I drive back and forth
between Miami and my home in Southwest Florida on a regular basis. The Eagles
are one of my favorite travel bands. No matter how bad the traffic, or how long
the drive, be-bopping along with Glen Frey and friends passes the time. And it
keeps me awake. Never a bad thing when your route takes you through sod farms
and sugar cane fields, and sod farms and sugar cane fields, broken only by the
vintage roadside attraction.
I was passing the remains of the
Finest Collection of Everglades Animals attraction when River of Dreams rotated
into the play list. The line about packing the Camaro and chasing the sun
struck home. The visual was amazing. The flat scenery faded into the background
and I was in a red Camaro heading for points unknown. The draw was
irresistible. Pack it up, take it on the road, never look back and live simply
in the mountains in a home you build yourself. Yep, Little House on the Prairie
meets rock and roll. Pa Ingles stuffing his family into the ox cart. Follow
your dream. Do what you always wanted to do, but never did. Live the life you should
be living, chuck the make-do life you have now. Took me a good ten miles and an
alligator crossing the road chasing a gopher tortoise to break the spell and see
the cane fields again.
Writing that pulls you that deeply
into the story world is good writing. It’s not limited to lyrics, but having
the complete experience does seem more common when listening than reading. Maybe
it’s more an aural event than a visual one. On the other hand, maybe it’s just
me. It often happens to me when I listen to an audio book. It’s also happened when
I listen to replays of old radio shows. No matter how you experience it, it’s
an amazing feeling when it happens. A sweet spot, a tipping point you can’t
predict, only experience. You enter the story and it happens to you, not around
you. Magic.
Unfortunately, no writing school
teaches the technique. And it’s different for every reader because the real
secret is a connection that the reader has with the story at that particular
moment. I’ve heard River of Dreams a thousand times. I never wanted to pack up
my Camaro before, but right at that moment, the lyrics fit my desires. It’s
happened with books too. James Clavell’s Taipan
and Nobel House send me to Hong Kong
and have me living in Happy Valley. Somewhere I’ve never been. Recently Krista
Davis’s The Diva Wraps It Up had me
standing on the streets of Old Town in a snowfall. It was refreshing.
Especially because it was ninety-five degrees in my real world. There is a
fullness to these stories and scenes that completely encompasses me. I want to
live in those moments in those books.
What about you? Do you have books
that you slip into like a second skin? Are they books you read repeatedly, or
are they books that hold an appeal for a certain aspect and time of your life?
