Episode 83
Exploring the Theme of Found Families with Author Pamela Stockwell -83
Award-winning author Pamela Stockwell was born in Texas and raised in South Carolina. In between, she lived in the Philippines and, along with her big sister, became fluent in Tagalog name-calling. She abandoned her foreign language studies at age five and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of South Carolina. Pamela lives with her husband in Central New Jersey. She has three children in various stages of young adulthood, one dog, and too many cats. Her first novel, A Boundless Place, debuted in 2021. Her second novel, The Tender Silver Stars, was published in April of this year. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in several online literary journals and anthologies.
In her newest book, The Tender Silver Stars, her main characters are two women who meet by chance after each impetuously derails her life. Together, they forge new paths forward and form strong bonds. This theme of found families has played out in her life—her three children were adopted, and she got so close to the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, she donated a kidney to fellow member Kelly Hartog.
Although Pamela has always wanted to be a writer, she didn’t publish her first novel until she was 58. She worked in corporate writing for fifteen years, then she adopted her children and accidently became a stay-at-home mom. Being alone all day with three young kids forced her to be creative with motherhood—such as conceiving her own home camp she named Camp Stockwell, which was really just her and her kids. Now she pours that creativity into writing—novels, poetry, short stories, and essays.
Her two novels are set in a trailer park—very much modeled after the neighborhood where she grew up in South Carolina. And while not a series, some of the characters from her first novel are featured in her second. She has had people tell her that after reading her first book, A Boundless Place, they had a sudden urge to move to a trailer park because they loved the characters so much.
You can learn more about Pamela on her website www.pamelastockwell.com — and this is also the best place to buy her book, The Tender Silver Stars. You can also support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of The Tender Silver Stars at Bookshop.org at this link bookshop.org.
You can also follow her on Substack at https://pamelastockwellauthor.substack.com/publish/posts where she writes quick easy to read posts about life and life’s lessons.
A little about today's host-
Author and musical composer Kathleen Basi is mother to three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her debut novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”
Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing and beauty on her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.
Be sure to follow or subscribe to Author Express wherever you listen to podcasts and to follow us on Instagram @AuthorExpressPodcast
Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -
Transcript
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Kathleen Basi [:Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Kathleen Basi. I'm an award winning musical composer, a feature writer, essayist, and, of course, storyteller.
Kathleen Basi [:Let me tell you a little bit about today's guest. Pamela Stockwell is an award winning author, wife, adoptive mom, crazy cat lady, and living kidney donor. Her latest book, the tender silver stars, features some of the eccentric characters from her first book. She grew up in a trailer community in South Carolina, but now lives in central New Jersey. She got serious about riding when her 2 oldest children got their driver's licenses. Pamela suddenly had more time on her hands, and writing filled that space as well as kept her mind off worrying about her new drivers. Virginia McCullough, author of Island Healing, said her first book, A Boundless Place, was heartfelt and touching. And Linda Rosen, author of The Emerald Necklace, said, you can't help loving Stockwell's quirky characters.
Kathleen Basi [:Welcome, Pamela, to Author Express.
Pamela Stockwell [:It's good to be here.
Kathleen Basi [:I love that about suddenly, having more time when, when your kids started driving. That's awesome. That sounds very familiar. So you are, joining us today from an in between house. You used to live on a farm and you're getting ready to move into a suburban house or what is that?
Pamela Stockwell [:Yep. Kind of in townhouse, because we're gonna be walking distance to restaurants, which is gonna be very different. And so right now, I'm in a rental that is will suffice, let's just say.
Kathleen Basi [:It's warm. That's the important thing.
Pamela Stockwell [:You know what? There's some things I hate about this place, but bless the owner's heart. He allows our pets. So
Kathleen Basi [:There you go.
Pamela Stockwell [:That's all that matters.
Kathleen Basi [:Now how many animals did you have when you were living on the farm?
Pamela Stockwell [:It varied from time to time. We had a couple of horses, couple of pigs, many chickens. Briefly, we had ducks and a lot of cats. There's always cats.
Kathleen Basi [:And how many of them are coming with you to your new house?
Pamela Stockwell [:We had 4 indoor cats and then 2 barn cats insisted on coming with us. And when we tried to leave because she'd like to be outside and we thought we'd never keep her in, but for the 3 days after we moved out of the house, we were going back to just clean and do stuff. She would literally go to the patio door and scratch at it and meow and meow. So yeah. And she hasn't tried to get out since we've been here, so apparently we made the right decision. And we also have a dog. So we have a dog and 6 cats.
Kathleen Basi [:I that's a lot of cats. I grew up I grew up with a lot of cats, but they were all outside cats. And my experience of cats is very different than most people think of cats. I think that outside cats tend to be a lot more lovey because they don't get tired of you. That's what I think it must be.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yep. That's actually, the most recent barn cat that came with us. He sleeps with us at night, and my husband and I never allowed cats to sleep with us at night. So I don't know. Who knows?
Kathleen Basi [:There you go. Okay. So we've kind of dealt with. Tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from. Is there anything more than the 6 cats and the 2 horses and the ducks that you would like to tell us? Yeah.
