Knowing that Harper Lee infused To Kill a Mockingbird with characters from her childhood makes it that much more special in my mind. According to my research department, among the characters based on real people were Boo Radley and Dill--who was based on none other than Lee's childhood playmate and fellow author, Truman Capote.
(If you can't tell, I am super pumped for Go Set A Watchman!)
In the same spirit, I thought I'd give you a a few insights into my latest short story, The Snake-Bearer.
For quite some time I have wanted to write a main character who has seizures. And in fact, I tried to shortly after the onset of my own seizures. It was an urban fantasy in which the characters' tattoos came alive and possessed their owners. It turned out somewhat cliche and obvious.
Almost a decade later, I still had a desire to write a character who has seizures. So I asked myself what was I really really trying to get at when I tried writing about it the first time. I think I've taken what I learned from writing that first story and decocted what I had intended to write about: the fear of waking up after a seizure and having no memory of what happened, why you're on the ground, why you're hurt, why strangers have strapped you to a stretcher to carry you out of your house. I wanted to write about having an unreliable memory and how you put on a facade when you're supposed to remember something important.
I wanted to write about how seizures used to be called demon posessions and in a future without helium and a less than stellar healthcare system, those with urgent needs might turn to faith-healing. Might desperation and fear conspire to recast seizures as demon possessions once more? How desperate does one have to be to go to an airplane hangar in the middle of nowhere to beg help from a Healer whose ways of healing seem less than sanitary and whose prices seem exorbitant.
The Snake-Bearer releases August 1, 2015. Pre-orders are available now!Amazon
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