Title: Double Negative
Author: C. Lee McKenzie
Published by: Evernight Teen
Publication Date: July 25th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
“My life was going, going,
gone, and I hadn’t been laid yet. I couldn’t go into the slammer before
that happened.” Hutch McQueen.
Sixteen-year-old Hutchinson McQueen is trapped between an abusive
mother and an absentee father. Shackled by poor vision and poor reading
skills, he squeaks through classes with his talent for eavesdropping and
memorizing what he hears. After another suspension from school and
suffering through one of his mother’s violent attacks, he escapes to a
friend’s house that turns out to be a meth lab.
The lab is raided and
Hutch lands in juvenile detention. When the court sentences him to six
months in a new juvenile program, he meets a teacher with Alzheimer’s
who will change his life and hers.
So often I have to
cut something that doesn’t add to the story
or that takes the story in a direction I’d rather not have it go. These tangents require some dealing with, and
I go through several stages before I make the final decision to take them out.
Stage One: I ignore
them and keep writing, hoping that there will be a light at the end of the
tangent tunnel. . .and soon.
Stage Two: I stop
writing and cut the part that’s giving me fits. Paste it into a new document and play with the
possibilities. What will happen if I continue down this path? Will I eventually
end up where I want the story to go? Where could I end up if I keep going with
this?
Stage Three: I take
a hike. Always my last resort and usually the one that works.
I went through all
of these stages before I removed this tangent.
In my original
version of Double Negative, I had the mom leave, then return. This is a scene
that never showed up in the book because I changed my mind, and she never came
back, The impact of her disappearance was much stronger, than if I’d had her return and continue interacting with
her son, my main character, Hutch.
In this scene,
Hutch enters the kitchen to find his dad. He’s heard his mom come in during the night, and he’s tense about the reunion.
Jimmy’s at the counter, sipping from his mug, looking out the window. He
looks over his shoulder at me when I come. “You get in late last night?”
“About midnight. Had a job with Eddie.”
“Your mom’s back. Did you know?”
“Yeah. I heard her come in.”
He puts his mug in the sink. “I’m leaving today for Arizona.”
“You coming back?” I try to stifle the choke, but Jimmy catches it.
“Come on, kid, I never know what what I’m going to do ‘till I do it.” He reaches across
and touches my arm.
“So why’s she here?”
His smile spread off to one side of his
mouth. “Guess.”
I love to read my
out-takes because it makes me remember what I was thinking of doing during the
drafting of the book. If I’d kept scene like this, my story would have been very different.
In my other life--the one before I began writing for teens and
younger readers--I was a teacher and administrator at California State
University, San Jose. My field of Linguistics and Inter-cultural
Communication has carried me to a lot of places in the world to explore
different cultures and languages. I can say, “Where’s the toilet?” and
“I’m lost!” in at least five languages and two dialects. Go ahead. Pat
me on the back.
My idea of a perfect day is one or all of the
following: starting a new novel, finishing writing a blockbuster novel,
hiking on a misty morning trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains, saying
Namaste after a great yoga practice, sipping a cappuccino topped at a
bustling café, reading in front of a fire with snow outside, swimming in
an ocean someplace.
I've just set out my perfect life. Day after day after day.
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