Other People’s Cars: Creativity in the Ordinary

Much has been written about the tendency humans have to imbue automobiles with personality. Literature abounds with cars as characters, sometimes carrying as much weight in the story as the people do, and often with longer-lived popularity. Stephen King’s Christine comes to mind, as does the Dukes’ General Lee, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and a certain Aston Martin of note. I even made this car a major character in my last book, Memory of Murder. Knight Rider gave KITT special powers and William Daniels’ voice. And, of course, Pixar turned autos and planes into a virtual motherlode of merchandising ideas.

But for me, cars are a source of an entirely different type of creativity. They break writer’s blocks.

This harks back to a question every writer hears sooner or later: Where do you get your ideas? I’ve finally broken this down to one answer: Parking lots.

Y’see, I’m nosy. When I’m walking through the parking lot at Publix, WalMart, wherever, I look at other people’s cars. I look at bumper stickers and those little stick people on the windows. I glance to see what’s in the back seat or how many child car seats they have. When I’m sitting in traffic, I people watch, to see if the person matches their car. (Seriously, folks, your car reflects you in SO many ways.)

And I make up tales, little stories to go with what I see. This keeps my writer’s brain spinning at all times, sometimes at high speed. Sometimes these little stories turn into big stories…one of them became my novel TheTaking of Carly Bradford. A pottery piece became The Face of Deceit. A pickup sitting in a cornfield became Field of Danger.

Every writer has felt what I call the post-book slump. That first day or two after “The End,” when you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to do that again. Write another book. Some of us have ideas stored up for years, more ideas than we can use in a lifetime. But others . . . not so much.

For those folks, or if you just want to practice your flash fiction skills, I’d suggest a stroll through the closest parking lot. People, and their cars, are infinitely fascinating.

Just don’t linger too long or peer too closely. Security guards can be a bit touchy about this.

How I Learned to Text . . . and Call the Suicide Hotline

This is my old phone. I got it in 2003, after my previous one (of a similar model) went kaput in the middle of a phone call. I'm reluctant to change technology because I feel as if I could be doing something better with my time than learning which new buttons to push. So I didn't upgrade until 2013. This was a workhorse of a phone, and I keep it for a lot of reasons.

One thing it was NOT particularly good for was texting. Clunky and slow. So I swore I'd never learn to text. No use for it. Waste of time, yeah, yeah, yeah, rinse, repeat. Drove a couple of my friends nuts.

Then on December 20, 2005, just before 2:00pm, I received this text:

Thank u please  do 

not give up on me 

love your brother 

chuck  depressed 

lonely

I ignored it. I thought it was one of my friends pranking me. Then, sixteen minutes later, I get this one:

I cannot do this 

alone I am 

homeless angie 

I want to die 

please help 

me

This time I checked the number. It was a Kentucky area code. I completely panicked. I had no idea how to respond. I dug out my book, and I figured it out. I sent back:

Don't give up! You have the wrong number. Let me help you. I typed in my number, and asked him to call me. Instead, I got another text:

Thank you 
whoever my family 
has given up on 
me im 25 and about 
to die sorry 
my sisters 
number is XXXX 
allways chuck d-------

Oh, dear Lord in heaven! What do I do?  His sister's number was one digit different from mine. Did I call her?

Instead, I called the suicide hotline. I read the texts to the terrific woman who answered, and she thought he might be serious. She gave me the number for the suicide hotline in Kentucky. I hung up and I sent him the number. I begged him to call them, to not give up. To call, really CALL the number, then his sister.

Silence. Then, twenty minutes later:

Have nothing left 

no one to talk to my 

alcoholism has driven 

everyone away 

can I get those 

numbers again 

sorry to bother

I sent him the numbers again. Once again I pleaded for him not to give into this urge.

I never heard from him again. I have no idea what the outcome was. I have to trust that he called the number, that his texts were a sign he wanted help. I can trust and hope. This year, Chuck would be 34, and I dearly pray he's somewhere safe, with family around him.

And, yes, I've saved those texts for almost a decade. They weren't normal texts to be read and discarded.

Over the course of 90 minutes, just before Christmas 2005, I learned to text out of pure desperation. And I've avoided the word "never" ever since. After all, saying, "I won't," is a serious chance for God to say, "Oh, really? Oh, my dear child...."

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PS: The list of suicide hotlines is here. If you know someone who could use one of them, please share.

Ledge Walking

 When I was nineteen, I broke my ankle on a backpacking trip. It was not a happy adventure for me, although it makes a great story almost 40 years later.

Yeah, OK, it also made a great story about three days later, when I returned to my backpacking class and propped a cast up in the chair next to me. I’m a writer. Life is fodder for stories. Sue me.

The accident also made for a lesson in humility. Y’see, I had just chimneyed over a frozen waterfall, something I didn’t know I could do. A log had fallen over the chasm, just below the crest of ice. We crossed, hands on the log, feet UP on the falls, inch-by-inch. I did it. I couldn’t believe it. I did it! I scrambled up the trail, turned and cheered, celebrating. I jumped up and down, thrilled beyond belief. I did it!

And…my feet shot out from under me on the loose gravel of the trail. I slid, feet first toward the icy stream. I threw myself backwards over my pack (think upside down turtle) and started trying to stop with my feet. I stopped, snapping my ankle in the process.

The next two days were NOT fun. We were several miles into a wilderness area. And, yes, I walked out on that ankle, getting lost for a bit in the process. I learned something hard about celebrating too soon, but it didn't stop me from taking the occasional risk. After all, the outcome made for an even greater success.

And while it was the first time I tumbled off a ledge, it wasn’t the last. Although the later ones were more metaphorical. I’ve walked a lot of those kind of ledges.

Now I don’t consider myself brave—STUBBORN is the better description. I don’t like to let life get the better of me, and it’s tried a few times. But long ago I got two pieces of advice that made all the difference in the world. One from a spiritual mentor, the other from one of my favorite authors.

1)     "You have to trust God and give Him your concerns. This will NOT be easy. In fact, I give a lot of stuff to God every morning because by afternoon, I’ve yanked it back. But I never stop trying to trust and let go. The more you try, the more you succeed."

2)      “Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”

       —Ray Bradbury

I also try to keep in mind a corollary to that last one, given to me by that same mentor: “Sometimes when you are standing on the ledge, you need to take the leap of faith. If you don’t, God’s very likely to shove you off.”

I’ve been shoved off a few times as well.

Sometimes, we need to take risks. We need to apply for that job, submit that manuscript, go on that date. We need to stretch our minds and our bodies. While some Scriptures counsel us to be content with what we have, we’re never coached to be complacent. Being content means being grateful for what we have, not stopping in one place. In fact, Scripture frequent urges us to grow in mind, body, and spirit, to push ourselves in our work and our relationship with God.

After all, one of God’s greatest apostles would have been happy to keep making tents; God lit a fire under him, however, that sent Paul to the far corners of the known world.  

So I’m a firm believer in walking on a few ledges. Because we never know what grand adventures God has in store for us.