Welcome to Part Two of my final Monday Blog for the month of September. This week, I wanted to talk about the high school experiences of some of my characters.
In the first Our Lady of Righteous Rage book, Amy talks about starting her first year of high school. She becomes a freshman at Benjamin Cardozo High, aka, “Dozo”. She takes a Creative Writing class, and meets Dee, who later becomes her best friend. She also meets Vanessa, the brains behind the Urban Collective, and Carmen, an artist. Mike, David, and Rob are also students at Dozo.
What draws Amy and Dee together, is their poetry. All of the students have to write a poem and read it out loud to the rest of the class. Amy and Dee read their poems and immediately become fans of one another’s work. Later, the two go to a pizza shop, and become friends.
I wanted to use the Creative Writing class as a jumping off point for the writing aspect of Amy’s life, because writing becomes a very important part of her career as a musician. She writes songs for her band. During her high school days, writing helps her channel some of her teenage frustration. After a negative encounter with her father and a mild fight with a girl from school, she pens the lyrics to “Wish You Well”. I drew from my own life for this, because writing is how I deal with some of my own frustration. When you can’t just slap someone in the face, you write about it instead.
High school is also the time frame in which the members of Our Lady discover music, and begin forming their first band. For Nick and Aidan, the first band is Torch, which Nick later becomes the lead singer for. He begins teaching Amy to play the guitar, with a little help from Aidan as well. They also have their first live performances while they’re still in high school.
I could have easily began this story after the characters had reached adulthood, but I thought it would turn out much better if I began with their high school years. High school is that pivotal time in your life, where you begin to sort out who you are, and who/what you’re going to be. You discover so much about yourself and your friends during those four precious years, and you continue to learn things about yourself even after you graduate.
Until next Monday…
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