This One Is For: "C"

I wrote this blog post shortly after the new year, but I'm only getting around to posting it.  There've just been a lot of things going on, and the time didn't feel right until now.

I've hit a bump in the road with my latest book, The Blue Hole.  I am so close to being finished!  Unfortunately, I will need to make some minor (possibly major) edits before it is even complete, most of which defines a specific character.  I really hope this won’t affect the overall story I'm trying to tell, but who am I kidding—I’m facing having to re-write one of my most interesting characters.

So, here’s what happened:  The aforementioned character is based on an old friend of mine.  We’ll call him “C”.  C was a completely unchained party animal.  He was wild and could care less about what anyone thought of him.  He had long hair, walked barefoot everywhere (seriously, in the years I knew him, I only ever saw him where flip-flops once), and he only wore a shirt when he walked into a store or business which required it.  He used to joke that he was the reason behind the signs, “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.”  C was untamed, and did whatever he wanted, and didn’t mind the consequences.  Yes, he was that kid your parents were always worried you’d look up to—the bad influence.  But if you really got to know him, C had a side to him that was also very kind, caring, and still fun—he was someone you could count on.  I’d never seen him be mean or cruel to anyone, which was a pleasant change of pace for me when I first met him.  He would be friends with the guy waiting in line to use the payphone, and he wouldn’t hesitate to buy the crossing guard a cool soda on a hot summer day.  C was a guy that dressed like trouble-maker riffraff but had the heart of an angel cloaked in all his disrepair. 

I was only fifteen years old when I met C.  He was already eighteen at the time.  His parents had bought him one of those new Volkswagen Beetles, and he was never shy to give anyone a ride in it.  My friend and I needed a ride to a party, and he was willing to help us out.  From that day forward, we hung out quite a bit.  We didn’t hang out every day—he wasn’t my go-to pal that I did everything with, but we would catch up at least once a week or so, not counting the inevitability of us running into one another at whatever weekend kegger was going on.  C was a good guy that I never regretted meeting, hanging out with, and calling one of my friends.

C passed away at age twenty-five.  Maybe your minds have already graded C by my physical description of him, and maybe you’ve determined that he was a drug-user—unfortunately you would be correct.  Don’t get me wrong, I never thought of C as an addict that couldn’t control himself—but he did find himself experimenting with several substances, especially toward the end of his life—but I never thought of him as an addict.  (Maybe I’m just trying to protect the image of him I have saved in mind?)  C’s family also had a heavy history of heart disease that he apparently also inherited.  That coupled with his recreational drug use was enough to take him from us far too early.  But even gone too soon, I know that C made an imprint on not just my life, but so many others.  That’s why I wanted to share him with you in, The Blue Hole. 

I contacted a member of his family about a year ago and asked for permission to model a character in my book after C.  I wanted the character to be C in pretty much every way.  C had a cool nickname I wanted to use as well.  His family member verbally agreed to my wishes at the time.  However, over Christmas, the family had a change of heart and asked me to refrain from using C's character.  I of course agreed to respect her wishes, but I was extremely disappointed.  This dealt a terrible blow to my book that I wasn’t ready to face.   This change would not only affect the character, but a second story arc within the main story.  

I’ve spoken with C’s family a few times since Christmas; not to haggle or bother them, we really just met in passing.  I did encourage them to read what I had so far, and they did.  After their reading some pages from the book, we have come to an agreement.  They've allowed me to use a few attributes, like the way he dressed, his lifestyle choices, and one momentous event which C orchestrated one weekend (read more about that in the book), but they asked me not to use his name, nor mention his family.  That may not seem like such a big deal, but it does make for a lot of changes.  I really would have liked to have given C the credit for the life that he lived, and the fun we all had because of him, but I'm going to take what I can and hope that I can still see my friend between the lines.  

So, I'm posting this now with a snippet of the cover to the Blue Hole so you can prepare yourself for the story I have in store.  (I'll share the whole cover as I get closer to publishing.)  When you pick up a copy of The Blue Hole (hopefully later this year), please know that this book is dedicated to my good friend C.  He was a real guy, and he was one of the best.  Rest peacefully my friend.

Happy Reading!