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****Joseph Mills’s BLEACHERS fifty-four linked fictions is #135 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? “Bleachers: Fifty-Four Linked Fictions” For a while, I was considering something like “The First Game of the Last Season.” I wanted to pack as much information as possible into it, particularly the idea of change. It is about a recreation youth soccer league, and there was, in earlier drafts, a finality of the league shutting down. Each work stands alone, but just as you see the same people at games during a sports season, recognizable characters weave in and out of the pieces. Hopefully it ends up being a portrait of a community at a certain period of time.
Martin Luther King Jr said that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America. I think Saturday morning may be the most integrated as everyone with young kids goes to the park.
What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I don’t know the exact date I started. It began as a series of short dramatic pieces. Each year I take part in a “poem-a-day” PAD challenge (https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-challenge-2020/2020-april-pad-challenge-guidelines) organized by Robert Lee Brewer. (https://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/) He posts prompts in the morning, and participants write a draft that day.
Some years, I use the prompts to write fiction, and a couple years ago I used them to develop monologues of parents sitting on the sidelines. Although I had thought they were individual pieces, when I had several dozen of them, I realized that I could shape them into something where the whole was larger than the parts.
I completely finished the manuscript in March 2019 right before I turned in the final revisions and copy changes for the publisher. He saw an earlier version and said, “I love this. I’m not sure what it is.” And he helped me shape it into its current structure.
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote so much of the manuscript at the Miller Street Whole Foods in Winston-Salem that I was tempted to thank the staff in the acknowledgements. Because it’s around the corner from my son’s middle school, I tend to go to the cafĂ© a couple hours before dismissal and work.
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 laptop; specific time of day?
I write at coffee shops all around town. I don’t listen to music (although I used to). I wrote a draft in long hand, entered it in the computer, revised it, printed it and worked on the hard copy, then entered those revisions. I used to work in the mornings.
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. This is the first piece of the collection. It’s entitled “Aging.” There are 54 pieces, the number of a deck of cards, and they are titled A through Z like a primer.
For years, Colleen had mocked the “blue chair people.” They had infuriated her with how they clogged street parties and outdoor concerts so people had to thread around them. Who sat and listened to music? Was the field at Woodstock covered in blue chairs? Was the floor at the Savoy Ballroom? Did Astaire sing about “tying up my white tie/putting out my blue chair?” If they wanted to sit, they should stay home. To her, blue chairs and blue hairs had been synonymous. Blue blobs taking up space, space that could be used for dancing, for mingling, for moving, for living. In her mind, a blue chair was one step from a blue coffin.
Then, last year, she started taking Steve to soccer, and she looked around for a place to sit, expecting bleachers or benches, but at that field at Jackson Park, there was nothing. Just scrubby sod and a cracked parking lot. There weren’t even curbs. The other adults pulled collapsible chairs out of their trunks and backseats. She had tried to sit in the grass, but had been badly bitten in seconds. She had walked around for a while and then had sat in the car, but that had been hot and too far away for Steve to see her. If she was going to be there, she wanted credit for being there. So she had stood on the sideline, pretending to be interested in the drills, her feet hurting. That was the price you paid to parent. Sore feet.
Then Steve had needed new shin guards or more socks or another ball or something, and in Dick’s Sporting Goods, by the registers, there had been a display of foldable chairs. They were all different colors. And they were on sale. She had sat in one, just to see what it was like, and discovered it was comfortable. Distressingly comfortable. Maybe, she had thought, it might be good to have, just for places like Jackson Park. Especially since it had become clear that she was going to spend hours at practices.
The waiting part of parenting had taken Colleen by surprise. She hadn’t fully appreciated how much of a time commitment her children’s interests would require from her. Not the hours driving around, but the hours she had to sit somewhere. Parenting, at this stage, felt mostly like being in a waiting room, flipping through old magazines. They went off and played and she waited on a bench, on the bleachers, in a chair. This was her job. Waiter. She admired those who didn’t do it. The ones who dropped their kids off and drove away. But that wasn’t her. She was a waiter, and since she was, she could at least be comfortable.
When she had bought the chair, she had told Steve, “We’ll just keep this in the car.” She had wanted to say, “Don’t tell your father,” but that would have made it more likely that he would. Nick had heard her rant far too many times about “blue chair zombies” and The Sitting Dead, and she didn’t want to be charged with hypocrisy. She also didn’t want to hear any suggestion that she was changing, compromising, selling out, getting old. Sometimes she felt Nick looking at her as if assessing her graying hair or wrinkles. He was aging as well – the gut she pretended not to notice, the glasses he needed a few years ago, the way he didn’t take the stairs two at a time anymore – but there was nothing like a pregnancy to take a toll on a body. She relied on her son being oblivious, not thinking to tell his dad about the chair, not seeing it as important since it wasn’t about him. Colleen had realized long ago she rarely went wrong counting on the self-centeredness of men.
