Tomorrow morning I will leave for Ellwood City, Pa., my home town and the setting for Charlie No Face. I will stay with my mother and brother and will visit with my mother - in - law while I am there. On Saturday I will do a reading and book signing at the public library. This has been in the works for several months and now that it is here, I am excited. Some folks in Ellwood have already read the book and have enjoyed all the local references. Happily they have also enjoyed the story itself and its main theme. For any of you who have read the book, the Ellwood Library is just down the street from the Manos Theater and PeeWee Lunch, both mentioned in the book but no longer in existence.
I may be returning to western Pa. in the fall for another event in Beaver Falls where my father grew up.
I was born in Ellwood in 1950 and left in 1972 after marrying my high school sweetheart, Bonnie. The era from which I drew many incidents for the book was 1958 - 1962. It is more than a little unsettling to think that that was fifty years ago, especially when I can close my eyes and see everything I talk about in the book as if it were yesterday. Some memories have a timeless quality.
The last time I wrote (March 2011) I mentioned that I had had a few productive days working on Chimney Bluffs and had written what I felt were the defining pages of the story. At that time, I felt clear about the ending. A lot of twists and turns have happened since then, some of which I had not predicted, but last week I finished Chimney Bluffs, and the ending was what I thought it would be in March. I started writing the book on February 14, 2010 and finished it on May 3, 2011. Stats: 90,074 words; 309 pages (roughly 260 pages in book form). This was the most difficult book I’ve written because of the subject matter - - - - a father and mother jump to their death from a cliff after their four year old son dies from a brief illness; they carry with them two sacks; one has their son; the other has his toys. This is based on actual events. I became interested in two questions: How did this decision make sense to those who made it? And, what would have happened if one of the parents had survived the jump? The novel wrestles with those questions.
It’s always difficult when you reach the end of a story and realize that you’ve said all that you want to say, because the characters come to an end, as well. It takes a little time to recover from this.
I re - read and edited the last chapter, but have not looked at the story for almost a week. The book is divided into two parts. I will re - read Part 2 and then I will start at the beginning, reading and editing as I go. This will take a while. I hope that it is ready for a publisher’s eyes by the fall.