The Art
of Support
By:
Ashley Mackler-Paternostro
“Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain” -
The Wizard, The Wizard of Oz
I was
once told by an English teacher that writing a good protagonist is important,
but it’s the people around the protagonist that make a story shine. That without them, the all-important
supporting cast, it’s nearly impossible to tell a round, whole, fleshed out
story.
Creating
interesting secondary characters is paramount to the tone and tidal pull of a
novel. They become the way a reader
learns of the background, they take the voice of reason, they steer the story
at times. They can be a villain or a
force of good. They are often the most relatable, sometimes they stand to build
in conflict and sometimes drive they resolution.
It’s a
balance, writing these characters into the thick of a story. You have to do it just right, enough without
being too much.
I’m
bias of course, but I enjoy all of my characters in The Milestone Tapes. I
didn’t write them to be perfect people, they are not without their flaws, but
still ... it is in their imperfections that I find I adore them. I am, however, particularly fond of Ginny.
When I
outlined The Milestone Tapes it was
really no more than the quickest dash of ideas; things I wanted to include and
how the novel would close itself off, so on and forth. It wasn’t until I got to
know Jenna, to spend a little time in her life, that I realized she needed
someone, someone I hadn’t yet given to her.
Someone I never thought to include.
This
dying mother needed another woman to talk to, someone who would get her on
another level, one that not even her husband could. Jenna needed someone to
help pick up the pieces of her life and be a baseline for her family now and
seamlessly transition into what was coming next for them. That “this someone” would have be the sort of
woman that Jenna could trust entirely with her fears and the unknown future,
but most of all, trust with her child. And so, Ginny was born.
I knew
when I wrote Ginny exactly the role she would fill. I knew how I wanted to weave her into the
novel, and the voice she’d have, what sort of connection she would build with
the primary characters and the impact she would have on.
Ginny
is a women who has seen the changes in her personal life unfold. That, I
thought, was so important to put into her, it would be the way I shaped her
moving forward. Giving her that sort
back story and history that would allow her to approach this time in the
Chamberland’s life with the realization and knowledge that the world doesn’t
end after a loss, it changes, but it goes on.
As I
started to figure out who Ginny was and where she came from, I realized she
needed to have been a wife and mother and now a widow and an empty nester. That
she was starting over, beginning a new chapter in her life that scary and
unknown but one she could embrace. She
needed to have the flexibility, the personal knowledge of grief and new
beginnings to relate to the family at the heart of this story.
At
first Ginny’s a very quiet character supporting Jenna entirely with kindness,
trying to understand Jenna’s choices. But as the novel goes on she become
louder, making the transition from what Jenna needed her to be, into what Mia
needed of her. They are very different
needs. Jenna needed a friend, Mia needed
a mother.
Ginny
is the character, in my mind, that makes the biggest change through the most
subtle ways. She goes from being the hired help of a woman who is overwhelmed
by fate, to raising a little girl full time and loving her as her own. She had
done that, for her own children, and just when she believed that part of her
life was over, she finds herself beginning again.
Ginny
is capable of this patience with Mia that no one else is, because she herself has
loved someone and lost him. And then, in
the same moment, she knows how to release Mia into the world without fear or
hesitance, because she’s done that before as well.
Ginny
will tell you, in the novel, that the only thing she is good at is raising
children ... but I think she sells herself short. Ginny is good at being what people need her
to be without trying too hard. She is
selfless and loving, she’s a safe place for people who are scared and she
became exactly what the Chamberland’s needed, effortlessly rolling with their
changing lives.
Ginny
is, in and of herself, throughout her time with the Chamberland’s, the life
cycle of a parent. The mother, then
friend, it just happens to be reversed.
And it’s quiet, a docile undercurrent.
But without her presence in The
Milestone Tapes, the entire story would be so different.
My
question to you all ... who is your favorite support character in a novel and
why?
THE MILESTONE TAPES
By Ashley Mackler-Paternostro
Jenna Chamberland never wanted anything more than to be a wife
and mother. That is, until she realized that her life was ending after a
three-year battle against breast cancer. Now, all she really wants is more
time.
With 4,320 hours left to live, Jenna worries for her loved ones
and what she knows awaits them on the other side: Gabe will have to make the
slip from husband to widower, left alone to raise their seven-year-old
daughter; Mia will be forced to cope with life without her mother by her side.
In a moment of reflection, Jenna decides to record a set of audiocassettes —
The Milestone Tapes – leaving her voice behind as a legacy for her daughter.
Nine years later, Mia is a precocious sixteen-year-old and her
life is changing all around, all she wants is her mother. Through the tapes,
Jenna’s voice returns to teach Mia the magic of life, her words showing her
daughter how to spread her wings and embrace the coming challenges with humor,
grace and hope.
THE MILESTONE TAPES is the journey of love between a parent and
child, and of the bonds that hold them when life no longer can.
Excerpt From THE MILESTONE TAPES
PROLOGUE
With much
determination, Jenna willed her fingers to press the record button. She couldn’t
allow herself to think about how silly she felt speaking the paramount words to
only herself and a small tape recorder in the dark of her office, years and
years before they’d even harbor an inkling of truth. Or, how
heartbreaking it felt to know that eventually she would be finished recording
and the silence left behind would speak volumes.
