Though Cassandra King's latest novel will release in July, attendees at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville got insights from the author, herself, on character, autobiographical elements, process and the role of food in her writing.

Anita Miller Garner, founding board member and former president of Alabama Writers' Forum and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and University of North Alabama, moderated the discussion with King, whose prior publications include “Queen of Broken Hearts,” 2008, “The Same Sweet Girls,” 2005, “The Sunday Wife,” 2002 and “Making Waves in Zion,” 1995.

Some elements remain similar to other previous works, she explained.

“Place is almost a character in all my books,” she said, citing that Fairhope's history remains a large part of “Queen of Broken Hearts,” and pointing out that this book embraces the house, named Moonrise, and garden area, evoking gothic elements.

“It has sort of a potpourri of inspiration,” she divulged. “The moon gardens, or night gardens, are central and become almost a metaphor for what's going on in the book.”

When asked if “Moonrise” contains anything autobiographical, King chuckled as she answered.

“The cool thing about fiction is that people want to know how much of it's true,” she said. “If you write non-fiction, people want to know how much of it's made up. It interests me how we bring our own perspectives to things.”

For example, she read a section of the book from the perspective of Helen, a new bride in a home haunted with memories of the first wife.

“The problem is that this is not my house and will never be. Everything here, including Emmett, had belonged to another woman.”

King said, “I became intrigued by the idea of how we bond together, how we sustain through things that this life throws at us. We want so desperately to be accepted. She is not welcome and she has to find her own identity.”

She seemed surprised when the role of food in her writing was brought up as a recurring topic.

She laughed as she admitted that food plays an important role in Helen's identity search.

“Helen has a cooking show – that's how she sort of finds herself,” King revealed. “Helen, who is a dietician, she takes luscious, wonderful recipes and she turns them into heart healthy. As she discovers sex and all these wonderful things with this man, her recipes change and become not quite so healthy.”

King, who is married to author Pat Conroy, was asked if she and her husband talk back and forth about their writing processes.

“We did when we first got married, now it's gotten old shoe,” she replied. “We talk about writing, but not so much, ours. Pat does read poetry to me in bed.”