By David Harry
Standard Deviation is a fiction novel centered
around an Asperger’s child.
Thump
“What was that?” I asked, turning to my wife and
finding her as startled as I was.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Sounds
to have come from the hallway.”
Thump. Thump.
We both rushed to the front of the house in time
to observe our four-year-old granddaughter climbing up to the third step using
the handrail for support. She carefully turned to face the
landing. Without so much as a whoop or a Bonsai, or any other form of
warning, she launched herself in the air, barely clearing the bottom step and
landing with a resounding thump on the hall floor.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I
admonished. “Don’t do that.”
But she was already on the second step on her
way to the third. “Please don’t—” The command had come too late.
Thump
This time her chin hit the ground as well as her
feet and knees. My wife rushed over, expecting to be ministering to
a child in need of medical attention only to find her scrambling to her feet intent
on repeating the performance. “Please dear, don’t jump. You’ll
get hurt. Please, don’t jump.”
Words didn’t seem to impact her, so I put my
arms around her small body and held her still. Well, as still as it
is possible to hold a child intent on jumping off the third step. Eventually,
maybe a minute, maybe five, she calmed down. I could feel it in her
body. I let go, expecting her to race back to the stairs. But
instead, she walked toward the back of the house, her head down mumbling to
herself,
“Don’t jump. Don’t jump. Don’t jump. Don’t jump.”
My heart broke. My research for
Standard Deviation began, research that opened my eyes–and my heart–to a whole
new reality. A reality that is my granddaughter’s life.
A writer’s challenge is to translate the world
as he/she sees and feels it to an audience who initially may be indifferent to
the writer’s subject. This daunting task is made easier
by selecting a topic you, the writer, have a vested interest in
exploring. Thus, a corollary to the adage, write about what
you know is the proposition of caring before telling.
Powerful writing is not so much about what
you’re comfortable with, but rather about a desire to share with your audience
a particular passion. When your excitement, the excitement
stemming from a new revelation, a new truth, a new understanding, bleeds onto
the pages of your story you have smoothed the reader’s path to discover what
lies beneath the story’s surface veneer. Being overly
comfortable with your subject often results in a narration that, even though
very well written, lacks the excitement of the hunt.
Since explorations are never without false
trails and misplaced truths, the addition of a healthy dash of imagination
makes the reader’s journey even more interesting and causes the pages to be
turned all that much faster.
_______________________________________________________________________
David Harry was born and raised in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in
Electrical Engineering and from Capital Law School with a Juris Doctorate. Mr. Harry is a registered patent attorney,
now retired and living on South Padre Island with his wife, Mary and German
Sheppard, Hydra. David’s hobbies
include writing, biking and kayaking. Mr. Harry has published four
mystery/thrillers set in the valley featuring Jimmy Redstone, an aging former
Texas Ranger, and Angella Martinez, a relative newcomer to law enforcement who
finds herself as a Homeland Security agent partnered with Jimmy. Mr. Harry’s
latest book, STANDARD DEVIATION, centers around an Asperger’s child and the
difficult personal relationships that spectrum people endure. The book explores friendship and love between
troubled people. His website is www. davidharryauthor.com
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