From Headlines to Page: How I Transformed a National News Story into a Suspense Novel

By Regina Buttner

Several years ago in my former hometown, the local media was abuzz with the tale of a young man whose parents were compelled to take the drastic step of evicting him from their suburban home for refusing to get a job and contribute to the household. It was a hard-to-believe story that eventually worked its way into the national news, with coverage by CNN, Time, People, and USA Today.

Viewers and readers were astounded by the momentous nature of the parents’ actions, and flabbergasted by the son’s stubborn denial of the painfully obvious realities of his situation. The media coverage was generally even-handed, presenting the unvarnished facts of the case without passing judgment on those involved. Some people sided with the unfortunate son and expressed concern for his future; but most opinions landed solidly in the parents’ camp, backing up their hard-nosed decision to take legal action to resolve what had become an untenable state of affairs.

Having two young adult children of my own, with one son still living at home, it saddened me to hear of a parent/child relationship coming to such an extreme and rancorous pass. I tried to imagine how I would have felt if I were in the parents’ uncomfortable position. Would I have taken a decisive tough love approach as they did, or chosen a path of supposed compassion that might lead to endless vacillation? And would my relationship with my son survive whichever path I chose?

Hard to say, seeing as I’d never been faced with the unique circumstances that this family was grappling with. I could only pray they would one day find a way to move past their differences and reconcile, and that some degree of harmony might eventually be restored to their lives. 

Those news stories prompted some personal pondering on my part, about the messy realities of kinship bonds. In my experience, no one’s family is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, no matter what the 1970s television shows of my youth tried to convince me was real (pointing to you, Brady Bunch!) The hard truth is that in real-life families, it’s often the people whom we love the best or rely most heavily upon who prove to be the most difficult for us to get along with in the course of our daily lives. Blood is usually thicker than water, but familiarity can also breed contempt. Family dynamics are tricky to navigate, and are sometimes fraught with conflict.

So, I got to wondering: what if I used this news story as the starting point for a novel about a young man who becomes so angry with his parents for kicking him out of their house that he vows to get revenge on them? What sort of vindictive behavior might be triggered in each of the parties involved, and what might the consequences of their actions be? And would all of this add up to a gripping fictional story?

 

I felt I was onto something, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the sensitive and potentially sensational nature of my story premise. After mulling my nascent idea awhile, I decided that writing about a son wreaking vengeance on his own flesh-and-blood parents was a pretty twisted scenario that would steer the story into territory I definitely did not want to visit. I write domestic suspense, not horror, and didn’t care to delve into such a dark theme. I considered portraying the son as an adopted child from unknown origins, but that didn’t sit well with me either, because I wanted to avoid unfair stereotypes and tired tropes. 

After much deliberation, I realized that emphasizing the psychological aspects of this fictional family’s interactions would make for a much more interesting and intricate tale. I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of the “family of origin,” and how the families in which we were raised can heavily influence the choices we make as adults. It’s a theme I explored in my debut women’s fiction novel Absolution, in which a young wife’s traditional Catholic upbringing sets her on a collision course with her own husband. 

Families come in various permutations—nuclear, single parent, blended, extended—and the interpersonal relations within each family unit can vary widely in their degree of cooperation or disharmony. In my new suspense novel The Revenge Paradox, my goal was to create a family of origin so unconventional that the main character, Rudy, (named after the gentle imaginary friend I had when I was five years old), barely stands a chance of experiencing anything like a “normal” upbringing, no matter how hard everyone around him appears to be trying to support him. Getting creative with Rudy’s family history, I devised an unusual double-stepparent situation in which there are no blood ties at all between himself and his legal guardians. (Trust me, it’s all clearly explained in the novel!) Once I established Rudy’s origin story, I let the family drama rip with secrets, simmering grudges, and plots for revenge. But revenge has a way of backfiring…

That’s my story journey, from the headlines to the page. Sometimes fiction can be stranger than truth. 

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THE REVENGE PARADOX

“Deception, family drama, and more secrets than I could count permeate the pages of this gritty portrait of an untapped slice of Americana.” –Dan McDowell, award-winning author of When She Comes Knocking

Revenge has a way of backfiring sometimes.

College dropout-turned-Amazon reseller Rudy Hodgens vows revenge when his parents evict him for refusing to get a real job and generally being a slacker. If it weren’t for his friend Fudgie offering him a place to crash, he’d be on the street. Good thing he stole his stepfather’s gun before he moved out.

Rudy thinks he’s onto a promising new business venture when he sells the gun to a shady acquaintance who’s eager for as much illicit merchandise as Rudy can supply. Plus there’s Laci, the alluring pink-haired girl he recently met at the bus stop. They begin dating, and Laci persuades Rudy to return to school. All of a sudden, life’s looking up.

But the stolen gun triggers a chain of events that threaten to derail Rudy’s newfound happiness, and his desire for vengeance takes a violent turn. Only Laci can save him from his worst impulses, but there’s a catch—Laci’s secretly out for revenge too, and Rudy’s standing in her way.

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Regina Buttner is a registered nurse-turned-writer who was raised in beautiful upstate New York, where she spent many years exploring the small towns and scenic hiking trails of the Adirondack mountain region. She recently traded the snowy northern winters for the tropical breezes of Florida, where her favorite pastimes are kayaking among the mangroves, strolling the sandy beaches, and teaching tricks to her crafty little corgi, Pekoe. Connect with her on her website: www.reginabuttner.com

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