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Roschelle Ridenhour

Roschelle Ridenhour lived most of her life in Missouri before heading across the state line to Tennessee. She now resides in Nashville where she is the Children’s Director for Oasis Worship Center in Dickson, Tennessee. Roschelle has also written bible studies for women and curriculum for children’s ministries. Besides her love for writing, she is an avid amateur photographer and loves to hike. Two of her proudest achievements since moving to Nashville were completing two half-marathons! Her favorite role in life is that of “Aunt” to her nieces and nephews.

Roschelle has already begun writing another collection of short stories, “More Stories From The Porch.”

http://www.roschelleridenhour.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTuxzCke_-Q

 

 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  Growing up, I wrote songs and poems all the time but didn’t start making them into stories until I was around 30 years old.

I grew up in Missouri and read Laura Ingalls when I was young. I really think of myself as a story-teller more than a writer. To me, a writer is someone who goes to college and majors in English. I am story teller and I have all these things in my head that I have to get out. And story-tellers are not grammatically correct. I am only speaking for myself. I have read “ Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” and I still don’t get it. I don’t know how I graduated from college. Oh yes, I do--I took minimal English classes.

 

  

PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?

Roschelle Ridenhour:   I write because I always have something bouncing around in my head, and I don’t always know if it should be a poem, a story or just something for my private journal. I do know that I have to get it out. I have heard this same thing from other writers as well. Once I get it out though, characters take on their own lives. Sometimes, I get the ending of a story first.  I never know how it’s going to come to me.  It’s exciting for me to see how a story starts! I am an observer, so I can be walking in the mall and notice a feature or a person and I am like “Oh no, here comes a story.”

I have a vivid imagination.

 

 

PageoneLit.com: Briefly discuss your book THE COTTAGE PORCH STORIES. 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  12 short stories built around the lives of characters who do not live perfect lives or always make the right choice. There are some painful consequences in these stories. But there is great joy as well.  The goal is to help better understand your life experiences after this read.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Explain the title THE COTTAGE PORCH STORIES as it relates to the compilation. 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  The second story in my book is actually the 1st story I wrote. For some reason, I wanted to start and end the book with a story that took my readers overseas. I set out the title of each story and re-arranged them. After a few days, I finally settled on the order. 

Like many of my stories in the book, I sometimes get titles before the story so for many years, I knew the word “porch” would be in the title of my book.  Oddly enough, I don’t recall having a porch in any of my homes growing up. It was a toss between using the word “front” or using the word “cottage.” I never have lived in a cottage. I can see this little girl sitting on her porch somewhere in New England watching all these houses and seeing these stories come to life. 

 

  

 

PageOneLit.com:  THE COTTAGE PORCH STORIES has been said to "celebrate life's challenges and adventures." That has to make you feel successful with this compilation - Is that what you set out to achieve? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  Absolutely Yes!  When I get feedback from a reader who says they can relate  to the stories, it encourages me more. Like one reader told me, they have re-read my stories over and over because each time they get something different out of it.

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  How personal are the stories in THE COTTAGE PORCH STORIES? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  They are not personal, they are fictional. For instance in one of my stories a girl is remembering her alcoholic mother who seemed to always wear an old ragged pink housecoat.

My mom isn’t an alcoholic and I don’t remember a pink housecoat of hers growing up. I get this question a lot, “is that your mom in that story?” My mom had to explain to her Sunday school class, my daughters book is fictional!

In one of my stories I refer to a “Lazy Susan”. My grandmother had one sitting on her kitchen table. There were oil and vinegar bottles and salt and pepper shakers. I remember it always had cat hair on it because she wasn’t a great cleaner and that cat was everywhere. But the story isn’t about grandmothers or cat. But I knew one of my stories had to have a “Lazy Susan” in it. 

In one of my stories a dad dances with his daughter and treats her like a princess. Again, if you know me you would know my dad never danced with me! 

But for those who know me really well and are wise beyond their years can tell that I am just getting some of my personal emotional pain released through the characters in the stories.

 

 

 PageOneLit.com: What is it about the short story you enjoy? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  It feeds into my impatience. Sometimes I can’t pay attention for long periods of time.  Also, I don’t want to have to remember a lot of characters or that “so and so” arrived on Tuesday so she couldn’t have been there for the Monday night meal. 

BUT,  I have been encouraged by many people that each of these stories could  each be made into their own novel.

I have taken heed to that and plan on my next book of short stories characters be more developed. I think this book the characters revolved around the hope and the crisis they were each dealing with. The next book I think I will spend more time developing out their personalities. BUT I will still deal with their hopes and crisis.

 

 

 PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with THE COTTAGE PORCH STORIES?

Roschelle Ridenhour:  That the reader gets the story. That they see the hope in the most difficult situation. When someone says to me, “this or that story made me cry”, I am like “GREAT.” My work here is finished!

 

 

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  I don’t have a lot of time for reading. If I have time for reading …I could be writing. But sometimes you need a break. I enjoy books on tape, rather than sitting down and reading. I just finished, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

I got lost in those characters, I was there on Guernsey Island every night on my drive home from work.

 

 

 PageOneLit.com: What's next? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:   I am always writing!  “More Stories From The Porch” is the next book of short stories. I have started 12 stories but not all are complete.  I have finished a children’s book “The Village Boy.” I am waiting for the right illustrator to come along and then it will be published.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing? 

Roschelle Ridenhour:  Yes. I enjoy hiking, photography and crafts.  In the craft department, I especially enjoy scrapbooking and making cards.

For me writing sometimes requires discipline and a clear mind. So my hobbies clear my mind from the responsibilities of my day job and lets that creativeness breath! I used my photography in this book and I will in my next one.