Today I’m welcoming to the Fired-Up Friday blog author Don Phelan. Don
and I have known each other since elementary school, and it’s exciting to have
him here as a guest. His recently released novel, The Beech Tree, is one I
found to be both bittersweet and memorable. Don, tell us a little bit about
yourself, your novel, and how you started writing.
==========================
The first creative
writing I did was a poem I wrote at about the age of 12. "On the beach
with golden sands," it started. It was about two lovers walking the Lake
Michigan shoreline. When I showed it to my mother, she was ... maybe not surprisingly
... less than enthusiastic about my subject matter at age 12! I was a bit embarrassed and never put pen to
paper again for many years. Surprisingly, I discovered 30 years later that she
had saved the poem.
She never saw
writing as a career choice. That said, my mother was a wonderful writer. In
college, I would often come home to my apartment to discover my roommate had ripped
open another letter from Mom. He always left the $20 bill she had sent folded
into the envelope on the table and he would sit in a chair, laughing hysterically,
reading the letter my mom had sent along with the letter. I know her writing influenced mine.
In college, I took
a Humanities class and the Prof encouraged us to look at common objects and see
them differently and write about them. I didn't grasp the importance of this
lesson until years later.
When I was in my
late 20's and after rather boring careers as a salesperson and stockbroker, I
knew I wanted to pursue a job in advertising. After knocking on literally
hundreds of doors, I landed a job and, over the course of the next ten years, I
had the opportunity to work with some incredible talent -- one who is now an
Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, another was a brilliant creative director who
specialized in funny radio commercials and even James Patterson (we called him
Jim back then, when he was Creative Director for J. Walter Thompson USA.) I watched
in awe as they created brilliant work.
One such talent was
my friend, Hutch, who had won numerous Clio Awards (the advertising business'
Oscar) and I asked how he wrote such amazing stuff. In his Texas drawl, he
replied, "They's just word pictures. I just write what I see inside my
head." It was a great bit of insight.
I wrote ads for
hamburgers, beer, cars, trade journals, magazine articles and public relations.
After I left the advertising business, I wrote a series of poems for my young
daughters from their tooth fairies, Mary and Penny. One of these days, I will
find an illustrator for them and publish them!
As with most
writers, the idea of writing the Great American Novel pinged around in my head
but I never felt I had a great concept. Or even a good one.
Then, one day, I
was on a bicycle ride along the Lake Michigan shoreline between Grand Haven and
Holland. I went looking for the cottage of a high school buddy's family where
our group of friends hung out. We would walk down the road to what was
popularly known as The Beech Tree, the place where tourists and townspeople
alike visited to share their lives, their loves, hopes and dreams, and, to
carve their initials into the tree. We weren't quite as "environmentally
aware" back then as we are today!
Sadly, I discovered
the tree had fallen years earlier. Some say it was destroyed -- as was the
cottage -- during a freak storm in the spring of 1998.
I just sat there in
the spot where the magnificent tree once stood. I felt so sad. I thought about
those who had carved their initials into the tree. Whatever became of them?
What were their lives like? I wondered,
too, if I had ever, unknowingly, met any of them and felt a
don't-I-know-you-from-somewhere? moment. Our only thing in common was the big tree
which stood on the first dune in from the shore.
I spent the next
day on Oval Beach in Saugatuck, watching the sun worshippers, a colorful mix of
Illinois tourists, aging hippies and gay men. With my ever-present Spiral steno
pad in hand -- and a pencil! -- I scribbled a chapter about Mason McDonald, a
once-aspiring young man, drafted into the Army during Vietnam, and left a
brain-damaged, pot-smoking beach bum who, 30 years later, hangs out on Oval
Beach at the end of the beach "where the queers hang out," as he
describes it. Mason seldom panders to political correctness ... or so one might
believe. During 1967's Summer of Love, he and Debby had carved their initials
and pledged to meet back at the tree in two years when his tour was over. Neither
of them showed up. They both have their
reasons. Good ones.
