Introduction | "Scarlet Begonias" by The Grateful Dead

Well, I ain’t often right

But I’ve never been wrong

It seldom turns out

The way it does in the song

"Scarlet Begonias" was my first favorite Grateful Dead song. After years spent resisting the allure of discovering for myself why so many of my fellow Phish fans ranked the Dead just as high (or higher) on their list of favorite bands, I finally gave in and asked a friend to make me a copy of their favorite show. Not surprisingly* (to anyone who traded Dead tapes), the show they gave me was Cornell 5/8/77.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMuq-YUDRU

I diligently listened through the first set, keeping an open mind, patiently waiting to hear that one song that would hook me. While I didn’t hear anything I actively didn’t like, nothing really grabbed me either. My experience with auditioning new music was always a crap shoot. Sometimes I’d be surprised by an album that was 80% captivating upon first listen, sometimes there was just a single gem on the whole thing.

As I pulled set I out of my tape player and popped set II in, I hoped the second half of the show would impress me more than the first half did. If this was the show my Deadhead friend insisted was what every newbie should hear, my hopes were not high. I pressed play and waited through the ambient crowd chatter, but instead of the music starting, I heard one of the band members’ voices (I didn’t know who was who yet) pleading with the crowd to take a step back to relieve the pressure on those being pushed against the stage. Once that pressure was relieved, I heard a muted musical meandering on guitar that sounded promising. I hoped this was set II’s opening song; I picked up the tape case to read the title on the j-card: “Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain.”

That was it. That was the one that did it.

I didn’t even get as far as “Estimated Prophet” before rewinding and re-playing “Scarlet Begonias” over and over again so I could learn all the words. Not only was the music phenomenal, I loved the story being told. I heard a serendipitous chance encounter where something—or someone—was unexpectedly found “in the strangest of places,” and a veiled recognition that the Universe had a hand in it.

That spirit of cosmic alignment, of being exactly where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, became the heartbeat of The Strangest of Places. That's why its title was taken from those lyrics.

The "Autumn’s Playlist" Series of Posts

All posts about the songs that are associated with the chapters in my books will be categorized with the tag “Autumn’s Playlist.” Unlike the lyrics at the start of this post, my goal in choosing each song was to make sure each chapter often turned out the way it does in the song. So, where does real life end and fiction begin?

That line is blurrier than you might think.

Have you ever seen the movie Shakespeare in Love? I'm asking not only because it's a fantastic movie—especially if you're a fan of the Bard—but because it does a really good job of showing what my own writing process looks like. The full scope of this story is fiction, but it's lit with sense and color from bits and pieces of real life.

To give you an idea of what I mean, there's a scene within the opening 10 minutes or so of the movie where Shakespeare is walking through the streets of London and he passes by a preacher decrying the evils of the theater. In his protestations, the preacher makes references to rough versions of the phrases that later became famous as "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and "a plague on both your houses," which Shakespeare later performed his wordsmithery on for inclusion in Romeo & Juliet.

As this relates to how I write, let's take Autumn MacLeod's name, for example. Though there are references to Highlander as the inspiration for her surname, that was more afterthought than inspiration. Autumn's first name came first; on September 21, 2005, to be exact.

That was the day I found out that I was pregnant for the first time. As my husband and I began dreaming of the baby we knew was on its way, conversation drifted to names. Because I took the pregnancy test on the first day of autumn, we quickly agreed that if it was a girl, her name would be Autumn Skye. If it were a boy, well... we weren't sure yet, but we'd figure it out.

It was a boy, as were his twin brothers who arrived 6 years later. Having resigned myself to being a boy mom, when I sat down to write this story, I knew my main character's name would be Autumn Skye.

Her last name seemed a natural progression, given her middle name (if you don't understand the connection, MacLeod is pronounced "MacCloud"). I worked in the Highlander reference as an afterthought; it gave me a touchpoint on Autumn's Scottish heritage as well as a point of connection for her with Lucy's dad, Dave.

Hopefully Connor MacLeod (of the clan MacLeod) won't mind sharing his name with my girl.

That's how this book works—pieces of real life woven into fiction, music threading through it all. “Scarlet Begonias” opens the door. As for the rest, you'll have to read—and listen—to find out what's there when you walk through it.

*Cornell '77 was one of the most widely circulated Grateful Dead tapes, not only because the setlist was solid, but because it was one of the highest-quality recordings available. Gary has the full story.