I am not Timothy.
Longtime readers might wonder if I included myself in this
chapter. No. I couldn’t be farther from Timothy. I’m not a drug user, and like
Jakob, I tend to want sex to “mean something.”
Click here to read Ascension: Jakob's Ladder, 19 [Chap. 4]
But I did want to include my name. One of my friends was aghast
that his name was used for one of my more dislikable characters. I assured him
that I just pull names at random, trying not to duplicate them. (With five
books now written, you have to pay attention to that.)
No name associated with a character means that person is a
real person. At least not by that name. I do take attributes from people I know
and occasionally incorporate those traits into a character. I feel that makes
the character more realistic and relatable. My other half inspired a brief
moment when Jakob was putting whipped cream on his Thanksgiving pie. When my
partner put away the whipped cream, I watched him take it back out to squirt a
dot on the very tip of his pie. I found it adorable and included it in a scene
in Hi, I’m Lance.
Some authors on Nifty will tell you things in their stories
are from real life. The folks in Jackson Bend are not. It is purely my
imagination, but I do include qualities from people I know from time to time.
Jackson Bend isn’t even a real town. I specifically chose not to select a real
place because I figured someone eventually would say, “I live there, and our
town is nothing like that!” Ha. Keeping it fictious is easier. I don’t even
specify the state, but I have always felt it is somewhere in the middle of the country,
the mid-West or the plains. An exact location isn’t necessary. I find it better
for readers to use their imaginations.
For anyone who was hoping I was a stoned sex maniac… sorry
to disappoint. Hopefully you’ll stay along for the ride. (wink)
For those that love Jakob, he still has some dark chapters.
You know it gets better.
Can’t say you didn’t warn us. The actual sex acts weren’t so bad, but Jakob’s desperation and developing self-loathing were very hard to take. As you say, at least we know that it gets better.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your writing but this is a very sad story. It sometimes is painful to read. The only thing that keeps me reading is that there is a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your time and talent!
K.
I read the chapter and I have to say that I didn't like Tim one bit. He basically used Jakob for his own pleasure and I am glad that Jakob hasn't tried to find Timothy again.
ReplyDeleteD.
I was reflecting on why I felt gloomy after reading the latest Jakob chapter, and it came to me that he was (at this stage) an emergent man without any anchor or moorings at all. He is really without a home or a family, and picking his way among friends he meets along the way does not satisfy at all.
ReplyDeleteI suspect we have a lot of gloomy stuff to get through before Jakob develops attachments.
As I have read over many of the Nifty stories, I am impressed by how little organized religion matters in their personal lives. Jakob had been (with his family) in a fundamentalist church and he recalls some values out of that contact, but the church is gone for all intents and purposes.