The Book:
It’s October 1955, an era of Eisenhower politics and
stringent sexual roles. The airways have recently given birth to rock ‘n’ roll.
James Dean has just died in that sexy, low-slung Porsche of his, and in the
sleepy little town of Windhaven, Minnesota, Sibyl Webber has succumbed to
pneumonia. The lives of her closest relatives are about to be transformed.
Young Natalie cannot mask her grief for her grandmother, but
she dreams that the return of her absent father may fill the emptiness inside
her. Her emotionally damaged father, however, has his own demons to fight.
Natalie’s mother, Alice, is once again dating her beau from
high school, the fast-car-driving rock ‘n’ roll aficionado, Jake Baker, who has
been more of a father to Natalie than anyone else and who doesn’t like the idea
of her biological father’s return to Windhaven. A surprise in Sibyl’s will
allows Alice to pursue a deferred dream, but is it a blessing or a curse?
Helen, the maiden aunt who still lives in the stately old
family home with Natalie and her mother, hides a dark secret. But with the
death of her controlling mother, she reevaluates her life and decides to make
an unconventional proposal.
A Time of Need
invites the reader to examine the lives of these fascinatingly flawed
characters.
My Review:
A Time of Need, by
Barbara Paetznick, is a beautifully written peek into the culture of rural
1950s Minnesota.
The book is full of compelling, well-drawn characters. It’s fascinating to explore the differences
between sisters Helen and Alice and between Jake and Benjamin, two men
important in Alice’s life. I love
watching young Natalie and how her imagination tries to modify her
reality. The story begins with the death
of Sibyl, who is Helen and Alice’s mother, Natalie’s grandmother, a character
pivotal in the lives of all the characters.
We don’t know Sibyl except through the characters’ memories and opinions
of her. This creates a fantastic study
of the dichotomy possible in how people view each other. Really insightful…and realistic.
There are several very touching, emotional scenes, yet the
author does it without melodrama. The
prose is lyrical and warm. The plot
moves well. It’s an absorbing read, and
I look forward to more from Barbara Paetznick.
Exclusive Author Interview:
1)
A Time of Need takes place in the 1950s in a small town in
Minnesota. Did any of the inspiration for the book come from your own
life, growing up in a similar setting?
The
answer is yes and no. I grew up in rural Minnesota in a small post-war bungalow,
but the isolation that the youngest Webber female, Natalie, experiences was definitely
similar to my own. The old Victorian home that the main characters of A Time of Need live in is a home that my
husband, author/historian Lloyd Hackl, and I moved into after our marriage. It
became center stage for my main characters.
2)
If you could have dinner with one of the characters from A Time of Need,
who would it be and why?
My
choice would be Benjamin Raleigh, a tragic boy whose personality is shaped by
his alcoholic mother and pious minister father and further crippled by the
violence of his experiences as a soldier during World War II. In my opinion Benjamin
is the most complex of any of my characters and the tragic hero of this novel.
It gave me great comfort as an author to give him some small modicum of love
and peace as his life slowly moves forward in the novel.
3)
What is one of your favorite scenes in the book?
I
truly enjoyed writing all of the sections in which different types of music took
center stage. I hope that my musical choices, and at times lyrics, became
actual characters within the novel.
4)
What’s your favorite thing about writing? What’s the most difficult?
I
love the rewrites and editing far more than the original hard work of the first
draft. With the help of my awesome critique partners, who are both tough and
fair with their comments of my submissions, I enjoy going back into my original
manuscript to make my feelings and messages clearer. Often I learn new facets
of my ever-so-interestingly-flawed characters I hadn’t even known existed.
5)
You also write poetry. Can you tell us a little about that?
The
poetry I write is, to coin a cliché, truly from the heart. I find being able to
capture a time, an experience, a thought, in as few words as possible a
marvelous and rewarding challenge.
6)
What are you writing now?
My
latest endeavor is a rewrite of an old manuscript, Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens. This novel takes place in the
same Victorian home that the Webbers of A
Time of Need occupied several decades earlier. Whistling Girls central character, Rebecca Morgan, is a middle-aged
English teacher who has recently lost her husband to a sudden death and is
dealing with near crippling grief. As the story unfolds, in alternating
chapters the reader meets the young Rebecca and, in first person narrative, learns
of the little girl and the experiences that shaped her into the grieving widow
she has become. The reader also becomes involved in two students’ lives—that of
a meek young lady and her boyfriend, a young man who as a youngster suffered
abuse and witnessed great violence. At the time of the novel, both their lives
have spiraled out of control and, ultimately, their dramas lock into that of Rebecca’s
destiny in a confrontation that is bound to cost any or all of them their
lives. The ultimate question that the reader will face is how a person survives
and continues a life having lived through great trauma. I hope to have this
novel available the summer of 2015.
7)
How can readers find you?
My
novel, A Time of Need, is available on
Amazon. Just type in my name, or visit my Amazon author page.
Buy
A Time of Need on Amazon
As with the
character of Helen Webber in A Time of Need, Barbara Paetznick was a
high school English teacher in Minnesota for fifteen years.
She has won
many competitions and awards for her short stories and poems, including first
prize in the National Humanities Advancement competition for poetry, the Writer’s Digest first prize, and the
Amelia Award for Poetry.
She has
devoted the last several years to full-time writing and thoroughly enjoys
“hanging out” with her characters.
