POVs Two

This is how I kept track of chapters, dates, and points of view in One Summer in the Sun:

CHAPTERS and TIMELINE

before: June 4 — graduation and Hurricane Abby

JUNE

1 : Kris — June 7, Friday morning

2 : Ronnie — June 7, Friday evening

3 : Kris — June 7, Friday evening

4 : Joey — June 8, Saturday morning

5 : Ronnie — June 8, Saturday afternoon

6 : Joey — June 9, Sunday morning

7 : Kris — June 9, Sunday evening

8 : Ronnie — June 10, Monday evening/night

9 : Joey — June 10, Monday night

10 : Kris — June 11, Tuesday afternoon

11 : Joey — June 14, Friday morning

12 : Ronnie — June 15, Saturday morning

13 : Kris — June 15, Saturday evening

14 : Ronnie — June 15, Saturday night

15 : Kris — June 15, Saturday night

16 : Joey — June 16, Sunday morning

17 : Ronnie — June 17, Monday evening and June 18 Tuesday

18 : Kris — June 21, Friday morning

19 : Ronnie — June 21, Friday evening

20 : Joey — June 22, Saturday morning

21 : Kris — June 22, Saturday

22 : Joey — June 23, Sunday morning

23 : Ronnie — June 25, Tuesday morning

24 : Kris — June 28, Friday morning

25 : Joey — June 29, Saturday morning

26 : Ronnie — June 30, Sunday early morning

27 : Kris — June 30, Sunday late morning

JULY

28 : Ronnie — July 2, Tuesday morning

29 : Joey — July 4, Thursday afternoon

30 : Kris — July 4, Thursday night

31 : Joey — July 5, Friday afternoon

32 : Ronnie — July 6, Saturday morning

33 : Kris — July 8, Monday morning

34 : Ronnie — July 12, Friday afternoon

35 : Joey — July 14, Sunday morning

36 : Kris — July 14, Sunday afternoon

37 : Ronnie — July 16, Tuesday evening

38 : Joey — July 17, Wednesday early

39 : Ronnie — July 17, Wednesday morning

40 : Kris — July 17, Wednesday night

41 : Joey — July 18, Thursday afternoon

42 : Kris — July 19, Friday morning

43 : Ronnie — July 21, Sunday afternoon

44 : Joey — July 22, Monday very early

45 : Ronnie — July 23, Tuesday morning

46 : Kris — July 24, Wednesday evening

47 : Joey — July 27, Saturday morning

48 : Ronnie — July 27, Saturday afternoon

49 : Kris — July 27, Saturday evening

50 : Joey — July 31, Wednesday morning

AUGUST

51 : Kris — August 2, Friday evening

52 : Ronnie — August 3, Saturday afternoon

53 : Joey — August 7, Wednesday morning

54 : Kris — August 7, Wednesday afternoon

55 : Ronnie — August 7, Wednesday evening

56 : Joey — August 7, Wednesday night

57 : Ronnie — August 8, Thursday morning

58 : Kris — August 8, Thursday afternoon

59 : Ronnie — August 10, Saturday afternoon

60 : Joey — August 11, Sunday morning

61 : Ronnie — August 11, Sunday afternoon

62 : Kris — August 11, Sunday evening

63 : Ronnie — August 13, Tuesday morning

64 : Joey — August 14, Wednesday morning

65 : Ronnie — August 15, Thursday afternoon

66 : Kris — August 16, Friday evening

67 : Joey — August 19, Monday afternoon

68 : Ronnie — August 23, Friday afternoon

69 : Joey — August 23, Friday evening

70 : Kris — August 24, Saturday morning

71 : Joey — August 29, morning

SEPTEMBER

epilogue : Ronnie — September 2, night

All this, of course, in the summer of 1968.

Vehicles

There are plenty enough bikes and scooters and automobiles in the pages of “One Summer in the Sun.” It would be dreary to list them all, largely out of context, so I shall simply show a few of them here. This is all in 1968, of course.

Preston Summerlin’s white Caddy

Lawyer Preston Summerlin, father of James and Angelica—known to their friends as Jam and Jelly—is quite fond of his Sixty-two Cadillac de Ville convertible. The picture here is pretty much identical to it. Some of our characters do get to borrow it and cruise town one summer Sunday.

the Mini Moke

Where they meet Gordon ‘Grubby’ Rhein, parked near the Naples pier in his Mini Moke. There was a Moke in Naples at the time the story is set, though it did not belong to any surfer-boy such as Grubby. But it seemed appropriate for him!

