The Novel

watercolor sketch by claudia schoenfeld

The Novel

“A novel can be a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, or the

mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.”

--Ishmael Reed.

Yeah,

      I’ve had been working on my novel

                           for over a year now, a

                           detective story; but since

the genre has been written 10,000 books deep,

      I needed to find a new twist, 

      an unexpected hook.

How about picking a large city that has not been

                  used, or written to death

                  in crime literature,

say Seattle?           Make the private investigator

                               a Viet Nam veteran, then place the events

in the 1970’s--when the pain & PTSD blossoming

from that conflict

                were still from fresh scars, extant, somewhat

                                                   mysterious, then give

the protagonist a cool name, like Baerbak, John,

Johnny; make him deeply flawed, full of bottled-up rage,

                a bachelor again after two

                failed marriages, & a lethal martial artist,

built upon from his special forces background.

Then take a bold step,

                make the antagonist the yin to his yang,

the dark side of his nature with only glimmers

                of light juxtaposed to Baerbak living in light battling

those dark demons in his dreams--then give the heavy a cool

                 name as well, say Cody something,

                 a skilled marine sniper who served

                                           in Viet Nam; both men in country

at the same time; maybe even met once, fought together,

with Cody now a warrior who could not stop

                 the urge to kill, 

his angst turned to criminal endeavors; & make him

                 a martial artist too, to create a super fight

for the close of the tale; 

two men linked like battle brothers, creating

                 one whole person only together, the same

yet different, like fraternal twins--oh yeah,

                     then make them be dating the same woman,

a waitress in a downtown diner, who is attracted

to them both, & does not reveal one to the other at first;

making both men adamant film buffs,

             with huge movie collections, & extensive expertise

in film trivia; so much so that some of the major clues

             can be from movie plots or quotes--give them

                       both fascinating lairs in old buildings where they

are the only residents, both dangerous & anti-social.

Use the city as no other writer ever has,

writing from my own past growing up

in Seattle; put some of the action along the waterfront,

at the Public Market, at the Seattle Center;

have a whole chapter, or more, occur

            on a Washington State super ferry; a lot

            can happen during those one hour voyages

                                between the islands of Puget Sound--

but definitely have the denouement take place

atop the Space Needle, hand-to-hand combat,

the kind that only one man can survive.

Anchor the story in those pre-technology late 70’s,

                  before wireless wi fi,

                  before smart phones, even

                  before the internet,

when people still wrote letters & used pay phones.

Make it existential Noir,

                  a movie buff’s dream book, 

                  irresistible,

                  controversial,

                  enticing,

                  fascinating,

& how about I finish the damn thing

before Christmas.

          

Glenn Buttkus

Actually I do have another unpublished novel, a crime story, titled BAERBAK. 

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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