“About a Character” Blog Hop

Thanks so much to Thaisa Frank for inviting me to join this blog hop. When she first told me that we would answer questions about a character in our writing, I wasn’t sure how I would choose, because my new novel has multiple characters, most of whom I love, whose voices tell the story of their small Southern town’s experience of the Vietnam War.

What is the name of your character? Is s/he fictional or a historic person?

My fictional character is Wanda Ferguson Slidell, a 30-year-old agoraphobic living on a small farm with her ailing mother.
When and where is the story set?

My novel CEMENTVILLE takes place during the summer of 1969 in the rural South during the height of the Vietnam War.
What should we know about her?

Wanda is something of a social mutt. Her mother Loretta is from the disreputable Ferguson clan, and although Loretta’s father worked hard his whole life to overcome the family’s reputation for drunken violence and laziness, the stain clings. Wanda’s dead father, Stanley Slidell, was the only son of the town’s wealthy grand dame, Evelyn Slidell. Stanley was a romantic alcoholic who died ignominiously in the back of a car where he had passed out. As the novel opens, Wanda’s hilltop social isolation with her taciturn mother and some farm animals has become convenient habit, allowing her to avoid the real world and the grief enveloping the town below as the war dead come home.
What is the main conflict? What messes up her life?

Wanda has been oblivious to the fact of being Evelyn Slidell’s only heir; after all, Evelyn has never pursued a relationship with her only grandchild, blaming Loretta and Wanda for her son Stanley’s ruin. When the two finally come together, Wanda sees something of herself in her reclusive and bitter grandmother, while also worrying that her pending sudden wealth may topple the carefully preserved bell jar of her life on the farm.
What is the personal goal of the character?

At the beginning of the book, Wanda’s goal is defending her own status quo. The bodies of eight local young men are coming home from Vietnam and Wanda’s main worry is that her mother will make her attend some of the funerals. Subsistence at every level—emotional, physical, mental, and economic—has been narrowly tied to the hilltop farm from which she observes the town below. As the book progresses, events pry open Wanda’s expectations of herself and her relationship to others.
What is the title of this novel, and where can we read more about it?

CEMENTVILLE can be found wherever books are sold. More about the novel and about my writing can be found at www.PauletteLivers.com. You can also follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PauletteLivers.Writer?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark  and on Twitter https://twitter.com/PLiversWriter
When was the book published?

CEMENTVILLE came out in Spring 2014 from Counterpoint Press.

Again, much thanks to Thaisa for inviting me to join in. Next week, Please come back to my website to hear what two good writers have to say about characters they have created. Neither of these two has a blog themselves, so they will guest blog here at PauletteLivers.com/journal.

Don De Grazia is author of AMERICAN SKIN, a unique bildungsroman about one young man’s experiences when he joins a group of anti-Nazi skinheads in Chicago. Don teaches in the fiction program at Columbia College.

Geoff Wyss is the author of HOW. The protagonists in this New Orleans-set story collection are the kinds of characters who stay in your head long after you’ve closed the book.

I can’t wait to hear what Geoff and Don have to say about these people.