Current Projects, June 2006
Character sketch -- Jimmy Holt
b. 1976
Jimmy Holt is a buddy of Charm's who, since he was a kid, has known EVERYBODY's secrets. Some of his stories turned out to be tall tales. Problem is, Charm has never been quite sure which were and which weren't, because some of his biggest whoppers turned out to be true!
Jimmy helps Charm train Rain. Jimmy is forever trying to get people to call him Jim instead of Jimmy, but it's a losing proposition. Worse, a lot of the old timers insist on calling him Jimmy Lee, which his mother used to call him.
Jimmy was Charm's partner in crime when they were kids. He was always getting into trouble -- probably a good thing that Charm left, because they'd have ended up in prison together if he'd stayed. Jimmy flies a crop duster, plays video games, and drinks beer. He's a pudgy version of his younger sister, Ella.
He's nothing special really, about as ordinary as they come, yet he has been dating a hot older woman for years -- long before anyone knew about it. Charm thinks it's funny as hell that his friend is dating a cougar. His friends joke that she could be his mom. Before people knew he was dating her, he used to claim to be fishing all the time. Turns out Jimmy had the biggest secret of all!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Character sketch -- Bird Gannaway
b. 1974
Abnormally tall and skinny. Looks like a stork. Hooked nose. Got into a habit of balancing on one foot when he was a kid, and so he really does look like a flamingo. He's quiet mostly and seems nonconfrontational.
He's a sheriff's deputy though. He went into law enforcement specifically so he could drive really fast. When he isn't driving the squad car, he still has the same piece of shit beater he had in high school.
Henry is two years older than Charm and Jimmy. His biggest motivator in life is taking care of Ella. He wants her to love him -- and she wants to love him -- but she is damaged from the relationship with his brother. He thinks she's still in love with his brother, but she's just afraid to take a risk.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Character sketch -- Oscar Kosloski
b. 1975
He's a year older than Charm and Jimmy and a year younger than Bird. He's the most normal of the bunch. On the surface, anyway. Jimmy swears that he likes to dress in women's clothes. He works at the family funeral home driving the hearse and sometimes helping prepare the corpses. Jimmy's opinion is that if that doesn't fuck up a kid, nothing will. He's a good mechanic that tinkers with classic cars in his spare time and has secretly hot-rodded up the family hearse. He loves to hunt in his spare time, so he can really help Charm out with the who's who and what's what in that regard.
Oscar is jealous of Charm the way Charm was jealous of Jake. (And interestingly, Oscar is romantically interested in Leah.) Oscar is also a traditional trainer who hunts a lot with Layton. Layton trained his Lab before he went to work for Forbes. He tries to help Charm initially and is frustrated when Charm won't take his advice.
There's also tension from when Charm was a teen. Oscar had an awesome family life, and Charm was really, really jealous of that so Charm used to belittle Oscar's family like crazy. Charm didn't realize Oscar took it so personally, but he did, and he carries a bit of a grudge now.
Oscar tries to help Leah, but Charm sweeps in and takes over. When Oscar takes her out, Charm gets pissed. They get into a fistfight at the bar. Charm is forced to go to him to get help when Marie gets stuck. Charm can't go to Layton. To his surprise, Oscar doesn't rub it in. Instead, he gathers up a group of men and they brainstorm how to help. This establishes a peace between Oscar and Charm, which means Oscar can date Leah.
Charm wonders if he wears women's clothes and tells Leah to let him know if she runs across anything suspicious.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Character sketch -- Smokey and Marisol Clarke
b. 1942 (Smokey), 1951 (Marisol)
d. 1997 (Marisol - breast cancer)
Smokey is from Jamaica. Marisol is Cuban. They met in the US.
Dottie met Marisol in college in 1969. Marisol was also 18. Her parents immigrated to the US through legal channels in 1958, seeing the coming revolution. They lived in New Orleans -- he was a Jazz musician. She assimilated quickly thanks to her parents' insistence. She excelled at school and was able to get into college. She faced major discrimination there though. Dottie befriended her and helped her ride out the worst of it.
