Many memories lurk in dark corners of the mind like monsters, waiting to surprise an unsuspecting child; they're left to haunt, burden and distract, often without resolution.

 But one local writer decided to put pen to paper, outlet to memory.

 Spanish Fort resident, P.T. Paul, explained that she could never conceal her inner urge. Since childhood, she's formed ideas and utterings that required illumination.

 “I was born a writer—practically came out of the womb telling stories,” she said with a smile.   “Unfortunately for me, in a Southern Baptist philosophy, that often falls under the heading of 'lying'–and is just as often punished accordingly.”

 “It was not until I decided to return to college (the University of South Alabama) in late 2003 to finish my Bachelors degree that I decided that telling stories was important to me, and changed my major to English. And as I felt that I had more learning and writing to do, I plunged into the work of a Masters’ degree in Creative Writing.”

 Paul divulged that college afforded writing allies and a way to understand the “demons” within.

 “It was in Frye Gaillard's 'Writing the South' class that I realized the focus of much of my writing was the confusing and confounding condition known as 'Southern-ness'–a psychological condition diagnosed by Lillian Smith as being capable of acknowledging and acting on opposing truths at the same time, without being technically schizophrenic,” she explained.  With the encouragement of my adviser, Dr. Sue Walker, I began to consider the aspects of Southern-ness that had found their way into my writing, and conceived a thesis composed of four focuses, the South of the past and present, and the consideration of Southern-ness in the past and present.”

 “The finished manuscript was renamed 'To Live & Write in Dixie' as a nod to the Vanderbilt Agrarians’ 1930 pro-Southern agrarian manifesto, 'I’ll Take My Stand, The South and the Agrarian Tradition', which contributed to the revival of Southern literature known as the 'Southern Renaissance.'

 Gaillard and Paul inspired each other; as Gaillard's class provoked the thesis, Paul's thesis demanded publication so that Gaillard could add it to the syllabus. It was published by Negative Capability Press, Mobile, in 2010.

 “The class was called 'Writing the South', and it was an exploration of southern identity through the eyes of southern writers,” Gaillard explained. “The exploration of that identity was the direct, explicit purpose of P.T.'s book, and I thought she carried it off very well.”

 “Sue Walker, Alabama's Poet Laureate and another of P.T.'s professors, worked with her more than I did, especially on the poetry, which is not my field. But I did offer feedback on the overall concept and content. I love working on thesis committees. Often, as with P.T., I'm responding to forms — particularly poetry — that are outside my field of expertise and force me to learn and to stretch my own literary imagination. In these cases, I'm often weighing in as a reader more than as a writer, but it's a good creative interchange.”

 He explained that Paul's work demands particular attention because of her disregard of traditional forms.

 “The mixed genre was one of the strong points of P.T.'s work, one of the things that made her thesis — and later her book – original,” he divulged. “Her work is a nice interplay of literature and history.”

 The use of different writing genres along with delving into a beyond-the-novel category, seemed a perfect portrayal for such an inconsistent and confusing subject matter.

 “'To Live & Write in Dixie' contains poetry and prose concerned with the South and the nature of Southern-ness—although much of the writing seems confessional, it is not a diary nor an autobiography, but an exercise in creative non-fiction” she spoke with resolution. “Creative non-fiction begins with actual events, but is woven through with recreated conversations and additional supporting historical information to produce a well-rounded, well-told story.”

 “In the popular parlance, it is a 're-imagining' of history, with the non-factual, emotional content added in to allow the reader to connect with the story.”

 This venture into Southern-ness called up another story that begged airing, Paul said—a  civil-rights story involving the integration of Vigor High School and her early college experience in the 1970s. She has begun writing her book-in-progress, “Hope is For Sissies”.

 “I am a storyteller from a long cultural tradition of storytellers—I feel as if I am contributing to the history of my culture by writing down not only what happened, but how it impacted the participants and how their lives changed because of it,” she spoke in a quiet tone. “In my mind, the anecdotal narrative fleshes out the facts, gives the events faces and attitudes, and conveys the intangible aspects of human existence–the psychological and emotional side of the historical equation.”

 “We are formed and reformed by the events of our lives, and I consider individuals as the living, breathing results of a cultures’ evolution.”

 As part of that evolution, the characters in Paul's work remain as generational figures, rather than real people.

 “All of the characters are archetypes, and while there may have existed people who resemble the characters, none of the characters are based on actual people, with the exception of the protagonist whom I based on myself so that I could attribute my own emotions in response to the events that befall her,” she spoke in earnest. “By necessity, the protagonist can only represent one cultural subgroup, as an individual can only represent one social, economic, religious and philosophical background, but my protagonist does not exactly mirror my own cultural subgroup.”

 “To anchor the narrative in place and time, I chose to include two complete family units–those of the protagonist and her best friend–and to include supporting characters whose presence in the narrative would be logical and organic. My purpose in creating the characters was to portray humans being human in the prescribed circumstances, without assigning greater motivations than those that all humans at their age and under their circumstances would experience.”

 She said the events in her upcoming book, however, are based on truth.

 “Most of the events described did actually occur, but not necessarily in the manner that I have related them, and certainly not to the same small group of people I have assigned them to,” she explained. “Rather than attempt to portray one particular life and the events that might logically have taken place, I have decided to create one character as the unifying element in a collection of events that could not possibly have happened to one person.”

 “As the novel is about one of the most tumultuous times in recent history, the 1970’s, I decided that the narrative should be as outrageous, as contentious, as fantastic as the era itself–jam packed with as much sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, civil disobedience and self-absorption as possible, so that the protagonist represents the entire generation and reflects their responses to the forces that shaped them.”

 Paul's book, “To Live & Write in Dixie” is available at NegativeCapabilityPress.squarespace.com; several chapters of her book-in-progress, “Hope is For Sissies” can be found on BaldwinCountyNow.com.