How do our life dramas relate to common struggles of humanity?

With my parents away on a trip to Europe to visit my mom’s parents, my dad’s parents were at our mercy. We boys had been respectful of the neighborhood to a fault, despite feeling our good nature was being taken advantage of by bullies. Our parents wouldn’t let us get away with pushing back and their parents believed we were already the problem. While our parents were away we decided we were going to mete out some justice of our own and take back the neighborhood. We had built the tree house forts, after all. We chased the occupants out. The next day their mom was talking to our half-blind grandpa to which he honestly replied, “Woman, I didn’t see a thing. Did you?” Knowing she wasn’t getting very far with that she bribed us with chocolate to keep the peace. My older brother gets upset to this day that I took the chocolate…haha. What can I say? If you know me, you know I am a sucker for chocolate.

We liked playing in the park. We told the troubled teens hanging out there to go tell their mommies if they weren’t big enough to keep us out themselves. We outnumbered them. They decided they could go smoke somewhere else.

And then there was Ricky and Nicky. They had been destroying the dirt hills that we rode our bikes on. It was time to ambush them. As soon as they thought we were gone we doubled back through the woods. Sure enough they were digging booby traps for the next unsuspecting biker. We popped up on either side of them and they were caught in the crossfire of dirt clods. Of course, they told their parents it was rocks and that they were just innocently riding their bikes on the hills. Those parents decided to tell their kids to fight their own battles. Nicky pulled off his shirt and put up his fists. A circle was formed around him and me, being that I was the oldest I guess. I mocked him to scorn, laughing at his belly fat. I couldn’t take him seriously and he went away crying.

These were three territorial battles I learned from, one way or another. Each is uniquely different. Yet, when I hear about similar stories I have these reference points for understanding some of the emotions involved in the equation in common with the rest of humanity. We all have to learn to deal with sharing our world’s and living with one another.

Do I feel bad for any of my part in such untoward behavior? Yes, of course I do. Is my description accurate? You be the judge, but I think a perspective more honestly captures reality when it reflects both the good and bad that all individuals in the story are wrestling with, while telling it from the viewpoint with the most researched details. Should I be as open about my past, especially mistakes? Maybe not. There is something to be said about not revisiting our past wrongdoings. But then again, we all are imperfect and we can learn from each other’s errors. Once we overcome a failing we can only accentuate the success if we are willing to recognize the obstacle that preceded it. And most of all, should I be worried if the way I tell the story accidentally puts me in a bad light in others’ minds? Perhaps, but I choose not to let how others perceive something, define who I am or even who I was, nor can it change who I am really, unless I let it dissuade or motivate me.

How does “Sterling Bridge” compare to other historical fiction portrayals?

If you recall, in “Sterling Bridge,” I included well-documented historic rock fights between the youth on the E(ast) Street boundary of Old Town, Tooele. That said, how exactly that went down is still anyone’s guess. I knew there were disputes about letting persons from New Town frequent shops and I knew the paperboy’s news was literally spread all over town, at least according to what was recorded from several witnesses. So I used it all and tied it all together with a bow by inserting the made-up record breaking occurrence. If you compare the infighting among neighborhood kids to my own experience with a dirt clod territorial war, Ricky and Nicky’s version will be very different from mine, just as I’m sure many in Tooele noted the rock fighting slightly amiss. Do the boys from my past remember those days? What details stand out to them? These things would all be advantageous to know in order to get the full story, however, stories are usually told from one angle. I’m not planning on rewriting “Sterling Bridge,” from a different POV like Orson Scott Card did with “Enders Game,” for example.

I believe an honest reading of “Sterling Bridge” will amount to a fair interpretation of the characters and of me. I know I did my best to make a great story with universal appeal and do the real story justice with relation to preserving its local charm at the same time. To date, I would safely say it is the best story put to the page so far that has come from any revisiting of said incidents. If put in the same situation I believe many of us would have behaved in much the same way. We would have struggled being in the middle of a conflict of no fault of our own. However, at the end of the day these are exemplary people who showed us how to overcome our biases, our disagreements, and misunderstandings. As near as I can tell they, members of Sterling’s teams, all went on to do good things in their lives. The people of Tooele can be proud of what that group did, and the greater community that supported and came together themselves. For me, they represent the best in all of us as a society and what we are capable of doing when facing today’s similar challenges. In the end, every true-to-life story worth telling should have such a great moral, theme, and outcome.

