Reflecting on the Grist… the inspiration and the process

In Fall 2005 I enrolled in a “research in fiction” course with Achy Obejas and a biography class with Professor Craig Howes.  In Achy’s class we learned different methods of research to make our fiction stronger, including interviewing someone.  In Craig’s class, one of our assignments was to interview someone and then transcribe the interview word and sound for word and sound.  I interviewed my father and mother-in-law about their lives in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.  Diana shared about come-as-you-are parties and how her father played chess “long distance” with inmates from San Quentin.  Initially, I was curious about my father’s experiences when we were living in Spain when Franco ruled, but instead he shared about his experiences as a guard at San Quentin when he was attending college at UC Santa Barbara.  

It was serendipity that their interviews contained information about San Quentin, and I was able to draw on two worlds intersecting, using material from both interviews to construct this story.  

In addition, I researched young men who’d committed horrific crimes.  William is based on a real person who was left in an abandoned mine with his siblings when their father went to work.  One day, William’s father never returned.  The real person also had a deformity in his eyelid. 

It is written in third person, first from Jimmy’s perspective, and then from William’s.  Jimmy, the guard, witnesses his first execution, and he is advised by his supervisor to find a spot to focus on to help him cope with his first execution.  He is drawn to William’s hooded and ruined eye.  William, the convict, is told to find a kind face before he’s executed, and he finds one in Jimmy’s.  Their eye contact provides them with a human connection through a horrific moment, a point of grace discovered.  

Jimmy’s scenes at his parents’ home are written in present tense, while the prison scenes are written in past tense. 

I shared this story with both my father and my father’s college friend, Ernie, who had worked at San Quentin, too.  Ernie, a novelist and retired college professor, said the story took him back in time.  I am grateful for the interviews which inspired me to write about something outside my comfort zone.

It was workshopped in my writing group with Tammy, Chris, Tom, mentored by Ian MacMillan.  I included it in my MA thesis, The Grace of Dark Times.  Ian had strongly suggested I title my collection The Point of Grace, using this story as the key story in the collection.  He was incredibly gracious and supportive when I insisted on my title, which I felt reflected the entire collection, which explored dark life situations.

Ian shared with me that when he was an undergraduate taking a fiction class he ignored his professor’s advice on a rewrite.  Ian submitted the piece for publication and it was accepted.  He shared the good news with his professor who then asked about the changes.  Ian admitted that he had not followed his mentor’s advice.  His mentor congratulated him on knowing and honoring his material.  That publication earned him a spot at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the gem of writing programs.  Ian brought the Workshop practices to University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa when he developed the creative writing program in the 1960s.