Pamela Stockwell [:Well, that's not where I'm from. That was the last 10 years. But I I was stumped by that question because I was born in Texas, lived in the Philippines, lived in South Carolina, lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, now live in New Jersey. So it's like, what's home? Right. But I really have nostalgic feelings for Sumter, South Carolina, which is I lived there between the time I was 5 and 13. And that's where my 2 books are based. Mhmm. Very much modeled on the neighborhood I grew up in which and I think the most interesting thing about that is there's not much, but the fact that I grew up in a trailer community, most people have some preconceived notions about what that means.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. And I had no idea that there was any stigma to that until I grew up because we just ran around and rode our bikes and climbed trees and did what other kids did. And we were rural. There's a lot of, farm country around us. So, you know, we played in the woods. And and then I grew up and found out that you were trailer trash.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, yeah.
Pamela Stockwell [:Which is my husband's nickname for me.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, my gosh. I think that I I think I would probably push back on that if that were me.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. I I know he loves me. So
Kathleen Basi [:That's that's important. That's what really matters. Well, tell me, I kinda wanna focus on this because I thought the setting seemed like a very interesting thing to talk about on the book. But before we get there, let's talk a little bit more about your experience living in a trailer community. What's your earliest memory there? I should ask.
Pamela Stockwell [:The fact that you could move homes like the trailer next door could be another trailer 1 day. That was probably the the kind of weirdest thing, but I grew up like where we were wasn't really fast to get things, Sumter being part of the community where I was. So we had party lines when I was really little and dirt roads. So it was a kind of a throwback. I mean, that would have been the late '60s, early '70s before we got the movement. And
Kathleen Basi [:I was gonna ask about that because I know that my phone number growing up was the party line number out in the country, but it was already a private line by the time I have any memory, and that would have been by probably 1980. So I don't actually know how long party lines persisted in the rural areas.
Pamela Stockwell [:I don't think too much longer because I ours, I remember when we first moved there, I remember picking up the phone and I could hear the people on the other, you know, talking and you just hang up and wait. And you're you got power I forget how many rings we had, but, you know, you you could tell it was your phone by how many rings there were.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. I'm not sure everybody knows. Probably the older crowd listening would know what a party line is, but I actually wonder if some of the youngest listeners
Pamela Stockwell [:Younger.
Kathleen Basi [:Might have no idea.
Pamela Stockwell [:See if I can explain it. So party line is when you have several houses all on 1 phone line. So you pick up the phone, you hear your neighbor next door across the street talking and you you politely hang up. Sometimes I didn't because I was, like, 6, but and I don't know what I found so interesting, but could you be pick up groceries on your way home? But, anyway, you know, it didn't last too long. So by the time I got I started school, we probably had regular private phone lines.
Kathleen Basi [:I feel like there should be a whole, like that should be worked into a book. I was just talking to someone else earlier today who had grown up on Prince Edward Island that will air on a different day, but and I was talking because because Anne Shirley is in my head now. I remember that in 1 of the Anne of Green Gables books, they're talking about how they picked up the phone, and did you get a new clock? And, well, they hadn't gotten a new clock. And I never understood that until so much later when I realized that that's what they were talking about, that somebody was eavesdropping from another house. And so they were kind of putting a little needle in there about that. It's just such a different world. And now we not only have our own house, but every person has their own dang phone line.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. That's true. Our own little personal computer, which blows my mind. Yeah.
Kathleen Basi [:Okay. So tell us about your book that's coming out in it's it will be out by the time this airs. And tell us what it's called again and what it's about in 1 sentence.
Pamela Stockwell [:Okay. It's called The Tender Silver Stars, and it's a second book set in the same neighborhood. And it's about 2 women who don't know each other, and they each blow up their lives in different ways. And then they accidentally meet and end up helping each other.
Kathleen Basi [:That sounds lovely.
Pamela Stockwell [:Which seems to be my theme in books because that my first book, About This Place, was the same thing where the neighborhood end up just accidentally kinda getting to know each other and helping each other. So
Kathleen Basi [:Those are great books. It's something that I think really resonates in this day and age where we don't necessarily know our neighbors.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. That's true.
Kathleen Basi [:I was just thinking that there comes a point where you can't ask your neighbors' names anymore because you've lived here too long and you should know them by now. That's a real problem for those of us who have trouble remembering names.
Pamela Stockwell [:Actually, moving into a new neighborhood, I'm trying really hard. I as soon as, like, somebody introduces themselves, I make a note on my phone. So like, okay, that guy was because I really wanna you know, it's my 1 chance to do it over again. Do it right.
Kathleen Basi [:Greenhouse with red shutters drives a Ford Focus. Joe. Yes. Exactly. So you said this book is set in the trailer community. And, I mean, you've already kind of talked about that, but why couldn't this have been written in some other neighborhood? Why a trailer community?
Pamela Stockwell [:When I heard about Boundless Place, which is the first book, it started off it was also an air force right across from an air force base. So it's very transient. And my idea was there's gonna be a little girl named Marabella who is in a Boundless Place, and she was gonna meet the people who kept consecutively moving into the house across the street, the trailer across the street.
