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Todd P. Talbert

@echoesoftalbert

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Orange County pioneer’s great-grandson writing Opal Colton’s Tragic Smile. A Southern novel of inheritance, consequence, and what remains.

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Some family stories don’t disappear. They wait to be found.

A fire opal necklace Stanley Reed referred to as Opal Colton’s “namesake.”

And nearly a century of unanswered questions.

Sophie was only beginning to understand what she held in her hands.

Opal Colton’s Tragic Smile

#OpalColtonsTragicSmile #EchoesOfTalbert #HistoricalFiction #SouthernFiction #1920s by @echoesoftalbert

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13 days ago

Stanley Reed told Opal the Great War had left its mark. Then came the photograph.

A good suit.
A cream-colored fedora.
And a mask covering what he chose not to show.

Opal understood the need for concealment. She had to do it herself.

California, 1924

#OpalColtonsTragicSmile #EchoesOfTalbert #HistoricalFiction #SouthernFiction #1920s by @echoesoftalbert

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23 days ago

Two o’clock in the morning.

A ruined Chevrolet.
A flask of whiskey.
And Deputy Bandon Buchanan wondering who he was chasing before recognizing the man behind the wheel.

Some wrecks leave more behind than broken glass.

Opal Colton’s Tragic Smile

#OpalColtonsTragicSmile #EchoesOfTalbert #HistoricalFiction #SouthernFiction #1920s by @echoesoftalbert

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a month ago

My grandfather was ten when this scrapbook came together during a sixty-day family journey with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to Hawaii in 1923–24. My Great Grandfather, T. B. Talbert was a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors at the time.

A radiogram addressed to his father.
Shipboard news.
A joke somebody thought worth saving.

A century later, the paper is still talking.

#EchoesOfTalbert #1920s #FamilyHistory #HistoricalFiction #OpalColtonsTragicSmile by @echoesoftalbert

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2 months ago

A first look at page one of Opal Colton’s Tragic Smile.

I’ve spent the past few years returning to this story, scene by scene, trying to make the writing match the world I’ve carried in my head. This is where Opal’s journey begins.

Still polishing. Still subject to change.

#OpalColtonsTragicSmile #EchoesOfTalbert #HistoricalFiction #LiteraryFiction #SouthernLiterature by @echoesoftalbert

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2 months ago

These glasses belonged to my second great-grandmother, the woman in the middle in the second image. She was born in 1853. When I hold them, I wonder what she saw over the course of her eighty-two years.

What’s one family heirloom you’ll never part with?

#OpalColtonsTragicSmile #SouthernLit #EchoesOfTalbert #LteraryFiction #AmericanLiterature by @echoesoftalbert

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2 months ago

Sometimes the objects tell the story before the characters ever do. Georgia, 1924.

#EchoesOfTalbert #LiteraryFiction #SouthernLit #1920s #WhiteLightning by @echoesoftalbert

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3 months ago

Some heirlooms are polished and displayed. Others are left in corners.

No one remembers who put it there. Everyone remembers why no one touched it.

From Opal Colton’s Tragic Smile.

#SouthernLit #WritersOfInstagram #LiteraryFiction #HistoricalFiction #EchoesOfTalbert by @echoesoftalbert

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3 months ago

The newspaper reported the funeral drew nearly two hundred people to Chestnut Grove Baptist Church.

Some came to mourn.
Some came because they knew.
Some came because they had heard enough to want a look.

Opal Colton arrived wearing what she could borrow, carrying more than the newspaper could print.

The photograph made the paper. The story behind it did not.

Grayson, Georgia, 1924.

#SouthernLit #WritersOfInstagram #LiteraryFiction #HistoricalFiction #EchoesOfTalbert by @echoesoftalbert

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3 months ago

Uncle Harlan’s suit still hung in the closet.

The dance ticket remained pinned to the lapel.

#SouthernLit #HistoricalFiction #EchoesOfTalbert #1920s #LiteraryFiction by @echoesoftalbert

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3 months ago

Some stories begin with a letter.

Others begin with a room that hasn’t changed in years.

#SouthernLit #HistoricalFiction #EchoesOfTalbert #LiteraryFiction #1920s by @echoesoftalbert

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3 months ago

By morning, the rain would wash away tracks Sterling Rudd might have missed. #SouthernLit #LiteraryFiction #HistoricalFiction #EchoesOfTalbert #1920s by @echoesoftalbert

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4 months ago