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Debut Novel Inspired By Abandoned Farmhouse

Eight years ago, Julia Franks and her husband bought a farm in western North Carolina. At the time, the 1800s farmhouse on the land was still standing and when they walked in the doors, they were greeted by dozens of odd artifacts, including animal bones, locks of hair, insect hives, and even a jar with a fingernail in it. Franks is a high school literature teacher and lover of writing, so it was hard for her to not let her imagination run wild. Her curiosity about the lives of the people who once lived there inspired her debut novel, “Over The Plain Houses,”(Hub City Press/2016).

The book is set in Appalachia in the 1930s and 40s and tells the story of a husband and wife named Irenie and Brodis. Host Frank Stasio talks with author Julia Franks about the inspiration behind this book. Franks will be at Lanier Library in Tryon August 16, and at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro and The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines on August 20.  

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Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.