Move Over, Scarlet ... Here Comes Savannah

Written by Paula Parker

People, history, and food … Denise Hildreth understands Southern culture.

Savannah from Savannah and Savannah Comes Undone, two books by Denise Hildreth, are hilarious slices of Southern life. Set in the city of — you guessed it — Savannah, Georgia, these books deal with Savannah Phillips and her whacky mother, who happens to be a former beauty queen. While these books are well-crafted looks at quirky Southerners, they have underlying messages, which leaves readers pondering some deeper questions in life. Questions like, what is important in life? And how does God want me to really look at loss?

Denise understands loss personally. She didn't plan on becoming an author. Yes, she majored in journalism at the University of South Carolina, but that was because she loved writing. That's not why she ended up in Nashville, Tennessee.

"I came to Nashville, like every other crazy person, for the music."

She thought entering the Miss America Pageant would be a good way to have her music noticed; but that was not to be.

"The pageant bombed," she confesses, "and the music bombed."

Denise had family in the Nashville area and moved in with them; she soon found a job working in a heating and air conditioning company. Not what every young girl with a college degree dreams of doing.

"I remember calling my mother one day. I was sitting on the floor, bawling, and said, 'I'm coming home. I don't know why I'm here. I'm miserable.'

"I had written a piece about Mercy Ministries in America for our church magazine. The next day, Nancy Alcorn, the founder of Mercy Ministries, called me."

"'Denise,' she said, 'I loved this piece that you wrote about Mercy. I'm in the middle of writing my first book and it's not coming as well as we had thought. Would you come and work with us and finish this project? And oh, by the way, are you dating anybody? I have a young man I'd like you to meet.'"

The next evening, Denise began working on Nancy's book, Echoes of Mercy. She also met Jonathan Pierce, a young Christian singer.

Denise laughs. "The rest, as they say … "

Fast forward several years … dating … engagement … marriage … more writing.

"The door that Nancy opened with Echoes let me know I could write. It had always been a pleasure; it was never something I thought I could pursue. But that opportunity helped me to see that maybe I did have something to say in the written word."

Like most writers, she did a little of everything, including helping her husband write several songs, ghost writing, reviewing music for some popular Christian magazines, and even some editing. But about six years ago, Denise began to sense that she had something to say that was separate from someone's vision.

“At the core of who I am — way beyond writing — I'm a teacher. All the way through college, and after I married, I would substitute teach. I also taught a college and career class at our church. That was when I believed the Lord birthed in me a passion for teaching the Word."

She began traveling and teaching at churches, at women's conferences, even at the Billy Graham Association's pastor's schools. During this time, she wrote a non-fiction book.

"It was about how God births in us a passion and a calling and how He takes that calling from something that is birthed to fruition."

But, try as she could to find a publisher, no one wanted her book. "After thirteen rejection letters, you just quit counting.

"All the feedback was based on me; no one wanted to take a chance on an unknown author." So she turned to fiction. "I didn't know how fiction would be any different, but I had a great idea. I knew three things; crazy Southern people, rigged beauty pageants, and loss. I thought I would try to put all three of these things together and see if I could write a fiction book.

"I was going to base it in my home town of Camden, South Carolina, but I thought someone would sue me for sure. So I looked for a place that was beautiful, that was Southern, but I didn't really know. That would force me to learn about the city and its history and culture, and not take anything for granted.

"I had visited Savannah once and thought it was such a charming place. So I went for a couple of weeks and did some historical research, taking in the whole atmosphere of the place."

Denise was about halfway through Savannah from Savannah when she approached a friend who had just pitched a book by Dave Ramsey to Thomas Nelson and asked her to read the manuscript. A short while later, her friend called and said, "Denise, I think you have something smart here." She asked if she could show it to two publishing houses. Denise received offers from both houses and decided to go with WestBow.

Now anyone would think Denise would be ecstatic about her book being published; but she had other feelings. "As quirky as it may sound, I grieved over the fact that my first introduction as a writer on my own merit would be fiction. I thought, 'Are people going to associate me for the rest of my life with the crazy girl from Savannah who doesn't know her head from a hole in the ground?'

"I believe the Lord allowed me to see that fiction can teach. When I grasped that, it took on a new dimension for me. I began not only to appreciate it, but to enjoy it."

Light-hearted and comical as the Savannah escapades are, Denise has different hopes for what readers will take away from her books.

"When I originally planned on writing Savannah, I wanted the concept of the book to be about loss. That when we lose things in life, it's not always the worse thing; sometimes the biggest blessing is seen because of the loss.

"In the middle of writing Savannah from Savannah, Jonathan and I walked through the darkest storm of our lives. We came to a real crossroads in our marriage and here I was writing this book that is supposed to have funny stories and funny characters.

"I remember sitting in my parents' home, writing the final chapter, and crying and laughing at the same time.

"Watching God birth things and knowing that He is capable of performing good things in dark times, that is what Savannah was for me. One of the greatest joys in my life — the opportunity to put something like this on the written page — while walking through the darkest valley I had ever seen in my life. Watching it all come to fruition and watching God so beautifully and miraculously restore my home to its original intent — tearing us down to build us up right — and watching the message of that book become the message of my own life.

"My hope is that, if people read Savannah, they will stop and say, "Oh … I get that. I know that. I've lived that. That is my hope whenever anyone picks up a Savannah book, is not that they say, 'That was a great book,' but 'That left me with something of eternal value.'"

Mike and Paula K. Parker cover entertainment for LifeWay.com from their home in Middle Tennessee. Visit them online at www.wordcrafts.net.

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