Dottie was in college for only two years, but Marisol stayed. She met Smokey shortly after Dottie left. He was on vacation in New Orleans, and she was on a break from school. He was older than she was -- started working for Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) in 1962 when he was 20. So Smokey was born in 1942, which makes him 68 in 2010.
Smokey kept working for ABE until the late 70s, when ABE closed down. He went out on his own then and basically took over doing what ABE had done. They had four children; Marie was the youngest and the daughter of her father's heart. The others have grown up and moved away and rarely come back to the small town in Louisiana where Smokey and Marie live and work.
Marisol passed away from breast cancer in 1997. Smokey found solace in his work. He had a stroke in the first year of Marie's Master's program at UNT (2005). She left school, came home, and took over the business. The stroke left Smokey unable to speak and weak on his right side. He has been unwilling to do much of his physical therapy. He hasn't been able to help with the business which left Marie in charge.
Dottie comes to see him to ask him to help with Rain's training. He and Dottie have both lost beloved spouses and so they strike up an unexpected friendship. This helps them both live again. Smokey and Dottie come to see Rain train one time. Marie asks his advice, which surprises him because she had been so quick to turn away his advice before. Smokey and Dottie also come to the field trial.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Character sketch -- Marie Clarke
b. 1984
Marie was born to Smokey and Marisol in 1984. Her first name is actually Smokey like her father, but she thinks Smokey Marie sounds like a racehorse, so she goes solely by her middle name. She grew up helping her father train exotic animals. When she was 18 in 2000, she went to UNT to study Behavior Analysis. The plan was for her to come back and join her father's business as a master's apprentice. However, he had a stroke in the first year of her Master's program at UNT (2005). She left school, came home, and took over the business.
The stroke left her father unable to speak and weak on his right side. He has been unwilling to do much of his physical therapy. He hasn't been able to help with the business which left Marie in charge. He had experienced trainers working for him, but she alienated them, and they left. She is arrogant -- thinks she knows as much as her father, and perhaps more because of her school experience. She's young -- just 26 -- and she doesn't people to assume she can't handle the business because of her age. Unfortunately, what she wants to come across as "strong and capable" instead is perceived as "arrogant," and she is unable to ask for help when she needs it.
She thinks she knows everything, which is part of the reason she's so controlling with Rain's training. She gets stuck though and doesn't want to ask for help. She is humbled when the "uneducated" retriever trainers can help her.
She is intrigued by the idea of training the dog because she knows no one has ever trained a field trial dog this way, and she thinks that might drive business to her business (which is starting to lack clients). That is why she agrees to her father's request that she take on this project.
Marie wants/needs:
- To succeed at the help of her father's business.
. - To make a name for herself, so she isn't just Smokey Clarke's daughter.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A note about character sketches
I went ahead and put William below (even though he's dead and isn't directly affecting the course of actions in the plot) so the entire Gibson/Freeman family would be together.
Tomorrow I'll post Marie and her parents. Monday I'll post Charm's buddies in town. And Tuesday I'll post sketches of some of the other minor-but-colorful townspeople.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Character sketch -- William Freeman
b. July 8, 1950
d. Aug. 26, 2003 (coronary embolism)
Will was a craftsman -- great with his hands. He was good an excellent carver, built amazing furniture. He was also good with animals. He was lousy with machines, and he had a brown thumb, which was why being a farmer was such a bad profession for him.
When he was young, he had planned to leave town and become a sculptor. He read art books and planned trips to Italy. Then two things had happened. First, Vietnam. He was drafted in 1969, when he was 19 -- his birthday was unlucky number 13 in the first draft lottery since 1942. He had served a 12-month tour in the Army and began a second tour when the second thing happened -- his father died, leaving him to care for his mother, three younger siblings, and the family farm.
Will was forced to take over the farm, which he both hated and was horrible at. He believed, however, that it was just for a few years, until one of his younger siblings grew up and took over.
