This week’s contest gives you a chance to win the new novel from PEN/Hemingway finalist Michael Byers (Long for This World). Percival’s Planet is the story of the discovery of Pluto, which came about with the help of a Kansas farmboy. On BookPage.com, Byers shared the story of how he came to write this book.
With Pluto so much in the news lately, you’d be justified in thinking Percival’s Planet a cynical effort to capitalize on a popular story. But honestly it isn’t! I began the book long before Pluto was demoted from planetary status. In fact, in its early stages, Percival’s Planet had nothing to do with Pluto whatsoever.
Click the text to read more; then leave a comment on this post mentioning what Byers’ original intentions for the book were in the comments—you’ll be entered to win a copy of Percival’s Planet.
ETA: As of Monday, August 9, this contest is closed. Congrats to our winner, Kami D.
What an interesting twist & I believe Michael is trying to make a somewhat uninteresting topic interesting & what a great thing for a writer to be able to say & do! Keep up the great job Michael.
Michael Byers originally wrote the novel about his grandparents, Margaret and Paul.
Not finding his grandfather’s time at Law School extremely interesting, searching for something that actually happened at that time as well (research) was a great place to take the story – to Planet X. Ingenious and in this sense the author learns something along the way.
Byers originally intended to write a novel about his grandparents.
Didn’t know anything about Byers, but this book is certainly on my list.
Byers wondered if he could rewrite history – maybe if his grandfather had been an astronomer instead of a law student, maybe then the marriage between his grandparents could have survived her mental illness and endured. He started his novel with that in mind.
The book was originally about his grandparents but evolved into something else.
Actually, he didn’t discover Planet X. There is no “Planet X” as has been proven by atronomers.
When Pluto was demoted from planethood we had a funeral for pluto at my high school.
What a fascinating journey starting at rewriting his grandparents’ story to astronomy to Clyde Tombaugh to Pluto!
The authors original intention was to write a novel about his grandparents, whose marriage was very short. He wanted to rewrite their marriage so it didn’t end.
original intent was to write a story about his grandparents.
A true writer’s gift. He starts out with the idea of writing one book and through his creativity and ability to change course, ends up writing another in its stead. Will be on my list of books to read.
This fascinating story was originally to be about the author’s grandparents.
what an interesting route his creative juices took-from what was to be a story about his grandparents, his muse led him to tell the story of a Kansas farm
boy who discovered the planet Pluto!
I would love to read more!
Michael Byers originally wanted to write about his grandparents, and still plans to do so.
Byers’ original intentions for the book was to write about his grandparents
The original intent of Michael Byers’ book: Percival’s Planet was to write a story about how the mental illness of his grandmother lead to the demise of her marriage and family. Intriguing idea but fell flat and lead to a new direction of astronomy.
The novel was originally intended to be about his grandparents; however, it became a book about the search for Planet X (which later became known as Pluto).
The author’s original intent had been to write a story about his grandparents.
I was fascinated by the process Byers went through to write this book– how it evolved from being a fictional rewrite of his grandparents’ marriage to being a historical quasi-fiction about an astronomer from Kansas. I love how a story ends up being what it wants to be and not what was intended.
Byers’ orginal topic was his grandparent’s brief marriage and what could have been if they had stayed together.
A grandmother’s struggle with mental illness as the seed that creates a novel about the search and finding of Pluto, aka Planet X. Now that is an idea tree if ever there was on. Nice idea evolution.
From “how do I make grandpa’s life more interesting” to “how do I tell the story (and in between the lines story) of the young farm boy and planet X.” Sounds like a great book.
NEVER READ A BOOK LIKE THIS, BUT I’M ALWAYS WILLING TO READ SOMETHING DIFFERENT. REALLY HOPE I WIN
He set out to write a book about his grandparents. The detours he took along the way have obviously resulted in a fascinating book about the man who discovered Pluto. As a child in school, I learned a song that helped me remember the order in which the planets orbit the sun. The song is incomplete without Pluto!
Michael Byers intended to write a book about his grandparents.
Michael Byers intended to write a novel about his grandparents. His grandmother Margaret struggled all her life with mental illness; her marriage to his grandfather Paul was turbulent, lasting only long enough to produce his mother and his uncle. In a revisionary spirit he wanted to rewrite their marriage so it didn’t end—so that it outlasted its difficulties.
I personally find books interesting when they seem to write themselves. Ideas emerge, and take on a life of their own, and the author becomes a medium for this new world he/she created. It seems to be the case in this book, as he wanted to go in a different direction at first but the story kind of took over and told itself instead. The original story of his grandparents may be more interesting that this one, but this one looks pretty good!
I “mourned” the loss of Pluto.
Obviously, he WANTS to write about his grandparents; I think this book is a sidebar and he WILL write a book devoted to them someday.
Started out writing about grandparents and it turned into fastenating book.
Like most of us, trying to imagine the life of our grandparents is like trying to imagine life on Pluto.
Byer meant to write about his grandparents life but as an author, he knew that what he had written was not coming together. Through research, he found out how Pluto was discovered and then went on to write about that. I’m sure that one day he will write about his grandparents and it will also be a good book.
He originally intended to write about his grandparents marriage.
I would be delighted to read this book. Clyde Tombaugh got his bachelors and masters degrees at my university and we are proud of him and his discovery. For Kansans, Pluto will always be a planet, and a favorite planet at that.
Strange how he wanted to write about his grandparents but wrote about pluto. With any luck he will find a way to make the next one about them and interesting.
He intended to write a novel about his Grandparents and rewrite their marriage so it didn’t end.
No one should mourn or hold “funerals” for Pluto because it IS still a planet. Only four percent of the IAU voted on this, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body in orbit around a star. The spherical part is important because objects become spherical when they attain a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning they are large enough for their own gravity to pull them into a round shape. This is a characteristic of planets and not of shapeless asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects. Pluto meets this criterion and is therefore a planet. Under this definition, our solar system has 13 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
The novel was originally about his grandparents
What an interesting journey writers take when starting new books. From trying to write a book about his grandparents’ love story and finding his grandfather’s time at Harvard to be too boring, Michael Byers eventually settles on a book about the young farmboy who discovers Pluto. And what a timely read, with all the controversy about demoting Pluto from planet to object. Who knows where your writer’s journey will take you?
Michael Byers captured the improbability of a 1920s-era farmboy, who made telescopes in his spare time, discovering the planet, Pluto, through his photographic search for Planet X at Lowell Observatory. Byers brings to life this incredible discovery, which is not diminished by Pluto’s demotion from being one of the 9 planets.
Pluto is one of what could be 50 or more planets in our solar system. I urge people not to blindly accept the demotion, which represents just one viewpoint in an ongoing debate.
He was originally setting out to write the story of his grandparents, so that their marriage didn’t end. But he couldn’t find a way to make his grandfather’s life not dull or boring.
What he did ultimately write sounds quite interesting.
I’m interested in anything from a Kansas point…It has lots interesting people living there and would like to read about these particular people….
As a cheechako to all things planetary, I am curious.
And I’ve never been to Kansas either.
The author’s original intention was to write about his grandparents……
He wanted to write about his grandparents, but to have them stay married. He thought it was too boring and remembered around that time that Pluto was discovered at the same school his grandfather attended.