Lena

Home

"One day I know we'll find a place of hope," PJ Harvey declares in her song "A Place Called Home". Yes, I am slightly addicted to her music, and it may seem like I'm trying to shove it down people's throats, but it's an interesting take on the concept of home. The dictionary entry gives plenty of definitions for "home" including "a place where one lives, a residence," "a place, such as country or town where one was born or has lived for a long period," "an environment offering security and happiness," " a valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin", etc. All of these definitions are familiar, needless to say, but for someone like me who has lived a nomadic life for such a long time now, the notion of home has become quite fluid. In these "modern" times, people have become far more transient, I think a return of sorts to how things were before civilization. While this new state of transiency is less survival related than it was back in those days, there still is a link. Both prehistoric and modern people wandered around seeking new opportunities. Exploration, entertainment, education, occupation, etc. have offset survival as the primary motivator, and yet the hope for something better has remained. So, I think a place of hope is a great way to think of home as. For one, no one is homeless in that scenario.

Lena: Regis

And then there was Regis. Lena's journey takes a trans-Atlantic turn when she goes to study at Regis University. A place that promises "learners (to) become leaders in the Jesuit Catholic tradition". Now you know, I'm going to take a stab or two at that. :-) I'm also debating whether to set that part of Lena's journey in the CO campus or perhaps the Las Vegas one. Might be interesting to play the Sin City vs Catholic values dynamic.

Lena: Behind The Scenes

The first draft of "Lena" ended up at the 5,500 word mark I was aiming for without feeling short-charged or bloated. I'm happy with the general direction of the text, but test reads, and frankly the passing of time will surely result in edits. I'm trying to steer away from overdoing the editing process. Usually the second draft is satisfactory. I remember reading Stephen King saying as much in the Foreword of his "Just After Sunset" collection of shorts. "Lena" turned out edgier than I imagined it, but that's just fine by me, and is also my most researched text to date (includes a lot of references). Makes for a nice pairing with "Bird of Prey" which despite being quite different (thematically and style-wise) I can't stop but think of as a sister story.

Lena: Preview

When Americans talk to children, there are only two questions, it seems, that children are asked and expected to know the answer to: what their name is, and how old they are. As if there is some sort of an unspoken code of conduct that dictates that those are the only two questions allowed, anything else is taboo. There is a very similar, imbecile code of conduct that Americans follow when meeting immigrants: they ask what your name is, where you are from, and what language you speak (unless you are lucky enough to be from a country like France or Japan, for example, in which case they usually, but not always, skip the latter). I have lived in America for eight years, and there are days when I can more or less tolerate this routine, but then there are day when it annoys me greatly, and today seems to be one of the latter.

Roadkills

According to Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People Newspaper, the following number of animals are being killed by motor vehicles in the United States annually:

41 million squirrels
26 million cats
22 million rats
19 million opossums
15 million raccoons
6 million dogs
350,000 deer

Lena: Vilnius

Part of Lena's story takes place/references Vilnius and in particular the Vilnius University (shown here), one of the oldest universities in Europe, established 1579. Back in those days Vilnius was the burgeoning capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which in turn was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a federation of sorts and one of the largest and most powerful states in 16th and 17th century Europe. The Commonwealth was later swallowed by the Russian and Prussian empires and Lithuania ceased to exist for over a century. The country was then briefly reinstated for several decades in the early 20th century, only to yet again become a satellite of Russia during the Soviet era. Lithuania became independent in 1990 during the collapse of the USSR and later joined the EU in 2004. This rich cultural heritage plays an important part in Lena's story and is integral to her character.

Lena: Klaipėda

I am simultaneously working on "Bird of Prey" and another text called "Lena" that tells the story of a girl from Lithuania that immigrated to the US and now lives in Provincetown, MA. Here is an image from the hometown I chose for her- Klaipėda on the Baltic Sea. This image was very inspirational in telling the story.