved Arnell. They were all each other had.


Gloria: But Esther let the almighty dollar become her God


Gloria: To Esther, Arnell meant money


Thumper: Esther certainly built a career on Arnell's back that's for sure.


Shevi: LOGGED IN


Thumper: But why did Arnell stay for so long, even after she had a house, a college degree and all that?


Gloria: For sure. Yesterday, I got an e-mail wherein the writer said that it was as if I watched her grow up.


Thumper: Hello Shevi, how are you this evening?


Gloria: Hi, Shevi


Gloria: Arnell stayed because to Arnell Esther was her only family. She had been attached at her mother's hip since she was three


Shevi: Good, and excited to be here!


Thumper: Gloria: Did you have any qualms protraying a truly dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship?


Gloria: Qualms? Please. Not at all. I've seen dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship in the real world.


Gloria: They truly exist and at times, it has nothing to do with jealousy, but control


Gloria: What I worried about was how readers would receive Esther. Of course, every one hates her.


Thumper: With Esther, it was a love-to-hate thing.


Gloria: But book club members have told me that they have had issues with their mothers.


Gloria: YEs, Thumper, I agree---love to hate


Thumper: Esther was the perfect villian.


Thumper: She did evil things, but there was a side to her that was touching and loving. She was complex.


Shevi: Esther was a hard to love, glad she was fictional.


Thumper: And THAT'S what I loved most about her.


Gloria: Yes, but she was to be pitied. She had her own baggage from her childhood.


Gloria: Arnell had self esteem issues, while Esther had anger issues.


Thumper: Yes, I agree.


Gloria: YEs, Shevi, this Esther was fictional, but what about Shanta Kimes? Did I spell that even close?


Shevi: Is there a chance for a sequel, digging into Esther's past, explaining why she acted that way?


Gloria: What she did to Kenneth Kimes is a sin? Thumper, like Arnell, Kenneth in real life stayed with his mother


Gloria: Well, Esther was molested by an Uncle and she probably felt that her father, who was a minister, should have done something to help her, but her father never knew.


Gloria: Sequel? At this point, I don't do sequels.


Thumper: With Arnell, you had to walk a fine line. She could either have went to sappy or too strong. Did you have any concerns with how Arnell would be preceived?


Gloria: Well, I knew that readers would ask the question you asked about why she stayed


Gloria: Most have said that they would have kicked their mother's behind


Gloria: Some felt that Arnell should have been stronger and maybe left after she got the money she acquired, but many felt that Arnell's self esteem had been compromised


Shevi: She respected her mother in spite of the things she did.


Gloria: I wanted Arnell to find her strength and take on Esther but until Trena showed up, Arnell wasn't strong enough


Gloria: No, I don't believe Arnell respected Esther, I believe she loved her but hated her for what she did to her.


Gloria: In Trena, Arnell saw herself and in saving Trena from Esther, in a way saved herself.


Thumper: Were you worried about the reception The Honey Well would recieve with the same audience that loved Promises To Keep and Shades of Jade?


Gloria: Oh, yes, I certainly was. Thumper, you hit that one on the head.


Gloria: Readers all tell me that none of my books are the same. So I knew this one was far from Promises to Keep and Weeping Willows Dance


Gloria: Especially Weeping Willows---my grandmother's story.


Gloria: But thankfully, readers say that they love the great differences in my books. They never know what to expcet


Gloria: that expect


Thumper: For a small detour: Gloria could you tell the audience how to purchase Weeping Willows?


Thumper: For those not in the know.


Gloria: Weeping Willows Dance can be purchased on line at Amazon.com or BN.com. or ordered through


Gloria: their bookstores.---African American or chain stores.


Gloria: I get orders all the time. In fact I'm thinking about letting my publisher publish it because the response to it has been phenomenal


Shevi: Thanks, I will order tommorow.


Thumper: Excellent!! All of your novels are different. Was this a goal you set for yourself as a writer?


Gloria: Weeping is a very spiritual book. Shevi, go on line to Amazon.com or bn.com to see what other readers have to say about it.


