The States

THE BOOK: The States

PUBLISHED IN: 2024

THE AUTHOR:  Norah Woodsey

THE EDITOR: Kara Aisenbrey

THE PUBLISHER: Self-published

SUMMARY: The States is a speculative reimagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a story of love, obligation, and second chances. 

Tildy Sullivan, our protagonist, is the middle child in an elite yet fading Manhattan family. Her quiet practicality hides her deep, profound longing for childhood summers in western Ireland. She also carries a secret regret. After her mother’s death 8 years ago, she was persuaded by her family to abandon Ireland and the love of a local boy. Now she believes happiness is lost to her.

When Tildy volunteers for a lucid dreaming experiment, it gives her all she wants – a life lived for her family during the day and a secret, perfect Ireland of her own at night. As she lives her nights in one place, and her days in another, she must decide – will she face reality, or succumb to the ease of her dreams? 

THE BACK STORY: This began as a NaNoWriMo project in 2020. I was in the middle of finishing my third book, The Control Problem, a novel on darker topics and I wanted to write something uplifting. Nearly all the dream sequences in The States come from that NaNoWriMo. After The Control Problem was released, I took a fresh look at proto-The States and saw that what was best in it was Persuasion, Jane Austen’s beloved classic. I bought a new paperback copy, read it multiple times and took many notes in the margins. Then I took apart my NaNoWriMO and inserted all the new material – Tildy’s elite father and sisters, a Mr. Elliot and a Miss Smith, all the other characters I loved from the original. I folded in more exploration of Tildy’s mother, the Lady Elliot of the original novel. Her near-total absence in the original felt so striking during my analysis. I hired a translator for Irish passages; my grasp of the language is rudimentary. In the end, the whole project ended up being more work than I expected. I wish I had started the project from scratch with this retelling in mind, but I’m happy with the results.

WHY THIS TITLE?: It’s sort of a double reference. The Irish people I know refer to the United States as “The States”. And since Tildy relies on a dream experiment to envision her future, it also refers to “the states of consciousness.” 

WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? I think most people enjoy a good love story, and I hope The States is one, but I also tried to share with the reader my love of Galway and the people there. Some of my favorite passages are of Aidan’s friends bantering with one another. The book is also a story of being out of place. I think many Americans, and certainly most children of immigrants, can identify with the isolation that comes from imperfectly belonging in the country of your birth, but also not belonging in your parent’s country of origin. While the core of the story is about romantic love, it is also about forging your own path to belonging. About the journey of letting go of the things that hold you back, both internal and external, and finding happiness on your own terms. 

REVIEW COMMENTS:

“A beautiful and thoughtful modernization of Jane Austen’s Persuasion that explores a modern heroine’s discovery of the difference between fantasy and agency.” – IndieReader

“An inventive novel about wishes and regret.” – Kirkus 

“Woodsey’s writing style is engaging, and her characters are relatable, making the book a joy to read from start to finish.” – Suzie Housley, Midwest Book Review

“Eloquent and alluring, The States is a novel in which dreams crash into lived realities.” – Foreword Reviews

AUTHOR PROFILE:  I’m an Irish-American from Brooklyn, New York, but unlike the novel, I am not the child of any sort of capitalist scion– my mom was a nurse and my dad was a locksmith. I worked in content moderation in the tech industry for a long time, before switching to writing fiction. Most of my work is science fiction, more in line with what I studied in college. For the time being, I live outside of San Francisco with my husband and our children. 

I’ve loved Jane Austen books since I was a child, though I came to Persuasion in college, and it is now my favorite. I put all my love for the novel into this book, which I hope stands on its own as well as being a retelling. 

AUTHOR COMMENTS: Even if you aren’t the daughter of a baronet or a cosmetics brand executive, I think many people feel pressure to live for their parents in a way that stunts their own growth. Families can become ecosystems that feed all energy and resources into one person. The original Persuasion is a classic example of the timelessness of this dynamic. Anne gave up what would have given her joy, love, and independence in deference to a family who only sees her as a cog in the family machine. I tried to capture that in this novel, and I hope I was successful. 

SAMPLE: 

The memories of that last summer were worn but intact. Each moment lived in her as a cherished friend. The scratchy voice on Nana’s radio had warned of flooding – a huge storm on the horizon, sweeping in from the ocean to the western coast, had pushed against the sea. In a rush to beat the storm, she’d kissed her mother and Nana goodbye, then peddled a rusted bicycle away from the cottage, over animal paths. The destination: a secret place, a vacant property midway between his home and Nana’s.

In a snow globe within her heart, she and Aidan still stood there, beside the abandoned cottage, a cool wind whipping her hair as he smiled down at her, his smooth freckled face wearing pure affection, just for her. Tildy blushed, recalling his fingertips tracing the curves of her face. There was nothing embarrassing or awkward. It had been her closest experience to true love. They had talked about their futures. He’d asked her to stay, asked her to call, asked her to write, but her life fell apart. She left. She never wrote. She never called. And he was lost to her, given up when so much had been taken away.

WHERE TO BUY IT: Currently available for pre-order on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook formats, and in ebook format through Apple, Amazon, and Kobo. 

PRICE: $9.99 ebook, $15 paperback 

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: Publicity inquiries can be directed to Simone Jung at BooksForward. Otherwise, I can be reached through the contact form on my website:https://norahwoodsey.com/contact 

You can find me on Instagram: instagram.com/nwoodsey or BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/norahwoodsey.bsky.social