Sometimes I wonder how wonderful it must be to be one of those authors who can just ‘tell a story’, where the words flow out of their minds straight into the laptop.
My storytelling isn’t like that. It’s a bit more like: Yes, I can see all the colors of the rainbow and yes, it’s white. Now where did I put the prism?
Or maybe, as I work in kindergartens sometimes, it might be: Here little man, let’s try this puzzle – oh, you don’t recognize the colors? Maybe we should try a puzzle with less pieces.
The I am GoD series is estimated to have 300,000 words when finished.
Enough of that. That’s just the way I feel sometimes when I try to put my written thoughts into place. All the puzzle pieces unfortunately are a thousand different shades of blue. Not remembering what I have written doesn’t help, added to which, not remembering what I have written but have rejected, only goes to make things worse.
But this problem has been solved in Revelations, so on with the explanation of chapter two… It carries on with Jessie’s trip down into the foundations to get herself a tattoo.
I always enjoy writing about Jessie because I think she’s my favorite character (today). Last week Nazar was my favorite. You won’t have met him yet, but he’s great. Which is a contradiction to the idea of what favorite means. But ask a child what their favorite drink is, be prepared for a long list. Under the same umbrella, Jessie is one of my favorite characters, because she is just so ‘adorable ‘.
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The scene where she went off to play hide and seek is actually a true story, taken from my own life, with my daughter Linda. Normally, I try not to involve true-life events, or any direct connection to anyone I know, but this time I chose to do so because first, it helps add the kind of depth to Jessie’s character that I wanted, and second, when I finally found Linda, she was smiling like it had been the best game ever – and that is a memory I do not want to lose.
Jessie’s character – a very independent child – is mirrored in the chapter by the insecure character of her dad, who tells her she can tell him anything, while at the same time suggesting they can go somewhere else if she wants to get the tattoo, it doesn’t have to be in the foundations. He is clearly more nervous about the trip than she is. He even chooses to have the cab voice resemble her mother in his attempt to make ‘Jessie’ feel more comfortable. Naturally, her father than proceeds to explain how not everyone living in the foundations chose to be there, and that the term ‘Morlock’ is in fact a derogative name.
This section touches on the theme of racism, and social elitism. This ‘I am better than you because… ‘attitude, is a thread throughout the story. It is a ‘chameleon’ attitude, changing its appearance, from one society to the next, which leads us into the sad story of Kevin Martin. The name is footnoted, and it is designed to represent all young kids who have committed suicide because of mobbing. It is made up of two names, Kevin and Martin, two boys I came across in my research.
Sometimes, I wish the information I stumble upon, while researching for my book, was fake news. It hurts me inside when I discover such stories.
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Once beyond all the social comments, we return to Jessie again, and her trip to the foundations. I personally laughed when I wrote the joke about the poster of Jesus in the tattoo shop. I won’t explain it here, but it was very visual for me. And as for Alaska Mike, (this must be the first name I have ever written that has no meaning whatsoever. Although that might be a lie, as thinking back, the two names are somehow associated with the history of tattooism… I cannot remember exactly right now, but I do remember having read an awful lot (skimmed across, generally) homepages about tattoo artists and its origin. I also made sure that the treatment and healing time of a tattoo were correctly described.
I cannot know everything, but I try my best to find out. So, as always, if you notice something wrong with the story, please be so kind as to let me know, so as I can adjust it accordingly.
The chapter closes with another short scene of affection between Jessie and her father. Again, he is unaware of what actually happened, but he doesn’t pry. He is confident enough to know Jessie will tell him in her own time. Alaska Mike’s final action reveals his character, although not particularly pleasant, it is consistent. His vulgarity is something he doesn’t see as odd.
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To conclude, writing this I have noticed that all the relationships I have in the book between an adult and a child, are mainly father orientated. I wonder is this deliberate or subconscious? Being a single father, I have never seen any motherly interaction with my kids. I have seen interaction – but we will leave it at that. Why the characters have only father figures in their lives could be simply explained by the fact that I am a male – but I prefer to think, one of the reasons are in my childhood the fathers I knew, didn’t hug and listen. They all wore belts and worked hard all day. It was an ‘Only the Strong Survive’ kind of world. Fathers didn’t listen, only to the mothers. A sentence that rings a bell is ‘Wait until your father gets home.’ And we did wait… frightened.
