Very many people have asked me, "So when are you going back to school?" and it's always awkward to have to explain, "Well, actually, y'know, I'm not going back this semester." Or the next semester. Or the semester after that. I always laugh around the subject saying, "Yea, you know, I'm just figuring things out." It's an easier truth than just saying what I mean:
"Well, I know what I'd really like to do. But things are tricky, see. People always frown when you say you dropped out of college to be a writer. They want to dictate your life for you. But yes. I'm a writer now. Well, if I ever get around to writing."
But I don't say that. Ever. I just laugh around the subject and say, "Yep, yep, I'm just taking this semester off to hopefully finish up my novel." And the inevitable, "Oh what's the novel about?" and the awkward answer of, "It's hard to explain. Well let me try..." because, you know, that's what they want to hear. But the answer doesn't satisfy me. I'd like to tell people what my book is about. What it's really about:
who am i
What's a coming of age story, really? What's it mean to be 18, an adult--but maybe not grown up.
Torrence Elizabeth Henry is in the graduating class of 2003. And she has no idea who she is. Has no idea what it means to pay taxes or have a salary. For the last seven years, all she has known are the halls of Belden Junior/Senior High School.
Margo Henry is tired. She works sixty-hour work weeks, on her feet every day. She comes home and falls asleep on the couch, without even saying hello to her daughter, who hasn't seen her all week.
Gertrude Darnley is mournful. But you could never tell it from looking at her. She loves her husband and her sister and her niece.
Ziggy Carlson is a big personality. She lights up every room she enters. She has a golden tongue--but she doesn't yet have the wisdom to know when to use it.
This is a novel that follows Torrence. But it's about all of them. About how one person's life affects everyone around them. Changes them, influences them, makes them who they are.
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