One of the key plot points in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace, involves Red Wing Pottery, manufactured in the Minnesota town of the same name for nearly 100 years.

The matriarch of the Pierson family, Beverly, collects Red Wing Pottery and has gone into the antique business opening Past Treasures Antiques in downtown Wayzata, Minnesota. Red Wing had its origins in the rich clay discovered as the area was being settled in the 1860s. Over nearly 90 years the company would produce salt glaze pottery, utilitarian stoneware, art pottery, cookie jars, and over 100 patterns of hand-painted ceramic dinnerware. Much of the stoneware was marked with a distinctive red wing on the front, in later years the art pottery and dinnerware was stamped with a red wing on the bottom.

In the novel, Beverly and Bill Pierson give their son Paul and his bride Pamela, a blue tinted lily bowl and pitcher, a stunning example of Red Wing artistry. Officially advertised as “Ewers and Basins in blue tint” - the set was offered in the 1920s and 30s along with hundreds of other stoneware items for the household and farm. Because few of these gorgeous sets survived intact, in mint condition they are extremely valuable. Other Red Wing pieces mentioned in the book include Nokomis vases that were part of the art pottery line during the 1930s; cherry band pitchers which were manufactured during the same time period as the lily pitcher and basin; and cookie jars produced until the plant’s closing.

Red Wing Pottery is not only an integral part of Minnesota history; it also holds an important place within both American history and the pottery industry. In the early Twentieth Century, Red Wing Pottery was the largest manufacturer of pottery in the U.S. Red Wing Pottery ceased production in 1967, after a bitter strike permanently closed the plant. Ten years later in 1977, a group interested in collecting the pottery for both its beauty and historic significance founded the Red Wing Collector’s Society. Today, Red Wing is highly sought after by collectors and is often referred to as “the Cadillac of pottery”.

In 1984, John Falconer acquired the records, name, and legal rights of the Red Wing Stoneware Company and stoneware production resumed in Red Wing. Tom Woodruff purchased the company in 1998 and he and a team of skilled artisans proudly continue the tradition of producing excellent quality, American made, Red Wing Stoneware.

There are numerous web sites devoted to the history, preservation, and selling of Red Wing and some of the best are listed on the Resources page. More than a few Red Wing aficionados like Beverly Pierson have caught the collecting bug and developed spectacular collections of this beautiful pottery.

The two major themes that encompass Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace are that evil exists among the ordinary and that anyone, regardless of how morally grounded they might be, can be pushed to commit acts they would otherwise never consider. This is especially true when either situation involves a threat to our loved ones.

Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has expertly explored both of these themes, and did so again with the season four finale. The evil among us comes in the form of Kayla, Tom Scavo’s daughter from a previous relationship. What struck me about Kayla is not just that she’s manipulative and calculating, but that children like her turn into the Pamela Schaeffer’s of the world when they grow up. To protect his marriage and his family, Tom sends Kayla packing.

Katherine Mayfair is pushed to commit murder, like Tom, in the name of self-preservation and protecting loved ones. As with the Pierson family, Katherine is confronted with true evil in the form of her vicious ex-husband, Wayne Davis. Realizing Wayne will never stop hounding her and her daughter (in much the same way Pamela relentlessly badgers the Pierson’s), Katherine puts an end to his abuse with a bullet.

All of this makes for great melodrama, but it’s also why these themes are so universal. We all experience evil at some time in our lives, though perhaps not as obvious as a Kayla or Wayne. And when loved ones are endangered, some of us will be pushed beyond our limits.

Politics and alcohol abuse are each plot points in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace, although not as potent as the mix being served up for the GOP Convention. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty signed a bill on May 15 allowing local governments to extend bar hours until 4:00 a.m. when the Republicans hit the Twin Cities August 31-September 5.

Booze and politics have made a heady cocktail for a long time, but as a recovering alcoholic I have to ask - Is it really necessary to drink until 4:00 in the morning? Early on mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul noted that to be a welcoming and world-class metropolis the bars needed to be open later during the convention. Who knew? Recovering addicts are such party-poopers, but all I can think of is the increase in problems - more crime, accidents, public intoxication, arguments, etc. Apparently I was mistaken in the belief the GOP was actually engaging in the political process (otherwise known as voting which usually requires work) of choosing their presidential nominee.

