A local author is happy to bring back some of her most beloved characters in a sequel to a previous novel, even though that wasn’t what she originally planned.
Kathi Harper Hill recently released “Life is Funny,” a sequel to her 2016 novel, “Bensy and Me.” Both books follow the lives of an ever-growing modern Appalachian family, which includes seven children.
“It picks up a year later, and it’s about the same people. It’s told in first person by Charles Simpson, who’s a good old north Georgia boy, and Bensy is his wife,” she added. “They are very country and Appalachian. They aren’t stupid or uneducated, and they’re not pretentious at all. They have a very good sense of humor, and they’re amused with one another quite a bit.”
Hill, who writes mainly southern humor and humorous fiction, never had a sequel in mind for any of her books. “Life is Funny” is her first to pick up on previously featured characters. The book actually started out as something completely different, she said.
“I know some people write novels and they plot to do that, to make sequels or a series, but I had no idea I was going to do that,” Hill said. “There’s a novel I’ve been writing off and on for years, but l’d always put it on the back burner. I was working on it when Charles reared his head again and sort of butted in, which was totally unexpected.”
In her introduction to “Life is Funny” (which, like “Bensy and Me,” is written in what Hill calls “Appalachian-influenced English”) the author confides, “When a character won’t shut up, a writer has to write.”
“I kept thinking this doesn’t sound like the characters I was writing about, so I went back and read it, and it was like the characters in ‘Bensy and Me’ were talking,” she said.
Most of those characters — including Aunt Marveena and Uncle Wend, who enjoys introducing uncommon words into everyday conversation — do enjoy talking. Their conversations, debates and quarrels should be familiar to anyone with whose family has mountain roots, the author noted.
“The (characters) are very family oriented and very close. Everybody lives (near one another), and it’s set in a small north Georgia town,” she said.
As for the previous novel’s title character, Hill said the unusual name “Bensy” jumped out at her when she read it in an old obituary.
“I said to myself, there’s a book in that name,” she remembered.
Downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t do Hill much good. She’d suffered some health problems that temporarily confined her to a wheelchair in 2019, and a case of writers block followed during the ensuing pandemic. However, by 2021, she felt recharged and completed “Life is Funny” last year.
“When COVID struck, everybody was stuck at home and had all of this time on their hands,” she said. “I’ve talked to other artists, authors and painters, and they all felt like a pall came over their creativity. They couldn’t do anything (creative). That also happened to me.”
Hill, who’s retired from a 31-year career in mental health administration, has been a prolific writer ever since her first novel, “Fallen,” came out in 2009. That book, which she originally intended for a younger audience, brought her an older following she never imagined.
“It’s a Christian love story that I really had written for teenage and college-age girls. It’s about that you can date and fall in love and have a serious relationship without compromising your beliefs and morals,” she said.
Although humorous fiction is her wheelhouse, Hill’s writing often balances elements of sorrow and tragedy with humor and hope. Along with several novels, Hill, a seventh-generation Gilmer Countian, has also written and published a children’s book and a collection of poetry, essays and short stories called “Poetry, Prose and Music: Life of an Appalachian Woman.”
“(The new book) is meant to be funny, and hopefully it is,” she said.
Hill will celebrate the new release with a book signing at the Gilmer Arts Playhouse Saturday, Aug. 19, at 2 p.m. The event will be open to the public, and the author will have copies of her books on hand to sell and sign.