Charles B. Fancher

Charles B. Fancher is a writer and editor, and a former senior corporate communications executive for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He also worked as a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Detroit Free Press, and WSM-TV, as well as a publicist for the ABC Television Network. Fancher was previously a member of the School of Communications faculty at Howard University and the adjunct faculty at Temple University. He lives in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

Fancher's new novel is Red Clay.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My initial title for what would become Red Clay was Felix, a holdover from my original intent to write a narrative nonfiction book about my great-grandfather, a young boy when he and his enslaved family were emancipated at the end of the Civil War and how he overcame great odds to mature, achieve a measure of success, and provide a strong foundation for future generations.

When I decided to write a historical novel instead, it became clear that the story was about a lot more than just one man; it was about a place and time, a culture, and the people who lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in American history: the last months of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the dawning of the Jim Crow era.

Regardless of race, religion, or social status, one thing bound all of the region’s inhabitants together—the land—especially the red clay soil, which was also symbolic of the blood spilled on battlefields, blood oozed from wounds inflicted by the overseers’ whips, and blood running through the veins of families across generations. The character Felix remained at the center of the story, but a new title was needed, and the one that made sense was Red Clay.

What’s in a name?

Although Red Clay, a work of historical fiction, is inspired by family anecdotes, most of the characters are figures of my imagination, and I pored over lists of names from that period—the mid- to late-19th century—to find the ones that “felt” right when I spoke them aloud. There were, however, four given names from my family that I chose to use (even though they are fictionalized versions of the real people), because doing so anchored me as the story unfolded: my great-great-grandfather, Plessant, and his wife, Elmira; and my great-grandfather Felix, and his wife, Zilpha.

In choosing fictional names of other characters, I also tried to select names that would be memorable without being eccentric. For example, the owner of the Road’s End plantation is John Robert Parker. Neither John nor Robert is unusual, but by making him known as John Robert (employing a Southern penchant for addressing one by both first and middle names) it became memorable without being unusual, as something like Zebulon Jeremiah Parker might have been.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I find beginnings to be harder, because the weight of structuring them in ways that will grab readers’ attention and pull them into the rest of the work is so keen. In Red Clay, I needed to establish Felix Parker, a carpenter and formerly enslaved Black man, as someone whose life had been consequential and whose contemporaries cared about him deeply. I also needed readers to share that sense of him and to want to know why those around him felt as they did.

My solution was to begin in a church packed to the rafters with relatives, friends, and associates assembled for his funeral, a dramatic show of love and respect for a well-lived life. It also provided a means to introduce some of the key characters in the story to come. Notably, the funeral provides a motive for Adelaide Parker, the elderly daughter of the man who had owned Felix before Emancipation, to meet and sit down with Felix’s young granddaughter as a vehicle for piecing together Felix’s life story and exploring the times and events that surrounded him.

As for the ending, I had a clear vision of where the story would go from the moment I decided to make it a work of fiction. The challenge was to come up with the right beginning and to build a dramatic arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I cannot point to a single character with whom I identify completely. It is fair to say, however, that in Red Clay, some of what I see as my best—and worst—traits are spread across multiple characters.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Perhaps more than any other non-literary inspiration—and there are several—music has been at the forefront. I wrote most of Red Clay, with music playing in the background, instrumental jazz mostly, but also playlists created from other genres as varied as 1970s singer-songwriter tracks by the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Janis Ian, and Neil Young; African choral music performances, compositions by Aaron Copland, and 1970s and 1980s soul artists like Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, and Donny Hathaway. As different as they all are, they have one thing in common—they engender powerful emotional responses. The music I chose was determined by the nature of what I would be writing that day.

Visit Charles B. Fancher's website.

The Page 69 Test: Red Clay.

--Marshal Zeringue