Today, we welcome When Cicadas Cry author Caroline Cleveland to the blog. First, tell us a bit about yourself and your latest release.
And I’m excited to be here. You can’t see it, but I’m wagging.
Where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?
I have lived in South Carolina all my life. I currently live and work in Charleston, S.C., but I grew up in the nearby small town of Walterboro.
Writing is not my full-time job. I practice law full time at the firm I founded, Cleveland & Conley, LLC. I write when I can.
How long have you been writing?
I started writing fiction about ten years ago. This is the first novel I have had published, but it is the third novel I have finished. I hope that the second novel I wrote will be published someday. The first novel is what I lovingly call my “valuable learning experience,” and that one will never be published (lest I perish of embarrassment).
Having lived in the South all my life, my writing is inevitably from a Southern perspective. Also, I gravitate in both reading and writing to mystery and thrillers. I think of my writing niche as being Southern Suspense.
What does your typical writing day look like?
I hope to find out one day. Right now, most of my time is spent practicing law, and I write whenever I can steal away a bit of time. I suspect that will be the routine for a few years to come because, for some crazy reason, the bank refuses to accept Advance Reading Copies as payment on my mortgage. Unreasonable @^%$#s!!!!
Tell us about your latest release? Where the idea came from? Perhaps some fun moments, or not so fun moments?
When Cicadas Cry is my debut. It is set in Walterboro, S.C., the small Southern town where I grew up, as well as nearby Edisto Beach, which is perched on the edge of a primitively beautiful barrier island filled with live oaks, Spanish moss, rivers, ocean, and wildlife.
I like to think of When Cicadas Cry as a modern-day cousin to John Grisham’s A Time to Kill and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Grisham’s book was set in 1984, and Lee’s was set in the early 1930s – getting close to hitting the century mark now. Most of us would like to think those stories took place a long time ago, and it would all be different now. I tried to approach the issues honestly and I’d like to think my novel takes a realistic look at what things have changed – and some others that haven’t changed.
Fun fact: When my agent made the submission to the publisher, this was not the novel we were pitching. While they were considering the other one, they asked if I was working on anything else they could look at. I had roughly the first forty pages of this book finished, so we sent them. When my agent called to tell me they wanted to buy it, I thought she was talking about the book that was finished. Once I realized it was this one, I was in panic mode. I had only four months to finish the book and turn it in (while practicing law full time, no less). It worked out in the end, but there were some crazy moments along the way.
Could you share one detail from your current release with readers that they might not find in the book?
Cicadas are in the title, and the prologue talks about Magicicadas – Cicadas that come out only once ever 17 years. Similarly, there are some Cicada broods that come out every 13 years. Regular Cicadas come out annually. When I was writing this book, I had no idea that, in 2024, the math works out such that a large brood on the 17-year cycle and a large brood on the 13-year cycle will both be coming out at the same time – resulting in billions (yes, that’s a “b” on the front and an “s” on the back) of Cicadas all making noise at once.
An even bigger surprise? They should all start appearing around May, at about the same time my book, When Cicadas Cry will become available in stores.
I’m choosing to think of this as a good luck omen!
If you could be one of your characters for a day which character would it be?
Probably Colleton Burns. The black sheep son of an affluent local family, he currently resides in an old Airstream RV parked out in the woods beside an ancient graveyard, where he lives life playing by his own rules (and drinking a bit). He likes to have fun.
What’s your take on research and how do you do it?
I am a lawyer. My success in that career depends on good research skills and practices. Those habits have spilled over into my writing as well, and I am an avid researcher who always tries to get the details right when I can. (Though there is inevitably some tiny detail that slips under the radar.)
Some of the research resources I have as a lawyer (like Westlaw) come in handy when I am writing – especially with this Southern legal thriller. More often, though, the greatest help comes from my clients. This is particularly true with the law enforcement clients, some of whom have so generously given me their time to try and explain the details of what they do. The same goes for my lawyer friends in the criminal bar who have tried to explain to this civil lawyer what it means to practice in their world. All of them have my undying gratitude. Anything I get right is all them. The stuff I get wrong – that’s all on me.
Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write?
I’m not sure I could point to one that is an influence in general, but, as to this book, I’d say it was heavily influenced by the stories in A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
I play a mean rendition of Happy Birthday on a kazoo. 😊
Your favorite go to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
I never met a French fry I didn’t like…
What is your writing kryptonite?
Back story. I write volumes of it for every character that will never make it into the book. I write it only to help me stay true to who that character is and what governs his choices. The catch comes in knowing how much to share with the reader and how much needs to come out to keep from slowing the story down.
What is the one question you never get asked at interviews, but wish you did? Ask and answer it.
Q: Can I get you a drink? A: Why yes, I’d love one… bless your heart!
Next booksigning the margaritas are on us!! Thank you so much Caroline for joining us today. Readers, check out a quick look at When Cicadas Cry:
In this stunning debut by a South Carolina attorney, Zach Stander, a lawyer with a past, and Addie Stone, his indomitable detective and lover, find themselves entangled in secrets, lies, and murder in a small Southern town.
A high-profile murder case—A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tension, this is not only a murder case, but a powder keg.
A haunting cold case—Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander’s case?
A killer who’s watching—Stander takes on Jenkins’s defense, but he’s up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them?
