Other posts in Rhobin’s Rounds
Rhobin wants to know how I developed my first story.
Way back when I was a nursing student, I had to make a choice. My place of training was too far from home for me to commute, so I lived in a nurses’ home, coming home on my days off. And this place was full of gorgeous 18 year olds.
Was I going to make a fool of myself, running after them? No. I needed something to take up my time, thinking and emotional energy. I was well established as a nonfiction writer, and decided it was time to move into fiction.
We were given a single lecture about something called Validation Therapy. Given my background in psychology (though this was long before I considered myself to be suited to be a therapist), the idea grabbed me.
I went to bed, thinking, I’ll try my hand at a short story about Validation Therapy.
In the morning, I was in that magical place between dreaming and wakefulness, which was not a good idea, given I had a shift starting at 7 a.m. My dream was actually a flashback to when I was 16 years old, and managed to get a job during the summer holidays by lying about my age. I learned to handle very hot objects, how to seem busy when there was nothing to do but wait, how to fit into the rough but friendly world of working men — and I saw a man die, as an unfortunate reaction to a practical joke.
As I was hurriedly dressing, I asked myself, “What if I’d met that practical joker many years later?”
This was in the pre-computer days. I spent my lunchtime scribbling.
The story, Peace for the Joker, won a prize in a contest, and is one of the 26 stories in my anthology, Through Other Eyes.
One of my occasional ways of entertaining my visitors is to publish a short story. So, I’ve done that. If you click on this link, you can read the story, right now. It’ll teach you what Validation Therapy is about.
Please leave a comment about the story, but also I’d appreciate a comment here. Then, do visit the other participants in Rhobin’s Rounds:
Rhobin L Courtright
Margaret Fieland
A.J. Maguire
Skye Taylor
Connie Vines
Marci Baun
Beverley Bateman
Judy Copek
Bobbing Around 
Thank you, Judy.
Well, writing is the chocolate icing on the cake of life.
🙂
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Bob,
Great story about distracting yourself with writing fiction. I really liked that. The magical moment must have been “What If?” Fun post.
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Oh, that’s an entirely different story. Will you write it, or will I?
🙂
Bob
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To watch someone die and be unable to help. How very heartbreaking. Your story was a healing of transgressions for George and your readers. But it leaves me wondering how Ted’s family handled his untimely death.
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By the way, I did do something like that once. Had a story about an artist, and a victim of domestic violence healing each other. Then I wondered what happened, so wrote another story when the woman’s son was an old man. Both stories are in Through Other Eyes.
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Bob, I enjoyed your short story and the emotions it evoked. I also relate to the time between sleep and waking. A lot of my ideas for writing come at that time.
Beverley
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Thank you, Beverley. Mine sometimes come in the middle of the night, which means I need to grab my computer and note them down (can’t read my own handwriting — should have been a medical doctor).
🙂
Bob
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What a wonderful way to take a horrifying experience and use it to help yourself and others through something like that.
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Thank you, Marci. It’s one of the powers we writers have: to construct a future.
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I can’t even begin to imagine the trauma of watching someone die as the result of a practical joke at 16 or any age. I can only wonder how I’d react to meeting that joker years later, but I have to think it would be with an awful sympathy for what they were living with every day.
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Of course, in real life, I never met the man again. I guess if I’d been in his place, and became demented in old age, that’s how I’d respond.
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Witnessing someone die as a result of a practical joke had to be a very difficult experience at 16. To write about George finding self-forgiveness and peace had to give many readers the same experience for their transgressions, real or imagined.
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Thank you, Rhobin. If indeed my words help someone to heal, then I’ll be overjoyed.
🙂
Bob
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