Family members that reside in the Twin Cities think there are a lot more pressing issues to deal with regarding the convention than how long the bars are open. I imagine that the Pierson’s, with their experience in both politics and alcoholism, would be saying the same thing.  

The title comes from a Desperate Housewives episode, a program that has exemplified to great effect the idea that evil doesn’t just come in the form of dictators, suicide bombers, corrupt governments, or disasters, but rather, that evil subsists among the ordinary and the mundane. It’s an every day occurrence and it walks among us, in the suburbs and the cities, as our co-workers, friends, neighbors, and even as our own family members. Those same universal themes are at the crux of my novel, Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace.

An episode titled, “That’s Good, That’s Bad” perfectly captures this theme as nearly everyone on Wisteria Lane is confronted with acts of malice that force decisions, just as the Pierson family debates how to deal with a former family member’s brutal and continuous assault in Shades of Darkness. Ultimately, everyone makes choices of how to approach the evil within their lives, and none are without consequence.   

For the Desperate Housewives, Lynette and Bree make the most difficult choices. When Lynette Scavo catches her boss, Nina, in an amorous embrace with a fellow co-worker, she tries to use the incident as leverage. Embarrassed, Nina asks what it will take to keep Lynette quiet. Lynette responds she wants Nina to be civil to her and her team. However, crafty Nina gets rid of the problem by firing the co-worker, Stu. Incensed, Lynette contacts Stu, letting him know that he can sue the company for sexual harassment. But her plan backfires, as the ad agency’s owner fires Nina and co-workers, fearing the company will go broke fighting the harassment suit Stu has filed. Only Lynette keeps her job, but not without the painful realization that it was her actions, righteous or misdirected, that caused this turn of events.

Bree Van De Camp’s conflict with evil comes in the form of George, the pharmacist she was engaged to. She’s discovered George is behind the injuries her therapist suffered when someone riding a bike threw him off a bridge. Now, the police are closing in on George, as they search his home for evidence in the attack. Realizing he’s backed into a corner, George checks into the hotel where Bree is hosting a fundraiser.

As the distraught George takes an overdose of pills, the police contact Bree with the news they have discovered evidence that George poisoned her late husband, Rex. Drifting in and out of consciousness, George summons Bree to his room. She tells George she can only forgive him if he admits to what he’s done. Defiant, George says that whatever he did, he did because Bree wanted him to. Then he asks her to please call an ambulance before it’s too late. Bree smiles her sweetest smile and tells him she already has. And Bree then makes her choice to sit and wait for George to die.        

One might also ask who is committing the greater evil in these scenarios, as no one walks away scot-free. What’s clear is that evil makes its presence known in ordinary lives, whether it’s on Wisteria Lane, in the Twin Cities, or across the globe. As Kay observes near the end of Shades of Darkness, “. . . goodness and evil each present us with choices, and they are never as simple as they might appear.” Lynette, Bree, and the Pierson’s are all pushed by sheer malevolence to make difficult decisions and take measures they would otherwise never consider.

Those actions do have consequences, some more daunting than others. In real life, probably more often than we would dare think, evil sometimes not only drives a minivan, it takes a seat at the dinner table.

Voter participation is always up during a presidential election year. That civic involvement, which is part of a small sub-plot in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace, is more important than ever.

According to an Associated Press poll released this week, voter interest is pushing voter registration upward with more than 3.5 million people joining the historic balloting. Voter registration is up across the country and among a myriad of groups - women, blacks, and young people. The Associated Press also noted that voters are flocking to the “most open election in a half-century”. While the response is much better than in the past, there is plenty of room for more voters. 

The Associated Press poll found that overall, one in 65 Americans signed up to vote in the first three months of 2008. Still, those numbers could be much higher. A main reason for the sub-plot of a politically active family was to remind readers that casting a ballot in a democracy is a privilege, not a right. A number of voting organizations can be found on the Resources page of this site. Get registered, get involved, and cast a history making vote.

