Pedophilia--Timely Topic in WAYLAND

People say, what's your new novel about? My mind whirls. The answer would be too long if I told it all. It's about characters from my first novel, HIDING EZRA, that I love dearly and wanted to give some joy, peace, hope that they didn't have in that novel. It's a love story wrapped inside a marriage in trouble. WAYLAND is a study of sociopaths and mental illness, in general, versus eccentricity. It's about the world of the hobos and their culture during the Great Depression in a tranquil and quaint little community in the Appalachian Mountains. It's about the beautiful, unique and good-hearted country people of my community, people of deep faith and deep thoughts about life's most important questions. The book is an illustration of the way that the Bible and its language are so integral to the daily lives and daily thoughts of Appalachian people in the world I grew up in.


The subject receiving the most attention, however, and the one that took tons of research and thought was pedophiles and how they choose, then manipulate, their victims and their family in order to gain the trust necessary for the kind of access they need to fulfill their twisted fantasies. In hobo Buddy Newman, I wanted to create un unforgettable and engrossing evil character. I used Shakespeare's conniving, diabolical Iago as inspiration for the way he pitted people against one another, whispering in vulnerable ears whatever lies that would take him closer to his target. I thought about Hannibal Lector and his cruel games, about Faulkner's Abner Snopes and his furious resentment of those who were more successful, his psychotic violence and sense of entitlement.

But the bottom line is, I wrote a book to entertain and keep you on the edge of your seat as you watch the tale unfold--- suspense! If I can do that while also giving you the ability to recognize a pedophile's efforts at grooming your child or grandchild, well, that's a good year's work.