Christine Whelan FEO, July 7, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 23
John Scott’s sequel to Button Holes: Discovering the Gaps in Small Town Politics has hit the bookstores. Zip: Closing the Gaps In Small Town Politics, also based in Fort Erie, Ontario, takes a wry look at small town politics, dragging the reader into a life-or-death conspiracy and a whodunit buffet, complete with a group of Aliens.
While Scott’s first book sets the stage and tone with a fictional account of the discovery of soldiers’ graves in Fort Erie, inspired by the actual findings at Snake Hill in 1987, Zip narrows in on closing the gap on small town politics.
Jenny Wessel assumes office — as her father, the mayor in Button Holes, nicknamed “Weasel” for a reason, begins to decline into dementia — determined to make politics better in her hometown. Her plans, if not her ideals, slip away as she faces a chilling but unspecified threat from a stranger.
She expected some home-grown reluctance but never sinister conspiracies on the regional level.
Jenny Wessel recruits an unlikely team of amateur sleuths to track her enemy. She must rely on the people she knows. But who can she trust? The regional chairman? The newspaper editor? The emergency measures officer? Her political colleagues, the Aliens?
The Author
Thirty-five years as a small-town journalist and municipal public relations officer gave John Scott rare insights into both sides of the political world. In the 1970’s he was the editor of the Fort Erie Times Review, which gave the author further insight locally.
Scott explained, “The story picks up five minutes after the first book ends, where Jenny Wessel is sworn in as mayor and the plot-driving menace begins right away in the first line, which is, ‘Almost perfect wasn’t good enough.’
“This book keeps the tradition going where the first line and the last line are almost identical. The final line of Zip is, ‘Almost perfect was good enough.'”
The tradition began with the more ominous, “In the first book, Button Holes’, the first line is, ‘Bodies,’ mused the mayor, ‘what can I do with all these bodies?’ and the last line is, ‘Bodies,’ mused the mayor, ‘what can’t I do with all these bodies?’
“This pattern is repeated from the second to the third book.” Scott anticipates the third book will be out this Fall.
The author continues to provide a peek into Zip, “It goes from there to an immortal threat against Jenny and the entire population of Fort Erie from a mysterious man whose motives puzzle Jenny and her team of amateur detectives.”
Another tradition is carried on. “The question of ethics and what is the right thing to do in a given situation, also who can you trust, carry on, right through to the second book and into the third. That’s part of the turmoil of what all the characters are going through.”
Most of the main characters are in all three books.
He was careful not to provide any spoilers since at the time of our interview, I was only halfway through my own reading of Button Holes.
In our interview about the first book, back in November, when asked how many books this storyline would take, the author replied that he was taking the story where the characters took him and they would decide how many books the story would require. For this interview, John admitted the third book wrapped the story up nicely. The characters had decided.
“I thought originally I’d stop at two. Part of the joy of writing, it’s going to go where it wants, not where you want. The first book took about 25 years to write while the second one took about 10 months and the third took eight months.”
Button Holes In Review
I took a couple of days after the interview to finish Button Holes. In being conscious not to give away too much as Mr. Scott very carefully accomplished in his interview, I will admit, going into Button Holes, there were assumptions and natural parallels my mind wanted to make.
I followed the chapters on three levels: as a Fort Erie resident, recognizing with slight smiles the use of actual road names, locations and interesting little coincidences to current events, as someone simply enjoying the novel, escaping into the plot flows, ebbs and twists created by the characters, and as the writer of this article and review, working my reactions around what to share in the written response.
There is a fine line between self-serving thought and good intentions in Button Holes and it’s both fascinating and discouraging to follow the characters as they flip flop back and forth over this line. As readers, we are privy to the characters’ thoughts regularly throughout the novel, which is often in contrast to their actions.
Who could Jenny trust? I would say the same for her. Who could trust her?
The wrap up brings a slow shift to the community. The motto the Aliens have adopted is working. The residents are looking forward with the optimistic view that “Fort Erie can do better.”
As the newspaper editor reflects in the final paragraphs, “The people of the town are so keen to look to the future, they’ve almost ignored what was here before,” I found myself looking forward to reading Zip, curious to see just how close the apple falls from the tree.
Scott Gives Thanks
John would really like to thank the community, which he said has been very supportive. “Surprisingly, there are still some people who remember me from the 1970s.”
The author also commented on how receptive the community has been to his column, Scott-Free, which he’s been writing for the Fort Erie Observer. He added that the column has helped with his marketing of the books because it gives his readers an insight into his mindset as the author of the books.
When asked if he has a message to the community in general, John shared, “Almost everyone, as they go through life, has doubts about whether they’re doing the right thing and most often, as the book theme seems to be, the right thing will come naturally to you. Whether you do it or not, is the real test.”
“These are exciting times.”
After our interview, the author was heading out to Brighton to pick up copies of Zip.
“On Thursday, we’re going to be down in Niagara doing some distribution, including Lakeside Books and Art. The book launch is also going to be at Lakeside’s on July 21st, 7:00-8:30pm with a reading and book signing.”
Zip can be found at Lakeside Books and Art, 341 Ridge Rd. N., downtown Ridgeway. “If that’s not convenient, I can be contacted by email at jrscott@bell.net for personal and postal delivery.”
Photo of John Scott at Lakesides Books and Art provided by Karin DiBiase
