Where I'm Bound, I Really Didn't Have a Clue
Recently a very talented voice performer by the name of Jerry Witkop did a great job bringing my second novel, Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell, to life as an audio-book. Listening to the whole story unfold after a couple of years away I tried to remember the sensation of writing the novel.
Let's back up a second, what I first thought of, and almost burst out laughing when I did, was just how absurd it was that the novel turned out the way it did at all. When I first got the inspiration and sat down to begin the long process of forging a story the real idea was to write an adventure novel set in the first world war. Follow some plucky young kid as he attempts to navigate through the greatest disaster in the history of mankind, throw in a little romance, some courage, a touch of comradely brotherhood, but use the war as a backdrop from some Horatio Hornblower type character to rise above.
So, what happened?
Two thing simultaneously began to change the story even before I finished the first chapter (the one where Teddy joins up for those of you who are interested). My research into The Great War made it difficult if not impossible for me to treat the battles and devastation as a playground for an adventure tale, at least in the sense that I first envisioned, and secondly my imagination ran away with me. One night early on I sat out on the balcony enjoying a drink and staring into space, thinking about the story and working out where Teddy might go and what parts of the war might make it into the novel, when in my head I reached 1919. I wasn't done, I started thinking to myself what would a man like Teddy do after the eleventh hour?
My first thought in the morning was a predictable one in this age of sequels and series, write more books. The problem was so much of who Teddy was required speed in the telling, the details of say the Amazon chapter might have made a pretty good book on their own, but other pieces needed marriage with other material to hold weight, many of the middle-age chapters spring to mind. At this point I wanted to tell the whole story, and so I began reworking the novel into a kind of rapid-paced life story, of this one man who's life charts the course of the twentieth century.
The character of Lee still didn't exist. There was a kid who met Teddy in the old folks home in the first chapter, and would have pulled a sheet over his head in the last, but I threw another name on him and used him more as a framing device. Then a very good friend pointed out I should name the kid after myself, just to make people question the story in a different way. Very exciting, very engaging, and I was hooked from the moment I even thought about it. Then came the real problem, I liked the character. This fictionalized version of me became, if not therapy, then a kind of sounding board for how far life brought me and how much changed over the years. I stripped away almost any redeeming qualities I might of had as a teen, making this character just shy of illiterate, unquestioning, angry, and probably more than above average self-obsessed. The idea behind the character of Lee became to take the macro-story of Teddy played out over a long period of time in these exotic locations, and bring it down to the micro-story of Lee, played out in a modern setting, in the suburbs, to show how anyone can learn and grow wherever they might be.
I'm still not entirely sure how my war-adventure tale turned into historical saga of life-lessons, but hey, that's half the fun. If you want to check out Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell, then follow the links below for either the paperback or audio-book versions, via Amazon and Audible respectively. Both versions are available elsewhere, let me know if you'd like me to change my choice of default links.
PaperbackAudio
Let's back up a second, what I first thought of, and almost burst out laughing when I did, was just how absurd it was that the novel turned out the way it did at all. When I first got the inspiration and sat down to begin the long process of forging a story the real idea was to write an adventure novel set in the first world war. Follow some plucky young kid as he attempts to navigate through the greatest disaster in the history of mankind, throw in a little romance, some courage, a touch of comradely brotherhood, but use the war as a backdrop from some Horatio Hornblower type character to rise above.
So, what happened?
Two thing simultaneously began to change the story even before I finished the first chapter (the one where Teddy joins up for those of you who are interested). My research into The Great War made it difficult if not impossible for me to treat the battles and devastation as a playground for an adventure tale, at least in the sense that I first envisioned, and secondly my imagination ran away with me. One night early on I sat out on the balcony enjoying a drink and staring into space, thinking about the story and working out where Teddy might go and what parts of the war might make it into the novel, when in my head I reached 1919. I wasn't done, I started thinking to myself what would a man like Teddy do after the eleventh hour?
My first thought in the morning was a predictable one in this age of sequels and series, write more books. The problem was so much of who Teddy was required speed in the telling, the details of say the Amazon chapter might have made a pretty good book on their own, but other pieces needed marriage with other material to hold weight, many of the middle-age chapters spring to mind. At this point I wanted to tell the whole story, and so I began reworking the novel into a kind of rapid-paced life story, of this one man who's life charts the course of the twentieth century.
The character of Lee still didn't exist. There was a kid who met Teddy in the old folks home in the first chapter, and would have pulled a sheet over his head in the last, but I threw another name on him and used him more as a framing device. Then a very good friend pointed out I should name the kid after myself, just to make people question the story in a different way. Very exciting, very engaging, and I was hooked from the moment I even thought about it. Then came the real problem, I liked the character. This fictionalized version of me became, if not therapy, then a kind of sounding board for how far life brought me and how much changed over the years. I stripped away almost any redeeming qualities I might of had as a teen, making this character just shy of illiterate, unquestioning, angry, and probably more than above average self-obsessed. The idea behind the character of Lee became to take the macro-story of Teddy played out over a long period of time in these exotic locations, and bring it down to the micro-story of Lee, played out in a modern setting, in the suburbs, to show how anyone can learn and grow wherever they might be.
I'm still not entirely sure how my war-adventure tale turned into historical saga of life-lessons, but hey, that's half the fun. If you want to check out Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell, then follow the links below for either the paperback or audio-book versions, via Amazon and Audible respectively. Both versions are available elsewhere, let me know if you'd like me to change my choice of default links.
PaperbackAudio
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