Back in 2017 the short story Fugitives was published in an anthology titles butterscotch-a collection of stories. The majority of stories in butterscotch were about people struggling with some issue of the other, or involved in domestic situations, or encountering unusual situations and having to make moral choices as to what to do. Fugitives is about two young people, both victims in abusive domestic situations. Their lives collide on a rainy pre-dawn morning and due to their individual circumstances they form a bond of mutual need. James needs Jade's help with a medical issue, Jade needs financial assistance which James can provide temporarily. A bond forms between them due to the abuse they've suffered. A Massachusetts police officer helping the Pennsylvania police investigate a murder in their state questions Jade, a suspect in the murder, when she takes James to the ER for treatment. There is no direct evidence connecting Jade to the murder, although the Massachusetts officer feels she could have done it, but seeing the evidence of the abuse she's suffered, documented on James' cellphone camera, he chooses not to look to hard for evidence that could connect her to the murder.
One of the most frequent comments I receive in regards to my short stories is that readers want to know what happens to the characters after the story ends. They want to know more. so, about a year and a half after writing Fugitives I wrote it's continuation in Survivors. Survivors has never been published and probably never would have been published, but I was recently rereading butterscotch, and remembered I'd written more of Jade and James' story, so I found it in the files, fixed up the continuity issue, cleaned it up and decided to publish both stories in one slim volume as a novella in two parts, much like Bending Birches combines two connected stories.
Fugitives/Survivors is about how two damaged young people run away from emotional, psychological and physical abuse and violence in their homes. James and Jade have both taken as much as they can, are aware that the abuse and violence has escalated and they could end up dead if they don't get themselves out of the situations they're presently in. One f them commits murder. One thinks he's committed murder, but it turns out he hasn't killed his father, only injured him. One crime was committed in self defense, the other a spontaneous act after a violent physical assault when Jade knows the next time he attacks her he could very well kill her.
Survivors is set three years later. James has settled down in New Brunswick. Jade was with him until one night when the police came and arrested her for murder, returning her to Pennsylvania to face charges. Her charges were reduced and she's been released from prison after serving her sentence. She returns to New Brunswick exhausted and unsure of the future. Her life is full of unknowns. She suffered further traumas while in jail. James takes her in and wants her to stay, but she has difficulty adjusting. He doesn't quite know what to do to help her. While their individual situations and their mutual need bonded them initially, Jade no longer feels worthy of James' love. She's unsure of everything, wary, depressed, but stays with him because she has no where else to go. James still loves her and wants her to stay, but he's afraid she'll take off and life will consume her, use her up, and she'll be gone. Survivors is about forging new lives from the wreckage of the past and building a better future, about finding someone who understands and cares and can relate to what you've been through, who gives you time and space to begin to heal and a safe environment in which to work on that. It's about learning to trust someone not to hurt you, and discovering love when your heart has been through hell.
This novella is about two damaged young people reconnecting, deciding that they want to stay together, and beginning to lay down a new future for themselves, taking the first steps into that future, and realizing they have a few older friends whom they can count on and turn to for advice and guidance should they need it.
When the family one is born into fails you it's easy to fall between the cracks. Some do not survive. Some survive, but at a terrible cost. Others forge bonds and find others who understand what they've been through. Some still slip and fall between the cracks, but some find a path that leads them away from the past. Some survive.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Breakfast With Kelly
Our adult daughter Kelly moved into her own house last April. Since then she and I have meet nearly every Sunday morning at a Dunkin Donuts shop about halfway between our homes for breakfast. It's nice to have some quiet Mom/Daughter time with her. We both have such busy lives. We have breakfast, talk about this and that, and then go our separate ways to run errands, return to our own homes, and later she usually joins her father and me for dinner in the evening. It keeps us connected as a family.
This morning talk turned from finding the source of the problem with one of the cars at the trolley museum where she volunteers in the Maintenance and Repair of the fleet department to writing. She has been busy editing her NaNo novel which I am anxious to read. She's found a place where she wants to add a little more to the story, but overall she's satisfied with what she's written.
I have a new novel in the development stage. It's all been cerebral up to this point, where I'll wake up in the morning and spend a few minutes thinking about what I want to write, potential character names and settings, the story plot... I flew the basic idea by her this morning and she liked it, so I jotted down some notes this morning when I got home and started coming up with additional character names.