 

the mighty Solex moped

Our final picture is of a Solex moped. There was one of these in the real Naples at the time, too, belonging to the individual who somewhat inspired the character Russel I blogged about a little while ago. In my narrative, it has been passed along to his younger sister, who tries to keep up with Jelly Summerlin on her shiny new red Vespa scooter.

POVs

I wrote “One Summer in the Sun” from a different point of view (there were three POV characters) in each chapter and stuck strictly to that point of view. Generally, I knew whose POV I would use well before I wrote the chapter but there were a few that could have been from anyone’s—or at least, two different characters. One must commit to one POV eventually.

Also, I never used the same character’s POV in two consecutive chapters. That helped me decide in situations where I was not certain who might work best. Of course, I didn’t do a strict rotation among the characters; that seems a bit silly as an approach. But I did not leave anyone out for too long.

Not surprisingly, I stuck to the same format for the sequel,"One Christmas in the Sun." I guess I am stuck with it if I write more!

Russel

Of all the characters in One Summer in the Sun, Russel Penn—a relatively minor supporting role—comes closest to the real life individual that inspired him. Most of the characters are composites or wholly invented and, to be sure, Russel isn’t really a portrait of anyone either. To distance him a little, I caricatured his family some—especially the sister, who is nothing like the real thing (except maybe in appearance).

Another version of Russel, that is, a character based on the same real-life individual, has appeared in a fairly well-known novel by another author (he is, in fact, her husband). For the most part, you would not know they were the same person. I certainly don’t treat him as sympathetically, though he still comes off as a ‘good guy.’ He’s just the sort my wise-cracking trio of main protagonists are likely to poke a little fun at, in private. To some degree, he symbolizes to them the high school life they have left behind.

If it hadn’t been for that book by that other author, I might never have used him at all. But how could I resist putting my own twist on him and the town in which he lived? Incidentally, I am pretty sure my portrayal of Naples, set a few years later, is somewhat more accurate than hers. Nothing beats growing up in a place.

Facts

Some facts about the writing of “One Summer in the Sun”:

I was afraid the novel might sprawl to 100,000 words or more, but it came in at a trim and completely acceptable 88,000. That’s close to the ideal range for a book of its sort, from a commercial standpoint—not that I wrote with that in mind.

The novel ended up with more humor than I expected. It was first envisioned as bitter-sweet and a bit tragic. Oh, there is certainly some of that but there is also a fair amount of joking and banter.

I wasn’t sure until I was halfway through whether it would contain graphic sex. I’d written a couple scenes that at least bordered on it, scenes I could have edited if I chose not to go that way. As it turns out, the novel ended up with lots of sex. It will definitely need to be labeled as ‘adult content’.

“One Summer” is obviously being released under a pen name. That is not because of the sexual content (well, mostly not) but more because I lived through some of the events in its pages. I knew the time and place, and I’d just as soon no one connected me to it!

P.S. My publisher told me the book could be positioned as ‘New Adult.’ That would never have occurred to me. But then, the three protagonists and most of their friends are eighteen, so maybe he has something!

 

The Autistic Boyfriend

Alan, the surfer boyfriend of Ronnie in ‘One Summer in the Sun,’ is almost certainly autistic. I prefer not to actually label my characters, and the term autistic wasn’t in as common use when the story is set (1968). But there are clues, including a tendency to seem distant and self-absorbed.

Ronnie, on the other hand, is simply introverted (not that there is anything ‘simple’ about any personality). She and Alan bonded after she had spent her high school years dating rather normal and boring guys. They share many interests, both are enthusiastic readers, both prefer not to socialize much.

But she does begin to feel something is lacking in their relationship, that he is not ‘all in’ the way she is (though, in truth, he is probably the more ‘in’ of the two). This will lead to trouble, eventually. Will their romance survive the summer? Or for that matter, those of her best friends, Joey and Kris, the other point-of-view characters in the novel? No spoilers here; you’ll have to read ‘One Summer’ to find out!

I'm not sure what is with these strange background colors on the content I'm bring over from the older site and I'm not sure I care enough to look for a fix!

Hi There

This is going to be the new home of author Sienna Santerre. We're moving from a WordPress site; nothing against WordPress, this will just be more convenient and streamline the process for Arachis Press, which maintains the blog/site.

SS is the author of two 'Women in the Sun' novels, set in Naples Florida in 1968-9. More on that and on future projects as we get set up.