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One question I've been asked is, "Where is Junebug, Oklahoma?"
Simply, Junebug, Oklahoma, is in the southwest corner of Oklahoma on the border of Jackson and Harmon counties.
Junebug, Oklahoma's zip code is 74666.
You understand the symbolism.
Another question I've been asked is, "How did you come up with the name 'Junebug'?"
Over 20 years ago, the State of Oklahoma had a series of public service announcements about littering.
The PSAs featured a stereotypical Okie complete with beer gut, four-day stubble, cut-off country style shirt, ball cap, and soiled-ripped jeans. He drove a pickup.
And his name was Bubba.
Bubba lived in the town of Junebug, Oklahoma.
When I went to the library to search the map for the location of Junebug, I found there was no such city. (This is pre-Google days.)
So, I took the name and created my own small SW-Oklahoma town and county complete with its own unique and horrifying history.
You can read about the founding and horrific history of Junebug, Oklahoma, HERE.
I published some Junebug stories--all of them horror and macabre.
One day I received an email from an elderly woman who claimed she had lived near Junebug, Oklahoma, and wondered if it still existed or if was one of the hundreds of Oklahoma ghost towns.
Once again, I went to the library (pre-Google, remember) and did a more thorough search for Junebug.
No such town has ever existed in the State of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, or Oklahoma Territory.
This lady, though, insisted she have lived not far from Junebug, Oklahoma, and even knew people who had lived there back in the 1910s and 1920s.
No amount of persuasion on my part could convince her that I had gotten the idea from a TV PSA about littering and that I had created the town and the country from my fevered imagination.
Perhaps creating a realistic town and setting that people think they remember is actually what a writer should be doing.
I took the lady's persistence that Junebug, Oklahoma, was a real town from her childhood memory as a huge compliment!
So, when NEVЯLAND jumped into my consciousness, the setting for this horrific post-apocalyptic middle grade-young adult novel could only be one place--JUNEBUG, OKLAHOMA.
Junebug, Oklahoma, is my Yoknapatawpha County.
See you in NEVЯLAND,
Larry Mike
PS: According to the USPS Zip Code website, the prefix 74- is actually an eastern Oklahoma zip. I had chosen 73666 as the original Zip Code but that's the Zip Code for Sweetwater, Oklahoma. There is no OK town with 74666, and so, I'll just take the criticism about placing a 74- prefix Zip Code in a 73- SW-OK setting.
Description vs. Scenework. Hmmm . . . .
I´ve been told since day one of the first creative writing class I took and I pay many dollars a year to attend (and I´ve been paid many dollars to present at) conferences where I am reminded (and I remind others) ad naseum to write in scenes.
When I write a scene, do I view the scene as though I am writing a textbook or putting on a stage play?
Some tales I´ve read lately go into great protracted descriptive verbiage as though we, the readers, were sitting in our comfy chairs in our parlors in the 19th Century with no other distractions other than the occasional whippoorwill outside our collective windows and little more to do with our time except read long-winded descriptions of the setting, the characters, the time, et cetera.
I know. I wrote such a scene in my YA fantasy tale “Barmaglot”.
Worse yet, it was the opening nine pages!
My eagle-eyed critique partner pointed that out to me. I had written fine protracted purple prose. I was quite proud of my wordmanship and expertise with broadsword sentences and extravagant razor-sharp adjectives.
I should have used a dagger instead—quick, simple, efficient, to the point, and much more deadly, as well as (often) unseen until it’s too late.
I thought I had learned my lesson.
In NEVЯLAND (a WIP I’m slicing out now), I had what I thought was a strong, well-written paragraph, but something about it bothered me. I showed it to my teaching partner at school, and she was frustrated with the long paragraph, actually a single 60-word sentence broken up by a serious of commas.
All the commas were used properly and sitting in their proper places.
But the scene was exhausting to read.
“Break it up,” she said.
“You don’t like it? I think it conveys the idea nicely.”
“Well, obviously you think something is wrong with it, or you wouldn’t have shown it to me.”
She was right, of course, as usual.
I went back and broke up the long single 60-word sentence into several short, choppy sentences, and the scene tightened up immediately. It gave the reader a sense of hurried walking, which is what I was trying to do with the elongated sentence.
I love the theatre and acting and plays. I’ve written a couple of one-act dramas and still envision a play I’ve written being performed in regional theatre and then on off-off Broadway and then off Broadway and, finally, on Broadway! (Dream big or don’t dream at all.)
After the experiences of my critique partner and my teaching partner, I realized I needed to approach a scene in my novels and short stories the way I would approach a scene in a stage play—action and dialogue to move the story forward and avoid long rambling description, prolonged narrative, and extensive character exposition.
If the scene doesn´t play out on stage, it doesn´t play out on paper.
Description is necessary in telling a story in written form as a reader only views the setting, characters, and actions through the written word, unlike a stage play or movie.
However, the 19th and early 20th Centuries are long gone and buried with them are the multitude of paragraphs and proliferation of pages of protracted descriptive prose.
Today’s readers just won’t sit through such verbiage. Unless they are being held hostage on the tarmac of a shut-down airport or spending a very long two-day weekend with in-laws, they prefer to see as victims of a major crime.
- Perhaps if I wrote my scenes the way artists painted Good Girl Art covers for those steamy potboiler pulp novels of the 1950s, I´d be able to quit my day job, eh?
I’m striving to achieve a happy medium: description with an emphasis on scenework rather than description apart from scenework. The two must be imbued as much as possible if the story is to move along and keep the reader engrossed and entertained and turning those pages and buying my next Great American Novel.
From now on, I´m using a dagger when I write my scenes rather than a broadsword. Using a dagger rather than a broadsword when writing scenes allows me to sneak in the bladed information before my victim (my reader) knows what has happened.
See you on the bookshelves.
Larry Mike Garmon
