Being different in America has never been easy; being born different and in the wrong body in Solitude, Virginia in the 1950’s, is brutal. Smiley Hanlon lives day to day trapped in a Coal Miners town, buffeted by the Appalachian’s and generations of hate and mistrust. Any hint of being different, or being a ‘Freak’ is enough to ostracize you, pigeon hole you and make you a target for bullying – or worse. Backed by his best friend and protector, Lee Moore, Smiley made it through the days…until the night everything shattered. Chosen as the lead in a new town production called Dorothy of Oz Coal Camp, it seemed to be the beginning to acceptance and maybe even happiness, but the world is cruel and mankind even crueler. The triumph of the play decayed into a Coal Miners version of “Carrie” culminating in a tragic and horrific moment that would change both Smiley and Lee, forever.
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My Writing Process, by Doug Howery
I write in the 3rd person pov. It is a type of freedom to switch in and out of different characters’ head. Getting to know my characters intimately is key. My actual writing style is to ‘cut and paste’ while putting the story together. I delete, I move things around. My style is messy because my mind is messy. But, I can paste the puzzle together by writing, writing, and writing; did I say ‘writing?’ And, I don’t write every day. Not practical for me. I write when I feel passion. I feel a lot of passion. As a 3rd person pov author; I am the creator of these characters, I am ‘God’ in effect.
Authors create the physical environment, the setting, the time period. When I describe a landscape through a character’s pov, I create suspense: “The stars were silver ice set against a black velvet sky.” This is a type of foreboding. Black velvet is beautifully dark, and silver ice is cold and sharp. What is going to happen to this character?
A description of the horses’ silhouette set against a ‘fragile pearl moon.’ And the character wishing she were pasted to that moon. She longs for something she can’t attain or for an answer to why her life has turned out so wrong. Her life will break like the ‘fragile pearl moon’ that she longs for. Be careful what you wish for.
Characters’ actions are key in moving the characters’ progression and story development along. Describe a character as an alcoholic; “She could swim in the shit.” She is drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon while sitting on the carport. She is cussing out her husband & shaming him. After her husband goes into the house all slumped over—she follows him, opens the fridge door and reaches for another “Blue Ribbon.” A blue ribbon is first place in life; you won; you are a champion!
Move the story forward. Make the stakes so high for the characters that just when the reader can’t expect it to get any worse or better; well, you turn the entire chapter on its head by the completion of the last scene in that particular chapter. Example: Characters fight in NYC in a historical gay riot. They are fighting for their sexual identity, for basic human rights. They are discriminated against by the psychology of the day; “Homosexuality is a sickness” as put forth by the APA. They can’t be served spirits in a bar; they can’t engage in any type of same sex public affection. If caught, they can be put in a mental ward and put through electric shock treatment to cure their ‘sickness.’ The police can brutalize them, people kill them… Nothing can get more important than fighting against that type of bigotry. But yet, as an author, as “God,” yes, there can be something more important: The characters’ fight for their place in their familial backwaters Appalachia Southwest, VA coal camp family. Because the ‘real’ battle would, “Be won or lost on another continent: Solitude, Virginia.”
Compare, contrast; JUXTAPOSE. Lastly, write what you know. Very cliché, I know, but ‘cliché’ gives you passion and the reader feels ‘passion.’ I’ll take ‘cliché’ any day. Remember; you are the ‘God’ of your story!
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About the Author:
Doug Howery has been writing both fiction and essays since 1990. His essays and familial stories have appeared in The Blue Ridge Lambda Press.
In many of his stories, as in The Grass Sweeper God, Mr. Howery’s true lode, his font of inspiration is in the passion and suffering he has experienced.
Suspense author, Maggie Grace, with the North Carolina Writers’ Network writes about her cohort Mr. Howery: “What I like is the riskiness, the cutting edge of the narrative voice we hear. The moments when he lapses into descriptions of the moon, of the horse, etc. are true poetry that offers some relief from the coarseness of the story, and he places them well. He has an ear for the rhythm of the story, a natural sense of when to end–hangs fire with a new way of looking at someone or something, turning the entire chapter on its ear. I like the way he makes it impossible for the reader to stop reading at the end of the chapter.”
Mr. Howery lives in Virginia with his partner of 31 years where he is at work on his next novel.
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Susan Barton: My Book Tour ♦ eBook Review Gal
Thanks so much for participating in this book tour! Your post looks fabulous 🙂
Thanks, Susan! 🙂