Hot and Bothered
One of the reasons I wrote Hot and Bothered (Kensington BRAVA April 08) was to set a book in the South and not just geographically but in characters and language and food! Characters in NY are way different than characters in Savannah. You won’t hear the doorman at the NY Hilton say Y’all come back now, ya’ hear. And food? Just try getting a cream egg in Savannah or sweet tea in Manhattan.
I’m more Savannah then Manhattan. Not that I don’t looove NY City, I do. But I live in Cincinnati and feel connected to the South. I fry chicken and make cream gravy that my kids call bathtub gravy because they want to dive in. I make my own pumpkin pie. I don’t have a hidden tiara in my panty drawer but I do subscribe to Southern Living, think Paula Deen is the cutest thing on earth and have actually waited in line for two hours to eat at Lady and Sons. Yep, it’s worth the wait! And I can twirl a baton! I swear it’s true!
I have a pair of white gloves in my drawer and use cloth tablecloth and napkins and set the table proper with flowers for Sunday dinner. If my kids don’t mind their manners they get “the look of death” from their mama and I buy hair spray two bottles at a time and wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without putting on my face.
I love the South. My heart is there…except for those Palmetto bugs. I’m sure they are what keep me from moving south of the Ohio River. Sweet mother, are those things ugly as sin!
Other things that draw me to the South are the celebrations. Like St Patty’s Day. They dye the fountains green. Now I know fountains aren’t like dying the river in Chicago green but it’s close. And in Savannah they have a cute little invention that makes up for the river thing. It’s called the to-go cup. This means you can take your liquor with you from place to place. Start with a cup at one bar, walk around on the streets, the parks, anywhere and fill your to-go cup at the next bar and continue on. Now that’s real southern hospitality!
Another thing about Savannah that insisted that I set Hot and Bothered there is the fact that it’s haunted. Haunted in that it’s the most haunted city in the US. My daughter lives there and really spooky stuff happens. Things go missing and she finds them at the same place each time. When we were at the Marshall House our cell rang at 2 AM and no one there. The alarm went off at 4AM and it wasn’t set. Our door key kept malfunctioning. The lovely manager said it was that ghosts just looove to mess with electronics. He said it as if reciting the weather or time of day. I used the Marshall House in Hot and Bothered except I call it the Magnolia House.
And there is a reason for the hauntings, the Marshall House was a Civil War hospital. ‘Course there is no such thing as the Civil War. Only the unfortunate occupation or the Northern Aggression. Oh, and by the way… There was a picture of General Lee right outside our room at the Marshall House and when we started bowing to him each morning we never again had trouble with our door card or cell phone or alarm. Hummmmm.
We’ve had dinner at The Pirate House several times and talk to the waitresses about the ghosts. The Pirate House has been around since 1753. Now that’s old! It’s situated a scant block from the Savannah River and opened as an inn for seafarers, and fast became a rendezvous for blood-thirsty pirates and sailors from the Seven Seas.
It’s said that to get crew for their ships they’d get a man drunk till he passed out, smuggle him through the tunnels below that lead to the ships down by the river. The poor guy wouldn’t wake up till the ship was well out in the ocean. ‘Couse if he woke too soon he never made it out of the caves. The caves are still there. I’ve been in them, personal tour by the owner. Being a writer does have perks. That and I told him The Pirate House was in my book, Hot and Bothered. Waitress have had their pie eaten when they turned their backs, food fly across the room and they all leave together at night!
If you have dinner at The Pink House…food to die for. Bad choice of words. Sorry. But there is Mr. Habersham to show you to your table and wait on you. ‘Course he’s been dead for two-hundred years. My daughter’s seen him. He is one of the most viewable ghosts in Savannah. A man who liked his job.
And then there’s the voodoo part of Savannah. Here voodoo is not like in New Orleans, just for the tourists. In Savannah it’s for real. If you’ve ever read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil or seen the move you know what I mean. If you want something done…anything done…there are ways. The hour before midnight for doing good, the hour after for doing evil. Depends on what you want. In H&B I used that too. Loved doing the research. Now if anyone gives me any grief I have means. Least that’s what I tell my kids.
If you visit the cemeteries–and if you go to Savannah you must visit Bonaventure Cemetery. This gives you a look at Bonaventure and a bit of a ghost tour. You’ll love it! This is the real Savannah and why I simply had to set H&B there!
Exciting as this is I think the old restored home and the 23 incredible squares plunked right smack dab in the middle of the streets is what amazes me the most. There are these huge live oaks with moss swaying gently in the breeze that cover the squares and give Savannah it’s true ambiance. If you visit you’ll know in a minute why I set Hot and Bothered here. Fact is, you’ll probably want to write a Hot and Bothered of your very own.
Hope you enjoyed this little travel log and hope you enjoy Hot and Bothered. To have my sexy characters all hot and bothered and running around in such a wonderful city was a blast. I hope you agree.
Hugs,
Dianne Castell
) staff. As we were walking through the trail back to the nature/information center we saw a deer and heard a rustling noise behind us and walking not more that 10 feet away was a mother and fawn. It was so neat to see this and very unexpected. 
