Today’s special author guest is Ben Sharpton and he’s chatting with me about his contemporary novel, The Awakening of Jim Bishop: This Changes Things.
Welcome, Ben. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
“Tell stories.” It’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. Stories inspire people to grow and expand their horizons. They entertain. They challenge. They comfort. Simply put, they make life much better.
I’ve been telling stories all my life. When I worked with adolescents, I told stories that helped kids understand, learn, and develop. Later, as a corporate training manager for Fortune 500 companies, I used stories to demonstrate examples, to encourage better business practices, and to stimulate learning. As an online college professor, I found stories to be instrumental in challenging people to think and comprehend.
Today I continue to tell stories. You’ll find them in my nonfiction, curriculum books and all of my novels. I’ve been fortunate to publish five award winners, so far, through independent publishing houses.
Please tell us about your current release.
Jim Bishop’s world is ripped apart when his wife dies. Inspired by her, he is determined to be more like her and vows to build a life of purpose and meaning through helping others. His journey takes him through the troubled lives of five strangers: a corporate executive, a nurse, a low-level computer programmer, a minister and a pregnant, homeless woman. Each of them have their own secrets, and each longs for a chance for redemption. Along the way, a mysterious vagrant named Gene interacts with each character, nudging them in new directions.
What inspired you to write this book?
I usually write thrillers – very plot-driven. But I wanted to do something much more character-driven this time. So I created the protagonist – Jim Bishop, and then created five very diverse characters, each with their own challenges and fears. I actually drew it out on paper and jotted down scene titles in which they interacted with Jim and with each other. That exercise made it easier to write in such a way that the reader could easily follow each character’s story – something reviewers have said I really got right in this one. I had recently volunteered to work at a homeless shelter, spending the night with a couple of dozen people who had nowhere else to go. They inspired me to make one of my characters homeless.
Excerpt from The Awakening of Jim Bishop: This Changes Things:
Jim found a generic hospital chair, hard and clinical, built to be as uncomfortable and unwelcoming as possible, in the hallway near the lobby. The short walk had worn him thin. Nurse Angela left in silence after touching his shoulder lightly.
Though he didn’t want to, Jim willed himself back to the present. He was sitting in a hospital waiting room and he couldn’t stay there forever. Placing his hands on the arms of his chair, he tried to push himself up into a standing position, but eased back down, exhausted. The hospital buzzed with activity. Several strangers, testifying concern with worried looks, huddled in small groups around the tiny lobby. A sedated patient rolled by on a gurney. A sleeping old man slumped down so far in his chair he might slide out. Jim wondered how anyone could sleep through the noise of harried voices in odd concert with the excited rant of a sportscaster on a nearby television. Around the corner, someone wailed incessantly. He wondered why no one offered to help the poor lady. This is a hospital, for Pete’s sake. Someone should do something.
Jim tried again, and then rose from his vinyl covered chair, left the small lobby, and lumbered down a shiny, nondescript hallway, adorned only by the fuzzy reflections from ceiling lights on the gleaming floor.
Jean would have helped. She always helped.
Room 435. Just a room number, not a name. Like a waiting list number in a bakery or a Social Security number when you needed to complete some stupid form. He urged the door open and slipped inside.
An older woman occupied the first bed in the double room. The second contained another elderly woman. “Can’t you get her to shut up?” she insisted, when he entered the room. “Give her some pills or something. Just get her to shut the hell up.”
Jim shuffled to the foot of the bed to stand before the wailing woman. She resembled his grandmother when she was on her deathbed in a little hospital in Fayetteville a long, long time ago. Picking up a clipboard attached to the bed, he knew he did not know what the check boxes or scribbles meant, but he recognized a line for the patient’s name. She was Eleanor Brower. “Hello, Mrs. Brower,” he said, gazing down upon the blemished and aging face of the frail woman. She clutched her bed sheet against her chin with both hands, as if she was trying to shield her infirm body. Jim fought the urge to hold her.
What exciting story are you working on next?
A college professor of psychology begins to question her own identity when someone begins to manipulate her with various psychological techniques like cancelling, ghosting, gaslighting, deepfake videos, etc. Can her recent interest in those who have no identity – the homeless community – save her?
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I started my first novel in high school, but it died on the third page. Then, when I was in my mid-twenties I sold my first article, a short how-to for a national newsletter and got paid $10.00. I was hooked from that point on. I was a writer.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I have to admit I write part-time and by write, I mean everything that is required to maintain a freelance writing business (editing, marketing, research, etc.). When not writing, I volunteer, do various tasks around the house and meditate on the smoky mountain range I can see from my office window (usually while drinking coffee). And, I walk my two boxer dogs, Mercy and Sera (Serendipity).
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
(1) If/when I write myself into a dilemma – such as a problem that my character needs to solve, but I can’t think of a solution, I stop writing (often midsentence) and sleep on it. My subconscious usually comes up with a creative solution overnight.
(2) Every one of my published novels includes a Methodist Minister, usually, but not always, in a positive way.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What else, a writer.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I hold two bachelor’s degrees and three master’s degrees, the last is an MFA in creative writing. I believe in learning throughout one’s life – “When you stop learning, you stop” is my aphorism. Either that or I never could figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up.
Links:
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Thanks for being here today, Ben.