I’ll be the first to admit that my writing style
consists of putting characters on the page and letting them romp, also called
writing by the seat of my pants. This method is affectionately known (in
writer’s jargon) as being a “pantser.” When I first started writing SIX DEGREES
OF LOST, two characters were rolling around in my head, begging for their story
to be told. Olive, a girl uprooted from sunny California and sent to live with
her aunt in a home full of rescue animals. And David, a boy from a military family
whose future appears to be all mapped out.
I decided to give them equal billing, by letting
them tell their own stories in alternating chapters. This was also a challenge
to me as a writer – to see if I could pull off two different narrators. The
story is filled with things I know well: animals, farm life in a rural area of
the Pacific Northwest, small towns - as well as things I had to research: jail
terms, military requirements, and even an interview with a fire chief.
But what astonished me most while working on this
novel is how the relationship between Olive and David developed after they
started telling their story. I assumed they would be friends, and would save
some animals or have some other adventures together. But instead, these two
teenagers from different backgrounds were slowly drawn together, and their
friendship deepened into something else - a first romance, a journey, and
finally, the strength to speak their own minds. I love surprises, and I hope
you enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed discovering it.
Here’s a short excerpt:
I think about Olive and
how she looked early this morning, throwing the stick for the dog. Now’s my
chance to do the right thing – to help find that dog a different home - without
a chain. But I choke. “Yeah. It might belong to a friend of my mom’s. Someone
named Denise.”
With a sinking feeling for
the poor yellow dog’s future, I holler down the stairs for my mom to pick up
the phone. I think about the invisible sign Olive was describing at the end of
her driveway: Lost Animals Stop Here. I bet that dog will wish he never stopped
there at all, if he just ends up back on his chain. I’d like to have a nice dog
like that. Maybe someday. I sure won’t keep it on a chain.
But maybe that lab’s
future is just written in stone. Maybe it’s his destiny to be chained up, just
like it’s my destiny to finish this essay and go to the Air Force Academy.
That’s what everybody expects me to do, right? I mean, it’s not like I have a
choice.
I open my computer and
begin – Why I Am a Good Candidate for Advanced Placement in Math and Science.
Blah Blah Blah.
In less than an hour, I
turn out a pretty respectable piece of bullshit. I spell check it and print it
out. Glancing out the window, I see James and Sherman heading up the driveway
on their bikes. Sherman is riding one-handed and wobbly, balancing a 3-man raft
on his head and his back. Excellent. Perfect timing. James carries two oars
crosswise over the handle bars of his bike. Something is slung across his back,
too. It looks like a BB gun.
****
Linda Benson has written several young adult and
middle grade books, including the post-apocalyptic THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED
HORSES, also available from Musa Publishing.
Her passion for nature and animals often finds its way into her writing.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a variety of animals –
all of them adopted. To find out more:
