How I Wrote It
I like to set a goal when a write a book. A literary self challenge. For PLAYING IN TRAFFIC I wanted to create a main character that had perfected the art of disconnection. My character would be the quintessential doormat so that he didn’t attract attention. But we meet him at the point when he is getting restless. What would happen, I asked myself if someone came along and connected the current? Sent electricity surging along Matt’s internal wiring? Would he want it? Need it? Would he know if he wanted it or not?
And what kind of person could do this for a person like Matt? And more importantly, why? And along came Skye. While I think I’ve met several Matt’s in my teaching career, I don’t think I’ve met a Skye. I don’t even feel really responsible for creating her. I feel like she walked in my door and demanded to be put on the page. And I wasn’t denying her.
Katy didn’t enter the book until draft number two. Yes, it can happen like that. The first draft was missing something. I fretted and worried and it finally occurred to me that it wasn’t missing something it was missing someone. So I went back to Matt and wondered what could have kept him from turning angry and mean—and I found Katy. And after the dark and dangerous Skye standing over my shoulder, developing Katy was fun.
Why do I write such dark and edgy stuff? I want the reader to come up and sneak a peak at violence and darkness, check out the edge of the abyss and decide it is a trip not to be taken. Read about the road that leads to oblivion, but take another.