Gary V. Powell, Author

 I've been thinking a lot lately about characters and characterization in fiction. I've been thinking about where characters come from, how they are developed, and what distinguishes a merely interesting character from an unforgettable character.

Beginning writers are often challenged to separate themselves from their protagonists. Their stories are often more about themselves than their characters. The result is usually self-involved, self-indulgent, and boring fiction. The problem is sometimes attributed to writers taking heart in the adage, "write about what you know," which is no doubt good advice. But writing about what one knows differs from knowing what one is writing about. Knowing what one is writing about is probably the better advice.

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So, Mary bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I was hot for it. I spend a lot of may day writing articles and stories and novel chapters and training programs on the damn computer. You'd think I'd have had my fill of electronics. But, no, I wanted that Kindle.

Good wife that she is, she bought it for me.

Here's the deal...I love it. It's probably not for everyone, but it's for me.

I read a lot both for business and pleasure. So far  since Christmas, I've read three books on the Kindle--ordered them at the Amazon Kindle store, bought them for about half the price of the print versions, and had them sent to me in a flash. There they are on my little device, not much bigger than a tablet, easy to use, easy on the eyes. The other day, I was on the computer researching an article for a client. I wanted a book from Amazon right that minute. I normally would have had it in two days. I got in in an instant, no shipping costs, half price. That quick. And, if I want, I can synch my Kindle and my computer to make the book easier to reference as I work.

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I just finished reading "Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life" by Carol Sklenicka (on the Kindle I received from Mary for Christmas). I'm still trying to absorb it all, still trying to work it all out. Ray Carver, in so many ways, has been such a big part of my life that reading this biography of him has left me strung out, depleted, hung over with emotion.

I discovered Ray in the early 1980s when I was working as a young lawyer at Northwestern Mutual and raising a young family. I'd decided, at age 30, that if I was ever going to get serious about writing, it was time to do so. I signed up for a creative writing workshop--it was a terrific workshop with a lot of quirky, talented, hard drinking writers--at Marquette. I attended a couple of nights a week for two or three years. I made some great friends, shared some good stories, and had some great times. I started to believe that maybe I had the natural talent and could acquire the skills to be a writer. Some people I respected took me seriously and encouraged me to take myself seriously.

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I recently finished working on a story entitled, "Rainbow" that I'm submitting to the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. This is the best story I've submitted to the contest including "Miller's Deer," which took runner up in 2007. But there are a lot of terrific writers that submit to that contest, so who knows. All you can do is write your best story and hope.

I'm a late bloomer when it comes to writing and "Rainbow" is a good example. I've been trying to write a story that captured the ennui of Rainbow Lanes in Elkhart for a long time. I came close with a story, "Fast Trains," several years ago, which I'm in the process of re-writing. But, finally, I think I got it right with "Rainbow."

Elkhart was such a gritty, little town to grow up in with the factories and the men that worked in them. I didn't realize how gritty it was until after I graduated high school and went down to IU for college, then came back. Summers and breaks from college, I'd hang out Rainbow a lot. Talk about gritty. You had the guys that worked in the factories and their girls, you had the old guys in the bar nursing their beers, smoke floated chest high, the Eagles played on the juke box.

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