Nearly hidden between discarded brushes and sculptures ready to come alive with paint, sits a copy of Jane Hankins’ favorite background noise.
Surrounded by her crystal-studded dragon sculptures and colorful paintings of adventurous, fanciful children, it’s no wonder Hankins finds inspiration in Harry Potter audio books.
“My favorite line is in the last book,” Hankins says. “Harry isn’t dead, but he’s seeing Dumbledore and thinks he might be dead.”
Harry asks his bearded mentor if what he’s experiencing is real, or if it’s in his imagination.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry,” Dumbledore says. “But why on Earth should that mean that it is not real?”
Hankins couldn’t agree more.
At 63, Hankins is busy promoting her second book, The Thirty-Foot Elvis, a story that came to her so fast, she barely had time to write it all down.
“It’s all a movie in my head,” says Hankins, who lives in the Heights with her husband, THV 11’s Craig O’Neill. “I’d open the laptop and just start writing. It’s like sitting down to read a book.”
Hankins’ over-the-top characters all reside in the fictional Arkansas city of Peavine, and their backstories and personalities are so real to Hankins that she talks about them like she would any friend.
“The main character, Ronelle, in the second book is the psychic who formerly was a stripper,” Hankins says. “She was prematurely gray, and in the South you just don’t let your hair go gray. So finally, she gets a makeover and she decided to dye it.”
Even the smallest details about her characters, who have been circling in her head for more than a decade, are fully fleshed out in Hankins’ books.
The first in Hankins’ Peavine Chronicles, Madge’s Mobile Home Park, sprouted from a series of sculptures Hankins did in 2000. She started with just a few figures in her “Mavens of Madge’s Mobile Home Park” series, but it quickly expanded to a whole neighborhood. From there, Hankins decided to keep expanding, finally putting the stories in her head down on paper. In 2012, Madge’s was finally published.
“It took just eight months for me to finish writing Elvis,” Hankins says. “I gained 6 pounds! Writing is very fattening.”
Elvis carries over several characters from Madge’s, but a few new faces may seem familiar as well.
“Sweet Ginger Beebe said, ‘You know, you oughtta have a character named for Mike and name him Buckshot,’” Hankins says.
So it was that Peavine got a new mayor as an homage to Gov. Beebe: Buckshot Bradley (like the Arkansas county) and his wife, Sugar. President Bill Clinton even makes an appearance, as Gov. Bill Clinton (the books are based in the ’80s) who makes a visit. And then there’s the former stripper character, Krystal Bridges. Yes, named after that Crystal Bridges. No, this isn’t a children’s book.
“Because I paint the things I do, people assume that I would make this a kids’ book,” Hankins says. “But those paintings don’t need words. These characters do.”
Growing up in Jonesboro, Hankins focused on drama and art, never thinking she’d write a book. Looking back, typing lessons might have been a good idea. To write, Hankins sits curled over her laptop, meticulously typing out rows of words without ever looking at the screen.
“And then I’ll look up and wow, I’ve really misspelled everything,” Hankins says. “So I’ll have to delete it all and go back.”
To promote the new release, Hankins packed her schedule so full of local signings that she’s busy through Christmas. On Saturday, Jane and Craig have planned a launch party for the book from 6-9 p.m. at the Argenta Community Theater. The night includes a book signing and sale, food and drinks, a staged reading from Elvis and an art show featuring Hankins’ work.
Hankins says her husband has been instrumental in her writing process, listening to nearly every version of every sentence of the first book.
“Bless him, he listened,” Hankins says. “But the second book was coming so fast that he never knew what I was talking about. I had to tell him to just wait until I was finished.”
Craig has also helped Hankins publicize the Peavine books, and Hankins says she hopes Elvis will reach a greater audience.
“Any minute I’m waiting on 300 books to arrive at my door,” Hankins says.
But whether the books take off nationally or not, Hankins says she’s excited to keep writing, balancing it with her art. The stories are just too vivid for her not to get them down in print.
“I’ll just keep going as long as I can still be coherent and have someone publish it,” Hankins says. “Once you fall in love with these characters and their lives, you just can’t let them go.”