Dads and Daughters

"Who a daughter gets as the most important man [father] in her life is pretty much the luck of the draw, for better or worse. That luck of the draw fills the heart of every woman with sadness, emptiness, anger and longing; or perhaps joy, confidence, compassion and empathy. Every woman is a daughter, and every woman's emotional abundance or desperation usually has more to do with her father than any other man in her life." -Kevin Renner, author of Fatherhood: Daughters Praising, Speaking Up, Talking Back, writing in the Oregonian in his "Dads and Daughters" column.

A thick strand in the tapestry of themes of Saint Sullivan's Daughter is the importance of fatherhood, not only to the daughter but to the father as well. When a man becomes a father, then the arc of his personal development can't exclude his children. If he rejects parental responsibility, he is but a stunted version of what destiny would have him be.

The curandera, speaking to Barry Sullivan, makes it clear that until he fully claims his parental responsibility, he will never fulfill himself as an artist.  In the early 1960's (the time in which this story is set) fathers were more of a necessary accessory than a vital actor in childrearing. While writing Saint Sullivan's Daughter, my quest was to uncover what would occur in a dysfunctional family if the father were to fully accept his role as the protector and nurturer of an at-risk child? 

Without dropping spoilers, I can reveal that the wise elders of the Irish and Mexican families counsel Barry Sullivan regarding how he might grow as a parent.  Though this is a story of the Mid-century Modern era, I believe the themes still resonate in our Post Modern era. Parents still struggle to make sacrifices for the sake of their children's well-being, and when the extended family and older friends cooperate to help young parents, they help heal the wounds of dysfunction. 

A wise neighbor, a committed grandparent, a counselor or loyal friend can do wonders to heal a situation when the "luck of the draw" (as Kevin Renner calls it) deals a child an unprepared and floundering parent.  Even the best of us are clueless at times. Parenting is a task that shouldn't be attempted in a vacuum.

Consider giving Saint Sullivan's Daughter as a gift to a new or young father. Young fathers can relate to Barry Sullivan's struggle to balance his creative and parenting life, especially when facing single-parenting.

When the Stars Flicker

While reviewing an early draft of Saint Sullivan's Daughter, a developmental editor asked me what my hopes and wishes for it were. I told him, "When someone opens my book, I want stars to shimmer out." I still want that to happen for readers. If just one star can light up a dark place in one heart, it will be worth the years it took to research and write the story.

I hope some will experience a resonance that might change something for the better, and help them believe in something good in their own self. More specifically, I hope that after reading this book people will be gentler around children, more respectful to elders, and truer to their cultural roots after reading my story.When the stars that shimmered fade and flicker out, I hope something true stays with you -- and that it is something healing and redemptive.

Here's a link to Saint Sullivan's Daughter online. Abbott Press

The Backstory: the Truth Behind the Consequences

My goal in Saint Sullivan's Daughter was to introduce characters that feel real. A method for creating three-dimensional characters is to imagine, even write down, a story outside the story. Some of their backstory can be revealed through dialog, even narration, but alot of it is subtext.  Ideally, backstory is a strongly braided cable that can support the character's arc from beginning to end.

I plotted each character's prior history, and imagined their personality quirks, even if I don't have room them all in the story.  Through doing this, I came to love even the antagonists. Knowing the reasons for their behaviors, it was hard to allow Dora to be such a poor mother, to let Barry fail so often, and allow Ceci to suffer.

It also pays to learn the backstory in real life. A mere mile's walk in someone else's shoes would never reveal the alcoholic parents, the kindnesses done in secret, and the dreams yet unfulfilled. We respond differently to others when we hear their stories.

I'd love to know your favorite characters in the book. What do you like about them? If I were to write a sequel, which character would you have me feature?

The Magic of Childhood

World over, children envision life through the kaleideoscope of innocence and imagination.  Trying to create meaning of the adult world and their own emotional responses, children turn to magical thinking. Ceci Sullivan is Saint Sullivan's six-year-old daughter. More than imaginative, she is somewhat of a visionary. Her responses to the stress of her parents' dysfunctional marriage, her mother's abuse, and her father's emotional inavailability are magical, but poignant in their childish wisdom. Within her visions are protection and warning. 

Ceci's great-aunt's antique wooden statue draws the child to the old woman's altar where Ceci experiences a small miracle. An excerpt from Part One of Saint Sullivan's Daughter:

"Santa Barbara, my mama is always mad and my daddy is--well, he's late--and it's my birthday. I just keep waiting." Ceci's hands tighted around the edge of the shelf, and she stared into the sad saint's eyes, until in one of them a teardrop formed. Down the side of Saint Barbara's nose it rolled and fell onto Ceci's thumb, cold a warm, light the wintergreen oil Pilar rubbed on her knees at night.

