The Writer’s Predicament

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in awhile. My wife and I moved to a little place on the South Holston River. Lots of windows that face the sunset. It’s beautiful and so very peaceful. We’re pretty much settled in now, so I can get back to the routines.

Let’s talk about “River on Fire,” a novel I wrote recently and that I can finally promote now that I have the rights to all my work back. “River on Fire” is a book very close to my heart in many ways. It’s a work of literary fiction that will probably also be classified as young-adult fiction. The plot is episodic, a series of incidents in the life of an orphan growing up in the 1960s in southwestern Michigan. Each incident is planned to illustrate the steady chipping away of the boy’s innocence and the seductive nature of violence in American culture during that tumultuous decade.

Randall Smith, the main character, is a foundling, but more importantly, he is an innocent. The color of his skin, his hair, his eyes, all suggest innocence. He is being raised in a “non-denominational, Christian home for boys.” White boys only, although race is never mentioned out loud. He loves to sing and is easily moved to tears. He loves baseball and is scared of girls.

The 1960s presented tremendous opportunities for me to explore the themes that fascinated me most. Early in the decade, President Kennedy was murdered, a defining moment for any American who remembers it. Randall is eight when the president is killed, and he realizes for the first time that there’s a big, bad world out there that he belongs to but isn’t necessarily a part of, a world controlled by people with money and weapons. He goes on to recall his first day in school, where his teacher introduced the students to dogma and to undergo drills “in case the communists drop a bomb” on the school.

Randall develops a deep fascination with reading the newspaper each day. It begins innocently with him reading the box scores from the Detroit Tigers’ baseball games, but eventually Randall begins reading the entire paper, every word, every day. He reads about Norman Morrison setting himself on fire outside the Secretary of Defense’s office in 1965. He reads about Richard Speck torturing, raping and murdering eight student nurses in Chicago in July of 1966 and about Charles Whitman shooting 31 people from a tower at the University of Texas in August of 1966. He reads about the war in Vietnam, the unrest surrounding the civil rights movement and the war, the women’s liberation movement and the gay rights movement. He reads about assassinations and earthquakes and floods and massacres, all the while questioning how a benevolent God could let so many terrible things happen.

Randall clings doggedly to his innocence. One of his caretakers discovers that Randall has a beautiful singing voice, and each year at Christmas, he performs at churches throughout the community. He develops a love affair with the game of baseball and ultimately gets an opportunity to visit Tiger Stadium and meet his hero, Al Kaline. While at Tiger Stadium, Randall is given a free bat with Al Kaline’s signature etched into the barrel. The bat is one of the most important symbols in the novel, a symbol of innocence, and ultimately, of innocence lost. It is also during his trip to Detroit that Randall sees a river on fire, another powerful symbol of the consequences of greed and complacency.

I could write a long essay on the use of symbolism and metaphor in “River on Fire,” but part of the enjoyment of incorporating literary devices into fiction is to sit back and see how others interpret the work. So as you begin to read, know this – every character, every incident, every situation, can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Racial tension, school yard violence, storms, the war in Vietnam, baseball, love and its consequences, deer hunting, accidents and even the Woodstock concert are all used to contrast the ebb and flow of Randall’s innocence and his faith in God and Jesus against the reality of life.

I decided to go straight up, modern-day indie with this novel. It’s available in digital format only. You can read it on a Kindle, a Nook, a smart phone, or any of the Apple devices. It’s priced at $3.99. I might make it available in print if it really takes off, but until then, it’ll be digital only. The cover, which I love, was designed by my good friend Joo-Hye Park.

I hope you’ll read “River on Fire” and recommend it to your family and friends. I’ve read it at least a dozen times now, and I’ve enjoyed it every time. If you have questions or ideas about anything in the novel, feel free to post them here or on Twitter or Facebook. I’ll be happy to give you the answers straight from the old horse’s mouth.