Asheville writer Sarah Addison Allen describes her writing as "Southern fried magical realism."
And her latest book, "The Girl Who Chased the Moon," which went on sale Tuesday, lives up to that description with characters who display a sixth sense for baked goods, wallpaper that changes designs and ghostly lights at night.
Allen's debut novel, "Garden Spells," was a New York Times best-seller and won the 2008 fiction award from The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Allen will be in the Triangle for book readings Thursday and Saturday.
The "Southern fried" part of Allen's writing moniker comes from a consistent food theme in her books.
In "Garden Spells," one of the main characters, Claire Waverly, is a caterer who cooks with foods and flowers from her garden. In her follow-up novel, "The Sugar Queen," main character Josey Cirrini has an obsession with Southern sweets. While writing and researching that book, Allen says, she gained 18 pounds from eating all those GooGoo Clusters, Chick-O-Sticks and Cow Tales.
Her most recent book is no different. "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" is set in a North Carolina town called Mullaby, which is loosely based on Lexington, home to an annual barbecue festival. The book tells the compelling story of teenager Emily Benedict, who returns to her late mother's hometown and discovers the truth about her mother's past.
During her book tour for "The Sugar Queen," Allen says she took a copy of Bob Garner's "Guide to North Carolina Barbecue" and justified her stops at out-of-the-way joints as research.
"I had my first taste of Eastern North Carolina barbecue," says Allen, who grew up with Western style in Asheville. "It was a big eye-opener."
In the acknowledgments for "The Girl Who Chased the Moon," Allen wrote: "As always, my undying gratitude to my family and friends for their love, support and patience. I'll stop talking about barbecue now. I promise."
Allen explains that she was constantly cajoling friends and relatives to go eat barbecue with her.
But again, Allen discovered, "all that research is tough on the waistline."