He went into the Army in 1969. He was in the Army until early 1971 when his father died. He was not yet 21 when that happened. His siblings were 17 (sister), 12, and 9 in 1971. The 12 and 9 year old were brothers. The sister grew up and got married and moved away. The 12 year old was book smart and won a scholarship to college in 1977. Will supported him in this, because he understood the desire to get out of town. That sibling went to college and moved to the city. The youngest brother (Teddy), though, loved farming. He and Will worked well together. He planned to take over for Will. In the agricultural boom of the late 1970s, because things were going so well, Will went into debt by buying more farmland and equipment. Teddy got a scholarship in 1980 to Auburn University to study agriculture, and they agreed that in today's world, if he wanted to make a go of farming, he needed to have both book learning and practical knowledge. The plan was for him to come back when he graduated in 1984.
Just before Teddy graduated, he was killed in a car accident. Will was devastated, not only because he loved his brother, but because it meant he had to keep taking care of the farm. The value of the land had dropped 60%, and the price for his crops (such as they were) had dropped enough that he was going into serious debt. He was finally forced to sell some of the land to one of the big commercial farms he and his brother hated with a passion. This just about broke him.
Still he wasn't free to pursue his dreams yet -- which is what he had been promising his family -- because his mother was in a nursing home, and she needed care. He had to stay and keep taking care of things until she died. The money from selling some of the land kept him out of bankruptcy and paid some medical bills, but little else. He still had to farm.
He might have muddled through if he hadn't developed arthritis. It made him hurt, and it made it impossible for him to carve or do anything creative with his hands. This destroyed his spirit for good. He began drinking heavily to escape the pain and the depression. He was a mean drunk.
The "decline" in Will happened during the late 80s. When Charm was 13 (1989), he wrote an essay for a national essay contest. The winners were going to travel to Germany to visit East Berlin and see where the Berlin Wall had stood. This was just the sort of thing that he and his father, Will, used to talk about doing. That was the day Will found out he had arthritis, and the pain in his hands was likely to get worse and worse. Not only was he stuck farming, but he couldn't even do his creative things anymore. Will belittled the essay and burned it, crushing the boy's hopes. Weighted down by his own disappointment, Will also told him that the dreams of getting out of this town were useless. Charm was born here, and he would die here like everybody else.
That's when Will began seriously drinking and when Charm began to plot how to get away from him. Will resented his son for doing what he couldn't and escaping. He also resented his son for not staying and helping with the family obligations.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Character sketch -- Dottie Freeman
b. 1951
Dottie was a year younger than her husband, Will. They had known each other their entire lives and were junior high sweethearts. They were best friends growing up and were bonded by their desire to get out of their small town. She had wanted to be an actress, and he an artist. They were creative and considered themselves much too sophisticated for the world they were stuck in. They had planned to go to college, and then elsewhere to further their crafts. She had wanted to go to New York or London. He had wanted to go to Italy or Paris. But she figured they'd compromise.
When he was drafted, their plans were put on hold. She went to college, but they stayed in touch -- and in love. Her letters, sharing the lessons she was learning for them both, kept him going through his tours of duty. When his father died, he came home. He wanted Dottie to finish college, but he needed help, and she was willing to put her dreams on hold to help him. They got married right away.
When Will was forced to continue helping with the family farm at the expense of his dreams, Dottie's dreams were crushed right along with his, but she was able to change her passion into raising her family. So she was not as bitter initially as her husband was. She completely empathized with his disappointments, and she supported him fully because she loved him so very much. Even when he began to drink, she understood because she knew what the emotional cost of the physical pain he was suffering was. She even bought him his alcohol so he wouldn't have to feel the pain.
She was torn between her husband and her children, and there were times, she chose the man she loved. She, after all, had lost her dreams as well. Other times, she tried to protect the children. She wasn't consistent, and therefore the children didn't see her as a safe place.
Charm and Leah don't know much about their parents. The few things they know don't seem compatible with the abusive drunk or the woman who stuck with him. They think their mother should have taken them and left their father. They think it was a dysfunctional marriage. They don't understand all the reasons that she loved him and stayed.
