One day when I was nine years old, my mother and I were riding on a country road in the Louisiana piney woods where she grew up. We passed a lady walking along the side of the road. My mother told me the lady was mentally retarded and that her husband was too.
She said they had a lot of children. That moment haunted me all my life. Soon after I started to write, the voice of Tiger Ann came to me.
Top Center Picture: A country road in Forest Hill, Louisiana - The town Saitter is based on
Top Right Picture: My grandmother's house (also Tiger's)
