http://www.teenreads.com/blog/2009/10/amber-kizer-on-real-life-bits-and.asp
In today's guest blog, Amber Kizer --- author of ONE BUTT CHEEK AT A TIME and GERT GARIBALDI'S RANTS AND RAVES --- shares a family anecdote passed down from her grandparents that inspired elements of her latest novel, MERIDIAN.
As a reader, I’m always intrigued to learn of an author’s experiences influencing the writing of a book --- the autobiographical or “real life” bits and pieces. Everything in our lives as authors is fair game --- it all goes into the creative well, though what we pull out might not appear that way to readers. Not all ideas translate directly from life to a story, but for me this particular one worked exactly as it’s been in my family for generations. THE special code.
Meridian is a girl who shepherds souls to the afterlife and the story reflects a battle of good versus evil. I have lots of connections to parts of this book --- I quilt like Auntie. I’ve sat vigil like Meridian. It’s a story about death, but maybe more importantly, it’s about hope for the after. But it’s also a love story, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today!
Meridian is a Fenestra --- a race of angel/human beings who act as windows to the Afterlife. Tens is a Protector --- guardians for Fenestras. When possible, Fenestras and Protectors are soul mates. There’s a special code in this story that I took directly from my family’s history and tradition. 1-4-3. Think about it. Know the hidden meaning? I love you. I (1) love (4) you (3). Now, here’s where it came from.
My grandparents met while attending Texas Christian University in the 1940s. They lived in dorms directly across a large open space, so each could look out their window and see the other dorm and room windows. I’ve never seen these buildings or photographs of them, but in my mind’s eye they’re tall, boxy, brick apartment-like buildings. And the open space between them is about a football field of grassy space with paths cutting through it. Who knows what reality really is? As my grandparents became more serious in their dating, each night before going to bed they’d use a flashlight and blink it toward the other’s window. 1-4-3. Whoever was waiting would do it in return. An “I love you” before sleep. Usually my grandfather started and my grandmother responded in the same manner.
They thought they were pretty sneaky and didn’t tell anyone they were doing it. But one night, my grandfather blinked his 1-4-3 across the quad and my grandmother’s entire dorm blinked back. Every girl, in every window, had a flashlight! Imagine it --- the whole dorm flashing 1-4-3 right back to my grandfather! I can almost hear the girls giggling, then dissolving into full-out laughter from here.
I can see my grandfather walking to class the next morning and girls smiling or giggling when they saw him. Or his dorm mates ribbing him about it because they’d seen it or heard about it or were dating a girl who’d done it. I can hear my grandmother saying, “Oh, Joe, don’t be so embarrassed.”
Even fifty years later when my grandfather told the story, he’d turn red and sputter. My grandmother always insisted that she had nothing to do with it, but she was such a rabble rouser it wouldn’t surprise me if she’d helped the idea along. She did so love to make my grandfather blush with embarrassment.
They married in 1944 and were still together when my grandfather died in 2006. What they started continued with their children, and then to my generation. Cards and letters may be signed with 1-4-3.
In MERIDIAN, it’s a code that Charles and Auntie pass on to Meridian and Tens. Today, I’m passing it on to you. Make it your own!
