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 "Every job I've held (including teaching English at a boys' boarding school) has involved writing -- textbooks how-to books, essays, advertising copy, and some criticism. Deeply engaged in writing Escape From Savannah over period of years, I came to realize how much more interesting it is to write narrative , how engrossinng it is to tell a story and make it seem real." - Richard G. Fuller
Neela Sakaria: Thank you for your time, Mr. Fuller. At what age did you become interested in writing? Did you always know that you wanted to grow up to become a writer?
Richard Fuller : At age five, when I learned to read.
Neela: Where did the idea for Escape From Savannah come from? How long did it take you to write the book, from the time the idea first hit you?
RF: Many years ago, I was driving with a friend to Tybee Island, Savannah's nearest beach. As we crossed a bridge, my friend said, "Just think, a hundred years ago, we might have seen an eight-oared cargo boat on this river laden wiith cotton grown on one of the sea islands -- long-staple cotton, the very finest."
That began my inquiries into this booming antebellum commerce in which fortunes were made as the peculiar institution of slavery saw its final years
NS: How much historical research was involved in writing the book?
RF: As a U.S. Senate staff officer, I had access to the stacks of the Library of Congress, where I was able to study not only commerce among the sea islands but also examine life in New Orleans during this era. Back in Savannah, where I was born, I found that the local public libraries could provide me with the details of stories I'd heard all my life -- life on plantations, the interactions between owners and servants, buying and selling the fruits of many hands.
NS: Tell us more about your experience at the U.S. Senate. Did your job involve writing? How would you compare that sort of writing with writing a novel?
RF: Work in the Senate was different from the experience of writing a romantic novel in which imagination and probability come first. Senate staff people are required to brief Senate Members on facts (among other duties); for example, how a certain bill would change existing law. Speech writing and report writing in the Senate, again, must be based upon the reality of originating laws and changing existing ones.
NS: In your book, you bring to life the way that people speak with their southern dialect. Is that difficult to do when writing a novel?
RF: There are many Southern dialects. Intonations, word choices, pronunciations vary all over the South. For example, people who pay attention can easily identify a Charlestonian by the way he talks. In the tidewater antebellum South, many of the slaves on the sea islands spoke Gullah (the word probably derived from Angola), but that dialect can be difficult for outsiders to understand. I wrote Negro dialect the way I've heard it spoken all my life, with variations depending upon the education of the speaker. There are a few Gullah words in the book, used when their meanings are clear from the context.
NS: Who is your favorite character in the book, and why?
RF: My favorite character in the book is Psyche Sanspeur. She is beautiful, intelligent, and self-reliant. And she is kind. She knows Tom loves her, so she treats him with great sweetness.
NS: Can you tell our readers what they can expect to experience when reading your book?
RF: Escape From Savannah is basically a love story. One Savannah book reviewer put it this way: "Best are the sweet moments of youth artfully netted in the words of the author, permitting us to remember and re-engage through the story of Psyche and Hoke." This is what I hoped to achieve.
NS: Are you working on any future projects?
RF: I am working on a sequel to Escape From Savannah.
NS: Well, good luck and thank you.
RF: Thank you.
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