Dottie understood why Charm left -- and secretly kept up with him -- but she stayed out of contact out of respect to her husband. Besides, the one time she did try to reach out, she was firmly rebuffed. That made her angry, because she thought they'd done as well as they could. She felt betrayed and unappreciated by Charm and later by Leah.
Dottie stayed with Charm's father until he died of a coronary embolism in 2003 at the age of 55. Once he died, she was bereft. His mother had died. Her parents had died. His siblings were gone. Her children wanted nothing to do with her. There was no life insurance. She had to sell their home and was, essentially, left with nothing at age 54.
54 is not old unless life has made you old. She could have started over, but she was so beaten down that she didn't have it in her to do it. Leah took her in reluctantly at Jake's insistence. Dottie resented Leah's resentment and shut down. At the beginning of the novel, she basically is sulking and waiting to die.
Dottie wants/needs:
- To have her past choices validated by her family
. - To live again
. - To be part of the family now
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Character sketch -- Lucas Gibson
b. 2000
Lucas was a normal, happy 10-year-old boy before the accident that killed his father and injured him. He played soccer and video games, went to school, and spent time with his friends when he could. He also spent a fair amount of time alone because he lived on a farm, without neighbors terribly close. That's one reason he was so happy when Rain came to live with him. Although his dad told him that Rain wasn't a pet, Lucas can't help but make him one because he enjoys the companionship.
Lucas's right femur is broken in the accident. It's a complex fracture that require external fixation. With this technique pins are inserted into the various pieces of bone, and an external frame (a few inches above the skin) is used to hold the pins/bones in place. Surgery was done the day he was brought in, and he's out of the hospital four days after the accident - the same day as his dad's funeral. Medically, he is allowed to stand and walk as tolerated, with crutches for 6-8 weeks. He has to see his orthopedist every couple of weeks, then back to the OR for removal after about 8 weeks. Then another 6-8 weeks of rehabbing on it after the device is off to work on strengthening and improving mobility.
While all this is going on though, he's also trying to come to terms with the death of his father, whom he adored. The last thing his father said to him was that if Rain wins the local field trial, all their family's problems would be gone. Jake meant that he would be able to get steady income as a professional retriever trainer, but Lucas latches onto it as the miraculous solution to resolving all the chaos that has erupted since Jake died.
Lucas has to come to terms with his father's death. He wants/needs:
- To heal, physically and emotionally.
. - To fulfill his father's promise.
. - To feel like everything will be all right - to feel normal.
. - To be secure.
. - To help his mom.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Character sketch -- Leah Gibson
b. 1981
Leah is the opposite of Charm. She held tight to her roots and sacrificed her dreams. She is incredibly bitter toward her brother for escaping and leaving her. She never had the guts to fight back against her parents. She repressed all the anger she felt, made excuses for their behavior. Her relationship with her mother is still very dysfunctional. Her mother still bullies her -- because she can.
When Leah married Jake, it was like being swept away by Prince Charming. He offered her an escape... but real life, even with a good husband and son, isn't a fairy tale. Her dreams got lost in the drudgery of surviving day to day in a depressed economy. She was essentially happy, but she wanted her husband to spend more time with her, and she wished he would find a stable job. She is furious with him when she finds out, after his death, how deep in debt they are.
Leah didn't get to go to college. She married right out of high school (1999) and got pregnant with Lucas soon after. She wants to go to school though. What she really truly wants is to go to law school. Jake supported her completely, but they were financially limited. So she has been going to Hind Community College to get some basic liberal arts credits out of the way. Then she was going to try to transfer to Mississippi College to finish her undergrad and law school. Mississippi College is very expensive. Charm figures out that she can go to Ole Miss for far less money. She balks at that because Ole Miss is so far away. Charm submits her anyway.
Leah is a woman who is suffering from the loss of her husband. Her son is gravely injured, and she wants more than anything to take away his pain... both physical and emotional. She feels like everything she does to help him backfires. Their medical bills have eaten up what little savings they had. She is struggling to keep them solvent, to keep them from losing their house. She feels like she is failing in her attempt to hold her family together, and she doesn't think Charm's presence is helping the situation.