Reviews are a funny thing. No author wants to get a bad one obviously, and I must say that the response to Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace has been overwhelmingly positive. What has been so intriguing is the reviewers who have really understood and related to the story.

As we prepared to start the marketing campaign, there was some trepidation that the novel might be viewed as women’s fiction and while there is certainly nothing wrong with that, such a view could dramatically limit the target audience. While several women have given Shades tremendous reviews, three male reviewers not only gave the book their highest rating, but they related to the family dynamics changed by a contentious divorce and alcoholism, while at the same acknowledging the depth of familial bonds. All three cited personal experiences, which told me I’d succeeded. From the beginning I’d believed this was a story covering universal themes and it’s nice to be validated.

There has only been one “negative” review but any author should know they are not going to please everyone. This particular reviewer didn’t care for the dialogue or descriptive scenes, however; at the same time noted “I had a difficult time putting down Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace“. I didn’t agree with the comments, but at the same time wondered why they continued reading.

So what’s an author to do when it comes to reviews that give vastly different opinions of your work? Savor the good ones and take the not-so-good with a very large grain (or perhaps entire shaker) of salt. Take whatever positives there still might be within a negative review, and then move on to your next project.   

I took a fiction writing class recently and when we were discussing plot, the instructor made the following observation: “What most fiction writers do is get a rough idea in mind then start writing away, seeing where the events of the story lead. It’s a good way to work, and it’s probably the way you are working now. But there are a few pitfalls with this method.”

What I found interesting about this comment (besides the inherent pitfalls in writing a story, particularly a novel with no blueprint in place) is that the best advice I’ve ever gotten from an editor was the exact opposite - to develop a calendar (preferably one based on real dates) to construct your story around. Using this method requires more work than simply writing and seeing where the piece takes you. Developing your story around a calendar requires planning, research, and organization; all elements that helped me to improve the story and my writing.

I came across the calendar concept working with Prudy Taylor Board, an editor I had learned of through one of my writing groups. While Prudy liked Shades of Darkness, she noted there was no specific timeline of years or events, and felt the story could essentially be taking place at any time. She suggested using a calendar with actual dates and specific years during which the story would be set. By taking this approach, it not only helped me plan the story better, but a historical reference of Jesse Ventura’s election as governor of Minnesota in 1998 or making note of the Aquatennial Festival held in Minneapolis each July could be woven into the narrative and enhance the authenticity of the book.

Implementing Prudy’s advice, I constructed a five-year calendar over which the story in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace unfolds. The calendar not only worked well as an organizational and research tool, but it also served to focus the book over a definite time period. In real life, the events that inspired Shades of Darkness occurred over a much longer period of time, making for an unwieldy time frame that dragged on too long, offered no sense of closure, and risked boring the reader. By using a specific calendar, those events could be compressed into a much shorter and intense span.

Employing a real calendar also heightened the dramatic effect of the narrative. In a crucial incident near the end of the book, Paul Pierson is arrested for domestic battery in a scheme orchestrated by his ex-wife. Threatened with spending the weekend in the county jail if bail money cannot be raised, the scene takes place over the New Year’s holiday of 2000/2001. Only by using a real calendar did I discover that if Paul were arrested on Saturday December 30, 2000 he could be looking at several days in jail. In 2001 New Year’s Day fell on a Monday, and banks would not have reopened until Tuesday, January 2. Utilizing real dates offered the dramatic dilemma of the Pierson family frantically pooling their financial resources to keep Paul from extended jail time.

The initial version of the calendar was bare bones - an outline of the main scenes that comprised the novel. From there I began writing individual scenes, building on them and incorporating the crucial details, many of which were discovered through research. Those descriptions that make a scene real might be as ordinary as the weather on Halloween or the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence of the Millennium, experiences any reader could relate to. Details should engage your reader and connect them to the characters, setting, and narrative. As an editor, Prudy taught me a great lesson - that for fiction to truly come alive requires authentic details that pull the reader into the world in which the story takes place. For me as a writer, using a calendar was the best way to accomplish this, and it’s something I continue to do as I develop ideas and plots for future projects.