CHIPPEWA FALLS \u2014 In discussing his new book with the Leader-Telegram, author James Peters shared insights into the origins of the new story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was halfway through the first chapter of what I thought was going to be my first book,\u201d Peters recalled. \u201dI was motoring along pretty well and feeling pretty good about it. I was out on our back porch, having a cocktail with my wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I said, \u2018I\u2019ll be right back,\u2019 and I ran into the house, grabbed a piece of paper, set back down, and wrote what I thought was going to be the first line of a very different novel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then there was Pauline. Pauline was an unexpected breakout character in Peters\u2019 first book, \u201cShrugging.\u201d Despite Peters having an aversion to sequels and wanting each story to be self-standing, Pauline also showed up in Peters\u2019 third book, \u201cFortune Falls.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I wrote that third book, she made an appearance in it as a smaller supporting character, which I had not planned,\u201d said Peters. \u201cBut this is just the kind of character she is \u2014 she just forces her way in.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn that Sunday, on my back porch, Pauline was screaming at me, \u2018No, you\u2019re not done with me yet. You have to tell my whole story.\u2019 So what\u2019s where it started. It\u2019s still a standalone novel \u2014 you don\u2019t have to read the others. But this is the first time that she is the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the recently-released fourth book, \u201cThe Dancer and the Swan,\u201d Pauline is volunteering at a hospice and she meets DeeDee, an elderly Creole woman whose life brings up a multitude of questions about her past. Why did DeeDee leave her Creole neighborhood for San Francisco? What is her connection to the Black Panthers? What caused the dysfunction in DeeDee\u2019s relationship with her son, Raymond? As Pauline tries to piece together this hospice patient\u2019s turbulent life, it causes Pauline to examine her own life, tainted by childhood trauma and a battle with alcoholism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew this time, Pauline was the one who was going to need the guide \u2014 the person to help her find strength,\u201d said Peters. \u201cThat\u2019s where DeeDee comes in. I figured there were certain things that a character would need to help Pauline through her struggles, and what the story ends up being is these two different women from two very different worlds, and yet, in key points in their lives, they faced similar decisions, but went in different directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd through that, Pauline gains the strength and guidance through her traumas that she\u2019s been living with her whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book was released at the beginning of August to some very positive reviews, including a five-star review from Reedsy\u2019s Alice Bennett who said the book \u201coozes charm and inspired storytelling\u201d and called it \u201ccaptivating and incredibly moving.\u201d Kirkus gave the novel a starred review, stating the book was a \u201cmoving story of friendship, family and recovery\u201d and that the novel \u201chandles weighty themes frankly and with nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters invested considerable time in researching not only the characters but also cultural movements, and businesses that spanned decades and locations, from San Francisco to Chicago and New Orleans. As a white middle-aged man, he wrote two lead characters, one of whom was a Black Creole woman in her seventies, in addition to exploring various other aspects of his leads\u2019 lives and identities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was I thinking? I have no idea, but that was my biggest panic,\u201d said Peters as he talked about the amount of care he took in his two lead characters \u2014 and it paid off, with one book club praising his characterization that bucked stereotypes of men doing a less than stellar job in portraying female characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018You\u2019re an honorary female member of our club now, because you write women so well,\u2019\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
But the work that Peters put in was immense \u2014 perhaps too much so, which contrasts with his prior three books that he considers much more personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith \u2018The Dancer and the Swan,\u2019 one of the biggest challenges was that it was also a historical novel. I had to do the most research that I have ever had to do with a book. But my next one, which I had been working on, will not involve a ridiculous amount of research,\u201d he said. \u201dEvery book needs some research, but I want to get away from having to do too much of it, and get back into writing what I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters said he has always been a more character-driven writer, since the term plot-driven suggests a more specific intentional layout of actions and then some sort of resolution, and that seemed antithetical for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t do that, because life doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one\u2019s life ties up neatly until they die, and sometimes not even then.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then, of course, there\u2019s that exception of Pauline, who begged to get her story told, and being the exceptional character that she is, she also got something exceptional for a character in one of Peters\u2019 books: closure. That said, when asked if he would continue her story despite giving the character a more definite ending, he gave an emphatic \u201cno \u2014 she\u2019s done!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018The Dancer and the Swan\u2019 is the closest thing I\u2019ve ever done to actually wrapping up a story,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is one thing that people have said that they normally don\u2019t say about my books \u2014 they say, \u2018 I loved your ending. It\u2019s so beautiful.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere, I did it \u2014 you guys can leave me alone now,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHIPPEWA FALLS \u2014 In discussing his new book with the Leader-Telegram, author James Peters shared insights into the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,96822,171,96820,18280,96821,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-169004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-deedee","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-james-peters","12":"tag-pauline","13":"tag-supporting-character","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115077804427191263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}