My First Book... Finally

I have finally decided upon the subject matter for my first book.

This has been a a point of consideration for 18 years now. When I was in KY over Christmas, I found an old diary from my 1st grade year which consisted mainly of what boy I had crushes on, how much I hated my brother and how much Mom and Dad so didn't get it. In my defense, there was also an entry about how it seemed like I hated on my brother and parents so much but that was because I only wrote in the journal when I was mad. But, there was one P.S. attached to an entry that really stood out to me, in a humorous and an inspiring way.

"P.S. I want my first book to be from a cat's point of view. Or a war memoir." ~ Me, 1990

First off, this is hilarious. Secondly, I've been thinking since I was six-years-old about what my first book would be about! I can't believe it took me until after I graduated college to realize I should pursue a career in writing. Reading this line made me laugh, and then got me to thinking about the idea that perhaps I should actually be writing a book, now that I'm focusing on my writing and all.

I've definitely made the attempts before. In the beginning of college, I started a very dramatic tale about a girl with a severe eating disorder and issues with parents who runs away to New York City and works as a waitress but doesn't get much healthier. She goes to lots of punk shows, falls in love with a drummer (this was before I met Dave), has an amazing time with him but can't bring herself to sexually be with him because it turns out the parental issues involved sexual abuse. She runs away from their romantics on the beach to embark on her craziest binge ever. She ends up hospitalized because the binging has damaged her esophagus, drummer boy finds her in the hospital and helps her get healthy once she's home. A year later, drummer boy freaks out that she's too dependent on him and flees the scene. While he's away, he has an affair but then he comes back to her. She fell deep into eating disorderness when he first left but then used it as an opportunity to finally make herself healthy on her own (sought therapy, etc). When he comes back, things are great until a handful of months later, a woman shows up at their doorstep with a baby, claiming it's his. He confesses the affair to the main character, who is pissed at first but then realizes how her own issues drove him away. They keep the baby.

The first outline of this had her kicking him out, inviting the lover in, and the two women raising the baby together. I realized this was too dramatic yet somehow didn't realize the rest was. I revisited this draft a few times but nothing good came of it.

Then, senior year of college I decided to write this elusive first book about my experience working at True Grounds, a coffee shop in Somerville, Massachusetts that employed me for two years. The characters I worked with provided amazing material, and the place itself is truly special. I thought the book could center around the shop and be about the workers and regulars, their pasts and present interactions, and how all these different people and things come together at True Grounds. Well, my boyfriend at the time, a regular at TG who finally asked me on a date after weeks of me hitting on him from behind the counter, broke up with me and thus I abandoned book. I still think it has potential though, and plan to revisit it one day.

Life post-college and post-breakup happened after that. I wasn't writing much. Then I got back into short stories and worked very hard on those and my portfolio. I plan to send a few of my stories to some lit mags and am currently working on a new short story, but couldn't get this P.S. out of my head.

Enter Granny. I've written about her glory before in this blog. She's one of the strongest, bravest and sweetest people I've met, and has touched and influenced me more than anything. Even though I complain about it and will never live there again, I love that I'm from Kentucky and I love Kentucky history. I love bluegrass music and farmland and southern accents and biscuits with gravy and horses and hot summer air. Granny grew up on a tobacco farm during the Depression and the 40s, then got married and moved to Louisville. Then her husband randomly died, leaving her with no education (she quit going to school at 6th grade because of the farm work) and five children. So she opened a ceramics shop where she made her own stuff and sold it because she had worked in a pottery studio for years before and learned how to sculpt. Then she got remarried but it turns out her second husband was a pretty rotten dude. But she cared for him when he had Alzheimer's anyway, and when he died, she bought herself a new condo and took vacations. She's 83 now and is having more achy, tired days than before. She takes medicine for her heart and is in pain constantly from her arthritis. Yet she still hand-sewed me a quilt and still cooks way too much food for anyone who visits her and still has the same positive outlook on people and life.

So, the first book is going to be based on Granny's life growing up in good ol' KY. It's funny that before, I wrote about a girl fleeing to New York City and now that I live here, I'm writing about a girl growing up in rural Kentucky. But I feel really good about it! I've been interviewing Granny for hours, learning about her day-to-day life working on the farm, her old boyfriends and her adventures. I can tell she's enjoying it, too. And it's all so interesting! What a different world she grew up in.

So, the plan is to write a fiction book based on her life, meaning I'm going to make up characters and events. I guess it's kind of like historical fiction, or biographical fiction, or both. No matter what label it will have though, I like it. And I'm also realizing for the first time what a big undertaking a book is! But I've got Granny's example as my motivation, and it feels good to be getting all of this documented while she's still able to share it. I'll keep you updated...