Dottie was a wonderful human being, kind and helpful, and if she dreamed it, she found a way to bring it to fruition (superpower number four), and if you dreamed it, and were willing to put in the work, she helped make your dreams come true as well. She is responsible for my book career being so successful—once she came to my stores other publishers started calling me and sometimes the authors themselves reached out to me. When I left the book business and decided to go work at a country club, she told me point-blank you will not like it. And she was right. It was not for me.
Her family was very important to her (superpower number five); our daughters are around the same age and we often shared stories over dinner of how we were raising our girls. She loved fiercely and cared for my child as well. I will never forget how she called me twice a day until my daughter came through a very difficult surgery.
We have been through good times and bad, she has given so much advice, helped so many people, to say I miss her is an understatement.
Queen, you came and did your thing, you have left us with the tools we need to get through this thing called life, rest well; we got it from here.
Dottie: The Sparkling Comet
Gervais Hagerty
There is a tribe of women writers in Charleston. They are bound together like chapters in a hardback. When a tribe member releases a book, Nathalie Dupree throws a party.
My mother, a poet, had been taking me to these celebrations long before I understood how lucky I was to be included. My most salient first memory of speaking with Dottie occurred in Nathalie’s lemon yellow dining room, where guests smeared homemade pimento cheese dip on crumbly made-from-scratch biscuits. I was a teenager; Dottie spoke to me as though I was an adult. “Either your face can look good, or your ass can look good, but you can’t have both.”
Ha!
I knew Dottie was a bestseller, but I was confused because from what I learned in high school English, writers weren’t happy. They hid in the corners of their rickety homes, tied to their typewriters by cobwebs. They chewed their fingernails to nubs agonizing over metaphors and forgot to check for boogers before speaking engagements.
And here was Dottie, this sparkling comet whizzing around the party, laughing and cracking jokes. Wasn’t the writing life a slog? Dottie looked like she was having fun. That left an impression on me.
The last time I spoke with Dottie was also at Nathalie’s. We were in the front parlor, a quieter room separated from the food and drink by the blockade of newcomers in the foyer. Dottie was with her daughter, Victoria. They sat side-by-side, shoulder to shoulder, their arms bent in perfect parallel. I remember thinking how close they seemed.
I had finished a draft of my first novel—written from the point of view of one person—and was planning my second book. I had a question; I might as well ask a master storyteller. “Should I write from multiple points of view?”
Dottie smiled a big, red-lipsticked smile. The diamonds on her ears winked like stars. “Oh, yes. That way they can keep secrets from each other.”
I have the privilege and honor to work with Dottie’s longtime editor, Carrie Feron. On our phone calls, we often end up talking about Dottie, and when we do, the energy changes. Even with hundreds of miles between us, I can feel a celestial shift, like I’ve floated into the wake of their deep and enduring kinship. Carrie adored Dottie. I think for many people, it was impossible not to.
After I submit my copyedits for my first novel, I’ll get back to working on book number two, which, of course, has multiple points of view. Thanks to Dottie’s advice, there are constellations of secrets. And, following her example, I’m having a whole lot of fun.
About Gervais Hagerty
Gervais Hagerty by Gayle Brooker
GERVAIS HAGERTY grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. After reporting and producing the news for both radio and television, she taught communications at The Citadel. When not writing, she works on local environmental and transportation issues. She lives in Charleston with her husband and two daughters.
Also by Gervais Hagerty
In Polite Company
Essay and Poetry by Marjory Wentworth
MARJORY WENTWORTH
Essay
I met Dottie in the early 2000s at a party on a Saturday evening. I was first introduced to her husband, Peter. He told me that he traveled a lot for work and that he likes to read poetry on airplanes, because he could read in bits and pieces when it was quiet, and it really gave him something to think about. He seemed interested in my work, and I told him that it was part of the wall text at the Gibbes Museum of Art in an exhibition on the ACE Basin. He flipped when I told him that and he said that his wife, Dottie, had just finished a novel called Plantation set in the ACE Basin. He ran off to find her; she was talking to my husband, who is
