Like you, I am a lot of things. I can’t say time kept me from writing or life got in the way, as I’ve written four novels besides this one, but none of them published.
In hindsight, I found writing them offered an opportunity to take people apart with a growing understanding of how the pieces fit, why they fit, and what magic combination of the parts are assembled in such a way as to present themselves as characters and as people.
And maybe more impactful, the novels were an opportunity to take myself apart for a better understanding of how the pieces fit.
And so it is with Salvage.
I began writing when I was about 15, studying song lyrics and secretly writing poetry after I got home from my manual labor job. I was reading everything from Freud to Frederic Manning to Shakespeare, likewise listening to B.B. King, Buddy Guy and countless rock bands. My mind was awash with a thousand ideas and a thousand ambitions, and while I entered college planning to become a policeman, I left college planning to become a writer. In all of it, my salvation was the backdrop to everything I was.
It would be irresponsible (and untrue) to paint a picture of a young man earnest in his witness, or even earnest in his morality. I was rowdy, longed for adventure, and created a segmented world where the different pieces of me could be presented to different audiences, but never as a whole. Part of that was a reflection of what I wanted people to know, and part of that was my not knowing how to assemble the pieces in a way that made sense to me.
So I had a life. I may get into that later, but wound up at a point where I decided to write a fifth novel. This time, the idea was to write a story that didn’t have violence or sadness or death or angst. This time, the intent would be to simply write a nice story about a successful Christian man, whose life had worked itself out beautifully by virtue of the peace he had through his relationship with God. It was to be a reflection on the successes from a life well-lived, wherein his relationships with friends and family were solid and celebrated.
As I began to write it, however, two things occurred to me: 1) it was boring, and 2) redemption is not only more interesting, but more needed. And so it was I began to develop a character lost in the chasm, while seemingly victorious to humanity. This book took ten years, on and off, and during the first two or three I met a man who was very much like the lead character, and I began to write the story with him in mind. I wanted this man to know the peace I feel in Christ. The peace I feel in forgiveness. The peace I feel in an eternity I anticipate with wonder.
So I started to write a story of a man hiding his assembled pieces, because he didn’t know how to present the assembly. A man who certainly looked successful by any measure but for the one that mattered.
I hope you like it.
We should all be so committed.
I should be so committed.
Salvage by Curt Craighead 