Your Comments on The Hanging Woods

I've received a lot of wonderful emails from fans of The Hanging Woods, and I thank all of you for your comments. I thought it might be cool to have a forum for people to post their thoughts about the book, and this way others could read them also. All I ask is that you don't write anything that might give away some of the secrets and twists of the book. As always, please feel free to contact me directly as well. I try to get back to every person that writes me in a timely manner. For the love of reading, Scott

Cover for Gray Baby

Here is the first prototype for the cover of Gray Baby, which will be released in May/June of 2009.

My New Novel

For those of you interested, my new novel, Gray Baby, is now finished and will be released in the spring of 2009, again by Houghton Mifflin. Once I get the cover mock-up, I'll post it here. I'll say right up front that it's a much different story than The Hanging Woods. It isn't as dark, though there are still some disturbing things that take place (and if you pay close attention, you might just see some references to The Hanging Woods, though I must stress that this isn't a sequel.) It opens with Clifton Carlson, who witnesses a troubling incident between his father (who is black) and two white police officers. From there, the story follows Clifton (who is bi-racial) as he struggles to cope with not only what he's witnessed, but also his own identity as he fights the difficulties of adolescence. He becomes friends with an intriguing, elderly white man, Swamper, in the most unlikely of circumstances, and it is through this relationship (and also because of a violent and troubling mystery that the two become involved with) that Clifton changes. But he isn't the only one who is developing and growing. Though Clifton learns a lot about life from Swamper, the elderly man--who has always been set in his ways--realizes that he isn't too old (or too proud) to evolve as well.

The story is set in the 1980's along the banks of the New River in a rural Virginia town called Crocket's Mill. It is a mystery of sorts, but also a story of overcoming obstacles and learning about the trials and tribulations of what it takes to become a "man."

The Horn Book Review

Here's a nice review of The Hanging Woods


THE HORN BOOK Magazine
July / August 2008


Scott Loring Sanders The Hanging Woods
326 pp. Houghton 3/08 isbn 978-0-618-88125-3 $16.00

You’re probably familiar with the idyllic boyhood coming-of-age story, full of friendship, mischief, and nostalgia. But Sanders’s debut novel is also an excellent example of Southern Gothic, and the heady, macabre mix of secrets and violence is evident from the opening lines: “In 1975, when I was thirteen, I killed a fox. It happened a few weeks after I’d snuck into my mother’s room and read her diary.” In a leisurely but compelling voice, Walter chronicles his friendship with Jimmy and Mothball and their assorted adventures: camping, doorbell ditching, gossiping, smoking, stealing, and swimming—not to mention Mothball’s quest to enter The Guinness Book of World Records with the longest-living decapitated turkey. But another story gradually emerges, a tangled web of jealousy, betrayal, and deceit that entraps the boys, their parents, and this small Alabama town. Eventually Walter discloses his mother’s dark secret, and several of his own, but one final bombshell casts his actions in an especially tragic light. This suspenseful story with its flawed but sympathetic characters and brooding atmosphere marks Sanders as a writer to watch. j.h.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

UPDATED UPCOMING APPEARANCES

Check Back Often As Things Sometimes Change

October 24th
Friday, 1:30-2:30 at Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, Virginia
Virginia Association of Teachers of English Conference
Guest Speaker on topic of "Truth in Fiction--Fiction in Truth"

April 2nd, 2009
Hollins University
Roanoke, Virginia
8:15 pm in Green Drawing Room
Guest Speaker for the University's Reading and Lecture Series

Great Review about The Hanging Woods

Here's the link to a blog called Perpetual Folly. http://perpetualfolly.blogspot.com/
Fiction writer Clifford Garstang just gave The Hanging Woods a glowing review. Check it out. Besides the review, his blogspot has lots of other info. helpful to writers.

RADIO INTERVIEW on WVTF Public Radio--NPR

Here is the link to the complete interview I did with Gene Marrano on Studio Virginia. Just scroll down to 3-27-08 and then click 'listen.' Takes a couple of minutes to download.
http://www.wvtf.org/studiovirginia/index.php