'Love Letter to Chicago' Novel Features Lincoln Park Hotspots

A new author that spent time in Chicago has penned the city's scenery within its pages.

Readers will discover familiar landmarks in Barry Wightman's Pepperland, a nod to the years the author lived on the North Side. 

"The corner of Wrightwood and Clark has a rather important and almost mystical role in this thing," he said. "Some rather odd things take place there including a snowball fight in the middle of the night."

Lincoln Square's independent book store, The Book Cellar, will host the author Wednesday at 7 p.m. to talk about his book and sign copies. 

Pepperland is Wightman's debut novel after spending nearly 30 years in the high tech industry. He traded computers for characters and wrote the book in four years while earning his Masters of Fine Arts.

"It's almost a love letter to Chicago in the early 70s," he said. "It's all about two smart young people trying to figure out what we're going to do in a changing world."

The story follows Pepper: a tall, gawky guitar rocker and Sooz: a computer whiz that's on the run after creating a life-altering algorithm. They're both out to change the world through technology and rock and roll. 

That pretty closely describes the passions of Wightman, who plays guitar and keyboards in a band, The Outta State Plates. 

The author calls his book a speculative biography, saying, "wouldn't it have been cool if all this had happened to me?"

And despite the book's musical significance, Pepperland isn't named for the lesser-known Beatles song, but rather Wightman's first dog, named Pepper.