Meet Mr. Magee

I was a little over 80,000 words into my novel when I came across the curious account of Sylvester Magee. Mr. Magee died in 1971, around the same year that Mr. Sam, one of the characters in my novel, Your Pal Al, died. When writing my story, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going. Mr. Sam came to life in the bluish glow of the screen, just as Albert did. They came to life together and grew into real people together. Albert is a young, white boy from Florida. Mr. Sam is an old black man from Georgia. Samson is quite literally larger-than-life. And, up until the time that I discovered Sylvester Magee, I thought he was quite old, too. Meet Mr. Magee.

Diane Arbus

Retro photography. I fell for her photography in college in the early 80s. Every picture tells a story, to be sure, but Arbus takes it to another dimension. This photo has inspired many—from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Teach your Children Well to the creation of Bart Simpson. And it has hit me as well. Colin Wood is only seven in the photo, so he is a bit younger than the novel's main character that I have been laboring on for more than ten years. I have been working on the second draft of Your Pal Al. The first was not quite complete and needed a lot of fixes. I hope to be done soon. 

Diane Arbus: Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962

“She catches me in a moment of exasperation. It's true, I was exasperated. My parents had divorced, and there was a general feeling of loneliness, a sense of being abandoned. I was just exploding. She saw that and it's like . . . commiseration. She captured the loneliness of everyone. It's all people who want to connect but don't know how to connect. And I think that's how she felt about herself. She felt damaged and she hoped that by wallowing in that feeling, through photography, she could transcend herself.” — Colin Wood