9-10-2021 12:42am

Blueblood: Interview with Local Author Stephanie Perryman

S RENEE GREENE Editor

It is said that every good story begins with a 'core wound,' but the No-Spoilers Pledge for BLUEBLOOD forces me to say that you will only find out what the "wound" is for both characters, 'Titi' and 'Mrs. Tate' within its first few chapters, and even then there is more to the story than what you know from the start.

The author delivers on the promise to let us see where hearts cross over one another, mix, blend, twist, turn and take on rhythms and beats and tones and temperaments like a fast and slow-moving River that runs through it all, emotions that are exclusive to the person dealing with that particular wound and which only she can handle however she sees fit.

When you start to read "Blueblood," the first thing you might notice is that the writer begins the story showing us the difference between the wife of Pastor Pitts and the wife of Pastor Tate in a short scene: One is known as "Titi" and the other as "Mrs. Tate."

Author Stephanie Perryman said it was entirely unintentional when I asked her what was the reason for the variance between the two pastor's wives with respect to their names.

She said that she knew Titi needed to be closer to home with southern roots and more familiar spirits and Mrs. Tate needed to be from somewhere else more prim and proper, and 'not from around these parts,' but she didn't realize the way she introduced the two women said a lot about the way she viewed them both.

"When I see my stories and the characters, I see complete reels and sequences, like a movie being filmed...by the time I write it all down, they have revealed themselves to me in unexpected ways that even surprise me."

If you take the time to flesh them out and think about who is who and what they do, she says, your people and your stories can take on a life of their own.

There are very culturally explicit explanations around writing in the genre in which she writes, especially with her being a pastor's daughter herself, and there are moments the world around us might call "the black experience." What that usually means is there is always some racial issue surrounding stories about women of color simply because of the mental assaults we often experience from a very young age.

However, author Perryman approaches her book in a very descriptive way that does more showing than telling about the backgrounds of these two pastor's wives. We are dealing with two women who describe their universe as if they knew Columbus, Georgia in the 1980s and 1990s, and knew it well. Only it's not known as Columbus.

Though she gives this fictional town another name, she describes Columbus and all of its small- town ritual accoutrements with the finesse of a stealthy cat burglar. The places the two ladies go from here all the way to California and back again touches the five senses and sixth sense, as it is, in a way that is unmistakably who they are.

If she shifts from their small town life and transitions across the country to the big city and even as shortly north as Atlanta, she doesn't have to tell you where she is, the words come alive and feel and smell and sound like you're here ... or there. If you're familiar with the East and West coasts, as am I, you know when you are moving and where you are going by the mood and tone of the story, and you know when you are back on 'the banks of the Chattahoochee' once again.

When the book opens "Titi Pitts" is with child, and some very busy-body judge-y older women are giving her the business about the timeline of her pregnancy as compared to the timeline of her marriage to Pastor Stanley Pitts. The book is also giving the upper middle class socialite- Mrs. Tisha Tate- her due when we see her as a person who is from greater financial means, but who also made the necessary sacrifices to help her husband, Pastor Trestun, get his wits about him for what is about to be a trek down Mega-church Lane. She also seems to be highly protective of her sister-in-ministry, Titi.

An old rickety church built in 1847 (I started calling it "The 1847 Church"), and refurbished over time, is bursting at the seams. Membership has not only outgrown its boundary lines, but somewhere between the two wives, the two pastors, their histories, backgrounds, family ties, you start to see how these Pastor's wives came to know one another though they were raised nearly 3,000 miles apart.

We find ourselves immersed in the main reason why their lives and the things that happen to them should serve as a life lesson for all of us, especially when the two of them must decide what in this world has true meaning, what is important and necessary in life, and where, exactly, in this great big old universe they belong.

What do you think about when you think of "Blueblood"?

I know the memories the word evoked for me, and this book and its title did not disappoint.

Recommended reading for all, especially if you are on a quest for the meaning of what true love has to do with absolutely everything.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Perryman is a pastor's daughter, a huge part of her life where she says good memories of her father easily unfold and give her plenty of fodder for her fictional universes.

She is also a retired teacher and author of the play "Poison." In the future, she says she is taking on a different genre somewhere in the area of 'sci-fi', so without giving anything away, it promises to be an exciting venture into a whole other realm for the author and for her readers.

The book BLUEBLOOD is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions, and is also on sale locally at Bluebelle Local Mercantile on Airport Thruway right here in Columbus, G.A.
###