How outlier characters made their lives ‘real’
At times inside Tony Abbott’s head, Bobby Lang (the one Father Percy called Robert) wouldn’t stop talking. Bobby’s distinctive voice would chime in at unexpected moments. And then Rachel commanded to be heard.
It was time for Tony to give these characters life — inside a book.
“But I see even if I don’t talk
I look at things
(and sometimes people) what they look like what they do”
“But I see” is the title of the poem on page 26 of Tony’s latest book, “Junk Boy,” published in October by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
I had an invigorating Zoom chat this week with Tony about characters, story format — “Junk Boy” is a series of well-linked poems, no chapters — about setting, metaphors, genre and so much more.
I’d like to take you into the world of a writer because it’s an interesting place, and you just might find something of value for yourself there.
Tony is a Connecticut author who has made a living writing books for more than 30 years; he’s a best-selling author of adventure books and mysteries for children and middle-school students. His series, “Secrets of Droon,” published by Scholastic grew to 44 volumes.
“Junk Boy” is his first young adult novel. (If you think YA books are just for teenagers, then you need to read “The Book Thief,” by Markus Zusak. It’s among my book group’s top 5 reads.)
It was Bobby’s voice that determined his story would be YA. His life and some experiences require readers more mature than elementary school. Bobby is raised by his drunken father in a backwoods yard so filled with debris that bullies in school dub him “Junk Boy.” At 15, he doesn’t much like himself; his interior world is a preferred place to live.
“It’s a strange thing, when a character enters, he almost always comes with a voice, this way of expressing himself,” Tony says. “Well, it was wasn’t terrific English. It was something more raw, something more natural. His thoughts and words broke down into short lines, his thoughts jumped around. They seemed to lend themselves almost organically to the short lines of a poetic format.”
“It’s utter dark at the end of the trail where the trees are thick and tall and close and the sun gets stuck in the branches and ripped apart and dies before it hits my roof ”
A first-person format locks you in to showing everything, including physical descriptions, through the eyes of the narrator, which makes bringing it all to life more challenging.
“It’s more of an emotional response to what you’re seeing,” Tony says.
Usually when he starts a story he knows where it will end. But not necessarily how it’s going to get there.
“You’re lucky when the character almost tells you, in a way they’re almost living in your head, and he or she speaks and thinks and you begin to see the way they’re changing.”
Bobby is isolated in every way at the beginning of the story; when he meets Rachel his life opens up to possibilities. But this is not a typical high school romance.
Rachel, a talented artist, is an outlier, too. Her voice, abrasive. Her actions, decisive. At first her role in the book was smaller, but she insisted she had a bigger part to play.
She literally broadens Bobby’s existence by convincing him to go with her to a big city by train. Wait a minute — they live in Fairfield County? “you wouldn’t think ten miles from here is a twentymillion-dollar house but there are lots of those they call this part of my state the gold coast with huge rich houses on the beach but here stuck off the trail that time forgot there’s only tin”
“The trail that time forgot” is an actual old rail trail that Tony and his wife Dolores frequently walk in Trumbull, where they live. The descriptions of trees, leaves, birds, an old foundation and narrow passage are all the more vivid for being true. This realization brought home the advice you hear about writing — write about what you know.
That’s not to say Tony knows about being a 15-year-old girl (though he does have two daughters) — a lot of artistry is involved in creating fictional stories, too.
And, to a measure, perhaps magic. Though Tony has written dozens and dozens of books, he still was surprised about this with his latest — metaphors emerged from basic elements. An old VW bus up on blocks in the backyard, for example, became something more.
With characters that teachers overlook and others marginalize, with serious topics such as abuse, sexual orientation and suicide, was Tony deliberately weaving in lessons for teenage readers? He bristles at that notion. It does sound commercial when I ask.
“Art is art and can be destroyed by setting in messages,” he says. “But you can’t escape the zeitgeist of the times.”
That makes me wonder: What is the zeitgeist of this pandemic time? How will it be depicted in literature? What characters will speak to someone and need to be brought to life?
In reading “Junk Boy” you come to know Bobby better than he knows himself (a trick of writing), and Rachel, too. You want them to like themselves as much as you do.
I ask Tony whether it was difficult to let go of the characters who spoke to him and came to life on the pages. Finishing a book must be a relief, but also somewhat sad.
“They’re out there in the world now,” he says.
Jacqueline Smith’s column appears Fridays in Hearst Connecticut Media daily newspapers. It is solely her opinion. She is also the editorial page editor of The News-Times in Danbury and The Norwalk Hour. Email her at jsmith@hearstmediact.com. You can learn more about Tony Abbott at www.tonyabbottbooks.com