Ask the Author: Nancy Peacock
Answered Questions (8)
Nancy Peacock
Hi Janet - I'm still about. Apparently, I'm laying low. I've revived the Flyleaf group via zoom. Are you on that mailing list?
Nancy Peacock
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Nancy Peacock
It feels strange to answer this way, with a couple from my own work, but at the same time it makes perfect sense. The characters a writer works with are always the ones most alive to her. So, I have to say, Persimmon Wilson and Chloe, from my novel THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PERSIMMON WILSON, is my favorite fictional couple. Persy's love for Chloe is so strong and true that even after three years of not seeing her during the turmoil of the Civil War, and even though he does not know where she is, he goes off in search of her. And Chloe who is in the beginning a much-abused house slave is never a passive character. It is she who plans their escape from the plantation and solicits Persy's help. As I wrote their story, told through Persy's voice, I never doubted his love for her. They live through violent times, yet they always maintain, even as they change communities and identities, a sweet pure spot together. In the end Persy makes the ultimate sacrifice in an attempt to keep Chloe safe.
Nancy Peacock
Sometimes, the well just goes dry. It's inevitable. It usually happens for me when I have completed a novel. That's a very emotional place for me. On the one hand, I really want to be finished and move on to something else. On the other, I am completely bereft. I miss my characters and the story so much. I miss the daily writing. I think I will start something again right away, but I never do. I've come to believe that there are stages between the completion of one novel and the beginning of another. For me the characters still linger, and I'm not yet ready for such an intense experience again. The best thing for me is to spend lots of quiet time alone and in nature.
Nancy Peacock
The best thing for me is discovery. I love working on a novel that really interests me. I love research and often find unique details that contribute to the story, so there's that discovery. But the discovery that is the most exciting is the story itself. A character never gives it to me all at once. I never have an idea that is complete in an of itself. I just have something that tickles in my brain, and curiosity makes me follow that thread. The threads do not always result in a completed novel, but sometimes they do right away, and sometimes it takes years for a thread to become strong enough to follow into story.
Nancy Peacock
Another historical novel. It is too tender an young to discuss right now.
Nancy Peacock
Mostly I think the inspiration comes from not feeling too pushed about it. I hate deadlines because they take creative control out of my hands and put a date on it, a date that does not always allow me to back away from the work and then come forward, as I tend to do. I can't write well if all I am doing is coming toward it. I have to pull away and take walks, or cook, be quiet in some way. When I cleaned houses for a living I had the perfect balance between writing in the morning before going to work, and being alone but physical during the day. My subconscious did a lot of work while I cleaned someone other people's houses.
Nancy Peacock
Actually I'd given up on writing. I was discouraged. Every book seemed to wring me out emotionally and because they were not huge successes in the publishing world, I wondered if I should keep on. I was empty. Nothing creative was going on for me, but every morning I got up and walked three miles in the dark to the top a hill to watch the sunrise over a pasture. It was beautiful and profound, and one day a line entered my head from nowhere. "I have been to hangings before, but never my own." This was the first time that Persimmon Wilson spoke to me. I did not forget it. That night I watched the Ken Burn's documentary on The West and began to wonder if there had been any black Indians. I count this as the second time Persimmon Wilson spoke to me. I began writing the next day.
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