She keeps the chair in the trunk, covered with a blanket. It gives her an odd guilty feeling, in a way that her other secrets don’t. She keeps plenty of things from Nick. Shoe purchases, lunches out. Nothing like an affair, nothing big, but he doesn’t have to know everything. She assumes he does the same. Most marriages, like most plants, won’t thrive in full sun. This, however, feels different.
Games are held at fields with bleachers, and Nick comes to these, so the chair stays in the trunk. It’s nice, sitting and watching their son together, occasionally holding hands. But, the bleachers are also hard and cold, and a lot of the time Steve isn’t even playing. So, although she would never admit it, Colleen prefers practices. There she can be more comfortable and less attentive. This too has been a surprising part of parenting. The constant game of “Find the Differences” between the images of who she thought she would be and who she is, who she used to be and who she is, who she wants to be and who she is.
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt?
It took me a long time to realize this should be the first piece, and that’s because it took me a long time to realize what the manuscript was about. I thought it was about sports, specifically youth soccer.
Other works you have published? I have written six books of poetry with Press 53 (in reverse chronological order)
Exit, pursued by a bear
Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers (second edition)
This Miraculous Turning
Sending Christmas Cards to Huck and Hamlet
Love and Other Collisions
Somewhere During the Spin Cycle
I’ve also written to guide books to North Carolina wineries, non-fiction, and plays.
A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills holds an endowed chair, the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities and was honored with a 2017 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has published six collections of poetry with Press 53, most recently Exit, pursued by a bear which consists of poems triggered by stage directions in Shakespeare. His book This Miraculous Turning was awarded the North Carolina Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry. He edited the collection of film criticism A Century of the Marx Brothers. With his wife, Danielle Tarmey, he researched and wrote two editions of A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries, and his essay “On Hearing My Daughter Trying to Sing Dixie” won the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition.
www.josephrobertmills.com
INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links
001 11 15 2018 Nathaniel Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John Hunter – The Veteran
002 11 18 2018 Ed Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The Antiquities Dealer
003 11 23 2018 Janice Seagraves’s
Science Fiction Romance
Exodus Arcon
004 11 29 2018 Christian Fennell’s
Literary Fiction Novel
The Fiddler in the Night
005 12 02 2018 Jessica Mathews’s
Adult Paranormal Romance
Death Adjacent
006 12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s
Literary Fiction Novel
Ruby the Indomitable
007 12 12 2018 Adair Valerez’s
Literary Fiction Novel
Scrim
008 12 17 218 Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy
009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road of a Thousand Tigers
010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary Romantic Fiction
The Other Twin
011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To Death
012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second Story Man
013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full Attention
014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA
015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced
016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy Lost
017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest Begins
018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel Moscow
019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional Fiction
Alligator Alley
020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul Collectors
021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist Novel
The Nowhere Man
022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s
Mainstream Novel
Silk And Ashes
023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s
Short Story Collection
There Is No Other Way to Worship Them
024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s
Short Story Collection
Pasture Art
025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s
Historical Fiction
Beloved Mother
