Audrey McDaniel uses her experiences to craft a story

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
lbianchi@TheCitizenNews.com

People always say you should write what you know. For Audrey McDaniel, that turns out to be quite a bit. Originally from Ohio, Audrey has retained a wealth of vivid memories from her childhood in the Midwest. With her innate talent for weaving stories, she has put those recollections to good use in a mesmerizing murder mystery centered around the sand-bottomed lakes of northern Indiana.

As a member of the Fayette Writer’s Guild, McDaniel has read aloud her work in progress to the group, taking everyone who hears her on a intricately detailed journey to a place she knows very well, her imagination. Characters drawn from her own family and friends are brought to life with an effortless voice full of the experiences of life.

“I began to create characters when I played with my dolls and each of my dolls had his own or her own particular personality and character and behaved in that certain way.” McDaniel recalls. “I could entertain myself for hours playing with dolls and reading.” It seems that she has transferred those early abilities to the written page and invented a world of her own making, filled with people and events that come to life in her prose.

McDaniel’s book centers around an older woman living in a big, old house on a lake who witnesses the murder of a young boy. “I know the lake. I know the city. I know the people.” Listening to her describe the intricacies of the plot, the character’s varied back stories, it becomes clear that Audrey enjoys fleshing out the events of “Murder in Sandy Creek.”

“I’m into her. I know her. She’s me. I’m her, only she’s older than I am.” McDaniels confesses. She has shown her manuscript to friends for critique and received many positive comments. Even so, the would-be author has not attempted to present her work to a publisher as yet. McDaniels seems to enjoy the art of writing as an end in itself. She has tinkered with the project for several years and has essentially completed the book. It only waits for McDaniels to see her talent as something to share before her story is available to a wider audience.

McDaniels’ writing experience reaches back to her high school days when she was the school’s feature editor for the local newspaper. She later worked for a newspaper in eastern Alabama. She attended college in her 40s for a short while, worked for the West Point Manufacturing Company in West Point, Georgia. She later quit that job and moved with her second husband to Macon. Two of her favorite authors who have inspired her to put pen to paper are James Patterson and Catherine Coulter.

McDaniels has plenty more stories to tell of her own life experiences. She currently lives in Clayton County with her husband James, and their apricot poodle, Mr. Mac.