conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Amazon, Book, Dixie with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'The Education of Dixie Dupree'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first four paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Education of Dixie Dupree
  Once we got in, she talked about what she wanted to fix for dinner. "I think I should fix some fried chicken, and now that we have a full pantry, I could bake a chocolate cake with chocolate icing."
  I watched Mama's back go stiff and she stopped putting lipstick on, clicking her powder compact together with a loud snap. I couldn't see her expression, but her rigid posture and the silence in the car was like someone had just turned the volume down on a TV. Oh God, why did I say that just now?
  I could hear AJ breathing beside me. He'd probably just turned white as a ghost, fearful my mouth and brain weren't connected.
  Mama spun around in the seat, her eyes opened real wide, eyebrows up, and she looked worried. She asked me that very question.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: We were on the Appalachian Trail. It stretched from the top part of Georgia all the way into Maine, and the challenge of driving up and down all those hills agitated Mama to no end. As we wound our way up the mountainside, the scenery captured me, and though her erratic driving made me uptight in my own way, I was too busy looking out the window at bluish mountaintops and deep valleys to pay much attention to her little gasps and whispers of anxiety.
  Mama had said she wanted to do a little scenic tour, and something told me she regretted her generosity, but despite her driving, I was enjoying myself. Before we'd left, I'd read in the encyclopedia the area was known as the "Smoky Mountains" due to the low-lying clouds that would sometimes wrap around the hills and valleys, making it look like they were surrounded by smoke.
  As we approached the top of a mountain and started down the other side, she told me to sit back and quit spinning around in the seat. I spotted something on the side of the road, close to one of the drop-offs, that looked like a gopher.
  Mama hollered, "Dixie! Don't move, don't turn your head, just sit still! Not unless you'd like us to plunge over the side and kill ourselves!"
  Aggravated, I sat back while shooting dirty looks her way. What was the point of taking the scenic tour if I couldn't take in the scenery? She had her eyes nailed to the road ahead and didn't pay me any mind. She drove along alternating between the gas and brake, in a vain attempt to keep some distance between the front of her car and Uncle Ray's bumper, but it changed constantly according to her confidence level.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last three paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: One question might be, "Is this your story?" Yes, it is, to some degree, but not completely. To set the context, I used a few instances from my own childhood. The similarities are that my father is from the South (North Carolina), and my mother from the North (Maine). How they met is close to what is in the story, although not 100 percent accurate. My mother was not pregnant, for example. The bond between my brother and me is similar to what Dixie and AJ had, a typical big-brother, little-sister relationship. Then there is "Sneaky Pete." Sneaky Pete was a name my grandfather, my father's father, gave his bottle of liquor. As a child, I was fascinated by that brown bag sitting in the pantry. I knew, because it was kept on the top shelf, it was not meant for children, which made me all the more curious about it. I also saw my mother's reaction to it, too, the disapproval obvious to me in the look on her face, the same look she'd get if I did something wrong. Those things, as well as a situation with an uncle of mine, which never came close to what happened to Dixie, laid the foundation. Everything else is pure fiction and only introduced to extend the story.
  As I thought about how to evolve the narrative, the aspect of depression, physical abuse, alcoholism, suicide, and eventually rape were introduced as important social components. I also wanted to stress that children in all kinds of situations such as this have a fear of telling what is happening to them. Most of them already think they won't be believed and there is no explanation as to why they should think this way. All of the abuse topics are difficult to write about, but I wanted to meet them head-on, without mincing words or avoiding the truth about what happens when children are subjected to it. I felt I needed to show why adults, who are supposed to protect them, sometimes fail to do so. Sometimes their own inability to deal with personal issues affects decision-making. I wanted to stick to what I perceived to be the possible realities some children face.
  This is a story that shows not all who are abused end up suicidal, on drugs, or in a therapist's office. There are some children who will need help, and rightly so. But then there are those who show this remarkable resilience to whatever is thrown their way, children who can withstand all sorts of horror and walk away from it, all the more stronger for it. To me, that is the most important message to convey from this story.