Real Life and Fiction Meshing

A Brief, Certainly Unplanned Message

The world many of my characters inhabit is similar to worlds in which I’ve lived.

I have bounced around a bit, more surprised when I’ve lived in places of relative suburban calm than I am when I’ve lived in urban areas that might not be palatable to the average person.

Currently, I’m somewhere in the middle, living in a small, predominantly recent immigrant town surrounded by my hometown of Detroit.

While my town differs from Detroit in a few respects, those of us who know the area sometimes remind each other “It’s still Detroit.”

Just now, moments ago, I was responding to a reader’s message about one of my stories.

My back was to my window that faces to the north, to the most populous part of the city. (My southern window, in a complete Detroit cliche, overlooks an auto plant where I was employed for 5 years).

While I was typing, someone fired multiple shots from a small caliber (based on the sound) weapon.

My best friend from summer camp, John Williams, died from a gunshot wound he suffered while taking out the trash as part of his job at a restaurant called The Family Buggy, on 6 mile in Detroit (yes, two miles south of Eminem’s famed 8 Mile), blocks from my house.

I’ve been shot at multiple times during robbery attempts, revenge drive-bys on neighbors, and randomly being in the wrong place when someone started shooting.

I don’t include firearms in my stories often simply because I fucking hate them.

And I get to.

Tonight’s gunshots weren’t at me, but they were close enough to startle me and remind me that I’m still very much in the world where some of my fictional characters reside.

I hope you like the stories, I hope you take full advantage of your subscription, and I hope you’ll remember that the guy telling the stories isn’t living in some cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest, he’s living amongst many of the humans and the conundrums and challenges he writes about every day.

Thanks for listening, reading, and being part of Roulette Weal.

Jimmy

***

Photo Courtesy of Getty Images