Monday, May 13, 2013
Today please welcome my guest blogger/author Elliot Grace. Author Elliot Grace lives with his family in Ohio. He writes his stories between ball practice with his kids, family outings, and a full time day job. He maintains a web page at So Close . .
...thanks so much for the invite. Despite this world of ours spinning at a precarious rate, where efficiency now trumps quality in order to meet the bottom line, spending a few minutes with those who share in the passion of storytelling is a much needed breath of fresh air.
I have my son to thank for the publication of The Fall. For it was him who found it, long filed away and forgotten with the rest of my slush pile of past ideas, outlines and inspirations. He'd been in the basement for a while, drumming out a report on the old Dell, when a case of boredom led him to my documents folder, and a twenty year old, partially finished short called, The Fall. He read it, then printed it, bounded upstairs, and pleaded with me for closure.
"Dad, this story is the bomb! When did you write it?"
I looked upon the cover page, ran my fingers over the words, thinking back to how it all began. An article I'd read about a pair of high school kids from Texas who'd decided to end their string of bad luck with the ultimate sacrifice. If memory serves, they were no older than my son, standing before me, hands balled into fists at his side.
I was only nineteen at the time, dating my soon to be wife, having just turned away an offer from Ohio University to enroll in their journalism course, choosing instead to make a go of it on my own. The article about those kids, and all the unanswered questions, so inspired me at the time, that I sat down with pen and paper, and just started writing.
Twenty years ago. That was when Jessica, stepped off the bridge...
And it was then, while holding the story in my hands for the first time in two decades, when I realized that she was still falling. I'd left her there all that time.
"I wrote this story a very long time ago," I said. "I was a couple years older than you are now."
"Dad, you can't leave her like this. You have to finish it."
That boy of mine...he's a pistol ;)
I rewrote much of what I'd started twenty years earlier, playing around with the "voice," spicing things up a bit, while keeping the basic theme. A young lady teetering upon the edge of her very own cliff, looking down. While penning Part II, I shied away from the typical form of research that us storytellers often dive into, and referred to my teenage son for assistance when needed. After all, why scour through statistics and printed details when you can taste reality straight from the horse's mouth?
I penned The Fall in a way similar to my first novel, South of Charm. Not so much written, but more of an attempt at creating verse upon canvass, if that were possible. The style is often referred to as poetic, the use of simile a bit wearisome for some readers. David, my editor for South of Charm, once told me that there are two kinds of readers in the world. Some prefer their stories like a straight shot of Jack Daniels, down the hatch in a single gulp and done. Others choose to put their feet up a while, sipping their wine as if time is of no essence. It's a difference of preference. The goal for us writers? Pleasing them both.
There are readers who gobble up the fact that a young girl, hanging from the side of a bridge, is visited for a moment by a curious seagull, and they move on to the next paragraph. Then there are readers who'd much prefer the following...
"...the fog is gone, having burned away until evening's return. A warm breeze causes the nearby seagulls to flutter and swoop, the air now alive with their constant chatter. One of them lands upon the railing next to her, its head twisting at an angle, as if considering Jessica's predicament. He offers her a squawk, then lifts off once more, a pair of ivory wings expanding to rejoin the flock."
My son offered me a thumbs up when he felt the story was complete, (it took four drafts, he'll make a damn fine editor some day ;) While the publisher of South of Charm wasn't particularly interested in the novella, preferring to stick with larger volumes, I went with a local publisher called 52 Novels, specializing in the e-pub business. I dearly missed my editor, David, from the first go around, but never the less, Jessica's fall found its way to Amazon after so many years in limbo.
The Fall is aimed at a contemporary YA audience, dealing with very adult content, and much like South of Charm, tackling a social issue in need of addressing. It's a drama, and a love story, one that I slowed down a notch in order to "sip" with care.
The story's actually a quick read, able to be gobbled up during an evening under the stars, and all for only .99$ As an incentive, if you purchase the book, read it, and leave a review, send me the link to your latest release and I'll do the same for you. Go ahead and try me! This bookworm's just beggin' for new material ;)
As for my current project...while it is a story, it'll most likely never make it to the Walmart shelves, or into a book for that matter.
My wife and I are licensed foster parents. We've been hard at it for the better part of five years now and counting, have offered our home to more than twenty kids over that time, ranging in age from seventeen, to four days old. During that time, we've experienced more heartbreak, more failures in the system, than one can list with all ten fingers. Children are constantly being returned to birth parents who are unfit to care for them, only to return to the system, often to my front door, in worse shape, more broken, than during their first go around.