A shiver climbed Ceci's back and shook the teardrop off her finger. She was suddenly afraid. Never had she monkeyed with anything so important as a saint. But that was not all. Something was coming--something worse than being spanked or yelled at.

There could be very bad things in the world; she had watched the news with Daddy, seen the blurry movies of people crying about fires and earthquakes. The news wasn't as real as this feeling, balled up in her stomach, the size of an apple. Something was coming--what Tía called a catastrophe--a beautiful word Ceci loved until she learned its meaning.

Suffer the Little Children

Whenever parents make decisions, their children feel the consequences. In Saint Sullivan's Daughter, the six-year-old daughter of Dora and Barry Sullivan must bear the weight of their failing marriage, as well as the baggage from their unhealed traumas and tragedies.  The wise elders of Dora's Latino family and community, and Barry's delightfully fey Ma from Connemara team together to intercede for the child after a tragic accident.  Without them, Ceci, who is Saint Sullivan's daughter, might be lost.

If Ceci is lost, the whole family will be lost.  She is small and helpless, but she is also the axis of everything that matters.  If Barry "Saint" Sullivan doesn't learn to love as a father should, he cannot lead the family, but not only that. If he cannot love as he must love, he'll never be the jazz artist he longs to be.  

When we put our priorities in order, a kind of slow magic that leads to eventual actualization takes place.  The curandera, or healer, knows this -- and so does the grandmother.

One of the central themes of Saint Sullivan's Daughter is very timely; put the well-being of children first, and then attend to the dreams of adults. In the long run both adults and children will benefit from this priority system.http://bookstore.abbottpress.com/Products/SKU-000529426/saint-sullivans-daughter.aspx

Happy Advent Season. To celebrate here is an excerpt for you from Part One. The passage is referring to Angel's Gate lighthouse in San Pedro, California.

Mama shrugged away, "You love the clarinet more than me."

Daddy didn't speak. Ceci wanted him to tell Mama that it wasn't true, that he loved them both more than the clarinet. Holding her breath, she peered up through the oval rear window: black clouds blowing in like ghosts from the sea. The lighthouse circled its green lights and sounded its horn.

The lighthouse, like an angel guardian, wings of white cloud, had held up her green lantern over the harbor for as long as Ceci could remember.  She had learned to count by it.  The rhythm, one to thirty, and then the warning horn. One to thirty again, and the sad horn once more.  The foghorn drummed the heartbeat of this sailor town--the music under everything.

"Saint Sullivan's Daughter," my new novel

Welcome to Saint Sullivan's Daughter's brand new blog.  I am the author and blogger, Claire Germain Nail. This is my first novel.  Before writing this book, I have concentrated on poetry and essay writing. This novel is straight from my heart, but it's also a culmination of years of research and learning.  To write it, I ended up studying alongside a Mexican-American curandero, as well as retracing some of my childhood excursions throughout Southern California, and reenvisioning my own childhood during the 1960's.

A self-published novel through a small press, Saint Sullivan's Daughter is available autographed by the author if you live in the Portland, Oregon metro area or nearby. Just contact me at claire.nail@gmail.com. 
Out of my local area, it can be purchased from Abbott Press Bookstore, in paperback, hardbound or as an ebook. This small press is preferable to the larger online vendors, which also carry the book and are well-known to most everyone.

Here is a brief synopsis of the story. In the weeks to come I will be sharing excerpts from the story as well as some stories regarding my journey to self-publishing. 

Barry “Saint” Sullivan is a talented jazz musician, yet something of his soul is disappearing, he knows he drinks far too much, and his career is going nowhere.  If he doesn’t get a paying gig soon, his beautiful but tempestuous wife threatens to leave for Mexico. He's just quit his job as a band music salesman.

Ceci Sullivan is their lonely six-year-old daughter, who dreams in Technicolor, converses with long-dead ancestors, and has plaster saints for playmates.  Her parents' problems taking center stage, she watches from the shadows, until a tragic accident threatens her body and soul.

A traditional Mexican healer, a curandera, knows how to help Ceci, but will her father accept the healer’s unconventional methods? The curandera asks a sacrifice that few men of this era were prepared to make.

Set primarily in Los Angeles in the summer of 1960, Saint Sullivan’s Daughter is story of the Irish-Mexican family’s journey from the rusty harbor of San Pedro, to the colorful streets, and dangerous alleys of the Latino Barrio.  There, St. Sullivan will face dangers that could end his dreams forever.