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“Sterling Bridge” is a work of historical fiction. The people, places, and events are based in truth as indicated by the front cover, where it states that it is “based on a true story.” When we read a disclaimer in books, or in films, we see little variation, but no matter how true the story is, the emphasis invariably remains on the author’s responsibility for expressing views that are not intended to be taken as reality.

How would you write a disclaimer for historical fiction?

It was brought to my attention recently that my publisher’s inclusion seems to be a standard fictional disclaimer that detaches its entity entirely, and even the work itself, from including anything based in reality. Admittedly, that conception disturbs me a little as my creation is obviously a tribute to “Sterling’s Men” of Tooele, Utah leading up to and during the Great Depression. There is no defamation intended, real or perceived, in my attempt to honor the characters who in the history annals overcame much and are credited for the triumph that led to my creation of “Sterling Bridge.”

However, I am also keenly aware that my depiction should not be used as a historical reference. I provide my references to actualities, but in truth I did not live the tale, nor do I profess to believe that my description is much more than a perpetuation of folklore in writing. I arrived at my conclusions after weeding through a conglomeration of varying sources and differing conceptions. And then I take it a step further and completely fictionalize the structure, order, and flow of a story; it is definitely not to be mistaken word for word or point by point as being anything other than my own making.

How does a good film depict historical fiction?

While watching Disney’s “Secretariat,” I couldn’t help but analyze the film’s depiction of real events. Obviously, I personally was not alive during the early 1970’s, nor was anyone that I know of close enough to the events to even give me a secondhand or passed down account (though my dad recalls news broadcasts and races aired on TV). Like everyone else though, I do have access to the history books. Let’s just say I sought out the historical fiction films story over perusing the library or Wikipedia for too long. I’m too lazy to discount someone else’s wonderful research as translated into film.

The movie is great! It tells some minor events slant, such as mentioning win after win to the point that you would think one loss even outside of the Triple Crown could ruin everything, but for the most part I would say it seems to stay true to the historical timeline of main events, despite the nature of needing to condense a legendary tale–dubbed as “the impossible true story”–into the sped-up drama of a film format of just 123 minutes.

How does “Secretariat” portray the personal side of history?

Some would argue that the movie starts out rather slow, but I think it does so to provide us the necessary background that I would describe as giving us a “homey” feel only true stories can do so well. Next, enter some true-to-life drama. I think the writer picked out some gripping points. Still centered around home, the film portrays the difficulties of pursuing a dream and the support needed by one’s family of understanding and oftentimes time without the dreamer around. Did I think we saw the most trying lowest of lows with the relationship strains put on this woman’s family? Or could we really understand and ultimately feel the highest of highs experienced by them? Probably not. A film takes a snapshot of instances that depict an ongoing challenge and/or a portion of how grand the triumph really is. I remember thinking that there were many conversations and events that were only partially defined in the film version of a life’s daily toil. But that is what historical fiction is. It gives us an idea of how things could have happened, albeit in a sped up time frame that purposely gets to the point a little quicker. None of us actually experience the full depth of anyone’s story unless we are walking in their shoes or at least hand in hand walking beside them. Nonetheless, the film picks out the important highlights in the case of “Secretariat,” near as I could tell. I felt like I experienced the main events and some of the more personalized thoughts and feelings surrounding those central to this awesome point in history.

How do we portray our own lives? 

When I was a child I remember a week when my aging grandparents had to watch after us. There are six boys in the Parker family. While my memory of youth is already quite fuzzy I can remember some poignant details rather well. Ancillary details, not so much. Certainly the story being told from my perspective will be viewed from all the reference points that make up my experiences in life. At this point I might tell a story very differently from how I told it when I was younger. Different moral threads, for example, might stand out. But the main points will still be in place for an audience to interpret as they will from their current vantage point. We learn from living a story directly or even by experiencing it indirectly. Anyway, back to my personal story.

