Volume 9 , Issue 11

Story Telling & Book Advice

I asked one of my Okie friends how to start my book. My friend said, "I will read the book because I want it to make some kind of sense out of what happened -- from beginning to end -- it's your job to do that for me in your book. During the whole thing, here's a very important thing ... Have fun with it!! This is especially important when telling an Okie story.

My friend stated, "We are hard asses. We live in a God forsaken place where life is low income and rough as Hell. We look at life from that point of view. We're also 'holier than thou' people. This opera house story is 'our kind of story.' We can 'take it' if somebody got murdered -- we don't 'suck air' over the fact that life is hard and mysterious. You just have fun telling this story from your NATURAL BORN Okie point of view, and you will tell it just right. Don't be fake about it or try to act like anyone but yourself. You are a good, regular Okie person, so you use that 'good self' to say what you've got to say, and tell it to me (another Okie) so that I really 'get into' that story WITH you."

This same friend goes on to say, "People in small towns have certain ways. We know everyone and their families and we know their family's history. It's personal. We actually 'care' about why, when and where somebody did something."

How much of that caring is curiosity for some juicy gossip tidbits of our fellow citizens?

Anyone else have any book ideas, suggestions they would like to pass along to this first-time novelist? I would love to hear from you. Either on OkieLegacy MySpace "blog" or add your comments below. Thanks for your participation, suggestions!
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