Featuring the Contribution of: Cheryl Stillar
The List:
-Tina
-Early Morning
- rural countryside
- Dead quail in the road
The Result:
An Article from the Writer's Monthly Magazine, introducing Tina Tilley and her literary sensation, "The Dead of Morning."
To the end of her days, Tina Tilley, when asked about the inspiration for her New York Times Bestseller, The Dead of Morning, she would always answer, "It was a quail in the road."
The novel, centering around a dead woman found abandoned on a back-country road with no identifying features beyond an mysterious old locket, thrilled readers and skyrocketed Tina's career to the stars. The book has outsold every other fiction novel published at the time, has been nominated for the Agatha Christie Award, and rumors circulate of an impending film adaptation.
Tina tells the story this way:
"I was driving down a back country road on the way to visit my sister. It was a foggy morning, and difficult to see. When a large shape appeared at the middle of the road I quickly skidded around it, and only upon retrospect did I realize that it was only an animal, and dead already--a quail, struck down by some unfortunate driver. My imagination ran wild with it, and I began to think, What if it had been a woman? A woman whom no one knew? A woman with a purpose that ended up getting her killed, but no one readily knows that purpose? By the time I reached my sister's house, I was in such a state that I couldn't speak two words from her, I just sat down on her porch and began to write. Thus The Dead of Morning was born--of a quail."
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Almost missed this! Have Timeline Review on my Facebook and somehow missed the notification. Loved the story. The fun of it is that all of the info was from a recent real life experience and so I knew I would be sharing this with my friend Tina who is a writer! Thanks for the fun. You don't disappoint.
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