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From Maid To Novelist, A Writer’s Journey

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Nancy Peacock’s path to becoming a successful writer wasn’t normal but it was fun. She got interested in writing in the 4th grade when a teacher introduced her to the arts.

"I loved books," she said. "I loved storytelling, but I didn't know that was something that adults actually did."

She skipped college, choosing instead to marry her high school sweetheart.

“Certainly by not going to college, I had to work. I was sort of thrown into the work-a-day world,” she said.   

After the end of her marriage, she embarked on a series of odd jobs, including drum maker, costumer, packer and horse-stall mucker.

She eventually supported herself as a housekeeper while slowly gaining success in the publishing realm.

She now supports herself by writing and by teaching others how to do it. Her latest novel is called “The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson” (Lystra Books/2013).

"This book is in the voice of an African American man, an ex slave, who is about to hang for the murder of his former master," she said, adding later. "He does not dispute that murder."

But he does dispute the characterization that he kidnapped the slave master's wife, arguing instead that the "wife" was a slave, forced to be with the slave master against her will.

She will be reading from the novel at McIntyre's Books in Pittsboro at 11a.m. on Saturday.

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Alex Granados joined The State of Things in July 2010. He got his start in radio as an intern for the show in 2005 and loved it so much that after trying his hand as a government reporter, reader liaison, features, copy and editorial page editor at a small newspaper in Manassas, Virginia, he returned to WUNC. Born in Baltimore but raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Alex moved to Raleigh in time to do third grade twice and adjust to public school after having spent years in the sheltered confines of a Christian elementary education. Alex received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has a minor in philosophy, which basically means that he used to think he was really smart but realized he wasn’t in time to switch majors. Fishing, reading science fiction, watching crazy movies, writing bad short stories, and shooting pool are some of his favorite things to do. Alex still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he is holding out for astronaut.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.