When bad things happen to good characters
Author Leif Peterson re-edits an old book in his basement office north of Whitefish. Peterson recently published his first novel, Catherine Wheels. He has already finished his second novel. Chris Jordan/Daily Inter Lake
In his first published novel, Whitefish author focuses on the resilience of the human spirit
Spiritual and emotional losses.
Spiritual and emotional healing.
Those themes weave throughout the writings of Whitefish author Leif Peterson, especially in his first published book, Catherine Wheels.
The human psyche, the human soul has this ability to recover from bad things. Im intrigued by how that happens. … Its always this mystery that youre able to bounce back, Peterson said.
And in Catherine Wheels, which was released in September, Peterson piles on bad things for his characters to recover from.
The novels narrator, Thomas, gets rejected by his fiancee, has his Episcopal-priest brother commit suicide because of a crisis of faith, moves in with a dying friend in a castle next to a convent in northwestern Montana, and has his sister-in-law abandon his 9-year-old niece to him.
The castle an anomaly in Montana was built by the dying friends rich father as a plot device to provide a cold, isolated Gothic backdrop in a forest, Peterson said.
The bottom line: Thomas and his small circle of friends have withdrawn from life.
The niece Catherine, daughter of his dead brother, is the catalyst to almost imperceptibly nudge Thomas back to living, and not just existing.
Peterson picked a 9-year-old as that catalyst because that is not the typical role for a young child. But he thought a 9-year-olds innocence, sense of wonder and directness are good tools to push damaged, self-absorbed adults on the road to recovery.
Catherine is the most emotionally stable and proactive of the books characters, and tends to see martyred saints while walking in the woods.
Peterson tried to keep the novels themes of damaged people recovering as subtle as possible.
He remembered advice from his father, Christian author Eugene Peterson of Lakeside, who writes more-lecturish books and biblical interpretations: If you want to tell truth about humans, truth about human relationships, tell a story.
Catherine Wheels is the second of three novels for the 40-year-old Peterson, father of three children with his school librarian wife, Amy.
The Whitworth College English graduate wrote his first novel, which was never published, as his masters thesis in literature at the University of Colorado. It is about a Baltimore family dealing with death, though it does not have a catalytic character such as Catherine. Peterson still tweaks that novel, hoping to find a publisher for it.
Bits of and pieces of Catherine Wheels germinated in Petersons head for years. It took him two to three years to write the 330-page novel, selling it two years ago. The two-year wait was due to the logistical and marketing schedules of WaterBrook Press, which is a division of Random House.
Peterson, an Episcopalian, said that his book, with its spiritual and redemption themes, appears to becoming pigeonholed as a Christian novel. He hopes that the publishing world will classify him as a general-fiction writer and not as a Christian-genre specialist.
He cautioned against reading anything autobiographical into Catherine Wheels or his other works though he draws from observations from life around him.
Writing instructors say: Write what you know. Thats a fallacy. You write what you care about, Peterson said.
Peterson cares about emotional journeys.
He has finished a another novel, Big Sky Diet, which his agent is currently shopping around to publishers.
Big Sky Diet is about a couple trying unsuccessfully to have a baby with the wife suffering three miscarriages. An idiot savant character in his mid-20s with an ability to see joy in everything fills a similar role as Catherine in nudging the couple toward happiness.
Happiness should not be based on some distant thing in the future. They come to learn to live in the moment, Peterson said about the thrust of Big Sky Diet.
Despite writing two straight books with damaged protagonists being prodded by more innocent catalytic characters, Peterson said he does not plan to follow that device in future novels. Again, he cautioned against matching his gloomy characters with his real life, saying those approaches are merely plot requirements.
He said: If you take a journey (emotionally), youve got to start out with damaged characters.