Outspoken, by James Vachowski

I don't normally read novellas, but I recently made an exception with Outspoken, by James Vachowski, because I was interested in the format of the novella: the entire story is told via a series of letters, mostly from one character, Abraham Lincoln Jenkins, to a list of recipients ranging from a newspaper to a high school, Harvard College, the police or Princeton University. Jenkins has only four months left until his high school graduation when he learns that he still needs two core credit hours in Physical Education. As a result he finds himself enrolling as a cadet in the Army's JROTC program! But Jenkins is not as clean as it seems. He is also a fierce critic of society and has a very sharp mind. Among other things he is black, which he uses purposely. Outspoken is a fast and easily read comedy set in the US, which makes fun of some of society's issues. I thought the exchange of letters was interesting, but I wouldn't want to read a whole novel in this format. Between each chapter there are quotations from famous people which relate to the content of each chapter; some of them are very funny and the novella is the better for it.

I was able to contact James Vachowski and ask him a few questions.

Who is James Vachowski?

I'm just some guy who likes to write stuff.  I've worked as a police officer and as a security contractor in Iraq, but these days I'm content with wearing a collared shirt and doing the whole nine to five thing.  I live with my family in Jacksonville, Florida.

Novellas are not always popular with readers. Why did you choose this format, as opposed to a longer piece?

When I started writing OUTSPOKEN I intended it to be a full-length YA novel, but I hit a dead-end after about 20,000 words of third-person narration.  When I went back to look it over, I realized that the only parts I really enjoyed re-reading were the complaint letters and the quotations.  After that, I challenged myself to write the book using only those two formats, which resulted in the finished product having a much shorter word count.

Where did the idea for Outspoken come from?

I returned home from working in Iraq the day before Thanksgiving, 2008, and it was a pretty big shock to go from that country straight into the madness of Black Friday shopping.  All of the incidents on the first page of OUTSPOKEN really happened on Black Friday 2008, including the glued door locks on businesses in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.  I found myself wondering whether this crime was merely the work of just another teenaged vandal, or whether it might possibly be an outrageous act of social protest.  The idea stuck, and the plot just sort of grew from there. 

What has readers' feedback been so far?

Most people say that they loved OUTSPOKEN, but a few have accused me of having socialist tendencies.  I would like to take this opportunity to respectfully disagree, and to point out that the free review copies were for promotional purposes only.  

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now I'm working on finding good homes for a couple of my short stories, and also wrapping the final revisions for my first full-length mystery novel "Burnout."  Feel free to visit my website, http://www.jamesvachowski.com, for the latest updates and links to other stuff I've written.