Holiday reflections> Maine author remembers

No matter where she goes, the novelist and Allagash native Cathie Pelletier tells everyone she is from Maine.

But she lives in Nashville, Tenn. And she loves country music.

That’s why her newest book “A Country Music Christmas” isn’t a novel. Indeed, she admits that she hates writing novels — though she has published six, the most recent of which is this year’s “Beaming Sonny Home.”

The new book, which is co-authored by Nashville journalist Patsi Bale Cox and singer-songwriter Jim Glaser, is a collection of holiday reflections and recipes by some of the best-known stars in country music. Garth Brooks, Patty Loveless, Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap and Suzy Bogguss are a few of the 33 voices who participated in Pelletier’s project to gather stories about the way folks in country music remember Christmas.

“They’re all very proud of this book and they see my vision. They know that no one is doing country music books with a storytelling motif,” said Pelletier, who now splits her time between Nashville and Toronto.

For 20 years, Pelletier was on the periphery of country music because of her former live-in relationship with Glaser, who was named Top New Male Vocalist of the Academy of Country Music in 1984.

“I can thank country music for my world education,” said Pelletier.

A coffee-table style book with hand-tinted photographs by Carl E. Hileman, “A Country Music Christmas” is the first project to come out of Pelletier’s newly established book producing company, Nashville Books. The book, however, was published by Crown Publishing Co., in New York.

Through a series of interviews, Pelletier gathered first-person accounts from the country music stars, and edited them for the book. The recipes, such as Mama’s Fried Taters from Stella Parton (Dolly’s sister) and Sweet Potato Casserole from Jeanne Pruett, fill a quarter of the book and show the country music penchant for down-home cooking.

Everyone participated in the book for fun rather than pay. Pelletier credits Glaser with having the connections to get such superstars as Tanya Tucker. Even though Pelletier is a native daughter of Maine, her identity is finding new roots in Tennessee, and even her accent is tinged with a Southern drawl these days. It’s all part of making her way in the world of writing, she said.

“I have so many different interests than fiction writing,” said Pelletier. “I told someone the other day that when I come to die, I want people to look at the list of things I’ve done and say, `Was this woman suffering from multiple personalities?”‘

Pelletier is currently working on a seventh book of fiction, and has several other projects in the works.