RIP Lois Duncan

     Last week Wednesday, June 15, 2016 an important literary figure died. Her name was Lois Duncan, and she was important in my life. Writers are often asked who are the people that influenced them, and no self-respecting writer can remember all those inspiring titles or even the authors that penned them. Unfortunately, it is often when such an influential writer dies that the living, whether they also became writers or went into other professions, that we suddenly remember what such a personage did for us.

     Let me give a scenario, despite others' ideas about me, I was a poor student while in grade school. Often sickly, I would miss enough days that would put me behind certain subjects. Therefore, from 6th grade to 10th grade (with at least two summers I did well enough), I was in summer school. In 1986, I had to attend summer school (sequentially) for the first time. Because it was a private school tied in with a religious denomination, this it did not offer a summer school program, and therefore, I had to attend a middle school near the elementary school where my mom taught.

     This particular middle school was in a rough neighborhood and had some rough children. I understood the work because it was not sixth-grade but actually 4-5th level. I also did not dress as my classmates did. This wasn't my neighborhood. I didn't speak like them. My parents made sure I always had $2. My classmates hated me for this. I was bullied every day. Eventually, our class went on the prerequisite trip to the school library. I was in heaven. At this time, maybe others have noticed this, but, a lot of YA (Young Adult) novel front covers often had photographs with models posing a scene from the story, or, realistic paintings. Mostly, though, I noticed they used real people.

     Paperbacks were often on spinning racks then and the school libraries were no exception. One particular cover struck me with its blonde teen girl, sitting in an armchair with her whole body curled in it. Her unnerving stare at the reader and a ghostly image of a little girl in blue floating behind her.

From Jezebel.com 

     This looks really cool! I thought and immediately rushed to the check-out desk. I received snide remarks and under-the-breath "nerd" comments, but I didn't care.
I began to read the novel "A Gift of Magic" and was sucked in by Duncan's use of flashback, memory, and especially how her protagonist, a teenage girl with psychic abilities navigated her life. Often interested in the supernatural growing up, psychic phenomenon has often fascinated me. I credit "A Gift of Magic" for my first time reading about psychic powers. And though I have since digested other stories dealing with this subject, and perhaps, have dealt with it better, Duncan's "A Gift of Magic" was sincere, non-condescending, and a good read during a difficult moment in my childhood that I can't recommend it enough.

Character "by any other name..."

My mom has been getting exclusive access to my WIP because
1) I still live at home and
2) she, being a retired educator, can be objective to the grammatical mechanics of what I have written.
My mom just loves my character, "Slash" Castellano!

"Slash Castellano - in work mode and suited" (c)

And she isn't the only one. Since creating the character in sixth grade summer school, and with his numerous incarnations after, my canine gangster has impressed and awed numerous people over the years.
Junior high classmates adored him. High school friends thought he was cute/handsome/gorgeous.
I had a fellow-Caribbean girl friend tell me she was jealous of my heroine because she would get to be with my dog mobster! I told her, "But he's a dog! You're human!"
"Who cares? He's still cute!"
I even had a male friend, who was Russian-Jewish, ask for a simple line drawing, so he could have my dog gangster tattooed on his upper arm after he entered the military!

"Slash" has also impressed head-banger classmates, (that's 80s-90s speak for fans of Heavy Metal) because of the obvious nickname association with the guitarist of "Guns-N-Roses"! 
Someone asked me if I wasn't afraid of people assuming I fashioned the character after the famous guitarist, and I said "No!", because I got the nickname from growing up on classic gangster films and mob flicks. In these black-and-white reels, there was always a "Slasher", "Spike", "Whitey", "Smiley", and even a "Gimpy" (I apologize that this particular term offends, but this was an actual nickname for many regular folks, underworld figures, criminals, and even street urchins, back in the day!).
I once watched a 40s Western where the criminal who went around shooting people was named "Slash"!

It is how I see that an unpublished character has affected so many, from differing backgrounds, why I know I have a fully-realized person. I've lived with this character since age 12, and now I'm in my mid-thirties!
My sincerest wish and hope is that, once published, "Slash" Castellano will continue to impress, awe and enliven many more soon-to-be fans!

"'Slash' & Stacey (embrace)"

A coworker's first words to me about this sketch (paraphrased): "Aww..She feels so safe in his arms. He looks so strong, as though he will protect her always."
That statement stuck with me.
When my coworker said that, it gave me new appreciation for this rough sketch.
Oftentimes, artists, we meet people who GET IT. Who GET our art. Who GET our meaning, what we were trying to say in a particular piece.

Since I write other stories besides this WIP, I have my favorites. These two, since I envisioned them in 6th grade Summer School (it seems I thought up a lot of stuff in Summer School!), are one of my favorite couples!

How my character became a case of mistaken identity

I was probably in 11th or 10th grade, when a schoolmate from junior high approached me during lunch period to ask me 'How's Sonny?'
My best friend (still is), got mad at me afterwards and demanded to know why I never told her about this ex-boyfriend named Sonny.

I laughed as it took me a while to calm her down. I explained that Sonny was a comic character I invented while stuck in summer school math class (I would be imprisoned in Summer School almost every year from 5th grade to 11th, with maybe a year or two of respite that I did well enough to move on to the next grade).

Later, thoroughly mollified, my best friend expressed her disbelief at how could an invented character seem so real to a person that they would remember years after?

I reminded her about this anecdote years later and she laughed at how jealous she had felt towards this classmate knowing something about me that she didn't (my best friend and I did not attend the same junior high school).

****
Birth of A Character

Bored out of my skull, and stuck in a class whose subject proved my greatest enemy for most of my academic life (Math), drawing a comic book was my only release.

I was puny, a loner, and nerdy. I wore glasses, had braces near the end of junior high into high school, where the wretched railway system was blessedly removed (Thank Heavens!), and I was bullied for one less thing, which was a blessing in and of itself.

Drawing was always an escape, like reading, and so I concocted a group of high school friends (Kids always want their heroes older) and they were: bears, cats and dogs.

I used notebook paper, drew the panels, inked, colored and put in the word balloons.
The story took most of Math period and through endless viewing of the school movie "Summer School" (how appropriate! Cool movie, by the way).

Soon, classmates were actually waiting for me to finish it.
I made a copy in the school library, kept the original, and watched like wildfire as the copy changed hands. I received praise and criticism alike : "I like his hairstyle!" "I didn't like the ending!" There were cries for a sequel.
I didn't have the marketing sense then: Had I sold each page for a dollar, my classmates would have paid it, and I would've made a tidy little sum to spend at the end of summer.

This episode on the power of my words escaped me many times after.
I would finally GET IT when I ended up in one of the few honors classes I'd take in high school.