Leah wants to make her family secure. At the beginning of the story, she defines security externally -- a good job, plenty of money, physical health. During the story, she discovers that those things are secondary to a strong family and a strong self.
What does Leah want/need?
- To heal her son, physically and emotionally.
. - To provide for herself and her son.
. - To feel secure.
. - To keep the farm running.
. - Stand up to her mother and redefine their relationship.
. - Reconcile with Charm and accept him and all his faults.
. - Forgive Jake for dying, and understand the choices he
made while he was alive.
. - Carve a future for herself and her family that satisfies her soul, not just her pocketbook.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Character sketch -- Charm Freeman
b. 1976*
*Note about character ages. Knowing that it takes a great deal of time to write and publish, I am setting the story in 2010 and figuring the character ages and life events relative to that year. It's not a future-based story; it's based in current time. I figure by the time I'm done, 2010 will be current!
Charm Freeman could sell London Bridge to the same person twice. He deserves his name, and he has played off his natural charms most of his adult life. He ran away from home when he was 16 and joined a carnival. Although he kept in touch with a few people - his sister, his friend Jimmie - he hasn't been back to his home town since he left, not even for his father's funeral.
Part of the reason that Charm wants to help Lucas is because he remembers a promise his father didn't keep. Charm and Leah were initially raised on their parents' dreams. Their father encouraged them to dream and promised that soon they would travel as a family. They watched TV together, and dreamed about seeing the places where great events took place.
When Charm was 13 (1989), he wrote an essay for a national essay contest. The winners were going to travel to Germany to visit East Berlin and see where the Berlin Wall had stood. This was just the sort of thing that he and his father, Will, used to talk about doing. That was the day Will found out he had arthritis, and the pain in his hands was likely to get worse and worse. Not only was he unable to escape the family farm, but he couldn't even do his creative things anymore. Will belittled the essay and burned it, crushing the boy's hopes. Weighted down by his own disappointment, Will also told him that the dreams of getting out of this town were useless. Charm was born here, and he would die here like everybody else.
That's when Will began seriously drinking and when Charm began to plot how to get away from him. He and Leah would climb a tree and talk about the world and where they would go when they got away. When Charm was 16 (1992), he ran away, promising to come back and get Leah as soon as he had some money. By the time that really happened, she had escaped on her own by marrying Jake.
Charm and Leah don't know much about their father (or mother). The few things they know don't seem compatible with the abusive drunk or the woman who stuck with him. They think their mother should have taken them and left their father. They think it was a dysfunctional marriage. They don't understand all the reasons that she loved him and stayed. Dottie understood why Charm left -- and secretly kept up with him -- but she stayed out of contact out of respect to her husband. Besides, the one time she did try to reach out, she was firmly rebuffed.
Charm wanted to travel and have great adventures like his father had talked about. So when he ran away, he gravitated to the greatest adventure he could imagine for a sixteen year old runaway: he joined a carnival. He considered it adventure, but it was just running, and the reality didn't live up to the fantasy, even for a sixteen year old. It was steady work and reasonably safe - definitely safer than what he saw the street kids doing in cities they passed through - so he stuck with it for a few years, saving his money.
When he was old enough to work legally, he left the carnival, but he wasn't sure what he was really searching for. Without an education, he didn't have much in the way of job prospects, and he was forever driven by his "itchy feet" to travel someplace new. He lied about having a high school diploma and got various customer service jobs. Once he had some work history, it was easier to get jobs. Then he managed to land a dream job: a waiter position on a cruise ships. Cruise ships became his life throughout his twenties. He excelled in customer service and worked his way up the job ladder. He moved from ship to ship, because he'd quickly tire of one route.
He saw much of the world and dated many women doing this. He also partied hard. He started drinking when he was with the carnival, but they also taught him how to get up and go to work regardless. So even though he parties hard when he's working on the ships, he still gets the job done.
