By Shanece Brent, Staff Writer

Published in print Aug. 27, 2014

In the back area of Greensboro’s Scuppernong Books on South Elm Street, Laurie Lake White stood in front of a tall white window set in a rustic brick wall in preparation for her first formal book talk.

Around her, several members of the Greensboro community gathered, including Ann Saab, former director of UNCG’s history department, as well as a member of the Weil/Winfield family. These attendants traded hugs and book recommendations while others sipped wine from Scuppernong’s in-house collection. The seats were mismatched: two pale green sofas, a few padded wooden chairs, and a table fill the room.

Before the reading began, the co-owner of the bookstore announces they’ve run out of seats. “We knew a lot of people would show up, but not this many,” he admitted before grabbing more chairs.

White was open and engaging as she read to the full house. Influenced by Jane Austin and Penelope Fitzgerald, White tries to keep levity and comedy in her works, and it showed in the way the audience laughed as she read her passages.

She’s sweet and friendly, which added to the jovial atmosphere. After the reading, White was swamped with people and congratulations as she offered signed copies of her book, of which she quickly sold out.

White’s debut novel, titled Play Music, has been called “an entertaining, ambitious historical saga infused with the love of music” by Kirkus Reviews. The novel follows the lives of Hugo and Lisel, Jewish immigrants from Vienna who travel to America to work in the silent movie theaters and opera houses of New York. Play Music was loosely based on the lives of the parents of Laurie’s former piano teacher, Lilly King, who became a beloved family friend.

“I was always so impressed with her,” White said of Lilly. “Everything in her house seemed like I was in Europe. It was just so exotic and wonderful. And I just loved her, so I wanted to write about her. Writing it sort of made me feel – not to be too corny – like she was close by.”

“I’ve always loved movies,” she added during the talk.  “My father was a great movie-goer, and he went to silent movies a lot as a child.” When White learned that Lilly’s father was the conductor of a silent movie orchestra, she decided to turn her love of movies and her piano teacher into a work of art

“I also wanted to write a book about a happy family,” White said with a smile, “and I wanted it not to be boring. I also have a thing about time, because conductors are so precise.”

White earned her Master’s and PhD degrees in English from UNCG, later becoming a lecturer at the university for many years. She utilized the UNCG Music library, as well as Jackson, to fulfill the need for much of the novel’s research. Though this is primarily a work of fiction, White noted that it was important that she create an accurate portrait of life in the 1920s.

“I wanted the ‘20s, which were so interesting, to be the way that they were, and I was very worried about it because I’m not a historian,” she said. White and her husband Walter Beal also traveled to Vienna and New York to do research for the novel.

“I always liked to write, but I wrote things like essays and book reviews and I did a little reviewing of plays. I never did anything fiction. So finally when I retired I thought, ‘I want to write a book, I’ve got to write a book. So I did,’” said White, crediting her love of English to her high school English teacher, Peggy Joyner. Things came full circle as Joyner was there to proofread her first book.

“She told me where I’d gone right, and she told me about some places where I’d gone wrong,” White said with a laugh, “and I just totally loved it because everything she said was right on.”

The novel is three years in the making, and White loved every second of writing it.

“I had fun! I really did,” White said, and she has some good advice for other hopeful novelists who have trouble finishing their work. “I told a bunch of people to keep reminding me,” she explained, “so I’d see them and they’d go, ‘Have you finished the book?’ It’s embarrassing if you haven’t finished the book, so I decided ‘I just can’t keep saying this, it’s going to bore everybody to death.’ That’s a good way to get it done if you’re interested in doing it.”

With her first novel under her belt, White is ready to write more. Her next planned work will be a murder mystery involving the Russian mafia. “This book was kind of leisurely, and this time I want to write something people will really want to read,” she said. If the success of this book talk was anything to go by, White’s next novel will also be a marvelous read.