Also at breakfast we discussed a never-ending adventure story I'd begun writing for her when she was in first grade. At that age she was prone to frequent bouts of bronchitis and was often home sick. We had a twin bed in the den and she would nap while I typed on an electric typewriter borrowed from my mother. When she woke up I'd read her the new section or sections of the story. We got to the point of the main character's first quest during that year. Kelly outgrew the bouts of bronchitis and the story got set aside. New stories were written to entertain her, but the never-ending story that was never finished still disappoints us. She even went so far as to type the typewriter pages into Word on the computer when she was in middle and high school. Still, Mom has failed to continue the story, however, the main character did appear in a partial magical fantasy story which connects to the original story in the future. So, at breakfast this morning we were talking about working on this story at some point in the near future.
We also have a story we were working on together around four or five years ago while on vacation. Once we got home and back to work life got busy and the story fell by the wayside. We need to continue that as well and get that joint project done.
Lots to accomplish this year!
This morning talk turned from finding the source of the problem with one of the cars at the trolley museum where she volunteers in the Maintenance and Repair of the fleet department to writing. She has been busy editing her NaNo novel which I am anxious to read. She's found a place where she wants to add a little more to the story, but overall she's satisfied with what she's written.
I have a new novel in the development stage. It's all been cerebral up to this point, where I'll wake up in the morning and spend a few minutes thinking about what I want to write, potential character names and settings, the story plot... I flew the basic idea by her this morning and she liked it, so I jotted down some notes this morning when I got home and started coming up with additional character names.
Also at breakfast we discussed a never-ending adventure story I'd begun writing for her when she was in first grade. At that age she was prone to frequent bouts of bronchitis and was often home sick. We had a twin bed in the den and she would nap while I typed on an electric typewriter borrowed from my mother. When she woke up I'd read her the new section or sections of the story. We got to the point of the main character's first quest during that year. Kelly outgrew the bouts of bronchitis and the story got set aside. New stories were written to entertain her, but the never-ending story that was never finished still disappoints us. She even went so far as to type the typewriter pages into Word on the computer when she was in middle and high school. Still, Mom has failed to continue the story, however, the main character did appear in a partial magical fantasy story which connects to the original story in the future. So, at breakfast this morning we were talking about working on this story at some point in the near future.
We also have a story we were working on together around four or five years ago while on vacation. Once we got home and back to work life got busy and the story fell by the wayside. We need to continue that as well and get that joint project done.
Lots to accomplish this year!
New Books!
Over the past two months I've self-published three new books.
Cherry is about a young woman whose life shatters when violence explodes in her home one evening. It's about how rapidly a seemingly perfect life can become anything but, how a young person can suddenly find themselves homeless and adrift. It's about how friendship and love in can rescue not only stray animals, but stray human beings, too.
Memento Mori: Quella & Garnet was intended to be the first in a new series about how ghosts can bring people together, but it turned into a novel that is going to just be that, with no others in the series. The novel was written three times and started at least thirty more times before I finally shoved all attempts aside and went with the first version. It's a romance novel with gothic overtones and dark psychological aspects with subtle shades of how the past repeats at times, but with twists.
Fugitives/Survivors had its origins in butterscotch-a collection of stories published in April of 2017. Fugitives was a short story in the collection. Often I hear from readers that they like my short stories, but they want to know what happens to the characters. They want more. So, I wrote Survivors as a continuation of Jade and James' story from Fugitives. I never published the story though. It's set three years later. So, since it's been three years in real life since Fugitives was published, I put both stories together in one volume so readers can learn what's happened with these characters. Maybe three years from now we'll check in with Jade and James and see where they are at that time!
All three books are available on Amazon and as Kindle ebooks. (Fugitives/Survivors is in review but will be available this coming week- the week of January 12th)
Cherry is about a young woman whose life shatters when violence explodes in her home one evening. It's about how rapidly a seemingly perfect life can become anything but, how a young person can suddenly find themselves homeless and adrift. It's about how friendship and love in can rescue not only stray animals, but stray human beings, too.
Memento Mori: Quella & Garnet was intended to be the first in a new series about how ghosts can bring people together, but it turned into a novel that is going to just be that, with no others in the series. The novel was written three times and started at least thirty more times before I finally shoved all attempts aside and went with the first version. It's a romance novel with gothic overtones and dark psychological aspects with subtle shades of how the past repeats at times, but with twists.
Fugitives/Survivors had its origins in butterscotch-a collection of stories published in April of 2017. Fugitives was a short story in the collection. Often I hear from readers that they like my short stories, but they want to know what happens to the characters. They want more. So, I wrote Survivors as a continuation of Jade and James' story from Fugitives. I never published the story though. It's set three years later. So, since it's been three years in real life since Fugitives was published, I put both stories together in one volume so readers can learn what's happened with these characters. Maybe three years from now we'll check in with Jade and James and see where they are at that time!
All three books are available on Amazon and as Kindle ebooks. (Fugitives/Survivors is in review but will be available this coming week- the week of January 12th)
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