(To Be Continued: See Part Two)

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On my family’s trip to Palmyra, New York, we passed over the Mackinac Bridge and I was intrigued to learn of Mackinac Island. Having just served the people of the Philippines for two years amidst several islands it was interesting to me to learn of an island in America, and it being so far inland. My parents remembered that a movie, “Forever Young” was filmed there and I started thinking of the timeless quality of the island and the blue collar history of Michigan. I could relate to from my experience living in Indiana. Since my imagination was already flowing I jotted down a few notes for what would soon become my idea for another novel, “The Whatever Plan.” That book is in the making. I think it will be my best novel to date. The concept still has so much literary potential. Since I had barely started on the first novel idea, however, I returned back to the concussed soccer player theme. Except the more I thought about it the more I envisioned it as a film, not as much literary. The genesis of my film novel expertise was forming.

It was 1999. With my families help I was already enrolled in most of my classes for that semester at BYU. It was funny how I had signed up in 1997 by way of touch tone telephone. The world had changed while I was away. The internet was in full swing now. I had much to learn. That first week of school I was still trying to tie down a couple of classes. I remember I wanted to take a voice lessons class as a diversion for one. The other class I wanted to take was a screenwriting class, but I did not really have room on my schedule. I determined I would ask around to find a professor who could direct me in the right direction on the side, to learn and develop this talent on my own. My mission in the Philippines had given me more confidence and encouraged me to develop and use my talents. Singing classes did not turn out quite as encouraging. Voice teachers were too academic about it then I much cared for. They made me sing what they wanted and I had fun singing other more enjoyable tunes rather than practice the stuffy Shakespearean inspired song I was assigned to master. I never became a great academic singer.

I may have fallen into the same trap with my other course work. I certainly had a talent for writing. I was uncertain, however, if writing was an appreciable skill or that it could even be gained through academia. Now I realize there are many great academic articles and publications, but my love of writing was much more literary than that. Most authors of literature do not focus on academic writing as a career. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my school career, but I knew that writing was too fun to take as seriously as an academic would. Writing did not seem like it paid either. In fact, even after the validation of publication to know that your writing is good, there is still no guarantee of monetary success. But that’s beside the point. Point is, writing is a tough road a person must be committed to if he or she is going to get anywhere.

At this time I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life and I was still strongly under the impression that I was in complete control of planning how my life would go. I opted to pursue a business major. Then I learned the hard way the hoops required to even be allowed to enter the business program. One guidance counselor even told me that “perhaps school wasn’t for everyone.” I thought he was crazy to think that an Academic Honors student in High School was not fit for college. It never occurred to him that the Humanities program could use some work if it wasn’t turning out students fit for employment. Although looking back now I would have to agree that there is most definitely an end to academia (It would not be for me indefinitely) but never an end to learning when it comes to practical knowledge and its application. Before I had  honestly thought that by being accepted to BYU I could study any field of interest that I chose. I was wrong about that. Perhaps, my greatest learning has come when I have been wrong about something. Throughout my college career I fought the urge to write for fun while learning to write for academic purposes. I tried extra hard to study principles of business, but I found I learned more from the entrepreneurs that visited who mostly admitted never completing business school either. In college I learned there is a balance between creativity and organization and a balance between learning, doing, and teaching others. There is a time and season for everything and everything must be done in its proper order if progression is to be had.

In the middle of my Sophomore year I made the decision to get back to the writing of that book that started on my vacation trip. I asked one of my English teachers if there were any professors in the department who knew the format for writing a screenplay. She did. That is when I visited Dennis Packard. That is when I shared some of my writing and he liked it. That is when he asked me to take on another project, which eventually became known as “Sterling Bridge.” That is when I decided that maybe writing fiction could take me somewhere. That is when I got in over my head and I am sure glad that I did.

