Some Characters Just Won’t Leave

March 15, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

By Debra Thomas

Like many writers of fiction, I become attached to the characters I create and am often reluctant to let them go. Then another story calls to me and new characters begin to take shape, claiming my full attention and replacing my former favorites. Josie and Vic were another matter. Instead of fading away into yellowed pages, they stayed with me for decades—decades!—pushing their way into my thoughts and demanding that their story continue.

Way back in the 1980s, when I was a young mother with two little ones running about, I actually managed to write a short story that I was pleased with. I called it “Pangaea.” This story was about a sister and brother, Josie and Vic, who were especially close. Their father had been in and out of their lives until he left for good when Josie was only five and Vic eleven. Because their mother had to work extra shifts as a nurse’s aide to make ends meet, Vic was like a second parent to Josie. As a result, Josie adored her big brother.

The short story’s plot focused on Vic, at nineteen, as he’s drafted into the army and about to leave for the Vietnam War. Thirteen-year-old Josie is devastated and feels her world is breaking apart. Just that summer, she had read about Pangaea, the supercontinent—a once-connected landmass that over millions of years broke into pieces that formed our current separate continents. This is exactly how Josie feels about her family—fragmented and pulling apart. With her father gone and her brother leaving, Josie struggles to understand, and so, like a geologist who studies the earth’s beginning, she tries to make sense of her shattered world by asking her mother questions about their past.

My short story never found a home but was hidden away in the bottom drawer of my file cabinet.

Josie and Vic, however, never left.

They would sneak up on me when I least expected. Moments from the story would suddenly come to mind: Josie and Vic, as young children right after their father left, lying side by side in bed, holding hands and listening hard to the cars driving by—hoping one would slow and stop, bringing their father home. Or Vic surprising Josie with a box full of National Geographic magazines that he found at a garage sale. Josie wants to give him a hug, but instead flips through the magazines, exclaiming “Cool!” while Vic walks away whistling. My heart would surge with affection whenever I pictured them sitting at their red and white Formica kitchen table, teasing each other.

Josie and Vic were as real to me as my dearest family and friends back east whom I hadn’t seen in a while. I missed them just as much.

So it was no surprise that decades later, when I sat down to write a novel, Josie and Vic would find their way onto the page.

The original short story took place in 1971, when Josie was thirteen and Vic nineteen. Since my novel idea spanned the twelve months of 2001, Josie would be forty-three that May, and Vic would turn forty-nine in August. Yes, I even knew their birthdays. So I decided to build the novel around the two siblings. I’d create their backstory from 1971-2001, add spouses and children, as well as personal conflicts and tragedies. Josie’s rebellious, nineteen-year-old daughter, Ellie, who is a singer-songwriter living in Seattle, sparked to life and became an important character. Then it occurred to me that, perhaps, I should bring their estranged father, Tony, into the mix. That’s when Josie and Vic began to argue about Tony—whether he deserved a role and how it might fit. I let the source of the argument weave its way into the storyline.

The novel opens with an unspeakable tragedy: Vic loses his wife and children in a heartbreaking accident. Josie drops everything to rush to his side, traveling from her home in Upstate New York to his in Los Angeles. Not knowing how long she’ll be staying with Vic, Josie leaves her beloved horses in the hands of her equine veterinarian, who becomes an important character as well. The year that follows takes both Josie and Vic on a tumultuous journey as they search for where each belongs in their changing worlds. It involves flashback chapters, including the short story, “Pangaea,” that started it all, and it peaks with an experience that will give this fragmented family—Josie, Ellie, Vic, and Tony—a chance to reconnect.

I honestly loved every minute of writing this novel, immersing myself in the lives of my treasured characters, Josie and Vic. I wrote in alternating chapters, one from Josie’s perspective and the next from Vic’s. When the novel was finished, my publisher and I discussed the title. While writing, I had referred to it as Pangaea or The Promise of Pangaea. But my publisher was concerned that readers might be put off by “Pangaea”—a word they weren’t familiar with and perhaps couldn’t pronounce. I wracked my brain for other possible titles, browsed collections of poetry, searched for quotes, and looked through the novel for phrases that might work. So Close, the title of one of Ellie’s song lyrics. Blue Flags, an important metaphor in the novel. This Fleeting World, a phrase from my Rainer Maria Rilke epigraph. None felt right. They were either too vague or depressing.

Then, the obvious came to mind.

Most likely they whispered it in my ear with a well-deserved slap upside the head: Josie and Vic. Of course! What better title than Josie and Vic?

Now my cherished siblings will always be a part of my life, for I’ll be talking about them at book events and interviews in the months and years that follow the April 2023 release.

Recently, I’ve begun thinking about my next novel. I want to write the story of a young woman at a crossroads, searching for the next chapter in her life. It will be a journey story that involves the plight of America’s iconic wild mustangs.

As I sat down to write, who do you think sparked her way onto the page again? Josie’s daughter, Ellie!

It’s 2020 and Ellie, now thirty-eight, is leaving Seattle and driving east, toward Montana and Wyoming . . .

Some characters just won’t leave.

—

Debra Thomas is a Sarton Award winner for her debut novel, Luz. Her second novel, Josie and Vic, will be published April 2023. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Debra has lived in Southern California most of her adult life. After working a decade as a registered nurse, she returned to college to pursue her passion for literature and writing. She is a former English teacher at a Los Angeles public high school, as well as English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor to adults from all over the world. Her experience as an immigrant rights advocate influences much of her writing. She currently lives with her husband and little dog in Simi Valley, California, just minutes away from her two horses. For more information, visit her website http://www.debrathomasauthor.com

JOSIE AND VIC

When Josie Serafini’s brother Vic loses his wife and children in a tragic accident, Josie leaves her home and beloved horses in Upstate New York to join him in Los Angeles. While helping Vic pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Josie confronts broken relationships with her estranged father and rebellious, singer-songwriter daughter.

Josie and Vic each struggle to find where they belong in their changing worlds. Josie finds comfort in nature and in a budding, long-distance relationship with the empathetic equine veterinarian caring for her horses back home. Vic battles depression as he seeks purpose in his life. Josie’s three horses and a Siberian husky help open hearts to tenderness and healing—but it’s an unexpected journey to the US-Mexico border that offers this fragmented family a chance to reconnect. A story of love, loss, and forgiveness, Josie and Vic conveys hope—even in the darkest of times.

“Debra Thomas is a magician. Her artistry and empathy and gentle humor allow Josie and Vic, a novel grounded in the deepest of grief, to shine with hope, with compassion, with the reminder that connection and service offer us paths toward healing. An unforgettable, heart-filled, heart-filling novel.”
—Gayle Brandeis, author of The Book of Dead Birds, winner of Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers