Rug Munching

I truly have no idea how this all got started. 

It began as a straightforward story of a woman in her mid­ 30’s moving to Palm Springs.  Juliet was recently divorced and Palm Springs was as far as her bus ticket would take her.  She got settled in and went looking for a job.  Her interview went well and Juliet got the job at a real estate brokerage firm.  What happened next surprised even me.

Right from the start, I had some suspicions about her new boss, Natalie.  I couldn’t pin down my feelings but something was tugging at my subconscious never­the­less.  There was something about this woman that didn’t quite resonate or compute in my brain.  I envisioned Natalie as beautiful, smart, outgoing, and ambitious.  I assumed she would be like the other women in my life and I would find her very attractive in person.

After the interview was over Juliet went to shake Natalie’s hand and got a big hug instead.  Being in Palm Springs that certainly was not a strange occurrence.  It happens all the time although mainly it’s between gays and some straight folks.

This didn’t end with just a hug.  Instead, Natalie’s hands slid down the length of Juliet’s back and ended on her sweet cheeks.  They rested there for a moment but it was enough to send a flutter through Juliet and shivers through my fingertips.

Now that I didn’t see coming!

What happened next was even more confusing to me.  Juliet’s initial reaction was one of shock and surprise.  However, she quickly recovered, made the appropriate small talk, and exited the interview.  However, later on, as she reimagined the deft touch of her boss, Juliet’s reaction was one of arousal and confusion.  Now there were two of us facing a new dilemma.  Was that touch an unwelcomed advance by her new boss or a wonderful sensation unlike anything Juliet had ever experienced before from a man or a woman?

I was suddenly faced with a very assertive lesbian boss and the confused object of her affection.  How did I get the three of us into this situation?  I’m about as straight as a state fair ruler.  It was only my overactive imagination that went a bit off cue and threw all three of us into this confusing situation.  And this was all happening in book one of Debris;  A trilogy.  So where do I go from here, I asked myself?

I know a fair number of gay couples.  Many of them are good friends of ours.  Lesbians, not so much.  Therefore, it was with more than a little trepidation that I began examining the sometimes fascinating, confusing and often exaggerated lifestyle of the lesbian and those who lean in that direction

.

I was vaguely aware of lesbian pulp fiction as far back as the late fifties.  Since grade school, I had been haunting drug stores for the latest paperback westerns to buy.  While searching among the detective stories, romance fantasies, and tales of adventure I would occasionally come across something quite different from anything I had seen before.  Those particular book covers always had two ladies on the cover, one eyeing the other who was usually in some state of undress.  I knew it wasn’t an ‘oater’ but it didn’t look like a bodice­ripping romance either.  Who knew those two ladies were in love...with each other?

Unfortunately too much has been written about rug munching and carpet cleaning and not enough about real love and affection and child­rearing and honest emotions shared.  I wasn’t about to soil my writing with cheap tabloid gossip or titillating paragraphs.

I wanted to present an honest examination of two women struggling with their feelings amid a background of biting office gossip, male interventions, and honest confusion over emotions felt.

I had three stories to tell.  The initial realization that there were honest feelings between these two women.  The confusion and challenges facing Juliet when her self-image as a straight female was challenged.  Finally, the obvious conclusion they were both forced to face.  My guiding caveat was that love is love no matter what the gender or sexual orientation.

Much to my surprise and chagrin, as their storyline continued the ladies took over their own lives.  I simply became a third party furiously writing down comments and statements and feelings are they arose between the two of them.  At times, I felt like a voyeur taking it all in and unable to stop what was going on...not that I wanted to.

Curiously enough, it’s been twenty-five years since a young writer named Leslea Newman wrote a book entitled “Heather has Two Mommies” to better explain same parental gender families.  It was the first of a number of books that brought to the forefront the issues and conflicts over what materials concerning LGBT identity and lifestyle should be available to young children.  Many miles have been traveled since then...even if it is still a new pathway for me.

Over the years, I’ve been chased by Apaches on a moonlight night.  I’ve escaped an ambush by Charlie in the steamy jungles of Vietnam.  I’ve made love to some wonderful women and only ended our relationship with a simple ‘The End.’  Nevertheless, I have never shared an intimate moment or a warm bed with two women who were very much in love.

It was a new experience for all three of us.  

