Carolyn Wall: Creating Characters

Carolyn Wall's debut novel, Sweeping Up Glass, is the story of Olivia Harker Cross, who becomes embroiled in a community conflict in Pope County, Kentucky, at the same time she's coming to terms with her own bitter family history. Today's guest blogger, Carolyn talks about the characters she brought to life on the page, what motivates them...and why she really enjoyed creating the villains in the story.


Sweeping Up Glass is the story of Olivia Harker's struggles with her mentally ill mother, her adored father and the segregated black community that helped raise her. As the author, none of these things are new to me. Olivia Harker Cross was an easy character to write --- she came from my heart. A few early readers commented that she was simply encountering too many hardships and devastations, but the story takes place during the depression years, so I took that to be an oxymoron. In many ways, we are a planet crowded with wounded people, and there are few readers around who don't know what heartache is.

I wanted to write a protagonist who was strong --- stubborn yet resigned, and all the while hopeful. One who would grow to be fiercely loyal in her love and unrelenting in her hate.

This is a story of the things mothers pass down to their daughters, and fathers to their sons. Olivia's mother, Ida, lives in a tarpaper shack "out back on the property." Ida has been abusive towards Olivia all her life, and she's the one person Olivia can't forgive. Though Pap carted Ida off to the insane asylum after Olivia was born, Ida returns ten years later, still unbending and unloving, and drives a wedge between Olivia and her father. After the greatest tragedy that could befall a little girl, Ida takes the upper hand, and Olivia takes to the honkytonk. Thus enters Olivia's daughter Pauline. But Olivia had no one to teach her mothering skills. Pauline, at fifteen, births her own son and, knowing nothing about being a mother, leaves the baby with Olivia. This grandson --- this sour-smelling baby in a filthy blanket --- is a chance to start over, an opportunity to love. Olivia names him Will'm.

A couple of years ago, I met a friend for coffee, and during the conversation, I remarked, "I want to write a book about unrequited love. No, make that love that seems unrequited." My coffee buddy snorted and said, "Well, there's something new." Of course those words drove me, and in a matter of days, I had dreamed awake the shy, loyal, musical Wing Harris. He was a lovely and long-lasting fantasy. All women should have one. For years, Olivia harbored a secret love for this trumpeter and owner of the Kentuckian Hotel. Once school sweethearts, they were torn apart by the silly things that happen when lovers are too young.

Each character, I hope, is defined by his actions, his voice and his thoughts. I especially loved playing around in my villains' heads. To date, no one has asked me about the construction of the evil Phelps brothers. They were three distinct personalities, sired by a really nasty upbringing. When I look back at them, now, I see how much pain they must have been in. During the writing of the book, however, they made deliciously angry villains. I felt sorry for the youngest, Booger, who tried his best, even though hampered by disabilities. I knew his brothers, as children, would protect him. Then Alton and James Arnold, with nothing and no one to redeem them, simply became better at inflicting cruelty.

I'm delighted that this book has been praised for its characters, their complexities and relationships. I loved exploring the era --- its insane asylums, with their "modern" treatments of ice baths, shaved heads and electro-shock.

Mostly, through Olivia, I wanted to remind readers that, in the end, nothing may be what it seems.

---Carolyn Wall