Please join us for a Q&A with Michelle Collins Anderson, author of The Flower Sisters and The Moonshine Women.
Please join me in welcoming Michelle Collins Anderson to our BookBrowse Community Forum.
Michelle is the author of two books that we’ve read here at BookBrowse. Her first novel, The Flower Sisters, was a recent First Impressions pick, and her second, The Moonshine Women, is currently being discussed as part of our online book club program.
Michelle was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks — a place and a way of life that has shaped her writing. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and spent the next fifteen years as a copywriter in advertising and public relations agencies in St. Louis, Palo Alto, Denver and Houston before pursuing a freelance career and teaching at the University of Missouri and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In 2013, she graduated with an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. Michelle and her husband, Clay, have three adult children and live in a 1907 brick row house in St. Louis, Missouri, with two cats and a border collie.
Michelle: Thank you for dropping by. So happy to have you here! Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself before we dive in?
Hello!
Thank you so much for having me for Ask the Author here on BookBrowse… what a lovely and thoughtful community of readers you’ve amassed here. I’m so impressed with the responses to your discussion of The Moonshine Women!
And thank you for the kind introduction. I am a Missouri girl, born and raised, but I’ve lived many places over the years — from California to Colorado and Texas, too. But Missouri is where I make my home now (St. Louis) and it seems to be the place where my writing finds its heart, too. I love writing about the beautiful Missouri Ozarks and the strong, resilient people who live there — especially the women!
I hope you will feel free to ask me anything you are curious about. Whether you are wondering something about my new novel, The Moonshine Women (which just came out March 31st!) or interested in my writing process, publishing, or even what I’ve been reading and enjoying!
I’m delighted to be here with you.
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Hi Michelle. I really enjoyed reading Moonshine Women. I was wondering what your writing process is like? Do you write every day at the same time?
Hi Michelle, I have read both your books and enjoyed them both. I am curious as to what gave you the idea to write Flower Sisters.
Good morning, Pamela! Thanks for joining the conversation. 
I do try to write every day, but unless I am on a tight deadline, I stick to weekdays. My typical routine is to write in the morning, after a cup of coffee and my best effort at Wordle! I seem to do my best writing in the morning, either at home at the kitchen table or at my local library in a quiet room. Oftentimes, I have a goal in mind — a certain word count to achieve or a scene or chapter I’d like to finish — and I try very hard to achieve that goal every day. Of course, some days are easier/harder than others, so I try to give myself a little grace if I don’t quite get there!
Good morning, Maureen! Love your name; it was my mother’s (and it is my middle name, too!). Thank you for reading BOTH of my books (wow!) and for the kind words.
I was inspired to write The Flower Sisters when I found out about the West Plains Dance Hall Explosion, a real tragedy that happened in my Ozarks town in 1928 — where 39 people died and 22 were injured — and the cause of the blast was never determined. The population of the town was only 3000 at the time, so everyone was touched by loss. And even though I had grown up in West Plains (and my father and his father before him), I didn’t hear about the tragedy until about 15 years ago, when a non-fiction book came out about it (The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion by Lin Waterhouse). I couldn’t believe I didn’t know this important piece of my town’s history — and I knew immediately it would make a great novel!
Thanks for your quick response. It’s so impressive how you research and honor the Ozarks and the interesting history of the area where you grew up!
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Hi Michelle, The women of Moonshine Women are dynamic characters from the very beginning of the story. They don’t remain constant as each one grows and changes. You developed well-rounded characters with flaws, all who hooked me immediately. Please tell us about your character development process. Do they come to you? Do you see them as three-dimensional people from their initial introduction into the story? I always felt their sisterhood, their similarities and differences. My praises to you!
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How did you research the history of moonshining? I hadn’t thought how the liquor might have been flavor enhanced. And I have to ask, have you ever tasted moonshine (the legal shine, of course!)?
Hello Michelle. I really enjoyed our book. I love books with good character development. I think that you have mastered it. They all felt real. Their relationships rang true. It was atreat to get to know them. That combined with a bit of history made this a good read, I am curious are they modeled after people?
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Hi Michelle, I’ve read both your books and enjoyed both. Do you know what your next book will be about?
What inspired you to focus on women’s roles in the moonshine trade during this time period?
Also, how do you know when a story is finished?
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Thank you so much! 
And thank you for reading.
Hi Nan! Wow, that response to my characters makes me feel terrific! They do not come to me wholly formed, but more as a feeling or idea of them; a ghost or skeleton that I start to flesh out as the story unfolds. That is always the biggest challenge, to launch a character out of two dimensions into a more authentic, well-rounded being with faults and strengths and contradictions. As I write each of them, I feel I am peering out of their eyes, into their world… I guess you could say I get into it! I am often surprised by what my characters say and do; that is probably one of the delights of writing, is when they take over the story you thought you knew you were telling and it becomes richer, better, more interesting!
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Hi Renee! That is high praise! Thank you so much; I’m glad you enjoyed my characters and found them authentic. Most of the characters in The Moonshine Women are not based on real people, but of course, I always put in bits and pieces of people I know, whether it’s dialogue or a belief or maybe a mannerism or habit. And I love to honor people who are no longer around by using a name that is meaningful to me — my great grandmother (Grammy) was named Alta, for example!
Having said that, there are a few characters in The Moonshine Women who are based on historical figures — like Al Capone, who regularly makes an appearance at Shine’s bar. The two prohis — Flanagan and McConnell — recount making arrests in New York City in ways that can be attributed to Isidor “Izzy” Einstein and Moe Smith. These were two of the most successful U.S. Prohibition agents and they were famous for using disguises, jokes and other shenanigans to make arrests. Some of the law enforcement characters on the train with Frank “Jelly” Nash are real as well.
Thanks for a great question!
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Hi Jill! I’m thrilled to know you’ve read both of my novels… that is so wonderful to hear.
I am happy to report that I have signed on to do two more historical fiction novels with Kensington. True to form, my next novel is also set in the Missouri Ozarks! It is about a women’s barnstorming basketball team in the 1940s that travels the country playing men by men’s rules… and winning 80% of their games! It is based on a true life team that was founded in Cassville, Missouri in 1936 and around for nearly 50 years. It was an irresistible story to me, as it features a bunch of strong, pioneering women. And I used to play basketball in high school and still am a fan of the game!
As to why I chose to focus on women moonshiners and bootleggers in The Moonshine Women, in my reading, I came across a government estimate that during Prohibition, women bootleggers outnumbered men five to one! I couldn’t believe it was such a female-dominated endeavor, and that really made me curious as to why that was. It also sparked my imagination… and the Strong women were born!
Finally, I am not sure I ever feel anything is ever “done!” But I do my best to have other people read and offer criticism and suggestions of my work and do not shy away from rewriting as much as it takes to get the story right. I think writing is so much a reflection of who you are at the time you write it, so of course, you could change a novel infinitely as you grow and change, too! But in the end, it has to be done — and then that work becomes a snapshot of who and where you were at that point in your life. I kind of love that.
Lots of reading about how moonshine was made back in the days of Prohibition, of course! And many internet rabbit holes, learning the ins and outs of that business. But also I took a trip to the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky to learn about the process and see it with my own eyes. It is a much more scientific effort these days, and that trip made me appreciate even more these moonshiners who knew by taste and sight and smell when they had it right! Also, everyone had their own special little twist or recipe, and fruit was a common thing to toss into the mash or to put in the finished moonshine to flavor it. I’m sure it made it more palatable! Moonshine is pretty tough stuff.