Author Joe Samuel Starnes will visit the Elbert County Public Library this Saturday at 11 a.m. to discuss his novel “Fall Line”, which is being reissued on paperback after being originally released in 2011.
He’ll be joined by a familiar face to the community– artist and Elbert County Comprehensive High School art teacher Lee Wells will also be present at the event, having drawn the book’s cover illustration.
The two share a friendship that dates back over 20 years. Back in 2004, when Wells was teaching at Montclair State University and Starnes was working in media relations for PR Newswire, they ran into each other at a small New Jersey church after Starnes recognized an accent that sounded familiar to him.
“I heard him speak, and I looked around,” Starnes said of his recollection of meeting Wells. “He didn't— he sounds like me, he doesn't sound like he's from New Jersey, and we hit it off.”
Starnes, who grew up in Cedartown, and Wells, a Jefferson native, became fast friends after realizing they shared a home state and alma mater in the University of Georgia. They bonded over their shared love for art, storytelling and the Bulldogs, and eventually the perfect opportunity came up for a collaboration when it was time for Starnes to publish his second novel.
“Fall Line” is set over the course of a single day in 1955. It follows the day where floodgates are set to close on a concrete dam that will submerge the small fictional Georgia town of Finley Shoals. The novel shifts from the perspectives of an angry former deputy, corrupt politician, lonely widow and her dog as the town’s chaotic final hours unfold.
The book’s official synopsis describes it as “a story of loss, bitterness, hypocrisy, violence, and revenge in the changing South”. It was named a “Best of the South” selection by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Starnes originally asked Wells to draw something for the book’s cover just before it was set to be originally published by New South Books. Wells read the manuscript and based his drawing on Percy, the dog character whose narration opens the book, and a truck belonging to Elmer Blizzard, the central human character.
Wells used pictures of a 1950 Chevrolet truck that belonged to an old boss as inspiration, as well as the Richard B. Russell Dam in Elberton that he now only lives a couple of miles away from. He deliberately avoided depicting any human characters.
“I didn't want to do a person because I didn't want to distort somebody else's version they may have thought about in their heads,” he said. “But the dog, I took a little bit of liberty. I thought that wouldn't be too bad if I did that.”
But Wells’ drawing was ultimately shelved by the publishing company at the time in favor of another design from a hired hand. But when New South Books was acquired by the University of Georgia Press, the staff thought “Fall Line” was worth reissuing on paperback because of the good reviews it had gotten and the fact that the hardback copies were sold out.
Just as the book got a second life, so too did Wells’ illustration.
“I gave them the drawing and they loved it,” Starnes said. “It is kind of a horizontal drawing, and books are vertical, but I thought they did a really nice job of getting the image into the cover.”
Wells admitted to being skeptical about the drawing making it on the paperback at first but was pleasantly surprised.
“Sam told me that when the UGA Press reached out to him, he said he was gonna pitch that idea to them, and I thought it wasn't gonna happen,” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe it'll be as an insert or something,’ but yeah, I was surprised.”
Starnes heavily researched Georgia’s man-made lakes and largely took inspiration from Lake Sinclair near Eatonton. Much of his work draws from his experience growing up in the south, and his other two fiction novels “Red Dirt: A Tennis Novel” and “Calling” also distinctly feature southern settings, characters and themes.
“My writing all has a big sense of place,” Starnes said. “I almost think the place is a character, the descriptions of the land and what the people are like, and what the weather and everything is. That's really important, a sense of place is probably important in both of our works, [between me and Wells].”
Much of Wells’ work is more abstract, making this realistic drawing something of a departure for him. But he said Starnes’ detailed writing style makes it easy to ground his approach and give him something to visualise.
“He truly paints a picture in your mind of what's going on, how things even sound,” Wells said.
Both artists occupy entirely different mediums and take on different projects, but their mutual friendship, respect and Georgia upbringings have made it easier for them to blend their skillsets together and complement one another’s art.
“It's really interesting as a writer to see other people's process,” Starnes said. “How do they go about painting or drawing or getting ideas for work? I think there’s more similarities than you might think in where ideas come from and what you try to tell stories through— me with words and Lee with pens or pencils or sculptures or all sorts of different things.”
Well’s original cover drawing will be framed and featured at the event at the library Saturday. At their event, both author and illustrator will be available to answer questions about the book, the process behind it or anything else related to Georgia history. Copies of the book will also be available for sale.
“I'm just always glad to talk to people who are interested in reading and literature, and this time in history is one that I'm always glad to talk about,” Starnes said. “This book is a southern story of one place and one people like I imagine them to be. That's the nice thing about literature, people read it and they take away their own [interpretation]."
And of course, it’ll be an opportunity for two longtime friends to simply catch up.
“I'm just excited for it, because if people read his book, they'll see what kind of writer he is,” Wells said. “I want Sam to have a warm Elberton welcome. I think it's well deserving and I think people will appreciate the book.”