Garland native Marianna Rich uses her upbringing in Sampson County to paint the backdrop for the novels of fiction she has written over the past few years. She is currently working to complete her next novel due to be published by the end of this year.

Rich grew up in Garland and graduated from Garland High School in 1972. She admits that all she ever wanted to do was write. As a child she spent her time making up stories instead of playing with dolls. Today, she admits that these early scribblings were terrible and are thankfully lost. Later, she experimented with gothic and romance novels, but found her voice when she commenced writing her Lonnie Briggs series. The first in the series, Digging Up Bones, was published hin 2007 and the second, Crossing the Straight and Narrow, followed in 2008.

Today, all of her spare time is spent crafting the third installment, tentatively titled Dark Water Under the Bridge. Rich commented that she’s “a little behind” on the third novel but she plans to finish it “in a month or so.” She projected that the novel will be out around Thanksgiving this year.

“The Lonnie Briggs series is set in Eastern North Carolina and affords readers an opportunity to visit both familiar and fictitious locations,” according to a press release. “Anyone who has been in the area will recognize the narrow roads with sandy shoulders where Lonnie speeds along in search of answers, often facing danger along the way. Readers will enjoy the multi-layered characters and textured backgrounds ranging from the pool room where the best hamburgers around are served to the pristine campus of Abraham Faith College.”

When asked if this third installment of the series would be the last, Rich replied, “I had wondered if I would do a fourth, but lately an idea for another story has been worrying itself around the edges of my imagination, so there will probably be another chapter or two about Lonnie. She's an addictive creature. I'm afraid I would miss her if I let her go too soon.”

She writes about events and characters based on “a lifetime of observing,” Rich stated. “I’ve known some really interesting people.” Rich credits the content of her writing to her upbringing in Sampson County. “Growing up in Sampson County (specifically Garland) impacts all that I am, and therefore my writing ... Garland and Sampson County are embedded in my genes and the memories of growing to adulthood there bleeds through very strongly when I put pen to paper and flesh out my characters and describe their surroundings.”

Rich admits that some of her locations and even her characters are based on people and places she has known. Some examples of eastern North Carolina culture present in her novels include tobacco farming, tree-lined streets of North Carolina, quaint Southern towns, turn of the century houses, old-fashioned soda fountains, close-knit communities where everybody knows everybody, moonshine and family get-togethers around a table full of hhome-cooking. Rich wrote Sampson County is “the most ‘real’ place that I can imagine.”

Using her gifts as a writer, Rich used the following words to describe the place and time in which she grew up in: “Growing up in Garland was like having an up close and personal view of a microcosm of the world and the behavior of the people in it. At the time, there were 600 people living in Garland. Half of them were related by blood or marriage, and the other half had worked with either my mother or father, or knew them through some kind of daily contact. Everyone knew what everyone else was doing, and had an opinion about it ... The school and the churches were the center of the town's social scene ... No child would dare be disrespectful to an adult regardless of their race, sex or station in life. I remember when it was safe for children to be outside on their own after dark. Everyone worked hard, including the children. We worked in tobacco, picked blueberries and strawberries. We had odd jobs from the time (we) were old enough and no one had to look over our shoulders to be sure we did our work. Extended family meant aunts and uncles and more cousins than you could count, and everyone knew who their great-great-great grandparents were and where they were buried. Growing up in such an environment carves canyons in your character that go with you no matter where the road leads.”

She maintains that although her upbringing heavily affects her writing, “my books are fiction (contrary to what some people think), but I have tried to be true to the best and worst of the area, painting my characters in a multi-layered way. The landscape is easy -- its a beautiful part of the country -- at least to me.”

Her readers tend to agree, she reported. “Everybody loves the landscape of the books. I think it feels like visiting a simpler place where you can still be an individual, don't have to keep up with the Joneses and everything is connected. I've had more than a few people tell me that they felt as if they had visited the area after reading the books. I met some people who actually drove down to Eastern North Carolina just to see what it was like, again after reading the books. Mostly, I think my love for the area seeps through my writing and people can feel that.”

Her novels have been said to give an experience of rural, Eastern North Carolina and remote areas of South Carolina “through the eyes of a native, with more than a little excitement thrown in to pepper the pot.”

Rich currently lives outside of Greensboro with a collection of demanding dogs and cats who rival the ones in her books, but provide her with ample inspiration. Her books are available through her publisher’s website, www.publishamerica.com, or through most major booksellers.

Amy Kelly can be reached by phone at 592-8137 ext. 119 or by e-mail at sigov@myclintonnc.com.