Kathleen Basi [:Okay.
Pamela Stockwell [:And she was gonna learn something from each of them as they, you know and so it was gonna cover like a 10 or 15 year span or whatever.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, I love that.
Pamela Stockwell [:And I developed the characters. Like, I knew this person would move in and then this person and then this person. But as soon as I moved the first person in, whose name was Violet, I couldn't move her back out. I loved her. So I ended up making the other characters the neighbors. And Violet actually became the main character. And so it's just a whole different outlook, I guess. And then they couldn't leave them again when it was time to write the second book.
Pamela Stockwell [:And so I did the 2 main characters are Tris and Everlove. The 2 women who blow up their lives, and they do Tris because of what she has done in her life has moved to this trailer neighborhood, although she's rich. She's from a rich family.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, that's interesting.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. So she's trying to kinda hide out because she did something not so good. Then she meets Everlove who's black, and this is 1972 in South Carolina. The first book was '69, and so she invites her to move in because of what Everlove has done to blow up her life. And then a character from my first book, missus McCabe, who's kind of a cranky, bossy old lady, she's actually really cranky in the first book and then gets a little nicer. She's kind of who I aspire to be when I get all just I'm not a blunt person. I'm not a direct person. I'm a very polite person.
Pamela Stockwell [:And so I'm like, 1 day, I wanna be missus McCabe and just say what I think. So she's kind of lovable in her commercially kind of way. But, so she introduces herself to these women and kind of insinuates herself into their lives, And it ends up kind of helping them along. So but that's how it ended up in the trailer park. It started off with this idea of the transients, but then it didn't go in that direction.
Kathleen Basi [:You know, 1 of the reasons that we don't know our neighbors is because you pull into your garage and you have a a door from your garage into your house, and you don't go in. And some of there are neighborhoods now that are being built where the the houses face the common area rather than the street, and they're trying to get people back to being community minded. But we all have air conditioning, and we all have TVs, and so we just don't go outside. And I feel like, I mean, I've never lived in a trailer community, so I don't know. But I feel like it's almost a throwback to a different time just in the structure of how things work.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. I mean, I remember we didn't have such a neighborhood as close as the 1 I've written about. I've kind of idealized that. But, you know, you go out on Saturday afternoon and your neighbors are mowing the lawn, you know, they didn't have ground you know, groundskeepers or and you're grilling, and there's a lot more, I think, emphasis on the front than in the back. You know, you used to have front porches. And even on trailers, we had a front well, you know, my dad built a porch with a little awning and everything.
Kathleen Basi [:That's not very transient.
Pamela Stockwell [:That's true. But you can easily move a trailer running out, believe it or not.
Pamela Stockwell [:But I think there's just a lot of emphasis that it became we've stayed in our backyards more. So I'm glad to see that maybe some of the the planned developments might be turning that around a little bit.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. That's very cool. Let's move in and talk just really briefly about kind of what your writing journey has been like. What do you think you wanna tell people who are dreaming of writing a book?
Pamela Stockwell [:Just do it and don't give up. Write every day. I wrote a book in my twenties to thirties, and I thought I was gonna be a published author by then, you know, very soon. But then I ended up adopting kids and I found out all my brain cells just went to raising them. And and plus I was a stay at home mom and I I actually poured a lot of creativity into keeping them occupied.
Kathleen Basi [:So nobody resonates with that at all.
Pamela Stockwell [:Yeah. So like you said, it wasn't until my kids started driving. And in New Jersey, that's not until 17. So it was a long, long haul. And then I got the idea and I started writing. And I was 58 when my first book was published. So that's what I would tell everybody is just if you wanna do it, do it. And I made myself a schedule that every single morning from 9 to 11, I would sit down on my computer and write no matter what you know, there were some times that doctor's appointment would interrupt, but most of the time I kept to that, and that really helped.
Kathleen Basi [:Very good. Good for you. Alright. Well, let's sort of wrap things up. Tell us where's the best place for people to find you online if they want to learn about your books?
Pamela Stockwell [:My website, which is pamelastockwell.com. Pretty easy. I'm also having a couple of anthologies on there that are for sale. I have a short story in and, boundless places for sale. And by the time this comes out, the tender silver star should be there. So looking forward to seeing it come out in the world.
Kathleen Basi [:Yep. All right. So tell us what book or story inspires you the most these days?
Pamela Stockwell [:Actually, it's 1 of my favorites. It's probably 10 years old. I'm not sure, but Fredrik Backman's, my grandmother asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. Oh, wow. I just love that book because it was such a slow unpeeling of the characters, And I just love that. I love layered characters and and you think this character is 1 way that you find out they're different. And I I just I love that and I aspire to that. I'm not quite sure I'm quite there yet, but I aspire to that.
Kathleen Basi [:So That's a great thing to aspire to. Alright. Thanks for the book recommendation. And thanks for coming on Author Express with us.
Pamela Stockwell [:It was a pleasure. Thank you, Kathleen.
Kathleen Basi [:Thanks for joining us today. We hope you'll take a second to give us some stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. We'll be back next Wednesday. And in the meantime, follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget. Keep it express, but keep it interesting.