026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s
Romance
Magical Mistletoe
027 03 25 2019 Faith Gibson’s
Paranormal Romance
Rafael
028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s
Tall Tale
To The Bones
029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s
Paranormal Romance
Veiled Visions of Love
030 04 05 2019 Marianne Maili’s
Tragicomedy
Lucy, go see
031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s
Mainstream Fiction
The Exile
032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s
Speculative Fiction
Rabid Dogs
033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s
Historical Novel
The Baker’s Secret
034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s
Fantasy
Arcadis: Prophecy Book
035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s
Adventure/Fantasy/Romance
Rose of Dance
036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s
Literary Fiction
Watch Me Go
037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s
Science Fiction/Horror
The Whispering House
038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s
Historical Fiction
Murder By Any Name
039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s
Historical/Fantasy
The Woodstock Paradox
040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s
Literary/Crime
She Lies In Wait
041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s
Historical Fiction/Mystery
Peccadillo At The Palace: An Annie Oakley Mystery
042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s
Time Travel Romance
Follow Me
043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s
Inspirational Christian Romance
Rosa & Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi
Chronicles
044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s
BDMS/Interracial Romance
On The Edge
045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s
Mystery
The Soul of Cole
046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s
Historical
The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and
Coco Chanel
047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s
Suspense/Thriller
The Graceland Conspiracy
048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s
Domestic Suspense
The House on Fire
049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s
Domestic Suspense/Family Drama
Tell No One
050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Short Story/ Crime Fiction
“No Good Deed” from Down to the River
051 06 19 2019 Rita Dragonette’s
Historical Fiction
The Fourteenth of September
052 06 20 2019 Nona Caspers’s
Literary Novel/Collage
The Fifth Woman
053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s
Paranormal Romance
Shadows in the Mist
054 06 28 2019 Brian Moreland’s
Horror
The Devil’s Woods
055 06 29 2019
Epic Fantasy
Wings Unseen
056 07 02 2019 Randee Green’s
Mystery Novel
Criminal Misdeeds
057 07 03 2019 Saralyn Ricahrd’s
Mystery Novel
Murder In The One Percent
#058 07 04 2019 Hannah Mary McKinnon’s
Domestic Suspense
Her Secret Son
#059 07 05 2019 Sonia Saikaley’s
Contemporary Women’s Literature
The Allspice Bath
#060 07 09 2019 Olivia Gaines’s
Romance Suspense Serial
Blind Luck
#061 07 11 2019 Anne Raeff’s
Literary Fiction
Winter Kept Us Warm
#062 07 12 2918 Vic Sizemore’s
Literary Fiction-Short Stories
I Love You I’m Leaving
#063 07 13 2019 Deborah Riley Magnus’s
Dark Paranormal Urban Fantasy
THE ORPHANS BOOK ONE: THE LOST RACE
TRILOGY
#064 07 14 2019 Elizabeth Bell’s
Historical Fiction
NECESSARY SINS
#065 07 15 2019 Lori Baker Martin’s
Literary Novel
BITTER WATER
#066 08 01 2019 Sabine Chennault’s
Historical Novel
THE CORPSMAN’S WIFE
#067 08 02 2019 Margaret Porter’s
Historical Biographical Fiction
BEAUTIFUL INVENTION: A NOVEL OF HEDY LAMARR
#068 08 04 2019 Hank Phillippi Ryan’s
Suspense
THE MURDER LIST
069 08 08 2019 Diana Y. Paul’s
Literary Mainstream Fiction
THINGS UNSAID
070 08 10 2019 Phyllis H. Moore’s
Women’s Historical Fiction
BIRDIE & JUDE
071 08 11 2019 Sara Dahmen’s
Historical Fiction
TINSMITH 1865
072 08 19 2019 Carolyn Breckinridge’s
Short Story Collection
KALIEDESCOPE & OTHER STORIES
073 08 21 2019 Alison Ragsdale’s
Emotional Women’s Fiction
THE ART OF REMEMBERING
074 08 22 2019 Lee Matthew Goldberg’s
Suspense Thriller
THE DESIRE CARD
075 08 23 2019 Jonathan Brown’s
Mystery/Amateur P.I.
THE BIG CRESCENDO
076 09 02 2019 Chera Hammons Miller’s
Literary Fiction w/ suspense, concern with animals & land management
Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom
077 09 09 019 Joe William Taylor’s
Literary Mystery
The Theoretics of Love
078 09 15 2019 Linda Hughes’s
Romantic Suspense
Secret of the Island
079 09 19 2019 Max Elliot Anderson’s
Middle Grade Adventure/Mystery
Snake Island
080 09 22 2019 Danny Adams’s
Science Fiction
Dayworld: A Hole In Wednesday
081 09 24 2019 Arianna Dagnino’s
Social/Historical/Adventure
The Afrikaner
082 09 29 2019 Lawrence Verigin’s
Thriller/Suspense
Seed of Control
083 10 05 2019 Emma Khoury’s
Fantasy
The Sword And Shield
#084 10 07 2019 Steve McManus’s
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
SEVEN DEVILS
#085 10 08 2019 Sheila Lowe’s
Mystery/Psychological/Suspense with Scientific Bent
PROOF OF LIVE
#086 10 10 2019 Jess Neal Woods’s
Historical Fiction
THE PROCESS OF FRAYING
#087 10 11 2019 Karen Odden’s
Historical Suspense
A TRACE OF DECEIT
#88 10 14 2019 Kate Maruyama’s
Love, Loss & Supernatural
“HARROWGATE”
#89 10 17 2019 Sherry Harris’s
Mystery
“LET’S FAKE A DEAL”
#90 10 18 2019 Linda Mooney’s
Science Fiction Apocalyptic/ Post Apocalyptic
“THE TRUNK”
#91 10 19 2019 Jayne Martin’s
Flash Fiction Short Story Collection
“TENDER CUTS”
#92 10 22 2019 Janice Cole Hopkins’s
Inspirational Romance
“IT ALL STARTED AT THE MASQUERADE”
#93 10 29 2019 Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s
Short Story Collection
“THE SHADOWS BEHIND”
#94 11 01 2019 David Henry Sterry’s
Fiction: Sexual Violence
“THE TENDERLOIN WARS”
#95 11 03 2019 Jay Requard’s
Dark Fantasy/Horror
“DEATH & DUST: THE PALE SAND ADVENTURES”
#96 11 04 2019 Caroline Leavitt’s
Fiction
“WITH OR WITHOUT YOU”
#97 11 06 2019 Kelsey Clifton’s
Science Fiction
“A DAY OUT OF TIME”
#098 11 13 2019 John F Allen’s
Urban Fantasy Tale
#99 11 16 2019 Damian McNicholl’s
Historical Novel
“The Moment of Truth”
#100 11 19 2019 Stacia Levy’s
Mystery/Suspense Novel
“Girl Crush”
#101 11 24 2019 Charlotte Morgan’s
Fiction Novel
“Protecting Elvis”
#102 11 26 2019 T. L. Moore’s
Children’s Christian Fiction
“Ed On My Shoulder: Maria & The Candy Trail”
#103 11 27 2019 Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg’s
Coming of Age Literary Novel
The Nine
#104 11 29 2019 Charlotte Blackwell’s
Adult Paranormal
“MYSTIC EMBRACE”
#105 12 07 2019 Mike Burrell’s
Satire Novel
“THE LAND OF GRACE”
#106 12 09 2019 Phil McCarron’s
Screenplay
“Escapement”
#107 12 11 2019 Wendy H. Jones’s
Crime Fiction/Police Procedural Novel
“KILLER’S COUNTDOWN”
#108 12 13 2019 Sandra Arnold’s
Historical Literary Fiction
“The Ash, the Well and the Blue Bell”
#109 12 16 2019 Amalia Carosella’s
Historical/Contemporary/Duel Timeline/ Women’s
Fiction
“DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS”
#110 12 19 2019 Laura Bickle’s
Weird Western/Contemporary Fantasy
“DARK ALCHEMY”
#111 12 27 2019 Brian Pinkerton’s
Science Fiction Thriller
“THE GEMINI EXPERIMENT”
#112 12 28 2019 Sandra de Helen’s
Lesbian Thriller
“TILL DARKNESS COMES”
#113 12 29 2019 Jo Wilde’s
Vampire Thriller
“THE CROSSING”
#114 12 30 2019 Sam Richard’s
Short Story Collection of Weird and Transgressive
Horror
“To Wallow In Ash and Sorrows”
#115 12 31 2019 Duncan B Barlow’s
Literary Fiction Novel
“A DOG BETWEEN US”
#116 01 02 2020 Allison Landa’s
Young Adult Novel
“BAD HAIR”
#117 01 03 2020 Pablo Medina’s
Literary Satire Novel
“THE CUBAN COMEDY”
#118 01 06 2020 William Trent Pancoast’s
Historical/Literary Novel
“THE ROAD TO MATEWAN”
#119 01 07 2020 Jane Bernstein’s
Contemporary Novel
“The Face Tells the Secret”
#120 01 09 2020 Terry Kroenung’s
Young Adult, Historical and Fantasy
“Brimstone And Lily”
#121 01 12 2020 Melissa Yi’s
Fiction Thriller
“GRAVEYARD SHIFT”
#122 01 15 2020 Marcie R. Rendon’s
Crime Thriller
“GIRL GONE MISSING”
#123 01 16 2020 Tori Eldridge’s
Multi Genre Novel
“THE NINJA DAUGHTER”
#124 01 17 2020 Kristen Joy Wilks’s
Christian Romantic Comedy
“YELLOWSTONE YONDERING”
#125 01 20 2020 Susan C. Shea’s
Cozy Mystery
“DRESSED FOR DEATH IN BURGUNDY”
#126 01 22 2020 Phong Nguyen’s
Improvisational Fiction
“ROUDABOUT”
#127 01 23 2020 Kate Thornton’s
Mystery Short Story In Its Entirety
“Ai Witness”
#128 01 24 2020 Phil McCarron’s
Semi Fictional Essays
“The Great Facepalm: The Farce of 21st Century
Normality”
#129 01 27 2020 Kenneth Weene’s
Historicized Literary Fiction
“Red And White”
#130 01 28 2020 Graham Storrs’s
Science Fiction Thriller
“TimeSplash”
#131 02 08 2020 Angela Slatter’s
Short Story “Terrible As An Army With Banners”
From her Short Story Collection THE BITTERWOOD BIBLE AND OTHER RECOUNTINGS
#132 02 11 2020 Joan Joachim’s
Romance
Just One Kiss
#133 02 16 2020 Kelsey Clifton’s
Science Fiction
A DAY OUT OF TIME
#134 02 17 2020 Soraya M Lane’s
Women Historical Fiction
THE GIRLS OF PEARL HARBOR
#135 03 07 2020
Linked Fiction
BLEACHERS Fifty-Four Linked Fictions
By Joseph Mills
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