What makes The Shoebox stand out?
A friend of mine asked me the other day a very important question. What makes The Shoebox different from other books?
I thought about the question so much that I decided to make it my second post.
So here goes. . .
What makes The Shoebox different from other stories?
The answer?
I could say that the answer is that I have tangible multi-dimentional and believable and realistic characters who take the readers by the hand up a steep and jagged coarse and then drag them down like a rollercoaster ride gone haywire.
Maybe it's the circumstances that make the Shoebox unique. To loose someone so integral in one's life and suddenly have absolutely no contact with and no quick and sure proof means to find them can be devastating to anyone.
Or perhaps, the simplicity of the love and passion Peter feels for Maddy throughout his entire life without ever loosing sight of what he once had.
Honestly it could be anyone of those.
My feelings upon the subject are biased. I love these forces that fight all obstacles to be together. I'm a great believer in fate and karma and the great God in heaven. I believe the universe listens and we choose.
Peter choose to stay monogamous in his heart. Maddy had set a precedence for Peter and although he handled every obstacle in his life with the utmost grace and respect to himself and others, he remained constant.
I think some of us long for the constant, the never changing and familiar. The saying that love conquers all is something we all want to believe.
In The Shoebox, love does conquer all, even through death. So yes there are many books out there that have painful and triumphant stories of love and devotion, but what sets them aside?
I believe it's when a character slowly begins to take on a life in your mind. When the beings that are fiction find a home in your psyche and you begin to look for their traits and characteristics in others.
My cousin said to me after reading my book, "Why is it so sad? Why did it have to end that way?"
I responded with a simple answer. If it's not as close to reali life as possible then it's not worth telling.
Haven't we lost chances with people we have never seen again? Haven't we all had someone leave our side whether by choice or by tragedy?
Back to the question:
I feel the Shoebox resonates. It echoes in our minds long after it has been read. The characters reappear in minds and hearts and even become a part of our own relationships. Do you have a Peter or a Maddy in your life?
We all have high ideals about love and relationships but one of the common threads we all understand is the fact that nothing is perfect. We are all flawed and imperfect and in the imperfection, through the flaws and cracks is where we find honesty.
The characters that are not perfect and magnificently together are the ones that we relate to the most.
Yes secretly we all want to be the ingenue of the play but realistically we will relate more to the character who is insecure or shy or has a habit of overcompensating because of feelings of intimidation.
Same things goes with telling a story.
My editor, Victoria Mixon taught me many great lessons. Her most important one when telling a story was that as a writer you are in control. You are God, basically. You have the power to take your readers on a ride through hell and back. And who doesn't want to play God? Even if it's just on paper.
I would work on a chapter and after a few minutes of submitting it, feeling completely confident that she would be captivated and utterly in awe I would get back her comments. They usually went something like this.
"So I think Peter shouldn't end the chapter on a high note. Let's throw in another conflict. Why not have . . . "
And there it was, just when I thought I had it figured out, she pushed me deeper than I thought I could go. Just when I had my character finding some clarity she taught me to throw him back in the dark again and this time close the door.
People have conflicts. Life is filled with conflicts. So why shouldn't our characters have them too.
