I randomly chose some little snippets to give you a taste of the main characters. While these characters might not live a fleshed life I think you will recognize the life within them being true.
Molly- The sun was setting. The colors through the smoke were otherworldly, the sun seemed to be bleeding as it left the sky, watery oranges, reds, and tired purples. The sky was bruised. She shivered. Her stomach was still so tight, it seemed pulled together with fear. Her thoughts were all over the place.
Molly's husband Jack- He grabbed a t-shirt that was draped over the nearest chair, pulling it over his head and hopping into a pair of long shorts. He didn't know many ranchers who wore shorts on a workday, but he was an accidental rancher, one who'd grown up on the beaches of San Diego. He inherited all of this mess, loving it almost as much as he felt like an oversight, a failed experiment in surfer relocation. He really wouldn't want his mother-in-law to find him sleeping.
Molly's mom, Catherine- ...she sat down, smoothing her hands over her slacks. So many veins had swum to the surface of these old arms. Why had she become so transparent? It would be so much better if her skin became tighter, more opaque, concealing her as she headed towards death. She could use a murky covering, especially now, when she didn't have her home to hide her. Whenever she was a guest in someone elses's home, the ripples of daily patterns smoothed away and she was left clear as water.
and.....JEFE' : He is a little donkey who is in many of the chapters and while he may not be a main character, he is endearing and he even postponed the release of the book a bit as he wandered off of its pages and had to be herded back in. He is special to me too, because I think our own little Macho might have been the inspiration for his birth.
Yes definitely and absolutely inspired by the darling Macho.
ReplyDeleteA funny thing: I wrote the scene with Todd stuck in the car because of Jefé while I was in India, then came to visit you and had a similar experience with Macho. We stopped to say hello to him and he stuck his head in the car and wouldn't get out, and he's strong!
And very cute. It made me glad that my imaginings about donkeys are somewhat true.
Thanks for this post :)
Oh that's EXACTLY how I imagined he looked.
ReplyDeleteGive him a pat from me please.