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The Dancer and the Swan
The Dancer and the Swan follows Pauline Swanson, a 53-year-old woman navigating grief, memory, faith, and forgiveness after the loss of her father. Volunteering with hospice to find purpose, Pauline meets Ms. Deborah Deneaux, a former marketing executive who was also an exotic dancer in her younger days. Through their interactions, a deeply human story unfolds, one filled with aching memories, social history, and the slow, jagged process of healing. The novel moves between present moments and deeply personal flashbacks that reveal the raw wounds and surviving hope inside both women.
What struck me immediately was the brutal honesty of the narrator’s voice. Pauline isn’t polished or heroic, she’s messy, grieving, sarcastic, and too real to ignore. Her dry wit had me grinning at odd moments, especially when she says, “My brain…holds fast to its mental age of thirty. Meanwhile, my parched and brittle soul often feels a thousand years old.” That’s not just good writing; that’s painfully funny truth. The early chapters, especially Pauline’s first visit with Ms. Deneaux, had a rhythm to them, like jazz. You feel out of step at first, and then suddenly you’re right in sync.
Deborah Deneaux, the “Dancer” of the title, is unforgettable. Her story, growing up Creole in New Orleans, dancing on segregated TV, losing her brother to Vietnam, is so layered and rich, it honestly could have been its own book. I was haunted by the line, “DeeDee was finally following in Ruby’s steps and realizing how little it felt heroic and how much it just felt humiliating.” That hit hard. It’s a gut punch, wrapped in grace and rhythm. And Peters doesn’t shy away from America’s ugly history he folds it gently but firmly into Deborah’s story, never preachy, always powerful.
This book doesn’t flinch from pain, real, personal, intimate pain. Pauline’s recounting of her sexual abuse by a priest was heartbreaking and handled with careful, earned weight. And yet, somehow, the story doesn’t drown in that sorrow. It balances on the thin line between despair and redemption. When Pauline says, “The chip doesn’t belong to me. My faith, my God, gave me the strength I lacked,” I teared up. That’s the quiet kind of strength this book celebrates, not the loud, cinematic kind, but the sort you build slowly in AA meetings, church pews, and awkward conversations over pralines.
In the end, this book left me full, like a long talk with a friend who doesn’t sugarcoat anything but loves you anyway. The prose has the rhythm of lived experience. Sometimes it meanders, sometimes it cuts sharp. It’s not perfect, and it shouldn’t be.
I’d recommend The Dancer and the Swan to anyone who’s lost someone, been broken by something, or is just trying to make sense of the mess of being alive. It’s for readers who want stories that dig deep and don’t let go. If you’ve ever sat in the dark with a stranger and somehow felt seen, this one’s for you.
Pages: 491 | ISBN 979-8-9985884-0-2
The Looming Threat of Inevitabilities
In Fortune Falls, readers follow a man who discovers a dead body and is forced to face his own regrets and a looming crisis threatening his family. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My initial idea was to focus on a man who needed to face his own mortality. As I approached middle age, I realized how pertinent death was becoming, and yet was still so easy to deny and evade something so unavoidable and so universal and integral to life. The slot machine initially only represented that—it wasn’t telling a fortune, it was merely stating an obvious fact. Jason returning home and then mostly discounting his encounter with it exactly paralleled how we tend to live our lives. The reader will likely be shaking her or his fist and saying, “Why aren’t you dealing with this? Why aren’t you even questioning this?”
As the novel progressed and Jason continued to develop, I realized there are actually so many things in life we do not face or reconcile, and over time, that slot machine truly became the looming threat of inevitabilities that can disrupt or destroy our lives. It tells truths we do not want to face, and it does so in the random spin of fate.
There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?
I very much try to write human characters, characters with flaws and regrets, characters who make mistakes. The challenge is to also try to make them relatable and sympathetic. Jason was especially challenging because he falls so far and his reactions become so extreme. It then became that much more important to make is attempt to change and be better as believable and realistic as possible. And, of course, it is up to the reader to decide just how much he actually achieved.
Secondary to that were the challenges of trying to make the supporting characters fully fleshed out and understandable within a 3rd person narrative limited to the main character. Jen is equally complex, but the reader doesn’t get the benefit of being in her head. They are further challenged by seeing her through the eyes of Jason, and Jason’s perspective is not always trustworthy. Nicholas, as well, needed to be written carefully considering the complexities of the situation and of the character. It’s a delicate subject, and one I wanted to portray authentically—but again, twisted within the perspectives and trauma that Jason is facing.
Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your characters’ lives?
To be honest, this story is the least personal to actual elements of my life. That said, it certainly does reflect upon past and present parts of my life. In many ways, I took my own fears, biases, regrets, and anxieties, put them into Jason, and cranked them up to eleven.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I have just begun work on my 4th novel, tentatively titled Pawnbroken, about a man who owns and operates a pawn shop just outside downtown Milwaukee. He was extremely close to his brother who disappeared long ago. When a very unique chess set he had given to his brother as a gift shows up in his pawn shop, he decides to trace the object back and try to find out what happened to his brother.
I hope to have Pawnbroken available sometime in 2026.
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It begins when fate leads him to a mysterious ancient slot machine in an abandoned field that delivers a foreboding message. Soon after, he is traumatized by his discovery of a disturbing death.
What follows is a downward spiral of actions and events that break through the façade of Jason’s perfect life. That one death will uncover the guilt and regret of an unresolved past, introduce crises that threaten to tear his family apart, and attract external dangers that will put both him and his family at risk.
Meanwhile, a larger global threat awaits as the mysterious slot machine with its predictions of death and suffering looms over his neighborhood on an unmarked road in an abandoned field…waiting.
Fortune Falls
Jason Lahey’s seemingly idyllic life teeters on the brink of upheaval in Fortune Falls by James L. Peters, a contemporary fiction novel steeped in suspense and enigmatic undertones. Lahey’s routine existence spirals into disarray when a deviation from his usual path leads him to a cryptic slot machine and a subsequent encounter with a woman’s tragic demise. The correlation between these events remains shrouded in mystery, casting a shadow of danger over him and his family, for reasons unknown.
Drawing inspiration from the surreal narratives of Ray Bradbury, particularly The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes, the novel weaves a tapestry of metaphysical and tangible threats. Set in the present day, the narrative unravels through interspersed moments from Lahey’s past, particularly those concerning his parents, offering glimpses into the less apparent facets of his character and the looming enigma. Peters employs a narrative technique that effectively builds a palpable sense of menace, making Fortune Falls an engaging and thought-provoking journey. The story delves beyond the surface of the supernatural threat, exploring the pervasive notion that an untroubled, joyful existence is inherently fraught with self-deception and concealed anguish.
At its core, Lahey’s struggle transcends the eerie predictions of a slot machine; it’s a battle against existential dread, a relentless force that looms like a modern-day sword of Damocles. Fortune Falls is not merely about unraveling a mystery; it’s an exploration of the human condition, the hidden turmoil beneath the facade of everyday life, and the elusive quest for peace amidst the chaos.
Pages: 350 | ASIN : B0CPTBFV58
LITERARY TITAN 