What Comes Before Dawn Excerpt and Inspiration
Check out this short excerpt from What Comes Before Dawn.
This time when I peeked out from my hands covering my eyes, I could see mama walking away from the shack with flames to her back. Large, angry, red and orange flames were coming out of the shack…!
Today was a bright beautiful day, but my mind only saw the shack on fire. Big, billowing flames that blew out the windows. I can still hear the sound the glass windows made as they broke.
“I used to have nightmares about fires. All the time, as a child. I dreamt there were fires in the house. I dreamt there were fires outside. One time, I even dreamt there was a fire on a dock between me and my mom and I couldn’t get to her. I woke up screaming, all the time. My mom would comfort me, but she never explained why I had the dreams. She just held me and told me I’d be okay.”
“Paige, I don’t think I understand…”
I cut him off. “I’ve been here, Stephen. With my mom. I watched this shack burn down.” (What Comes Before Dawn, pg. 15-16)
Ernest Hemingway said, “Write what you know, leave out unnecessary words, and don’t do it to be famous.” When I began writing What Comes Before Dawn, I had a seed of an idea. I took that idea and asked myself, What if…? Then I let my imagination wander. Little did I know, my subconscious brain would take over the rest of the creative process. I let my characters lead the story. This is what I think it means to have a “character-driven plot.” Of course, I had a loose plan of where I wanted the story to go but once I developed the characters, my subconscious brain brought them to life. In fact, the things that came out of my subconscious brain had some basis in my real life. It was just hugely exaggerated.
When I was done writing, I let my mom read it. This might have been a bad plan. Perhaps she saw some similarities in my life and the main character, Paige Deffer. Regardless, she called me.
“Addison, is that how you remember your childhood?” she asked me, her voice sounding a little wobbly.
“No mom,” I answered. “This is fiction.”
She paused a little too long.
“Okay, some of the things might have happened on a much smaller scale but writing fiction means I get to exaggerate the hell out of things that were small and insignificant in my childhood,” I explained to her.
In truth, she might be remembering this reoccurring dream I had as a child. I call it the fire dream. As a child, I had fire nightmares. The same ones with different variations. One time, I even dreamt there was a fire on a dock between me and my mom and I couldn’t get to her. Look familiar?
In a literal sense, I was writing what I know. This dream plagued me for years. Then, inexplicably, it went away. I had forgotten about it until just a few years ago when I was driving somewhere in Arkansas, and I passed an abandoned, burned-down shack that gave me the sharpest sense of déjà vu. In fact, I would swear on my dad’s grave I had been there before. Speaking of dad, I knew in that instant that I had indeed been there, at that abandoned, burned-down shack with him.
In fact, I could remember as a tiny child sitting in the back seat of a car and looking up to watch my dad walk away from this shack as angry red and orange flames climbed into the sky. Dad’s been gone for years so I can’t ask him about this. My mom has no recollection of this ever happening. But I remember something else. I used to cry at the door until my dad would pick me up and take me to work with him. I know I was too young to remember that. But I’ve heard the stories. I believe this is how I came to be at a bar that was burning down as my dad came out of it and drove me home. Unconsciously, this event made its way into the book.
Before you get any other ideas, all murders committed in this book were 100% fiction. They aren’t even based on a news story. While it’s true that I live in the Southwest Missouri and Arkansas region, I merely based What Comes Before Dawn there because I chose to “write what I know.”
There you have it. Whether I’m trying to write what I know or not, it just happens. I might have an intention to write a certain story but when my subconscious brain takes over, it becomes a story of its own with remnants of my own personal life weaving its way throughout.
Thank you for putting What Comes Before Dawn on your shelf and good luck in the contest. I hope you win.
In the meantime, check out @addisonmichaelthriller on Instagram or http://www.facebook.com/addisonmichae.... I would love to hear what you think of the book What Comes Before Dawn. Thank you in advance for leaving me a review.
This time when I peeked out from my hands covering my eyes, I could see mama walking away from the shack with flames to her back. Large, angry, red and orange flames were coming out of the shack…!
Today was a bright beautiful day, but my mind only saw the shack on fire. Big, billowing flames that blew out the windows. I can still hear the sound the glass windows made as they broke.
“I used to have nightmares about fires. All the time, as a child. I dreamt there were fires in the house. I dreamt there were fires outside. One time, I even dreamt there was a fire on a dock between me and my mom and I couldn’t get to her. I woke up screaming, all the time. My mom would comfort me, but she never explained why I had the dreams. She just held me and told me I’d be okay.”
“Paige, I don’t think I understand…”
I cut him off. “I’ve been here, Stephen. With my mom. I watched this shack burn down.” (What Comes Before Dawn, pg. 15-16)
Ernest Hemingway said, “Write what you know, leave out unnecessary words, and don’t do it to be famous.” When I began writing What Comes Before Dawn, I had a seed of an idea. I took that idea and asked myself, What if…? Then I let my imagination wander. Little did I know, my subconscious brain would take over the rest of the creative process. I let my characters lead the story. This is what I think it means to have a “character-driven plot.” Of course, I had a loose plan of where I wanted the story to go but once I developed the characters, my subconscious brain brought them to life. In fact, the things that came out of my subconscious brain had some basis in my real life. It was just hugely exaggerated.
When I was done writing, I let my mom read it. This might have been a bad plan. Perhaps she saw some similarities in my life and the main character, Paige Deffer. Regardless, she called me.
“Addison, is that how you remember your childhood?” she asked me, her voice sounding a little wobbly.
“No mom,” I answered. “This is fiction.”
She paused a little too long.
“Okay, some of the things might have happened on a much smaller scale but writing fiction means I get to exaggerate the hell out of things that were small and insignificant in my childhood,” I explained to her.
In truth, she might be remembering this reoccurring dream I had as a child. I call it the fire dream. As a child, I had fire nightmares. The same ones with different variations. One time, I even dreamt there was a fire on a dock between me and my mom and I couldn’t get to her. Look familiar?
In a literal sense, I was writing what I know. This dream plagued me for years. Then, inexplicably, it went away. I had forgotten about it until just a few years ago when I was driving somewhere in Arkansas, and I passed an abandoned, burned-down shack that gave me the sharpest sense of déjà vu. In fact, I would swear on my dad’s grave I had been there before. Speaking of dad, I knew in that instant that I had indeed been there, at that abandoned, burned-down shack with him.
In fact, I could remember as a tiny child sitting in the back seat of a car and looking up to watch my dad walk away from this shack as angry red and orange flames climbed into the sky. Dad’s been gone for years so I can’t ask him about this. My mom has no recollection of this ever happening. But I remember something else. I used to cry at the door until my dad would pick me up and take me to work with him. I know I was too young to remember that. But I’ve heard the stories. I believe this is how I came to be at a bar that was burning down as my dad came out of it and drove me home. Unconsciously, this event made its way into the book.
Before you get any other ideas, all murders committed in this book were 100% fiction. They aren’t even based on a news story. While it’s true that I live in the Southwest Missouri and Arkansas region, I merely based What Comes Before Dawn there because I chose to “write what I know.”
There you have it. Whether I’m trying to write what I know or not, it just happens. I might have an intention to write a certain story but when my subconscious brain takes over, it becomes a story of its own with remnants of my own personal life weaving its way throughout.
Thank you for putting What Comes Before Dawn on your shelf and good luck in the contest. I hope you win.
In the meantime, check out @addisonmichaelthriller on Instagram or http://www.facebook.com/addisonmichae.... I would love to hear what you think of the book What Comes Before Dawn. Thank you in advance for leaving me a review.
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