The McIntyre Family – Early 1950’s
Bill, the writer; Me, Read My Dad’s Stuff Blogger Scott; Susan Elizabeth, my Sister; and Barbara, the Mom!
Dad was living in Covina, a small suburb of Los Angeles during the mid-fifties, and driving trucks to support a wife and two adorable children, when an ‘on-the-job’ experience brought “Bluebell” to life. And that’s what today’s ‘Bits of Bill‘ post is all about.
What do truckers talk about when they hook up while working? Dad might have expected to hear one particular driver tell about his route, problems with the truck, or possibly, vacation plans. But, as he recounted in “The Life and Times of Bluebell”, a look at how the novel became a reality, “The story was given birth…when a fellow driver told of seeing a black man burned at the stake.”
The event had taken place years earlier and today, Dad doesn’t recollect if he was given the details of when and where it happened, but my research backs up that our country was still experiencing similar practices as late as 1950.
Describing those early days of “Bluebell”, dad says, “As with most of my writing, I had no plot in mind, no idea where I might go with such a tale but, no matter, I started writing… in longhand. At some point, I suppose after writer’s cramp set in, I started using an aging Underwood upright. That old mill (Navy term) was responsible for the original manuscript, and two re-writes.”
More rewrites, spurred on by the advent of word processors and computers, resulted in today’s tale, a two part novel exceeding 158,000 words featuring “two antagonists: Racial injustice, and anarchy.”
Learn More about “Bluebell”