When he turned 30, he began to want more stability. He hadn't been able to have a serious relationship. He met a girl and decided to give "regular life" a try. He settled in Texas with her, but he was restless and unhappy. He worked in a hotel, but hospitality wasn't what drew him to the ships. After a miserable year, he tried to return to the cruises, but that wasn't the life he wanted either. So he moved around from city to city, job to job. He isn't following a passion; he's just fleeing rules and anything he perceives as tying him down. He's drinking more now, as well. He's an alcoholic like his father was.
He needs to make peace with his past so he will feel comfortable putting down roots. In order to make peace with his past and get on the road to self-fulfillment, he has to...
- Make peace with his father and his past - to understand
the similarities between himself and his father and to understand why
his parents were the way they were. He doesn't necessarily have to forgive
them, but he needs to understand enough to move on.
. - Repair the relationship with his sister Leah.
. - Create a new relationship with his mother.
. - Help Lucas fulfill Jake's promise.
. - Help Leah.
. - Find direction -- find a solution that both satisfies
his need for freedom and gives him the security of roots. He has to
get comfortable with his place in his family - this includes getting
over his jealousy of Jake.
. - To overcome his alcoholism.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Setting
Collier is a fictional town located in Mississippi between Vicksburg and the Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi junction. It's near the Mississippi River, and the river land is rich from flooding, and is fertile for crops. However most of the farms now are huge conglomerates, not individual farmers.
The town was originally set up around farming and the services farmers needed. Now, however, there's less farming, and many of the original residents left to find work. The town had a bit of a revival though when the horse people from Vicksburg started spreading out looking for prime acreage. Then came techie folks who want to telecommute and live in the country. Still, there are only about 1500 people living here.
The 1500 people are divided pretty evenly between white and black with a small percentage of "official" Hispanic residents. Unofficially, there is a fairly substantial Mexican population of migrant farm workers. Although there is more "mixing" among the younger generation and the newer residents, the original residents, black and white, tend to keep to themselves. They work together and are friendly, but they tend not to socialize.
Most of the men in Collier do a little hunting. As clichéd as it is, they hunt, watch football, watch NASCAR, and go to church on Sunday. They're more open-minded about things like race and politics and the Internet than Charm expected though. He really thought nothing would have changed since he left, and he has since lived in cities and done some wild things. He actually applies the southern stereotype to his memory and is a little embarrassed about it when they call him on it.
The commercial part of town is quite small. Most of it is four streets of shops facing a town square in the middle. The buildings here were built in the 1850s. Much has changed since Charm was last here. There's a Starbucks and trendy shops where buildings stood empty in the farm depression of the 1980s. There are several restaurants, and in a new modern shopping center built several blocks away from the square, there's a chain supermarket, a McDonalds, a Chick-Fil-A, and a Shell station. Several blocks away in another direction from the square is a Dairy Queen and a local gas station. Historically there was just one school, but they're building an elementary school near the new shopping center now. There are two Protestant churches - one in the square that the white people historically attended and one further out of town that the black people attended. Charm is surprised that even the church is integrated now. There are three bars. The Bull's Eye is the traditional "white" bar. This is where the original townspeople tend to hang out. Cleo's is the "black" bar outside of town. Neither bar is truly segregated, especially now. Just different clientele, different music, different flavor. There's a new bar called The Leaping Lizard that is popular with the new townspeople. It's newer and more trendy.
The houses near the square and the old farmhouses - the original houses - vary in size and were mostly built between the mid 1800s and the mid 1900s. They are nearly all meticulously cared for with lovely landscaping, particularly close to the town in the "historic district." A new "layer" of houses is being built around the edges of the town by the newer residents. These are typical suburban cookie-cutter houses that have size but no character. Big new houses have sprung up outside of town as newcomers snatch up old farmland and turn it into hobby horse farms.
The land outside the town is fairly flat, low elevation - river bottom. The further away from the river, the more rolling hills there are. Lots of lakes dot the landscape. Land that wasn't cleared for farming has a high proportion of deciduous trees. The climate is hot and humid most of the year. Winters are cold (from their perspective) and humid, but there's rarely snow this far south.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Theme
There are two underlying "themes" being examined in the novel. The first is about fathers' promises. There are two fathers in the story - Jake and William.