That was the first
chapter -- which eventually became the fifth chapter -- but it set the stage
for the other characters and events.
====================
You write with such clarity about several of the small towns that dot
the Lake Michigan shoreline. Did you spend a lot of time visiting them while
growing up?
One setting, of
course, is our home town, Lake Michigan port cities of Benton Harbor and St.
Joseph, Michigan. Although I knew the area, the era which I wrote about in St.
Joe and Benton Harbor are mostly in the 1920's and '30's. I found myself doing a lot of research for
accuracy and discovered some interesting facts I never knew ... which, of
course, found their way into the book.
Today, I have
adopted Grand Haven as my lakeshore home and did even more research on the city
to maintain historical accuracy. One day, I was writing at the Kirby Grill and
the manager came over. "I hear you are writing a novel," he said.
"Do you know about our ghost?"
"Your ghost?" I asked. "The Blue Man. He's been a guest
here at the hotel for decades."
With that, I did more research and, well, you need to buy the book!
I spent a good
amount of writing time in Saugatuck, too. Each of the towns has their own personalities.
And they are all wonderful places to visit!
===================
The characters in The Beech Tree are so true to life. Did you base any
of them on real people you knew?
Johnny, the first
one to carve his and his Margo's initials in the tree in 1918 before he ships
out to fight in The Great War, is one character based on a real person. My
grandfather -- my mother's dad -- had bright red hair, bright blue eyes and
talent with a baseball glove. When I started writing the character, his
personality just came out, in his humor, his ruggedness, his shyness yet
certainty about doing what was right, even though he sometimes failed to do the
right thing himself. Yes, that character
has a lot of my grandfather in him.
The character,
Marie, has many of the personality traits of my step-grandmother.
========================
The time span of the book covers nearly the entire 20th century and is
very detailed in descriptions of those turbulent years. Can you talk about how
you did the research?
Lots and lots of
research. Google is a wonderful tool for
writers; you can get a lot of information. Sometimes, though, you must get out
of your chair and walk in their footsteps, literally. It gives you a feel that
researching via the internet can't give you.
For example, an
Episcopal church described in the book: I walked in, sat down in the pew and
just "felt" the place. It seemed like a good place for a private
conversation.
In one of the
chapters, I describe the Freedom Ride event. Walter Bergman, a then-young man,
was paralyzed during the violence. Mr. Bergman was a neighbor of mine in the
mid-1970's and I had talked with him then about what he experienced. It was a
defining moment in my life and some 40 years later, it found its way into the
book. A couple years back, I was traveling past Birmingham, Alabama. I took the
exit, drove to the bus station where it happened and just stood there,
imagining what horror happened in that spot on that fateful day.
==================
Are you working on another book? (I hope!)
Yes, the working
title is The God Particle: Annihilation.
A drastic departure from a summer beach read,
it is based on Stephen Hawking's theory that Earth could be swallowed up by a
black hole from a distant, much larger galaxy. Since his theory proposes such
an event -- improbable as it is -- would happen at faster-than-light speed. We
would never see it coming. Which makes
for a pretty short, dismal novel, right?
So a bit of
literary and scientific license will be necessary.
Strange events are
happening and scientists of the world believe this event is actually beginning
to take place. Of course, if the world's population hears of it, there will be
mass hysteria. So scientists and world leaders agree to a pact of silence.
Except for one PhD
in Cosmology Research Assistant, who defies all stereotypes of science geeks.
She believes she might have discovered the real answer. Now all she needs to do
is find her mentor/professor, who has escaped into hiding and into his bottle
of Bourbon, to verify her findings.
That is, if she
finds him before those who want them both dead don't find them first.
======================
In what formats is The Beech Tree available and where can we purchase
it?
The Beech Tree is
available in paperback, all e-books formats and even PDF for reading on a
desktop computer.
E-book edition also
available online at Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other bookseller sites.
=========================
Thank you for being my guest here today, Don. Best of luck with your
writing. We’ll be looking forward to the next release!
