By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Award-winning author Wade Rouse could be a character in one of the books he writes under the pen name Viola Shipman. From his first book, “The Charm Bracelet,” to the most recent, “Famous in a Small Town,” his characters are relatable, memorable, and oh-so-human.
Prior to speaking at a recent Meet the Author event hosted by the Wood County District Public Library, Rouse chatted with audience members like they were old friends, and graciously thanked them in advance for attending his talk.
The characters in his books are often “women who get knocked down and are role models to us,” he said, which goes a long way in explaining the standing-room-only crowd of mostly women.
Fascinated by characters that change or create change, Rouse often draws from real-life experiences and observations. Whenever he starts the writing process for any of his books, he always starts with the characters. Sometimes the characters include settings in addition to people, he explained.
Originally from Missouri and transplanted to Michigan thanks to its beauty “as pretty as a movie set,” Rouse uses the character of the state’s small towns for his books’ settings.
The Missouri Ozarks often play a role because that is where he grew up and where he was greatly influenced by his grandmother, who loved him “fiercely and unconditionally.”
Summers for Rouse were magical when he spent Memorial Day to Labor Day with his grandparents. “No telephone. No TV. Only books from the library, inner tubes and fishing poles,” he said. “Time stopped when I was with them. We did nothing, but we did everything together.”
The summers were special because growing up in the Missouri Ozarks in the 1970s was rough for the boy “who had a penchant for bow ties and vests,” he said. His enjoyment of reading and writing were also frowned upon and viewed by many as unacceptable behaviors for boys growing up in the Ozarks at that time. But not by his grandmother.
“She took me under her wings. I was raised around her apron strings, in her kitchen baking pies; in her sewing room as she made quilts; at the beauty parlor when she got her hair done, sometimes with glitter blown into her hair making it magical,” he recalled.
He also spent a lot of time at the library, where she volunteered. Though she never graduated from high school, she espoused the importance of books and education. “She was a simple woman, but she was not simple. She knew what mattered most: family, friends, faith, fun, love and a passion for what you do.
Because of the gifts she gave to him, Rouse chose to use her name—Viola Shipman—as a pen name for his fiction books. “This was a way to honor my grandma; it was the smallest thing to give a woman who never asked for anything in her life,” he said.
He learned to appreciate people’s stories by sitting at the dining room table with “ne’er do wells” that his grandmother would welcome in to share a meal and listen to their tales.
His first book, “School Boy,” an evocative memoir of his childhood, was published in 2007, followed by three other memoirs in 2008, 2010 and 2011 before he pivoted to writing fiction.
The change in direction was prompted after his mother died from cancer and he helped move his father to a smaller home. During the move, Rouse discovered many of his grandmother’s heirlooms. Tucked away in the attic were her charm bracelet, recipe box, hope chest with quilts and Desert Rose dishes.
The items inspired the first book of his heirloom series in 2016 with “The Charm Bracelet,” a tale of a woman whose passion for life and charms teaches her daughter and granddaughter lessons in life and love. “The Recipe Box” and “The Hope Chest” followed.
Now, 10 books later, Rouse is sharing his latest tribute book with his devoted readers. He told the story of visiting Glen Arbor, Michigan, which influenced “Famous in a Small Town.” The book, already a Good Morning America’s “June Books that Everyone Will be Reading” and one of Katie Couric Media’s “Let’s Go Places: 30 Summer Novels,” was published in June.
The story began on a perfect Michigan day. “Everyone was having a quintessential summer day,” said the transplanted Michigander. He visited Cherry Republic, a general store known as “a purveyor of all things Michigan cherries.” When he came out of the store, he saw an Olympic-sized cherry spitting ring, and he spat a cherry pit as far as he could.
“It took me back in time with my grandparents when we used to spit watermelon seeds,” Rouse said.
The emotions of that moment stuck with him, but he didn’t know where it would take him.
Because his writing comes from his heart, soul and a wellspring of memories good and bad, he walked the shore of Lake Michigan for inspiration. “I swear I saw grandma walking toward me and my mother who had died of cancer,” in the mirage of the cloud, officially known as the phenomenon Fata Morgana.
“Grandma believed in God-winks, that things happening around us are there to get us to the next place,” Rouse said.
After that, Glen Arbor became Good Hart; Cherry Republic became the Very Cherry General Store; and a cherry-spitting record by “Cherry Mary Jackson,” when she was a young girl and later the store owner, started the storyline of “Famous in a Small Town.”
The story is about Jackson, who at 80 years old is waiting for a stranger she’s believed since childhood would carry on her legacy. Forty-year-old Becky Thatcher, Rouse’s nod to his home state’s Mark Twain, arrives in town unaware that her destiny awaits. He even finds a way to include the visions over the lake.
“Really, the story is about rediscovering the magic of summer that is within each of us,” he said.
His next book, “The Wishing Bridge,” is due out on Nov. 7, 2023. Just in time for the holidays, the story takes place in Michigan’s Christmas wonderland, Frankenmuth. He also plans to write a book that will include memories of his grandmother’s beauty parlor and is considering another book that may bring together favorite characters from several books.
