INTERVIEW WITH AN AUTHOR
Staff writer Teri R. Williams gets candid
with Atlanta writer Randall Arthur about
his latest book set in Lyons.
Lyons is known for many
things including “Tales of
the Altamaha,” an annual
play based on stories
of folklore and cultural
history; the Real Squeal BBQ and Music
festival; the Soap Box Derby on Derby
Hill, and the Dustin Michael Wright
Memorial Highway. And now, we can
add a new claim to fame as the setting
for Randall Arthur’s book A Quiet Roar.
In the interview below, Randall
explains how he came to choose Lyons
as the backdrop for what is surely a
firestorm of controversial material –
and the evolution of our fictionalized
town’s redemptive transformation.
Q | Your bio states that you and your
wife are “career missionaries.” Can you
elaborate?
RA | My wife and I have served as
full-time missionaries since 1975.
We lived in Europe for twenty-two
years where I planted and pastored
churches in Oslo, Norway; Munich,
Germany; and Berlin, Germany. For
the last nineteen years, I have served
as the European representative for a
nondenominational mission agency,
basing my ministry out of Georgia. In
this role I have coordinated and led
over 100 short-term mission trips,
primarily to Europe. I write Christian
fiction on the side.
Q | Did you grow up in the South?
RA | Yes, I lived in downtown Atlanta
for the first ten years of my life. At that
point, my father purchased property
twenty-five miles south of Atlanta and
moved our family to a rural setting. I
spent my pre-adolescent and teen years
in the 60’s enjoying a typical country
lifestyle—roaming the woods and
fields with my friends, eating homecooked
meals, and struggling to get
through school. I then moved away at
the age of seventeen to go to a big-city
college.
Q | How/Why did you choose Lyons for
your setting? Do you have a personal
connection with this area?
RA | I have no personal connection to
Toombs County. Yet, the idea for the
book was conceived there. Several years
ago, my wife and I were traveling to
Savannah on backroads. As we passed
through Vidalia and Lyons on Highway
280, my wife and I were talking about
women in ministry. I asked out loud, “I
wonder what would happen if here in a
small rural town like Vidalia or Lyons
the most prominent church in the area
announced they were bringing in a lady
pastor?” Well, being a Georgia boy, I
knew what would happen. And for the
next forty-five minutes my wife and I
had a blast imagining how such a story
would unfold. And there in the car, A
Quiet Roar was born. I should note,
however, that the story of A Quiet Roar
is not town specific. It is a narrative
that could easily reflect real life in
Claxton, Metter, Hazlehurst, or any
other small southern town.
Q | Did you talk to any locals before and/
or during the writing of this book?
RA | During the four and half years
while writing the manuscript, I
purposely did not interview anyone in
the area or do any research regarding
any of the Toombs County churches.
I wanted my book to be completely
innocent and free of influence. As I say
in the ‘final notes’ of the book, “Some
denominations, such as the Methodists
and Presbyterians, commonly allow
ladies to serve as senior pastors. In
order to create a sense of realistic
tension and controversy in the story, I
needed to select a denomination that
typically does not permit ladies to serve
A
Quiet
Roar
120 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE