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****Robert Dugoni’s The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is #170 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt. All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the end of this piece
Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. That title miraculously appeared in my head and it is the only one my publisher or I ever considered.
What are the dates you began writing this piece of fiction and when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I began writing Sam Hell, about 10 years before it’s publication in 2018. The book came to me in a burst and I wrote the first draft in about 5 weeks, but it was episodic. I didn’t have a theme, if you will, that held all of the scenes together. I didn’t know what Sam wanted, and writers will tell you that you have to know what the protagonist wants. I finally found that answer one Saturday afternoon on my way to church when I looked up at the steeple and realized Sam wanted to believe. He wanted to believe that he was born with ocular albinism (red eyes) for a reason, that his affliction had a purpose. Once I had Sam’s want, I went back to editing and reached the final draft, a story.
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? I write primarily in my home office, though I do have an office outside the home. Because the story took me ten years, and because we’re remodeling our home, my office has taken on various scenarios, but in essence, it looks like my current office in the photograph.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on the laptop; specific time of day? I write every day when I’m on a roll. I will take off Saturdays and Sundays now, or I may sneak into the office and just do a little writing to hit the ground running on Monday. I have an odd ritual. When writing, I start by reading from The Green Mile by Stephen King (https://stephenking.com/). There is something about that novel, the brilliance of the characters and the story that resonates with me.
Other than that, no set rituals. I do like to listen to music when I’m editing. Not so much when I’m writing. I don’t like other words in my head other than my own.
What is the summary of The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell? Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni’s coming-of-age story is, according to Booklist, “a novel that, if it doesn’t cross entirely over into John Irving territory, certainly nestles in close to the border.”
Sam Hell always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates; “God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.
Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.
Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.
Winner of Suspense Magazine’s Crimson Scribe Award.
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
Pages 1-3
Foreword
My mother called it “God’s will.” At those moments in my life when things did not go as I had hoped or planned, and there were many, she would say, “It’s God’s will, Samuel.” This was hardly comforting to a six-year-old boy, even one “blessed” with a healthier dose of perspective than most children at that age.
For one, I never understood how my mother knew God’s will. When I would ask her that very question, she would answer with another of her stock refrains—“Have faith, Samuel.” I realize now that this was circular reasoning impregnable to debate. My mother might just as well have responded with that other impenetrable parental reply, “Because I said so.”
Now, as an adult with that healthy dose of perspective we call experience, I realize my mother was right, as she was so often when it came to my life. We think we have control over our lives, especially when we’re young and seemingly invulnerable. We’re told we can do anything we set our minds to, that the world is our oyster, that all we have to do is shuck the hard shell and pluck the rich, nourishing meat inside. I realize now, however, that the shell is a lot harder than I appreciated, and that I never could have controlled or even predicted the things that would happen in my life. We believe we choose the paths we take when we come to those forks in our lives—the friends we make, the careers we undertake, and the spouses we marry.
But we don’t.
Life is either a collision of random events, like billiard balls during a break careening off and into one another, or, if you are so inclined to believe, our predetermined fate—what my mother took such great comfort in calling God’s will.
I desperately wanted to believe my mother was right.
I wanted to believe God had a plan for me when David Freemon hit me in the face with a rubber ball on the schoolyard playground and placed us on a cataclysmic course ultimately leading to his death. I wanted to believe God sent Ernie Cantwell from Detroit, Michigan, the only African American child in my class, to be the friend I so desperately needed. I wanted to believe it had been God’s design that Mickey Kennedy would storm into my life in the sixth grade like a Midwest tornado, uprooting every precept I’d been taught about the roles of boys and girls and toppling the Catholic ideology my mother and the nuns at Our Lady of Mercy spoon-fed us as a remedy for every personal and societal ailment. Mostly, I wanted to believe that I was fated to live the extraordinary life my mother so ardently believed I was destined for, the life she dutifully prayed for each night as she sat on our floral couch in our wood-paneled family room kneading the beads of her rosary.
Was it God’s will that I should buy this house just two blocks from the shingled home in which I was raised and live in a town I had once sought desperately to escape? I thought I purchased my home because it was a sound investment, a plot of land in an up-and-coming real estate market. My parents had not been so practical. My mother’s only real estate criteria had been that our home be within walking distance of a Catholic Church and school. The end result, however, has been the same. Except for a decade when I fled, I have lived my entire life close enough to hear the bells ringing in the steeple of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. And yet, despite my proximity, I can only recall hearing those bells on a handful of occasions. Today was one of those times, and for some unknown reason—fate, destiny, or perhaps “God’s will”—the throng of those bells has compelled me to sit at this keyboard and write of my mother and father, and of David Freemon, of Daniela and Trina Crouch, and, of course, of Ernie and Mickey. The sound of those bells has even provided me with a logical place to start this story, my story—a memory of another day when I heard those same bells—or thought I did.
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? It’s emotional because it is the moment, after ten years when I discovered what Sam wanted and could articulate it, which meant I knew I could finish the novel. The novel is very personal on many levels. I have a handicapped brother (Above Left: Brother Michael) I have a mother with a devout faith and who believed in my writing achievements before I even did. Every time I think of Sam Hell, I think of my mother (Below: Robert Dugoni with his mother), of my bucolic childhood and the blessed life I have been given.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked-up rough drafts of this excerpt. No deletions. This came to me like a bolt of lighting. I turned the car around and came home to write the foreword.
Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Best Selling Author of The Tracy Crosswhite series, The Charles Jenkins Series and the David Sloane series. Since 2013, Dugoni has sold more than 5,000,000 books, and My Sister’s Grave and The Eighth Sister have been optioned for television series development.
He is also the author of the best-selling standalone novel, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell and The 7th Canon, a 2017 finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best novel.
His expose, The Cyanide Canary, became a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. He is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction, and the Friends of Mystery, Spotted Owl Award for the best novel in the Pacific Northwest. He is a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award and the Mystery Writers of America Award for best novel.
His David Sloane novels have twice been nominated for the Harper Lee Award for legal fiction. His books are sold worldwide in more than 25 countries and have been translated into more than two-dozen languages including French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese.
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