Well, this may be cool. I'm to be interviewed live on a web-based radio show Wednesday (5/2) noon, KC time here. The session will focus on Crazy About You.
It's made me go back and look at Crazy and try to understand why I like it, really a lot. Personally, for me, there is the memory that when I wrote the ending scene and how, subconsciously, I must have named a character what I did, it blew me across the room.
But, looking at it technically now, I realized that although it's in first person, it's in a method I discovered (not new I'm sure, but new to me) I call the looking-back first person. The story starts in clear first person from Brad's point of view, the high school student living on the grounds of a mental hospital because his father is a dentist there and the state provides free housing. But at times in the story, Brad is presented in the future and reflecting back upon what he is relating.
Finding that technique for Crazy opened up a whole new range of possibilities for other stories I was struggling with. It made me realize I could tell The Saltness of Time from TWO first person points of view. The opening first-person POV is the narrator telling what the second first-person POV (Brad again) is saying. I think this sets up a wonderful dynamic. It gives the story both a sense of distance and immediacy. And, quite frankly, I haven't thought about that until just now.
But I digress. I'm really looking forward to discussing Crazy About You. I've always been scared of radio. Very nervous. I think it will help that I will be in my den on my phone. Tune in and see what a fool I can make of myself. I'm giving myself 50-50 odds on this one.
I'm bad about remembering these sorts of things, but I'll leave your email in my inbox and come back to follow the link to listen later this week :-)
ReplyDelete