Bradley Sides: Thank you, Ramey, for taking the time to talk with me. Before we discuss some of your recent work, I’d like to ask about you as a writer. Do you remember when you knew you wanted to write books?
Ramey Channell: I knew at a very early age that I wanted to be a writer. I wrote poems and stories in elementary school. I remember writing a story about a rabbit and a fairy when I was in the fourth grade, and a “wild west” story in the fifth grade. In sixth grade I wrote an epic poem about a dodo bird! My mother and my grandmother were avid readers, and listening to their conversations about the books they were reading inspired my desire to write. I had poems and stories published in our high school literary magazine, VOX, and my first national publication was a poem in National Scholastic Magazine, when I was twenty years old. I’ve been working at it ever since.
BS: Reading is such a big part of many writers’ lives. Are you a big reader? If so, what are some of the books you love the most?
RC: I have so many favorite books, it’s hard to name them all. I like biographies because I’m intrigued by the lives of people who have impacted and helped shape our world. For fiction, The Bartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig because it’s lots of fun, and Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake for the beautiful characters and overwhelming emotion of the story. I loved reading The English Patient, because the language is poetic and like looking at a beautiful, intricate tapestry. I was so impressed and awed by Michael Ondaatje’s writing. I think Dracula by Bram Stoker is one of the best books ever written. People of the Whale by Linda Hogan is incomparable, absolutely perfect. I was impressed by Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad because it’s a story of a flawed individual who willingly sacrifices himself for others; Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is one of my favorites because it’s absolutely crazy, and The Trees, The Fields, and The Town (The Awakening Land) by Conrad Richter because it’s the story of a strong, intelligent, competent woman. And a recent favorite is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, a science fiction novel with a lovable alien named Rocky.
BS: Let’s talk about your Moonlight Ridge Series. Currently, the first three books are out (Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge (2010), The Witches of Moonlight Ridge (2016), and The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge (2021)), and the fourth—and final—one is on the way. For readers who aren’t familiar with your series, do you mind sharing what it’s about?
RC: The Moonlight Ridge books are southern fiction, a mixture of fact and fiction based loosely on my childhood and stories I heard from my parents and grandparents. The stories are set in the 1950s Alabama backwoods and a small Alabama town called Eden, which for hometown people is actually recognizable as my hometown of Leeds, Alabama. There’s a lot of adventure as the two protagonists, Lily Claire and her “twin” cousin Willie T., explore the woods, finding mystery, magic, and occasional danger. The first book, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, introduces Lily Claire and Willie T., their parents, grandparents, and their multi-ethnic family and community. After discovering that the infant son of their neighbor has a map on his tongue, the two intrepid eight-year-olds embark on an adventurous search to see what they can find by following the map they have seen on Baby Junior’s tongue. But when Baby Junior disappears, the two kids use the map they copied from the infant’s tongue to locate him, averting a tragedy in the small town of Eden. The Witches of Moonlight Ridge follows the two young sleuths, accompanied by their eccentric fourth grade teacher, Erskine Batson, as Halloween approaches and things get really spooky on the mountain. Then in book three, The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge, when winter weather on the mountain goes from unusually cold to undeniably arctic, a half-frozen stranger appears at the door, and a mysterious message from long ago brings intrigue, danger, kidnappers, mishaps, and a search for ancient treasure.
BS: One of my favorite genres of literature is magical realism. With your Moonlight Ridge Series, you embrace the magical side of the world. What inspired you to include magic in these books?
RC: Well, as my character, Lily Claire, says, “We have always lived with ghosts on Moonlight Ridge.” Living so close to nature, surrounded by seemingly endless woods, isolated woodlands, country folks who are constantly experiencing strange and unexplainable events, magical realism is a part of everyday life. There is magic all around us, all the time. In these environs, you don’t have to imagine or invent the magic, it happens all around you and there is just no way to ignore it. What we now call the supernatural or the paranormal, was so constant in my family as I was growing up, my stories naturally reflect magic, beauty, and mystery as I have always known it.
BS: Your series is firmly rooted in the South. Do you find it easier to write about a place you know so well? Or is it more challenging because of the closeness?
RC: I actually find it very easy and enjoyable to write about the places and the people I know best. There is such a rich inheritance of folklore and wisdom all around us in Alabama, especially in the often forgotten forests and old home places, under the trees and in the shadows of the mountains. Those are the places that have their own stories, and there’s nothing I like more than sharing the unexpected tales with readers.
BS: With you finishing the final book of the series now, how do you feel to be closing your time with these characters and their world?
RC: These characters are real and beloved to me, both the ones based on people I’ve known and the ones that are altogether fictitious. I’m just endlessly delighted by the eccentric, surprising characters of Moonlight Ridge. They’re so real to me, I’m pretty sure they’ll live on as an influence in my life, even after I’ve finished writing the series. Lily Claire and Willie T. are immortal!
BS: I know the Moonlight Ridge Series isn’t your only recent project. In 2021, you released the picture book Mice from the Planet Zimlac, which you wrote AND illustrated. Did you write the story first and later illustrate it? Did you do the two simultaneously? What was the process like as you put this book together?
RC: I wrote the story, Mice from the Planet Zimlac, several years ago, and started work on the illustrations soon after writing the story. So I had my characters defined, I knew what they looked like. Some time elapsed before I got back to work on completing the illustrations, and as luck would have it, that turned out to be fortunate. After a while, I was able to see the little Zimlacians more clearly in my imagination, and so I was better able to capture their quirky expressions and body language. It was actually a rather lengthy process. Definitely a labor of love, bringing those little space-mice to life on paper.
BS: Before I let you go, what is the best advice you’ve gotten as a writer that you would like to share with emerging writers?
RC: Try to write something as good as the books, stories, poetry, that made you want to write to begin with. This is advice from Brad Watson, who encouraged me in the beginning of Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge. At that point, I didn’t know that I’d be writing a series with a Moonlight Ridge book for each season of the year. But I was determined not to sell my characters short. I’ve also heard “Write what you’re afraid to write.” There have been a few themes and subjects that I just thought I couldn’t write about, no one would believe it. But those passages turned out to be some of the most defining and important parts of the Moonlight Ridge narrative. And, most importantly, reread, reread, and reread. Make sure that every sentence you’ve written actually says what you intended to say. Remember the reader can’t see what you’re thinking, they can only see what you put down on paper.
BS: Congratulations, Ramey, on all of your recent success, and thank you again for taking the time to answer a few questions for us over at the AWC.
RC: Bradley, thank you so much for this opportunity to share my love of writing with readers and AWC members.
