The Magic Behind the Inspiration By Jody Hadlock

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s magnificent book, Big Magic: Creative Writing Beyond Fear, she writes about how the creative process is “both magical and magic,” that ideas are swirling all around us searching for a human partner to notice them and get to work creating. That’s how it happened with me. 

I studied journalism in college because I knew I needed to make a living at something and I enjoyed writing, but I’d always wanted to be a novelist. I just didn’t know what I wanted to write about, what I wanted to say. 

When my husband and I were dating, we went to his hometown in East Texas to meet his parents, and while we were in Marshall, Charlie suggested we drive over to Jefferson. At the town’s historical museum, there was a full-page article on display about Diamond Bessie and Abe Rothschild, published by a Dallas newspaper in the 1930s. I was immediately intrigued, partly because of the time period—I’ve always been fascinated by the 19th century—and I had two thoughts: “Why was this paper interested in a story that happened sixty years earlier in a tiny town three hours away?” and “How did he get away with it?” At that moment, I knew my novel and I had found each other.

At the time I was working as a television news reporter and anchor in Charleston, South Carolina, but I made a vow to research the story when I moved back to Texas. Two years later I landed a job anchoring the news in San Antonio and immediately started my research. I spent nearly all my spare time at the library combing through newspaper articles on microfilm (this was before newspapers.com), reading court documents about the case, and traveling to nearly every place Bessie lived or visited. 

After finishing my research and an outline, I sat down to write. But the words didn’t come. After a few days staring at my computer, I finally started typing. It was slow-going and painful. It took me a long time to discover the problem. I wasn’t using the right point of view. But before I figured that out, I struggled and floundered until I finally set aside my novel. 

Somehow, in those intervening years, no one else published a novel about Diamond Bessie. Songs and nonfiction books have been written about her, and a play, “The Murder Trial of Diamond Bessie,” has been performed every year in Jefferson since 1955. But no novels.

I can personally attest that it’s miserable when you have a story you want to tell and you don’t do it. In 2014, I decided maybe I should write a nonfiction book, with accurate information, not the rumors that have swirled around the story since Bessie’s death in 1877. After all, I had done extensive research. This is where the magic happened again. 

At the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers annual conference, I was strolling around looking at the exhibit booths and met the editor of Dallas-based Carve magazine. He also offered editorial services. I decided, with some trepidation, that it wouldn’t hurt to get feedback. The editor I would be paired with, Bridget Boland, would literally change my writing life. 

After a few months of coaching, Bridget was honest with me. The story needed to be a novel. And she issued a challenge. “Try writing it from Bessie’s point of view—as a ghost.” I froze and resisted. “Just try it,” she insisted.

So, I did. And I wrote the first chapter in two days. 

Now, those pages are no longer the first chapter, and only a few sentences ended up in the published novel. But having the right point of view finally set me on the right path. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a struggle getting the (right) words out. The funny thing is, the play in Jefferson about Diamond Bessie? Bessie is played by a young woman—as a ghost. It was right there in front of me all along, but for some reason I hadn’t picked up on it. 

I truly believe that Bessie’s spirit has continually cleared the path for me. There have been too many “coincidences” to dismiss them. I also know I almost lost the opportunity, more than once. In Big Magic, Gilbert points out that “inspiration will always try its best to work with you—but if you are not ready or available, it may indeed choose to leave you and search for a different human collaborator.”

When I was trying to decide which publishing route to take, while I hemmed and hawed, another writer was researching Bessie’s story. Then, at the exact same time I signed with my publisher, that writer contacted me. She was just about to begin drafting her novel about Bessie when she needed to Google one more thing and it was then that she learned that someone else—me—was already writing the story.

Pure coincidence? I don’t think so.

Along my writing journey, I have been humbled, challenged, nearly entirely given up, and eventually saved by the magic behind inspiration. Even though it took many years, my novel evolved in ways I never imagined possible. And for that I’m grateful.

What magic is out there waiting for you?

Jody Hadlock’s debut novel, The Lives of Diamond Bessie, is being published by SparkPress on April 5.

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Jody Hadlock’s love of history goes all the way back to junior high, when she was a member of the Junior Historians of Texas—so it’s no surprise her first novel is historical. She studied journalism at Texas A&M University and worked as a broadcast journalist and then in nonprofit public relations before turning her focus to fiction. She also writes screenplays and won the 2020 Dallas International Film Festival’s screenplay contest. She lives in Colleyville, TX.

THE LIVES OF DIAMOND BESSIE

Pregnant out of wedlock, sixteen-year-old Annie Moore is sent to live at a convent for fallen women. When the nuns take her baby, Annie escapes, determined to find a way to be reunited with her daughter. But few rights or opportunities are available to a woman in the 1860s, and after failing to find a respectable job, Annie resorts to prostitution in order to survive.

As a highly sought-after demi-mondaine, Annie—now Bessie—garners many expensive gifts from her admirers, and eventually meets and marries the son of a wealthy jeweler. With her marriage, she believes her dream of returning to proper society has finally come true. She’s proven wrong when she suffers the ultimate betrayal at the hands of the man she thought would be her salvation. But Bessie doesn’t let her story end there.

Inspired by a true story and set amid the burgeoning women’s rights movement, The Lives of Diamond Bessie is a haunting tale of betrayal and redemption that explores whether seeking revenge is worth the price you might pay.

Perfect for fans of Emma Donoghue, MJ Rose, and Hannah Kent.

BUY HERE

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