Most troubling, every child whose been placed in our care, has a parent who was also in the foster care system when they were young. How can our governing bodies declare our foster system a success when time and time again these chains of family neglect are not broken? As of late, I've been creating awareness, writing our congressman here in Ohio, pleading for reform, sharing ideas gathered from local foster parents aimed at improving our system, thus saving our children. They are, after all, our future.
Come to think of it, maybe this does carry the ammo for an eventual book. As for a happy ending...I guess time will tell.
Thanks again, Donna, for allowing me to drop by and chat up The Fall. If ever I make it out that way, the first drink's on me ;)
El
***
That was a beautifully written story in itself El. Thank you so much for guesting today.
BOOK BLURB: Under an ageless glow from the moon’s embrace, young Jessica runs along the ancient cobbled streets of Charleston, South Carolina. Accompanied by only her shadow, she stumbles barefoot toward the Cooper Bridge. Paying heed to the city’s nightlife, their fingers ever reaching from darkened allies long forgotten, Jessica leaves behind a father’s rage, a mother’s ghost, and her lover’s peril.
Fearing that all is lost, she stands atop the bridge, a veil of hovering fog as her lone witness. She looks down upon the Cooper’s seething estuary, considering her options. To continue on with a life hardly worth living, or to step off the bridge…
From the author of the novel, South of Charm, Elliot Grace introduces us to Jessica, a girl who is lost, and to Johnny, a boy who will stop at nothing to find her, in the novella, The Fall.
MY REVIEW:
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about Mr Elliot Grace’s novella The Fall. I read his debut MG novel South Of Charm and enjoyed Mr. Grace’s author voice, writing style, and the social issues he explored in the novel.
The same characterization and voice that I loved in Charm is evident in The Fall. In part 1 “Jessica,” I was also awed by Mr. Grace’s use of flashback to tell a dual story. The transitions from near past to present were well done, and the story was easy to follow. Character motivation was key to the success of this segment. Even if you (reader you) have never experienced or witnessed loss of or abuse of a parent, you’ll get the intended sentiment.
Mr. Grace uses a “slow-mo” writing technique that keeps the story moving forward, but also allows an in depth look at the emotional turmoil that adds vivid imagery to the description in a poetic style. The mixture of prosetry is intriguing; drew me deeper into the emotional angst of the character plot. Jessica is not the typical teen with the usual disputes common to the generation gap. The conflict between herself and her father begins on the day of her mother’s funeral, and escalates into family dysfunction.
The escalation leads to the cliff-hanger climax of Jessica’s account of the story. I was riveted all the way through this first part of the story. I did not want to put it down for any reason.
The next section is boyfriend Johnny’s perspective, and involves his insights into the events that lead to the cliff-hanger, and resolves the story plot. Unfortunately, it is this section – mostly - that prompts my 4 star instead of 5 star rating.
I’m not normally a fan of omniscient point of view, but it worked well enough for Jessica’s rendition. And while the use of simile in Jessica’s segment was becoming tiresome, it did not distract from the overall character and story plot.
For Johnny’s section, the flashbacks seemed redundant, the use of simile overwhelming, and the few changes to omniscient POV didn't seem appropriate to the present tense telling. The story aspect that kept me reading was that I knew this epilogue would resolve the cliffhanger, and I did enjoy Johnny’s present tense contribution to the emotional tension.
And again, I cannot discuss Johnny’s mission-perspective, and the relevance to the cliff-hanger, without spoiling the novella concept. It’d be like explaining Dr Malcom Crowe’s significance to the movie Sixth Sense, or the reasoning for Bo’s water glass obsession in Signs. The “ah” factor is as essential to the enjoyment of this novella as is the exploration of contemporary social issues.
I think the novella The Fall would appeal to readers: transitioning from MG to YA; contemporary YA readers; and adults interested in contemporary YA social issues. This novella touched my heart, and I’m sure it will evoke an emotional response from anyone who reads it.
For those that have asked - yes my ankle is healing nicely, and I'm not happy to have to keep wearing the boot another two weeks. I finally had to give up on the crutches; the boot calls itself a "walking" air cast so I walk with it!
I don't have any big plans for this weekend, nothing fun anyway, except wedding dress shopping with my daughter on Sunday; which will be more expensive than fun. They've been together 10 years and have three kids, its about time they make it official.
LT Ketner's Towel Day blogfest begins today and runs through the weekend (sorry, I didn't get around to making a post for this) and then the Get Healthy Bloghop hosted by Stephen Tremp, Michael DiGesu and others is on May 29th.
