Summary of the book: It’s 1978, and the art scene in the Midwest is booming. Successful Detroit gallery owner Fairchild Moss secretly yearns to return to his first love—painting. When he comes into possession of a mysterious masterpiece, his life takes an unexpected turn. Perplexed by the imprint of a nipple in the thick paint, Moss is determined to unravel the painting’s mystery. So begins a darkly comic quest to uncover the story behind the eerie masterpiece and to locate the elusive muse who inspired it.“Seren is at once a sharply comic satire of the art scene, a canny meditation on the nature of art, and an entirely absorbing murder mystery. — Arnold Johnston, novelist, playwright, poet, and author of Swept Away, The Witching Voice and Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been
“This novel skewers the pretensions and infighting of the art world in the context of a thoroughly satisfying mystery that will make readers laugh and think.” — Deborah Ann Percy, fiction writer, playwright, and author of Invisible Traffic and Dream Time (Susan Smith Blackburn Award Finalist)
“Seren is a tour de force. Rooted in an archetypal battle between darkness and light, the plot line quivers with energy and mystery.” — Phaedra Greenwood, author of Beside the Rio Hondo and coauthor of Those Were the Days: Life and Love in 1970s New Mexico
Bio of the author: Peter Gooch is a painter, writer, and former art professor living in New Mexico. He is the winner of the Bosque Publishing Prize for Fiction, and his short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines and online including The New Guard, Bosque Publishing, Etched Onyx, and Light and Dark Literary Magazine. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, he holds an MFA from Western Michigan University. He resides in Corrales with his wife, Dr. Sharon Ransom.Publication Date: April 8th, 2025
Publisher: Apprentice House
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Interview:
Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!
I was born and raised in Ann Arbor. My father was a painter and professor at the University of Michigan, and my mother a first grade teacher. I grew up surrounded by artists and educators. I essentially followed my father’s footsteps and became a painter and art professor. Art making, reading and travel have been a part of my life from very early on. I believe nothing stirs the imagination and generates a thirst for understanding like travel.
I’ve spent a good portion of my life teaching undergraduates and find that teaching requires constant learning, questioning and revising one’s ideas. Teaching at the university level is mostly thinking out loud and refining your thoughts in order to communicate, rather than just dispensing data.
Tell us about your book? SEREN is essentially a quest novel. It’s the story of a man’s search for an answer to the riddle of genius. Fairchild Moss is an art dealer in 1970s Detroit who suspects that a masterpiece in his gallery was created with help from a muse. Moss, who’s failed career as a painter haunts him, sets out to discover the truth about the painting, the muse who inspired it, and in the process recovers his lost ambition to become a painter. His search takes him from the wealthy suburbs of Detroit to the rural Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, to London, Paris and back. Moss’s quest is aided by an assortment of colorful characters from the art demimonde. When he finally finds the muse (Seren) he discovers she is not what he expected, and Moss is drawn into a dark world of mystery, magic potions, sex and death.
How did it get started?
SEREN is an offshoot of a short story—DEADFALL, published in The New Guard anthology volume IX. Moss, Bainbridge, and the painting all make their first appearance in DEADFALL. I was curious to see where the story of the great painting might lead, and it led me to SEREN.
How do you create your characters?
The characters in SEREN and in all my writing are developed from composites of people I’ve known in “real life”. I grew up in the household of an artist and have been immersed in art and academe all my life. Several artists from the Cass Corridor in Detroit were my teachers in art school, and as a practicing painter for many years, the gallery scene is very familiar to me. The art world is populated by fascinating, quirky characters who are obsessed with art and art making. It’s not hard to base fictional characters on such acquaintances. Also, I’ve been fortunate to travel a great deal in my life and have been surrounded from an early age by people who exist on the fringes of “normal” society. As Norman Mailer once said, “All art is about the selection of detail.” I don’t think I’ve ever had to invent a character whole cloth.
What inspires and what got your started in writing?
I’ve been very lucky to have had excellent and patient teachers, both in writing and visual art. I grew up in a family of teachers and artists in a university town (Ann Arbor). When I was doing my MFA in painting, I did my cognates in creative writing. At that time, Western Michigan University had a strong writing program that included writing professors like Jaimy Gordon, Arnie Johnston, and Stu Dybek. I found that environment fertile and energizing.
Where do you write? Is there something you need in order to write (music, drinks?)
I work at the kitchen table in Corrales, New Mexico. I’m and early riser and work best in the morning. My process begins with coffee, rereading, coffee, revising, coffee and writing new material. I like to old trope: Write drunk and edit sober, even if I don’t necessarily follow that path in my own work. I do think it’s important that early drafts be uninhibited by the kind of control that informs later drafts. I never do outlines or character studies, or any sort of planning—it’s all extemporaneous.
How do you get your ideas for writing?
Everything comes from life, and art, and reading, and traveling. The world is a big place if your outlook allows it to be. Every experience, no matter how mundane it may seem at the time, can feed into your art.
What do you like to read?
I’ve always preferred to read literary fiction, as well as the occasional artist biography.
Some of my favorite authors: Annie Proulx, Mary Gaitskill, Jaimy Gordon, Michael Ondaatje, Lawrence Durrell, James Salter, Thomas Mann, Eudora Welty, Wallace Stevens, TS Eliot, Ray Carver, Carlos Fuentes, Nikos Kazantzakis, Milan Kundera, Margaret Atwood, Andre Dubus, Vladimir Nobkov, Jeanette Winterson, Joseph Conrad, Jim Harrison, Graham Greene and Tom McGuane.
What would your advice to be for authors or aspiring in regards to writing?
Turn off your phone for a day or a week or a month. Stop Scrolling. Read the very best writers you can get your hands on, buy physical books, and underline everything that you love. Art is most often about art.
