Adventures in Writing - A Touchy Subject

October 15, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 40) - Sometimes a writer's passion takes him or her to a place others may wish they did not go. That was the case with my first fiction novel, Thirteen Minutes: Death of an American High School. As the name suggests, it is a story about a school shooting at a fictional high school. I characterize Thirteen Minutes as a contemporary fiction that blends a fictional story with the real-life facts about the causes and effects of school shootings.

I am a passionate gun control advocate. I am not a left-wing, "take away your Second Amendment rights" kind of guy. I happen to believe that the Second Amendment and reasonable regulation of firearms, ammunition and gun magazines can peacefully coexist. Unfortunately, those who disagree with me often doing so by expressing their anger - including the occasional death threat. Needless to say, this was not an easy topic to write about. When it came to the matter of gun violence in America, I made certain that my narrative was supported by verifiable research. I also tried to avoid a gun control slant in the story. As was the case in real life, some of the characters were strongly in favor of gun control while others were equally strongly opposed. I laid out their arguments and left it to the readers to form their own opinions.

However, that was hardly the biggest challenge in writing Thirteen Minutes. I quickly discovered that writing fiction is, in many ways, harder than writing nonfiction. When I wrote my first novel, Bridging the Chesapeake: A 'Fool Idea' That Unified Maryland, I was dealing with a known set of historical facts. In Thirteen Minutes, the entire plot was a creation of my own imagination. I had to keep track of the characters and their actions. Because mine was a story with a few twists and turns, it was easy to become confused with who did what to whom. For example, in my third edit of the manuscript, I realized that I had one of the main characters killing himself - which, of course, would have confused the heck out of the readers. To avoid that kind of confusion, I had several pages of notes reminding me who the characters were, what their jobs/roles were and what was motivating them to do what they did in the story. I'm not sure that is what successful fiction writers do, but it sure helped me.

Honestly, Thirteen Minutes is my least succesfull book in terms of its sales. (If you'd like to help me in that regard by buying it, I'd very much appreciate that!) However, I believe it may be my most important book because it shines a light on a tragically singular American issue. I also think it is good, albeit dark, story. Of course, as all authors know and must accept, that's for others to judge. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.