- I've been busy
- It's a brain space thing.
I'm in the throes of revisions for my fourth novel, Find Cally. I'm at the stage where I'm hacking out chunks of chapters, tightening up scenes, and double-checking my research. The fun part is learning about mega-yachts, maritime law, and diesel engines. The tough part has been inhabiting the emotional space of human trafficking.
And it's harder than I thought it would be. In Find Cally, a hardscrabble dad searches for his teen daughter in the labyrinth of human trafficking helped by a trafficking survivor. I have five emotional layers I've needed to crawl into in order to breathe life into my characters.
- The trafficked women: The biggest questions are how did they become involved in "the life" and why do they stay? The reasons are as simple as they are complex. Think of love and safety as viewed through an evil funhouse mirror.
- The searching father (Dak Turner): What will a daddy do to protect his little girl? What if that daddy is an alcoholic? Could the pressures drown him in booze making him incapable of searching?
- The innocent (Cally Turner): When and how does she realize what's happening to her? Does she see adapting as protecting herself?
- The survivor (Sienna Wesson): What scars does she carry? How does she shape her life after leaving "the life"?
- The men who profit: Manipulation and subterfuge on so many levels--emotional, social, financial, sexual. If it wasn't so real, it would be fascinating.
I've bonded with the characters. I feel protective over them. I want the women I conjure to emerge unscathed and whole. Why? Because I've volunteered and worked beside survivors as they struggle to regain their sense of power and wholeness. I feel a responsibility to them.
But part of my responsibility as an author is to bring readers into unfamiliar worlds and to leave them changed by my story. I want them to learn. I want them to feel. I want them to stare at the ceiling at night, wondering.
The unspoken update on my writing life? This book has changed me. I'm struggling to bring a book to life that will change you, too.
