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The Daily Tar Heel

Q&A with author Christopher Brookhouse

Former UNC professor, writer and editor Christopher Brookhouse recently published his latest novel, “A Pinch of Salt.” He is the founding editor for Hitchcock Annual and an award-winning author of several novels, short stories and poetry collections.

Staff writer Amelia Keesler had a conversation with Brookhouse to discuss his novel, his career and more.

The Daily Tar Heel: Can you tell me about your latest novel, “A Pinch of Salt”?

Christopher Brookhouse: Well, it’s the first of four that deal with a rural sheriff. The time is set in the '50s, and the county is fictional, but it’s based more or less on Guilford County. The sheriff wanted to be a writer, he went to Chapel Hill, he was going to Harvard. World War II came along. He had a (medical condition), so he was not going to be in the service. And his uncle was the county attorney, and all the law enforcement officers had to go into the military, so his uncle told him he was a sheriff. He’s been there for a long time, and he’s getting kind of tired of it. He expects to not hold the office very much longer, but things come u,p and he has to stay.

DTH: What are the prominent themes in your novel?

CB: I suppose, what is just, what is unjust, what is fair to people, what isn’t fair to people. The sheriff is a very forgiving man. He is very imperfect himself. Also, attraction is one of the central issues. His relationship with a woman who is much younger than he is sort of taking care of and helped out of a difficult family situation. She is much in love with him, but he is many years older than she is, and how that relationship progresses throughout the four books will be important.

DTH: Were you inspired by anything while writing this novel?

CB: Well, I am always inspired by Piedmont, North Carolina — I loved living there, especially years ago before Chapel Hill and the area became as large and populated as it is now, when it was much more of an agricultural place. I am always inspired by my memories and thoughts of that, going back to those times. Part of the sheriff is somewhat based on a very real sheriff in western North Carolina, who was both famous and infamous, and what happened to one of my wife’s relatives.

DTH: Have you always wanted to be an author?

CB: Yeah. I wrote my first book when I was 12. It didn’t go anywhere, except for the trash, but yes, I have.

DTH: Do you have any future books in the works?

CB: Well, I have written three of these four, and I am on the fourth one, and I’ve written a book in between, which I’m still trying to revise, so there’s always something going on in there.

DTH: Now a seasoned writer, what advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were writing your first novel?

CB: Be less arrogant. That would be hard to explain, but I made a lot of people annoyed along the way, you know, lost agents that I should have kept because I thought they weren’t working hard enough, or I was in a better position than they thought I was. It is always difficult, and luck is always involved. I don’t know; publishing has changed so much over the years. I’m not sure what advice I would give to anyone anymore. Just do it; just work.

DTH: What advice do you offer to students who want to write novels one day?

CB: Read a lot of novels to start with. I am still very much a person who likes narratives, so I’m always encouraging people to tell a story.

@ameliayk

arts@dailytarheel.com

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