Debris

It came to me one warm winter evening as I walked up Palm Canyon Drive and passed the Greyhound bus stop. An odd assortment of student travelers, elderly passengers and numerous transients were lined up on the street waiting for the bus to arrive. In a flash the phrase ‘Debris from the West Coast’ popped into my head. It stuck there even as I passed the motley-looking crowd and continued on.

Almost immediately a story began to percolate up from my subconscious. I thought about the woman at a consignment store weeks earlier who had announced to her volunteer partner that she was in Palm Springs because that was as far as her bus ticket would take her. I remembered the beautiful woman at Starbucks who claimed to have just arrived from India, having bypassed L.A. and who was looking for work. She hinted that she was as good with her brains as she was on her back. I politely declined to offer any suggestions for her future employment. I thought about the transients who camped out in the desert and only came into town at night to scrounge through the dumpsters. I thought about the oldsters who moved in their cheap trailers to live out the rest of their sad lives.

Then I thought about the Palm Springs neighborhoods where most of the homes have their own shimmering blue pool and many are surrounded by lush golf courses. Palm Springs was the perfect setting for two totally different worlds; rich and poor, cultured and illiterate, ambitious and arrived.

That story idea became a treatment. That treatment then became a rough draft. The rough draft, after five rewrites, became ’Debris.’ My novel became a microcosm of various relationships set in Palm Springs.  Palm Springs was the perfect setting for such a story. It’s your average surreal environment disguised as a resort community, vacation hotspot and the newest hipster’s haven. It’s probably no different than other resort communities like Key West, Las Vegas, Los Cabos or Aspen.

In short, it’s the perfect place for a collision of lives subtly hidden by crystal clear skies, shimmering pools of blue and warm seductive nights. ‘Debris’ is a Roman coliseum of broken individuals each at various points of conflict in their lives and almost all of them seeking some kind of redemption.

Millie is the aging movie star whom time and Hollywood have long since abandoned. She is an icon for all that was the glory and power of old Hollywood. But she is lost in the new Palm Springs.

Juliet is in the desert to find another man to fill out her tepid life. A chance encounter with Natalie, her new boss at the real estate firm, now elicits emotions long since buried beneath her puritanical upbringing and societies standards.

Brett & Payton seem the perfect couple newly ensconced in Palm Springs’ growing design industry until a chance encounter with Kevin threatens the stability of their relationship.

Robert is the half-Mexican kid scrambling to grab a foothold in the construction trade while he fantasizes about a better life. Opportunities and pitfalls await his every step.

Miranda is the troubled young woman who gave Robert a start but now faces her own avalanching doubts about a future in the valley.

The Indian Kid wants desperately to break out of his tribal constraints while still respecting his elder’s traditions.

Other characters keep piling up. Each is an footnote or a chapter liner without whom the main characters couldn’t function or evolve.

The Goldsteins who lost a son in Afghanistan and now grapple with finding meaning in their lives.

Tom Thornton whose eye for Juliet doesn’t rise above her waist and who must deal with a sordid past that is fast catching up to him.

Franee who has it all in money and power and beauty. All except the one thing she wants to control…Robert.

In its original form, Debris was too big as a print book (over 600 pages) and even larger as an e-book (more than 1500 pages.)  For an unknown author such as myself, a book of that size can be a very hard sell. So it was suggested that the original story be broken into two stories and a third added to form a trilogy.

                

           

Vida, my Jill of all Trades, has helped me break down the original draft into two separate stories. A third treatment written after the original ‘Debris’ and originally entitled ‘Tahquitz Dawn’ is now the basis for book three of the Debris series.

It will be a challenging and somewhat monumental task to rewrite books one and two and create an entirely new book three. But I think I’m up to the task. If for no other reason than my love of Palm Springs and the creative juices that flow there.

Once immersed in that task, I’ll be able to go back to old Palm Springs and relive the glory and glamor and sordid ‘tales of the city.’ I’ll journey with Robert as he struggles to carve out a place for himself among the rich and infamous. I’ll explore the strained relationship of Brett and Payton and get close to Juliet as she questions her own sexuality. I’ll peek into the lives of other characters that appear and then fade in and out of various chapters.

It’s going to be one heck of a journey. But with the San Jacinto Mountains looking over my shoulder, I’ll feel like I’ve come home again.