Mary Helen Stefaniak

Dear Readers:

Nobody ever asked me why I wrote my first novel, a multigenerational family saga, and nobody seemed too surprised that my second novel took place where my mother grew up, in small-town Georgia. I have found, though, that when you write a mystery set in a nursing home, the first thing people ask is: "Why a nursing home?" And when the deceased—himself a resident of Pondside Manor—turns out to be the creator of a highly personalized video game that other residents and staff members are playing, people also ask: "Why a video game?"

THE WORLD OF PONDSIDE began for me when my mother was a resident in a nursing home. Late in the evening of her very first day there, long after the dinner she had refused to eat, she was hungry. We wandered around until we found the oversized kitchen, where only one young man was working at that hour. Upon request, he made a jelly sandwich for my mother, no questions asked. She ate the whole thing. That young man's kindness, along with his willingness to bend the rules for a hungry lady, inspired the creation of Foster Kresowik, who works in the kitchen at Pondside Manor. Foster has learned everything he knows about computers and programming by helping Robert Kallman, now deceased, to work on the game.

And why a video game? Well, if you're going to write a novel that takes place in a nursing home, you had better give the characters—and the reader!—something to focus on other than wheelchairs and walkers and pureed food. A mystery that starts with the discovery of a body—or two—seemed like something they all could engage with, especially when they find that, since Robert's death, they can't get back into the game.

Getting back in the game is a powerful motivator. The game lets them inhabit a time in their lives when each one of them was the person they truly feel themselves to be. So 86-year-old Laverne requests a San Francisco portal, complete with Candlestick Park, that recalls a trip she took with her long departed husband Bill; twenty-something Foster Kresowik creates a more magical version of his grandparents' screened porch in Iowa; and Pondside Manor administrator Kitty Landiss requires a whole floor in a Manhattan skyscraper for her alternate reality—a career in fashion design.

Some early readers have told me that what they love most about THE WORLD OF PONDSIDE is the way the old people and the young people work together, both to solve the mystery and to get back in the game. I hope you enjoy reading about my "unlikely bunch of gamers" as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Mary Helen Stefaniak

Iowa City, Iowa

For Book Clubs
and Other Readers:
Questions to Consider
about The World of Pondside

Questions-to-Consider-in-The-World-of-Pondside.docx (15.4 KB)

The World of Pondside book is peeking out of the backpack of a woman hiking near the ocean

The novel has five point-of-view characters—Foster, Laverne, Dakota, Kitty, and Mary McIntyre. Whose perspective was the most interesting to you? Were there any other characters you wished you could have heard from?

Were there any characters you found it hard to sympathize with?

Which character's life situation struck you as the saddest?

Of all the characters, which one do you like best?

Do you identify with any of the characters in the novel? Which one(s)? Do any of them remind you of someone you know?

What do you think of Dakota's decision to switch from pursuing a career in medicine to becoming a teacher? Is the switch an act of courage or of cowardice? Do you think he'll become a teacher? Or will he change his mind and return to medicine? Which career path do you think he should choose?

If you were in Laverne's place, would you have decided to seize "the opportunity of a lifetime"? What happens to Laverne in the end? Would you call her fate "a happy ending"?

The words "lost her baby" mean a lot of different things when it comes to Mary McIntyre. Were you surprised when you learned the actual cause of her grief?

What do you make of Erika? To what extent do changes in Erika depend on the perspective of the point-of-view character observing her?

What does the World of Pondside game do for the people who play it? Benefits of playing? Negative effects? Does it make a difference if a player is perceived as "old and with nothing else to do" or "young and with their life ahead of them"?

Which do you think is more important: imagination or memory? What part does each play in the World of Pondside game?

If somebody offered to make a World of Pondside portal for you, who/what/where would you want to include in it?

To what extent does "alternate reality" describe the experiences of various characters, both inside and outside the game?

Edith Cobb tells Mary McIntyre's daughter that the nursing home is a death sentence. Laverne Slatchek says life is a death sentence. Who's right?

What role, if any, does revenge play in this novel?

The ALS drug in the novel is fictional; in real life there is no cure for ALS and no generally effective drug or other treatment to slow its progression. In the novel, there is such a drug—one that can slow or even reverse the progression of ALS, although it only works for some people and is not approved by the FDA for treatment of ALS. Was Robert wrong to use the game as part of a smuggling operation to make the drug available to people (including himself) who could benefit from its use? Was he wrong to end Scott's illicit use of the game (as a communication vehicle for smugglers, etc.)?

Do you think someone pushed Robert Kallman into the pond? If so, who dunnit? Was it a murder, or not?

Dear Readers:

For Book Clubs
and Other Readers:
Questions to Consider
about The World of Pondside

Selected Works

Novel

Short Fiction

For Book Clubs and Other Readers:Questions to Consider about The World of Pondside

Selected Works

For Book Clubs
and Other Readers:
Questions to Consider
about The World of Pondside