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It Was A Fondness for My Characters

  • Writer: Jerry Erickson
    Jerry Erickson
  • Oct 15, 2020
  • 2 min read

It Was a Fondness for My Characters

By JD Erickson

I won’t apologize. I wrote a novel peopled with Midwesterners. Their values are my values. Angels of the Night is a murder mystery about human trafficking and how the residents of a small city deal with elements of corruption and social decay.

Yes, the characterization of one of the trafficked victims in the novel reflects a friend’s first-hand experiences with the task of helping those victims reshape their lives, but the society we offer them is about us.

I have come to believe in angels. The angel character in Angels of the Night had to transition from the Old Testament angel in my book of short stories, Angel Billy, to a New Testament “watcher” with a more limited, however significant role. I surmised I could keep a supernatural aspect in the story if it helped define reality as it does in the real world, especially for the religious among us. Yes, there is a segment of society that will not appreciate this. I accept that.

It can be argued that those same people, by and large, will disparage Midwesterners and Midwestern values. I accept that also, and answer them with a small city that very likely has more churches than bars.

When Angels of the Night was published I was asked, “Is it Sioux Falls?” (my town) “It’s Sioux Falls, isn’t it?” And, “Are your characters fictional?” I can suppose the questioner was reacting to the fact that someone they knew had written a novel. (My first novel, The Men Who Loved Neon, an e-book, will be offered in print in 2021.)

First of all, Sioux Falls is no longer regarded as small, and yes, my characters are fictional, that is to say, “No, you are not in my book.” Neither will the reader find long back stories and delineated personal tragedies as a driving force in the book.

We don’t follow one character or protagonist in the story with the exception of a trafficking victim whose life is central to the plot, though unseen by many of the principals.

My characters are cut from a cloth I know well; their flaws deserving of a wry smile. They hold the line and I thank them for that. You could say I grew up in their midst and I can’t help but love them.

The working title of their next appearance is WTL—the way, the truth, and the life.


JD Erickson, for Angels of the Night, at Amazon.com.


 
 
 

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