Short stories by a local writer will be published in upcoming issues of The St. Croix Review (stcroixreview.com).
“One of the reasons I moved to Southside Virginia was to write, so I am in heaven living in this colorful corner of Virginia,” she told the Courier-Record.
Mrs. Tyler Scott and her husband, Granville, moved to Blackstone five years ago from Henrico. Tyler’s stories to be published:
•Over Yonder There May Be a Better Life (3,100 words) is the first story she wrote when she moved to Blackstone. It’s about an older woman with a philandering husband who moves to a small town to start over. She is torn up, angry, and very lonely; starting over at her age is not easy.
•For the Love of Orchids (2016 words) is about an older man and a younger woman who befriend each other at the local orchid club and — desperate for companionship — they start to date, both trying to impress the other person because they are each so fed up and lonely.
•Majesty (2,469 words) is about a writer with writer’s block who goes on a walk, walks by a retirement home, sees someone sitting in a window, and goes home and makes up her story.
Tyler already is an accomplished writer. She’s been published occasionally in Deep South Magazine and Literary Ladies Guide. She’s also been selling her works to magazines and newspapers since the early 1980s.
Tyler also has her own website, tylernscott.com.
Last year she sold a story called Such Broken Souls, Such Weary Hearts (1,534 words) to Iconoclast magazine for its 30th anniversary issue. It’s a ghost story set in Tyler’s home on Brunswick Avenue.
“My short stories have all been set in Southside Virginia although not always Blackstone. The events are all made-up, as are the characters.”
Tyler and Granville bought the former Anne Stiles home — an 1896 Queen Anne Revival house — in Nov. 2018 and moved-in the following June. Tyler is a born and bred Richmonder. She went to Collegiate then to her mother and godmother’s alma mater, Chatham Hall in Chatham; then to Kenyon College in Ohio. Husband Granville is local resident Mrs. Tuckie Spindler Kile’s double third cousin; Granville’s mother a Spindler.
Tyler recalls being told by friends that moving to a small town would be boring.
In her piece for Deep South Magazine, called “Life Down Southside Way,” Tyler wrote:
“My daughter says my accent has gotten thicker. I spend more time studying the folks and places around me, and I have started living on Blackstone Time. I used to always be in a hurry. I remember waiting in line at a mini mart a few years ago, and I was getting aggravated because everyone in front of me had to catch up on family news before they paid.
“There I stood, irritated, tapping my big city foot impatiently. When I drove home, I realized I would have to slow down if I were going to live here happily. I am pleased to announce I have made the transition. Now I set aside 15 minutes for errands and a half hour to talk to people.
“And I’ve learned to watch the chittychat because word travels fast. One of our contractors told me soon after we moved here, ‘We’ll know what you’re doing before you do.’
“When I moved here, I always assumed I would be an outsider — after all I was Richmond born and bred. But now Blackstonians treat me as if I am a local and for this, I offer heartfelt thanks.”
You can also read this article posted by the Courier-Record.