- Jake's promise to Lucas, and Lucas's quest to fulfill
it, is what drives the main plot. Jake promises Lucas that when Rain
wins the local field trial, their family's problems will be G-O-N-E.
Jake meant that if Rain wins, he'll be able to get work as a professional
hunting dog trainer, which will give him a solid source of income. When
Jake is killed, Lucas latches onto the promise as a way to keep his
family from destitution, which, of course, it can't do. Lucas finds,
though, that coming together to fulfill Jake's promise saves his family
in unexpected ways that in the end are much more powerful than money.
. - William is Charm and Leah's deceased father. William's life was one crushed dream after another, and he became a very bitter man. When Charm and Leah were young, William still believed that he would be able to break free and pursue his dreams, and he promised them the moon. Then he broke that promise and told them they would go nowhere, get nothing. Charm was so angry that he ran away when he was 16 and pursued his own dreams. In the course of the novel, Charm finds out the story behind his father's bitterness and comes to understand why William broke his "promise." Making peace with William's memory enables Charm to move ahead in his own life, with his own conflicting dreams.
The second theme is about finding fulfillment in life. The main characters are all, in some way, struggling to find the path to fulfillment. They are torn between the known and the unknown - and each has pros and cons. The known is safe, stable, and has support and approval from society and family. However it is limited in scope, rule bound, and societally driven. The unknown is limited only by the individual's imagination, drive, and ability, but frequently inherent in it is a lack of support and approval from society, and even when successful, that path is often lonely and risky.
- Before the story, Charm has pursued the unknown path
and is living the positive (or so he wants everyone to believe). In
Act I he comes back to his home town and faces the lack of approval
for his choices and feels alienated from friends and family. He tries
to fit in and to do what's expected - and he gets lots of approval for
this. But, he feels trapped, and it isn't solving their problems. The
disapproval when he breaks the "rules" drives him crazy. He
finally creates a new experience for himself that's somewhere between
known and unknown. This doesn't answer all of his questions or solve
all of his problems, but he has both his family and hope for the future.
. - Before the story, Leah is firmly and happily in the positive
of the "known" path. After Jake dies, though, that known path
isn't coming through for her. So she tries to push her boundaries and
create a better situation for herself and Lucas. That doesn't work out
for her though, and she's forced to reassess. In the end, she also makes
her own path, one that's more unknown than known but because she has
the backing of her family, she's hopeful about its possibilities.
. - Dottie had already been through the whole cycle before the story started. Unfortunately, she ended up stuck in some negative place where all her dreams were crushed and she lost the support of her family. For her, the story is about reigniting the desire to dream and to live. She finds it through a bond with Smokey (Marie's father) and their memories of Marisol (Smokey's deceased wife -- a college friend of Dottie's). Once she's participating in life again, she has to figure out what she wants to do with her future. She decides in the end to go with Leah to Ole Miss. Leah will need help with Lucas, need help paying bills, and darn it, she just might have a go at a theater class or two.
Sunday, June 22.2008
Summary and key characters
If I'm going to blog about this novel, y'all probably ought to know what the heck (and who the heck) I'm talking about. The descriptions below are pretty high level. There is much, much more to the story.
A FATHER'S PROMISE -- Plot summary
Jake Gibson has had a rough time lately. His farm just isn't making it in this economy, and he hasn't been able to find much work doing odd jobs. It takes all of his time just to make ends meet, which is causing stress at home. But he finally has a ticket for success -- a curly coated retriever named Rain. Rain's owner has entrusted him with his training, and if he wins the local field trial, Jake will be established as a professional hunting dog trainer. He promises his son (and training assistant), 10-year-old Lucas, that when Rain wins, all their family problems will be over. Unfortunately, his promise seems for naught when Jake is killed in a car accident that leaves both Lucas and Rain injured.
