Peggy Townsend's "The Beautiful and The Wild" Is A Chilling Story of Survival & Secrets
Add this title to your winter TBR, ASAP.
“It’s summer in Alaska and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray.”
I’m rarely hooked on a story from the first sentence of a novel. The first few sentences, sure. The first page, first chapter. This was the first sentence on the back cover of The Beautiful and The Wild written by Peggy Townsend.
I hadn’t even opened the book and she had me.
Peggy Townsend is an author, a longtime award-winning newspaper reporter, and a badass (if I do say so myself).
You may have heard the turn of phrase, “Do it for the content.” Townsend is a prime example of doing whatever you have to to get the story. Per her author bio, Townsend has “chased a(n escaped) serial killer through a graveyard at midnight, panhandled with street kids, and sat on a mountaintop with a woman who counted her riches in each morning's sunrise.” She’s written on a myriad of cases, from an Auschwitz survivor’s fight to reclaim the portraits she’d painted during her time in the Holocaust death camp, to a murderous mortician, to the investigation and arrest of David Carpenter.
But beyond her journalism chops, Townsend is one of the most adventurous people - let alone writers - I have had the pleasure of interviewing. For instance, she and her husband took a seven-week trip, in a van, exploring the Alaskan forests. She’s come face-to-face with a grizzly bear (twice), and a mountain lion (once), and has rafted rivers (many times).
It really should not have surprised me that her novel would have elements of the great outdoors and high-stakes adventure sprinkled in.
The Beautiful and The Wild is Townsend’s third novel. The story follows Liv Russo, a housecleaner and mother, who is mourning the death of her husband, Mark. Until she receives a cryptic text leading her to believe Mark might not be dead after all.
“Heading north from California to Alaska with her developmentally delayed young son, Liv discovers that not only does Mark have a secret life but that he will do anything to prevent her from leaving with their son,” Townsend explains of her gripping plot.
“Liv not only has to wrestle with the choices that led her to this place but also with her husband’s growing paranoia. She has to find a way to escape the primitive, off-grid compound where she is trapped. With winter approaching and starvation looming, she must face new and old threats and find the strength to survive.”
An accurate representation of what I looked like whilst reading Townsend’s book:
A woman and child held captive. A cast of characters with many secrets. Descriptions that send you to the forests of Alaska.
What more could you want?
Ahead, Townsend generously answers my many questions about her thrilling novel, The Beautiful and The Wild. Give it a read, then go add this to your TBR pile, ASAP.
On The Beautiful and The Wild
What kind of research went into this book? Your writing sucks the reader into the forests of Alaska (I loved revisiting it through your writing - such a gorgeous place) and I was especially fascinated with the cult-like influence of the author, Kai Huang.
PT: My husband and I spent seven weeks in our van traveling Alaska and the Yukon and were struck by its beauty, its wild emptiness, and by the wonderful people we met. I used that experience of hiking and camping in the wilderness, along with reading books and memoirs about survival and living off-grid in the far north, to set the scene. As for Kai Huang, the book is a product of my imagination spurred by the thought that constantly seeking pleasure and comfort is actually a recipe for pain.
Tell me about Liv. What was the inspiration behind Liv, and her backstory?
PT: As a journalist, I’d covered trials where the reliability of memory was a central challenge brought by defense attorneys. Experts would be called in to discuss how memories can be manipulated, suggested, or influenced by held beliefs. The subject was fascinating to me and I thought: what if you were haunted by a memory that may or may not be true? Liv’s driving characteristic was born from that what-if question and the rest followed.
What was the inspiration behind Mark? (He was giving me Charlie Manson vibes, and Kai Huang was his Beatles).
PT: So interesting! I never thought of Mark as having Charlie Manson vibes but I definitely pictured him being one of those charismatic people who draw others to him. His magnetism and talent made people want to be around him, to gain his attention and approval, so maybe…. As for Kai Huang, the idea of only seeking pleasure and freedom in life would definitely draw a narcissistic person like Mark.
I'd love to dive deeper into Mark's psyche, as we don't get a ton of his backstory. Why do you think he was so susceptible to Kai Huang's teachings?
PT: For me, Mark is one of those people to whom others are drawn. I’ve seen it in real life, in sports figures, movie stars and some politicians. I think it’s hard for someone to resist that kind of power if you have it and Mark makes full use of it by manipulating those around him. However, I always thought of Mark as also having an undercurrent of self-doubt that came from how his father treated him. In his father’s eyes, Mark was never good enough and I think that haunted him. Mark rebelled against his father (and social mores) as a way to show that his father’s approval didn’t matter, even though it did. I also thought Mark’s manipulations of the women around him was another way to assure himself of his worth. Kai Huang’s teachings were certainly centered on self, which is why Mark was attracted to them.
When did the inspiration spark for both Angela and Diana? Why did you want Mark to have two relationships outside of Liv, and why was each one significant to both Mark and Liv's character arcs/stories?
