When I did my cover reveal for Whiskey and Old Stogies on Facebook I received mixed reactions. A lot of people loved it. Some people seemed impressed by the Fannie Flagg quote at the top. I gave Fannie an early advanced reader copy when we interviewed her in 2016 for the documentary Thirty Years of Literary Excellence about the history of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. At the end of 2016 I went to her book signing for The Whole Town’s Talking at Chaucers. Much to my surprise she remembered me and said about the novel, “I laughed so hard.”
Other comments pointed out the dark feel of the book cover and title, and that it conflicted with Fannie’s quote. I get it. The story in Whiskey and Old Stogies does fall in the Southern Gothic sub-genre. Elements of Southern Gothic include dark humor.
I don’t consider the humor in the novel that dark. But I did just fill out the form to make it available for review on BookSirens, and they asked about trigger warnings. I checked off Profanity, Sex, Suicide, Abuse, Violence, Rape, and Death. Please note some of those overlap, plus those things reflect only a small fraction of the story. My editor always told me to take the reader where they DON’T want to go. With all those boxes checked, guess I listened to her. Another question asked about the ending. I didn’t select Happily Ever After but I didn’t select Sad either.
One of my favorite Rufus lines gives evidence of humor in the book: Bout a mile from the O’Hara place, a horn honked like a goose needing to use a locked outhouse.
Looking forward to hearing what you readers think and if you laughed when reading the novel.