Leah Gibson, Jake's wife, is left to pick up the pieces after Jake dies and Lucas is injured. She is faced with mounting medical bills, a distraught son who may regain full use of his legs, and a ton of debt. To help her son cope with the loss of his father, she arranges for him to at least get to keep the injured dog. But beyond that she is overwhelmed -- unsure how to help him, how to keep their small farm running, or how to pay the bills. Unexpectedly her estranged brother steps in to help, which relieves stress in one area but forces her to deal with a dysfunctional, abusive past she tried to escape.
Charm Freeman, her brother, has been running from his own demons. Unable to find success or happiness, he is drawn back to the source of his problems. Not sure why he came back, he tries to remain detached from Leah and her son, but Lucas's steadfast belief in his father's promise intrigues Charm. He soon finds himself caught up in helping the little boy train the retriever. Leah is at first infuriated by the plan, knowing that, without Jake, accomplishing the goal will not have the result he promised, but soon, drawn by the renewed life in her son, she also gets caught up in the project.
As the boy and his family overcome obstacles to teach Rain what he needs to know, they face their biggest obstacle of all: imminent foreclosure of their home. Lucas has faith that if they can just win the field trial, their problems will be resolved, but his faith is shaken when the dog's owner finds out the dog has recovered from his injuries and tries to reclaim him, forcing Lucas to choose between his father's dream and the dog he loves.
Key characters
- Charm Freeman -- Lucas's uncle, Leah's brother. Ran away
when he was 16 to pursue dreams of adventure, and isn't welcomed with
open arms when he returns.
. - Leah Freeman Gibson -- Lucas's mother, Charm's sister.
The responsible one of the family, she finds herself overwhelmed by
trying to hold a dysfunctional family together.
. - Lucas Gibson -- 10 year old son of Leah and Jake. His
legs are injured in the car accident and only his dog and his faith
in his father's promise gives him the motivation to overcome his disability.
. - Dorothy "Dottie" Freeman -- Charm and Leah's
mother. She supported her alcoholic husband, and her children resent
her for it. She resents their resentment and is shut down and unwilling
to help even now.
. - William Freeman -- Charm and Leah's father (deceased).
He was bitter and frustrated by life, and the alcohol he used to suppress
physical pain became its own hell. His children didn't understand him
and hated him.
. - Marie Clarke -- An exotic animal trainer who has the key to helping the injured retriever through his fears but who is too involved in her own problems to want to get involved in theirs.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Beginning a novel
I've wanted to write a novel for a long time. Prose fiction, unfortunately, isn't my strong suit. My training as a technical writer made me a decent screenwriter and writer of non-fiction, both forms where a clean, sparse style is appreciated, but it destroyed my ability to write description and flowery prose like you find in most novels.
For a lot of years I didn't write prose fiction at all. Then I dabbled with fan fiction. (Don't judge me! I'm a fan of fan fiction. I could, in fact, write at length about why I think fan fiction is a good thing. Perhaps I'll do that in the future.) While I won't claim that my prose is as good as my non-fiction writing, writing fan fiction did give me an opportunity to practice and improve my prose to the point that I'm interested in working on a novel.
I have bandied a few ideas around, but I keep coming back to the story I told in my most recent screenplay, "The Promise." The issue I keep struggling with is whether to tell the story from the kid's point of view and make it a middle grade novel or to expand the storylines and make it commercial fiction. The latter is more interesting to ME, but is it best for the idea? Is the story even commercial enough to sell regardless? If not, sincerely, I don't want to spend the time on it. (Heck, I might as well write fan fiction. THAT at least has an audience!)
I decided what I will do is deepen the character back stories, expand the storylines, and outline it as commercial fiction. Then I'll pare everything down and prepare a second outline for a middle grade novel. Then I'll ask an editor friend of mine to look at and evaluate the project. She'll tell me honestly which format, if either, is commercial enough to land me an agent ASSUMING I execute well enough.
So that's what I've been doing -- deepening the character back stories and expanding the storylines. It has already significantly changed the story behind the screenplay -- for the better, I believe. I know more about what my characters want and why. I've learned a lot about them I didn't know before (which is wicked cool). I'm really, really enjoying this process.
There's still lots and lots to be done before I'm ready to send it to my friend. I'm having fun doing it though, whatever the eventual outcome.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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