Future Fugitives: depth charge 1.
Nine months ago I wrote a post about my first novel, which now has been commercially titled Future Fugitives. I think I thought it was going to be available sooner that it has played out. At last, in October, it will be available—first for those who signed on early, then at public venues, and then more widely.
That older post is a much better romp, but here I want to discuss some of the inner workings of Future Fugitives and reveal how some of those may have had a basis in my brain and in reality.
Mack’s, a greasy spoon restaurant, serves as the opening scene of the book (and I guess the whole franchise). It’s patterned after a restaurant on the corner in Arkansas City, Kansas, where we ate every Sunday morning when my firstborn was little.
Guthrie, Oklahoma, is ground zero for the book, and if you’ve never been there, I highly encourage it. I hope some day to be able to do a reading there, for I’ve incorporated intersections, parks, the Masonic Temple, people’s names and other place names and history of the town. (Guthrie’s just a great little town anyway, with several B&B’s, great food, several events, and LOTS of history.
Horse Thief Canyon Ranch and cabin are all based in reality. In 2020 I took my family on a windshield tour of the backroads east of Guthrie, and we were able to lay eyes on the basis of Stu Wiebe’s family property. A scene in which a detective and her husband are racing along one of those rutted dirt roads was inspired by our trip in our Kia Sorento down those very same routes.
I could continue like this giving shout outs to ‘real-life’ elements of the book and keep encouraging readers to see for themselves, but I want to share a little deeper stuff…
It wasn’t likely commercially viable or mechanically sound of me to write my first novel from four points of view, but I did it anyway. I have issue with first person, for unless it’s a court transcript, a confession, or an epistolary tale, I find the vehicle of delivering in first person to be disingenuous and a bit clunky. I use it to get in the head of a character in a draft here/there, but I feel it might reveal too much if not deftly managed. I also do not like the constraint of first person, for that POV can’t know much outside of the character’s purview.
I once tried multiple first person point of view story telling—never again.
Several view point characters allowed me to build the mystery, head by head. No one person has all the story. No one knows the relationship between Lark and Krystal better than each of them, and they relate that in time and in turn to eventually let us have all the nuances. Learning the insecurities and inner workings of the surface-level cocky jock gives us a whole new perspective on him that the other characters only eventually come to know…and so on.
Beyond point of view, I like Future Fugitives because it’s a study in one of the very few plots (when you really boil it down) that are out there: a stranger comes to town. Oh, sure, the meteor fall is an inciting incident that happens off screen, before the novel, but Gary Sackerson’s arrival turns the other characters’ lives upside-down in irreversible insight and mayhem. The stranger is very strange, prescient even, and on top of that, he seems erratic and prone to violence. He is very aware of how he is perceived, even talks about it with the others:
“Well, it seems like some crazy guy kidnapped you, shot up some guys in the restaurant, and is now going into hiding in Kansas. It seems like I’m crazy because I’m talking about teleportation and the boogie man getting Doc Fortune. That about sum it up?”
As the father of 4 teens, I feel I’ve captured a lot of their angst and issues. Lark’s had a crush on Krystal for a long time. Stu’s dated Krystal seriously, previously. Sackerson, a good decade older than Krystal, admits to having feelings for her. Meanwhile, Krystal starts the book all about appearances, uneasy at the prospect of anyone seeing her with any of those clowns…yet she is driven by curiosity (and I think, a lingering interest in Lark)! It’s not a love triangle, but love is, most certainly, in the air.
The fourth teen in the mix is Kenneth Hinman (Henny) who is perceived to be the sidekick, but he’s so much more—aspects of his character are still being revealed in the 4th book, Lost and Found. I’m enamored with him, for he seems to be everybody’s patsy, yet I don’t think he’s just playing along out of an inferiority complex. I think he may be more savvy to their situation than he ever lets on.
Beta readers have asked me which character is the most autobiographical representation of Mark Landon Jarvis. Well, I’m no jock like Stu, but I am into family tradition and I share his values related to land, family, friends, and honesty. I’m not a linebacker or a sidekick, but like Henny, I do want to be accepted. I wish I was more like him in inviting myself along. I relate to Lark most, but he’s leagues ahead of me in his independence and quick wit. So, short (and not unexpected) answer: I think elements of me are in each of them.
This post is already ridiculously long, so I am stopping it here, but I’ll blog about this novel again sometime, for I want to share the impetus and development of it, particularly as it was the first one completed.
