When I ask HOW do I expand my reach, everywhere I turn I am told the same old WHATS I already know that I’ve gone over time and time again hoping to find some clue I may have missed before.
Maybe I’m looking at the whole picture but need a different tint to really see. For the longest time I’ve tried to pin down in as few words as possible what my book’s about, and I’ve come up with something along the lines of “story of my parents’ desperate attempt to save my brother from himself, how I got caught in the current, and how I came to realize that I needed to let go of the past in order to move on with life.” Maybe that’s too generic.
Could be I need to pull off a scab or two and tell it on a more primal level – the story of an out of control teenager who drags down his little brother and gets them both sent to boarding school as a last resort. Teen sex. Alcohol abuse. Drugs. Loss of control. Loneliness. Depression. Institutionalization (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest anyone?). Brain damage. Ecstasy. Police brutality. Isolation. Growing up alone, alienated, ostracized, drifting with one desire – to return home but it no longer exists. Suicide. Terrorism. Barbarism. Self-destruction. Absolute pointlessness. A spark of hope with the realization that life is a one-way journey and what you miss is gone forever.
I could do that, but I’d hate for people to think my story’s all grind without relief. I’ve read a few of those and they are not fun. Over the Hills and Far Away is filled with humor and has to be – anything else would be a lie. Pink mousse anyone (those who were there will know what I’m talking about)?
That might make it easier for my tribe to find me. Food for thought.
