Victoria Benton Frank is growing her garden. The camellias and jasmine flowers that she’s planting in the yard of her James Island home were chosen with care — selected in honor of characters she’s written.
That cast of characters is expanding, too. Frank names nearly all her protagonists after flowers, and her latest novel is no exception. “The Violet Hour” hits shelves on Aug. 12 and follows two women as they navigate grief, reshape their identities and, perhaps, find love.
True to her Lowcountry roots, Frank’s book tour is peppered with stops in Charleston. In celebration of the novel’s release, Frank will join Blue Bicycle Books at Segra Park for an author luncheon and meet-and-greet on Aug. 22.
“The Violet Hour” comes just two years after the release of Frank’s debut novel, “My Magnolia Summer,” and offers a closer look into the lives of the Adams family’s youngest daughter, Violet, and her best friend Aly. Much like Frank’s first book, the Lowcountry serves as an active backdrop to the plot — almost a protagonist in its own right.
“Charleston just hands me this ham-handed beautiful landscape to work with,” Frank said. “… It makes you wanna fall in love.”
While Frank didn’t begin her career as a writer, she’s always considered herself a storyteller. Daughter of bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank, she worked as a chef in New York before returning to Charleston, where she attended college. It was only upon the encouragement of her mother that she began writing her first book, which took seven years to complete.
“The Violet Hour” is Victoria Benton Frank’s new book.
Provided
Now, six years after her mother’s death, Frank is writing about grief. She considers much of her creative process to be subconscious — from absorbing Lowcountry living to understanding loss, the themes woven into her work often reflect aspects of her own life. Her husband even makes a cameo as chef at the Post House, where he worked at the time of her writing “The Violet Hour.”