Interview with Leo Daughtry, Author of Talmadge Farm

 

Leo Daughtry is a life-long resident of North Carolina. He grew up among the tobacco fields of Sampson County which served as inspiration for his debut novel, Talmadge Farm. After graduating from Wake Forest University and its School of Law, he established a private law practice in Smithfield, N.C. He was a member of the N.C. House and Senate for twenty-eight years, including serving as House Majority Leader and House Minority Leader. When not practicing law, Leo enjoys spending time in Atlantic Beach with his wife and daughters. For more information on Leo or Talmadge Farm, please visit www.leodaughtry.com.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up on a tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina, in Sampson County. My family grew tobacco, sold fertilizer and seed, and managed a tobacco auction. It was our whole world.

When did you begin writing?

I’ve had the idea for Talmadge Farm in my head for decades, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to get serious about getting it down on paper. My daughters encouraged me; I think they were tired of hearing me talk about my idea for a book! 

What is this book about?  

Talmadge Farm, set in 1957, is about three families who live together on a tobacco farm in North Carolina. Wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge enjoys the lavish lifestyle he inherited but doesn’t like getting his hands dirty; he leaves that to the two sharecroppers – one white, one Black – who farm his tobacco but have bigger dreams for their own children. While Gordon takes no interest in the lives of his tenant farmers, a brutal attack between his son and the sharecropper children sets off a chain of events that leaves no one unscathed. Over the span of a decade, Gordon struggles to hold on to his family’s legacy as the old order makes way for a New South.

What inspired you to write it?

I lived through changing times, particularly the 1950s when there was nearly complete segregation in the South, especially in rural areas. I witnessed first-hand people who enjoyed privilege that was unearned as well as racial injustices that denied Black people access to the same opportunities as white people. Then in the 1960s, everything began to change. Sharecropping disappeared as new opportunities became available, and young Black people began to migrate North or join the Army. I wanted to create a story that showed characters dealing with these changing times.

And a farm with sharecroppers is a bit of a pressure cooker environment, a codependency fraught with resentment. You have the farm owner’s family – in many cases people of wealth and entitlement – living just down the driveway from the sharecropping families. The sharecroppers were poor and had limited options, so they felt stuck living on a farm that didn’t belong to them doing backbreaking work with no way out. It’s a situation that lends itself to drama: families with major differences in class/race/socioeconomic status living in such close proximity to one another.

Was the road to publication smooth sailing or a bumpy ride?

Let’s just say that getting this book published was a long and difficult process! 

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring authors everywhere?

If you have a story to tell, commit to getting it down on paper. Whatever that might look like for you, make it happen. Start today. I wish I had done this years ago.

What is up next for you?

I’m excited for people to read Talmadge Farm and to hear their reactions.

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213079220-talmadge-farm 

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Talmadge-Farm-Leo-Daughtry/dp/1970157437/ 

Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/talmadge-farm-leo-daughtry/1145569540

Bookshop - https://bookshop.org/p/books/talmadge-farm-leo-daughtry/21466057