PT: The inspiration for Angela and Diana came because around the same time that I was thinking about secrets, which are at the core of this book, a friend told me about her husband wanting to have an open marriage. I had a hard time imagining how I would accept that as part of my marriage but, as things sometimes do, I suddenly began to hear about people in polyamorous relationships. I did some reading and thought it would be interesting to ramp up the tension by exploring relationships between women in a setting like that—think famous cults. For Mark, the women represent power, with Angela accepting his domination and Diana challenging his will. For Liv, the need to escape was colored by the push-pull of jealousy and sisterhood.
In the book, Liv comes face to face with a grizzly bear. You, too, have also come face to face with a grizzly. Was your experience as tame as Liv's? Tell us about it!
PT: I had two experiences with grizzly bears in Alaska. The first sent a knife-edge of fear through me when our group was hiking to a fishing spot and suddenly ran into two brown bears at the river where we were. We retreated slowly and quietly. But the other impetus for the scene came from an incident when my husband and I were hiking outside of Haines, Alaska. We were far into the walk and in thick forest when, suddenly, both my husband and I felt the presence of a wild animal nearby. The trees and brush were too thick to see anything but the hairs on both of our necks prickled. Was it our imagination or was there really a bear nearby? It was creepy and almost more frightening than actually seeing a bear. I used that feeling in that scene.
What do you hope readers take from this novel?
PT: I wanted readers to think about the secrets we keep from each other and how they not only harm others but ourselves. There is research that supports the notion that holding a secret is bad for us in many ways. I also wanted people to see that when it comes to survival, love matters. Watch the TV series, “Alone,” where people are dropped off in the wilderness with only a few survival items, and, while suffering and starvation drive some to tap out of the game, many leave because they miss their loved ones so much.
I would love to see this novel be adapted into a film. If you had the opportunity to cast the movie, which actors would you like to play these characters?
PT: I agree. It would be fun to see the book adapted into film! I think Bradley Cooper would be a great Mark: handsome and yet able to show self-doubt. Jennifer Chastain would be the perfect Liv: wounded but scrappy. Jennifer Lawrence would be Diana, right? And Amy Adams for Angela. That would be my perfect cast.
On Writing
How do you go about starting a project?
PT: Great question. All of my projects have been born while I was doing something physical: swimming, running, and, more recently, stacking a cord of firewood. Maybe it’s oxygen deprivation but that’s when my best ideas seem to arrive.
For my latest book, The Beautiful and The Wild, I was stacking wood for winter when the thought came: What if a good deed you’ve done ends up exposing your darkest secret? Pretty quickly, I began thinking about what-ifs and spooling out a plot that centered on that premise. I began imagining my main character and a setting for the book. I did some early research. Two weeks later, the book’s first scene rose fully formed in my head and I began a flurry of plotting. Pages and pages of plot outline followed. I’m an obsessive plotter if you couldn’t tell. Only then, do I begin to write.
Once you're in the thick of writing, paint us a picture of what a day in the writing life of Peggy Townsend looks like.
PT: To the dismay of my husband, I’m one of those annoyingly alert morning people. I’m usually up by 5:30 a.m. with the coffee going and a check of the news by 5:45 and at my desk around 6. My secondhand desk sits in a corner of our garage under an umbrella of hanging surfboards. It’s a mini-tribute to Stephen King’s idea that your desk shouldn’t be in the center of the room. Rather, it should be off to the side as a way to remind yourself that life isn’t a support system for art but art is a support system for life. Also, since our house is small it’s the only place with a little privacy. I’ll usually stay at my desk until 11:30 or noon, by which time the caffeine has worn off and I’m ready for the second half of the day.
What is your editing process like?
PT: I don’t do a lot of editing while I’m creating. I let the words pour out—following fairly close to my outline, of course—and might do a little revision if something isn’t quite working. Mostly, I rely on my workshop group, my agent, and my editor for the real editing. They are the ones who spot the character and logistical flaws, the unclear writing, the need for more background or description, or the unsatisfying ending. That’s when I do my heaviest editing, sometimes even a full rewrite. What surprised me most about the creative process is that I actually love revision.
What are 3 of your must-haves to set the tone for a writing session?
PT: Coffee, Ugg boots, and my inspirational Post-it notes including this from author Ann Patchett: “Get to the point. Tell a good story.”
What is the best advice you can give writers battling a bout of writer’s block?
PT: Tell your inner editor to get lost. Tell yourself that what you write might be terrible or it might be brilliant but neither one matters. Just put your behind in a chair. Just put words on a page. Keep going. Somewhere in those words will be the story you want to tell. I used to have a sign that read: “Nulla dies sine linea,” Latin for: no day without a line. It’s the best advice I ever got as a writer.
Lastly, if you could pull an Alice in Wonderland, but instead of stepping through a looking glass, you can step into a book, which would it be, and what role would you play in the plot?
PT: There are so many books I’d love to step into! Right now, however, I’d have to say I’d like to step into the character of Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak in any one of Dana Stabenow’s wonderful mystery books. Perhaps I’d pick her latest: Not the Ones Dead. Living capably in the Alaskan wilderness with a half-wolf dog, a strong community, a sense of independence that also allows others to enter and a drive for justice really appeals to me.
I don’t usually read books like that, but this sounds really interesting! I’m going to have to give it a try!
This sounds like a book I’d read!