Ask the Author: J.R. Tompkins
Answered Questions (3)
J.R. Tompkins
I'm still an "aspiring" writer. I think we should all be. Never stop aspiring. Aspire. Perspire. Read. Write. Then read, write, again. Never stop learning. Never stop reading good work. Never stop expressing awe at the amazing world around you, or within you, or whatever it is that you find so magnanimously beautiful that you need to shout a bookful about it.
J.R. Tompkins
As a very naive young man, I saw the systemized mistreatment of children by institutions and individuals who claimed to be protecting kids but were in fact only protecting their own positions and political power. The cost, to the children, the price they paid, seemed so absolutely senseless to me.
The experience, in a very real way, left me speechless, and for a very, very long time, I couldn't find a way to write about it. But it kept eating at me. I needed some sort of a catharsis.
Finally, through the idea of a boy who barely survives a near-fatal mountainside fall, I found myself writing a story of his rescue, about the price of personal heroism upon the young man who commits to rescuing this abused boy and seeing him through to a safe landing. Taking that kind of a risk costs him something. It exacts a price. Unlike comic book heroics, true heroism deprives the hero of a carefree future. It takes a toll and it leaves scars.
Then I found myself writing about a woman who might share with him similar scars, who, like him, struggles to understand that sacrifice’s whopping effects upon their lives. About how it takes from them all and inflicts on them a kind of systemized brand of victimization via the courts. But like I said, I wanted them to be able to share this struggle between them, and be better, and closer, for having survived it together, in a common understanding.
A high “price” paid should equal a thing of value earned, which, in turn, should become rewarding for those invested. That’s the hope they hold within the story, anyway. There are more allusions to the title in the book, of course, but for that, you’ll just have to read it!
The experience, in a very real way, left me speechless, and for a very, very long time, I couldn't find a way to write about it. But it kept eating at me. I needed some sort of a catharsis.
Finally, through the idea of a boy who barely survives a near-fatal mountainside fall, I found myself writing a story of his rescue, about the price of personal heroism upon the young man who commits to rescuing this abused boy and seeing him through to a safe landing. Taking that kind of a risk costs him something. It exacts a price. Unlike comic book heroics, true heroism deprives the hero of a carefree future. It takes a toll and it leaves scars.
Then I found myself writing about a woman who might share with him similar scars, who, like him, struggles to understand that sacrifice’s whopping effects upon their lives. About how it takes from them all and inflicts on them a kind of systemized brand of victimization via the courts. But like I said, I wanted them to be able to share this struggle between them, and be better, and closer, for having survived it together, in a common understanding.
A high “price” paid should equal a thing of value earned, which, in turn, should become rewarding for those invested. That’s the hope they hold within the story, anyway. There are more allusions to the title in the book, of course, but for that, you’ll just have to read it!
J.R. Tompkins
I get inspiration, I suppose, by placing myself in a spot where I might be open to seeing or hearing it. By that, I mean that I'll explore a desert landscape, or sit under a tree singing with summer birds, or listen eyes-closed to an ethereal soundtrack. It comes to me when I meet it halfway, like meeting a good friend at a coffee house.
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