Writers' Unpublished Treasures
Who will read their stories?
I met Sharon Haley in a creative writing class in 2000 at Middle Tennessee State University where she read a few passages from her novel-in-progress. About a damaged World War I veteran who returned to his empty family home in a Tennessee hollow and sought solace in a scarecrow’s companionship. The brief glimpse of that veteran, scarecrow, and exquisitely detailed rural backdrop has remained in my heart for 24 years.
Especially the scarecrow.
That class began my journey into a world of words and creative people only dreamed about since reading “Little Women” as a child. The instructor, Darnell Arnoult, became a friend and mentor. To me and many, many budding writers in Middle Tennessee and beyond. I took the next class and the next class by Darnell at MTSU.
Sharon didn’t continue with the classes, but three of us in that original class did. We later grew to eight and formed a writing group outside of the MTSU classroom. The Grey Mules. With Darnell as our group leader/teacher. We met every week for close to 10 years. I then had the privilege of forming another writing group, Five Ladies in Writing, in 2011. They remain my weekly inspiration and sounding board. My soulmates.
Through my writing groups, I’ve won a front-row seat to virgin novels, poems, short stories, creative nonfiction. Shared emotional cores with superb writers and true friends. Fallen in love with their fictional characters.
A slave named Tennie whose lost children’s multigenerational offspring found her legacy.
Jimmy, a small, orphaned Native American, sat on icy steps wearing a red flannel shirt as a coat and dreamed of family.
Megan began her rise in industrial America in the 1970s and rode it to its untimely demise.
Teenager Donnie carried the weight of his father’s stroke and his mother’s drunken binges.
Madge found her strength behind a 1950s car dealership receptionist desk.
The tales of Tennie, Jimmy, Megan, Donnie, and so many more remain unpublished. They reside in computers and desk drawers. The greater world may know them yet. Madge is gone. She died with her author, dear, sweet Linda. John and Royce, writer friends also gone too soon, took their characters to the grave: John’s little girl who loved ‘menta cheese sandwiches. Royce’s intersex character who was raised as a girl in the early 20th century and dared to grow into the man they knew themselves to be.
Sharon’s scarecrow?
Sharon was not in my writing groups, but I kept up with her through mutual friends. Several years ago, we welcomed her into our book club, The Bookslingers. We were so lucky to have her within our mists. We enjoyed her inspired picks for us to read and her thoughtful input into others’ picks. We loved her beautiful smile and spirit.
I learned the scarecrow book was complete. Stored away in a box.
Sadly, Sharon died in 2022. Just before Christmas. To honor her mother, Sharon’s daughter, Faith, dusted off the manuscript and self-published it in 2023. Just before Christmas. She made copies for her family and for each of us Bookslingers.
“Souls Entwined” by Sharon M. Haley is a beautiful book and a beautiful tribute. I cried through most of it. Because it's that good. Because I so wanted to talk to Sharon about it. With Faith’s precious gift, I got the full story. And can touch at will Sharon’s delicate tapestry of family, friends, time, place, love, loss, downfall, and redemption.
When Will Donnelly marched off to World War I with his younger brother, Jacob, the main mode of transportation at their home was horse- or mule-pulled wagons. Family farms provided sustenance and economic livelihood. They left behind their parents and little sister, neighbors, friends, and foes. By the time Will made it home after decades in the VA hospital, it was the 1950s. Cars and pickup trucks ruled the newly paved roads, tractors replaced mules on the farms, and his only family was a scarecrow.
Sharon takes the reader on a breathtaking journey as the community comes to terms with Will’s life and their own. Before, during, and after the war. How their souls always entwined in ways no one could imagine as they trekked through their individual, disparate lives. One step at a time.
Sharon’s beloved characters will live in my heart forever.
Especially the scarecrow.