See “My Journey to Publication (Part One)” here.

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I started out pursuing a business degree. I freely admit that this was still a very general approach to my college career. Brigham Young University has a great business program. But who knew on top of general education classes, I would have to take–and do well in–several business courses before even being accepted to the program? I certainly didn’t know where the hoops ended and the real applicable learning began.

Don’t get me wrong. I know college has its place. If nothing else it teaches students how to learn. In today’s world of information and innovation a person will undergo several changes in jobs, if not careers. Learning is at the center of excelling in any field. A person should gain as many skills and understanding as they can. That is the experiment of life. How much can we learn? How much knowledge will we be able to live up to? Learning if not applied to living is of no use otherwise.

That’s my point. My professors mostly taught me their path of understanding. In other words, completing assignments for them mostly engaged my mind on how to become whatever they had become. Some had gained experience outside of the classroom, but most of their academic knowledge had come from within the classroom. Much of it made a lot of sense in theory but had little practicality beyond learning how to test well or write a research paper to my teacher’s liking. Since I had no intention of becoming a teacher I had no desire to learn the English Teaching profession. And although that is a separate degree at BYU the fact of the matter is that my degree was geared toward that end. The other thing most teachers teach their students to become is an Editor. Thankfully I found a couple professors who may not have given me the best grade, but they did point me on a path toward learning how to write in whatever creative way I could imagine success.

I was writing one night per week through the night. I had publisher’s interested in Sterling Bridge back in 2003. I was failing out of my college classes. I’m not sure how I made it through. My parents taught me to never give up on something I started. Thankfully I did get my degree and it has served me well. But after taking a break from the starving-writing-sleepless-nights routine, this writer is happy to be publishing a project I started a longtime ago. I am so thankful for the opportunities to learn academic writing, but more thankful to have learned how to work on all of my other writing. It will take me to higher heights than higher education ever did. No disrespect to faculty publications, but creative writing outside the confines of a university is the means that worked for me, for which I am now able to call myself a Published Author. In order to become something we all must take the learning we have gained and apply it beyond the training grounds. I am forever learning, an essential part of becoming a professional writer, but the key to being a writer is writing. I work at an academic library. It keeps my research sharp. But at the end of the day I am a writer!

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My first year of college came and went without a clear decision for my future. General education courses reiterated a couple things I already knew: 1) I am not the smartest student in any one field, and 2) I don’t have enough interest in any one field to devote my life to solely mastering that one field. Did I say, “one field” enough to make my point?

Writing requires versatility that only comes from exposure in a wide array of life experience. It takes time and perseverance. I know it is the last thing you want to hear if you are an aspiring writer. At least it was for me, a difficult lesson to accept. I knew I loved writing but I was afraid to commit to it. Writing takes more work than anything I know of before seeing the payoff. Writing is a release, a past-time, fun, and hard, all in one. To write you have to love it, but, make no mistake, writing is work, lots and lots of work.

Even this post started out as a different idea altogether. As I re-evaluated my thesis statement I realized that this post would take another path. I would explain the work of writing as I see it. (Hence, the title). See, I did learn something from getting my English degree in college.

The more creative the writing, however, the more it is nothing like academic writing (More on that in my next post):

Even every form of writing takes a different expertise: There is marketing writing with all of the forms of digital marketing: website content, blogging, and online advertising; There is print advertising: billboards, magazines, and all types of collateral material; There are short stories, novels, and everywhere in between. Each requires an understanding in the delicate intricacies of melding the art of creativity and the functions of applied Science. In every field of work it is desirable to find the best way to do something and then to do it better than anyone else, but the reality in a continually changing world is that our customer desires the same versatility that I crave. I think you crave it, too!

We want to be entertained. We want new ideas. We want creative writing. And that takes a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, a lot of living, and a lot of writing about it. Some things I write will fall flat, but other writings will soar, if I put in the work. Sterling Bridge took about 15 years, on and off, before it was where it needs to be. It is ready! It took a long time and a lot of work before I am where I need to be. I am there!

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