Shevi: I will.


Gloria: Thank you, Shevi


Gloria: I've always wanted to ask you, thumper. Is there a novel in you?


Shevi: Good question, Gloria!


Thumper: Shoot yeah! If my family ever pisses me off enough, I might write one about them out of spite. But I don't have the patience.


Thumper: Gloria: How do you come up with the stories for your books?


Gloria: Hey, it's that family story that seems to want to come out first.Oh, I'm sorry. I missed that question. I always had so many stories in my head. For years I couldn't get anyone to publish me, so now that they are pouring out, I'm just commiting them to paper in whatever manner they want to come out.


Thumper: I have learned that with you to expect the unexpected. What's next?


Gloria: Now the stories that come to me come from things I hear. When you read If There Be Pain, you're going to ask, "Where in the world?"


Gloria: In october, this is Distant Lover. I just finished, What's Done in the Dark, perhaps for next year, and I'm working on If There Be Pain. But waiting in the file cabinet is Suffer the Children


Gloria: Thumper, I'm still hungry to get a book written. I write all the time so I don't get a chance to read others. I don't know where you find the time to read a zillion books like you do


Gloria: By the way, none of those titles are like the other, but they all have one thing in common...


Thumper: Dang Gloria! I'm loving it! As you know, I'm a huge fan of yours, but How do you keep it all going? What's changed for you that now, your stories are getting published? I haven't read a dud from you yet, so I can't comprehend what their problem was in not publishing you.


Gloria: a study in relationships between friends, family, and lovers.


Gloria: PUblishers said there was no market for my titles. I figured they had their quota. Even now, I don't sell like the most popular


Gloria: books out there---urban, erotica, street.


Gloria: I'm beginning to think my tales are too dark, but then when one gets into the phyche of relationships, it can be dark. I just hope not boring.


Thumper: Reading the books is easy because I reading GOOD fiction. Does that bother you that your books doesn't sell the same numbers as some of these other books?


Gloria: Yes and no.


Gloria: Yes, because all writers want to post big numbers


Thumper: I meant to put because I LOVE reading Good Fiction.


Gloria: No, because I know that the readers that are reading me are serious about their reading time and with each book, I hope to build my readership.


Gloria: Oh, don't worry about the typos, Thumper. I've posted tens of them.


Gloria: Shevi, you're so quiet.


Thumper: It's for the editor. *LOL*


Gloria: oh.


Gloria: Thumper, I'm honored that you like my tales. I pray I never disappoint you.


Gloria: But you'll let me know. lol


Shevi: I loved the Honey Well so much and I just stumbled upon it and the cover looked interesting, now I'm hooked. I love dark tales.


Thumper: I have a new chiming clock in my office (pendulum and all) and I've notice that our 30 minutes is up!


Thumper: I have a new chiming clock in my office (pendulum and all) and I've notice that our 30 minutes is up! Way TOO Soon


Gloria: Bless you, Shevi. Thumper, how time flies.


Gloria: It was fun. One day we have to do this in person. Thumper, much love. Shevi, thank you.


Thumper: Gloria do you have any parting words to share with us?


Shevi: Thanks, Gloria.


Gloria: Well, just to say thank you, and that I'm bless if only one person readers me and only one person gets my message.


Thumper: I want to thank you Gloria for agreeing to do this on-line chat! It was fun! Thanks Shevi for joining us.


Gloria: It was my pleasure.


Gloria: Thank you for inviting me.


Gloria: Let's talk soon.


Shevi: It was my pleasure.


Thumper: We have to do this again!! Next time, we'll talk about Shades of Jade. Shevi, you have to read this one!


Gloria: Shevi, bless you, hon. Have a good night. Thumper, pleasant dreams.


Shevi: LOGGED OUT


Gloria: lol. That's cool, Thumper.


Thumper: Gloria, most definitely.


Thumper: Gloria, most definitely. Good night.


Gloria: I still get email on that one. Good night.


Thumper: LOGGED OUT