She had
no notes, no frame of reference and no way of knowing exactly what her daughter
would need to hear when she finally, in time, came about pressing play.
All she had was a list, a list of milestones and a corresponding blank tape.
The fear
and utter sadness of that enveloped her like an inferno, burning her, buckling
her heart and breaking her in a million ways that would remain unseen, as so
many other breaks did. She would never really know if she got it right,
of course. She’d. Never. Know. And, if she were
being honest now, that realization had been the driving force behind the
recordings to begin with.
Hadn’t
that knowledge pinged her so many months ago, while the quiet of the morning
and darkness of her home gave the illusion of peace and rightness, and did
nothing more than make her think.
But even
more than that, wasn’t the unknown what she’d been fighting all along.
Trying to somehow rally against what the doctors told her was inevitable,
trying to be the exception rather than the rule. Jenna knew that she had fought
hard, battled with every moment, with umpteen doctors, with every drug, every
needle or pill or hope. The fighting had never been the problem; it was
simply what she was fighting against. That thing, so bound and determined to
win.
So now
she was left with the unknown. All of the things that couldn’t possibly
be known. It was no longer a question of science, medicine and time. Now
it was a matter of fate, faith and the natural unfolding of things. Jenna
had resolved that, although everything moving forward would be unknown, she
would plan and prepare and hedge her bets like a mother would, she would bet on
her daughter, and leave behind her voice.
She knew
her little girl now. She knew the determined expression that would cross
her face when they worked together side by side in the expansive kitchen she
had designed for family time and togetherness. She knew the jubilant smile
that would never fail Mia’s face when she huddled over her English homework,
letting her unique brand of creativity roll off in waves, limited only by what
she could spell and express at seven years old. She knew the tell-tale
face of a fib or half truth, Mia’s mouth dropping open just enough, as she
tried not to smile and tried harder to convey honesty. She knew the way
Mia’s lower lips would tremble as she departed the bus when the kids had been
less than kind, running for the security of home and the comfort of her mom,
running to the place that would nurture and welcome her budding individualism
rather than shy away from it.
Jenna
knew Mia better than she knew herself in every single way possible; she was her
mother. From the very beginning, her baby girl had been the epitome of a
miracle in Jenna’s eyes and remained steadfast in that role forever
after. Mia was Jenna’s sole reason for the death match that spanned out
behind them now, defining holidays and birthdays, along every other ordinary
day. Mia was reason and logic, hope and heartbreak; she was Jenna’s dream
personified. The prose of that would have made Jenna laugh, had the
thoughts and feelings ambushed her in a normal life. But in her life,
their life as a family with their singular child, the emotional turmoil was
highlighted and hung from their only child. Jenna knew she could never,
even if words flooded her, really say enough about her daughter.
But who
would Mia be when these tapes became relevant?
Suddenly
the unknown crept in again, playing around, twisting two or five or a million
different landscapes. Landscapes Jenna would be absent for. Would
Mia be analytical and thoughtful, living a life of logic and reason, a
breathing echo of her father? Would her love of words bloom into a love
of numbers? Or would she hold fast, stay true to her dreamy and creative
nature?
Would
some of these tapes be left, unheard, in their little plastic casings because
they didn’t apply to Mia? And if they didn’t pertain, why not? But,
if they did, and Mia needed them, and Jenna failed to push the worry aside,
then what? What if Mia carried the responsibility, all the joys and all
the burdens of life alone? The stark thought of that was enough to
cripple Jenna.
Jenna
pressed her finger firmly against the flat button with the red circle.
She thought about the laughter and tears, the piles of homework, the family
trips, the snuggles and hugs and kisses and fights. She thought about her
husband, trying to understand the enigma that was the teenage girl. She
pictured her daughter, grown up with a life, maybe even a family, of her
own. And she felt courage; these tapes were not expectations, they were
hopes— her hopes. And with all of that floating around in her head,
she began.
“Mia … I
love you.”
Author Bio:
Ashley
Mackler-Paternostro was born in Naperville, Illinois, where she still lives
with her husband Mark and their three dogs.
“We have such a normal life. And I’m really so lucky, my
husband Mark is absolutely the biggest supporter of my writing. It’s … amazing.
I have no right to be this fortunate … and yet, I am.”
A
hairstylist by trade, Ashley will often say that some of the best stories she
has ever heard were told to her while working behind the chair. A life long
reader with an insatiable appetite for good books, she decided to merge her
love of great stories — both told and written — into her own brand of story
telling.
“Life is so strange … people can do some really crazy things
when left to their own devices. As a stylist, I was privy to that, people just
want to still down and talk — and they all have something to say. Sometimes
it’s sad, sometimes it’s just hysterical. But, that’s real life — it’s kind of
messy.
As a reader, I need to lose myself in the book, I cherish
the sort of story that you can really invest yourself deeply in, the kind that
has an unforgettable character who pulls you to the point where you can
viscerally understand them and the lines of real and unreal get blurry.
When you take all that normal stuff and blend it with the
edge of fantastical, you can really find yourself in a beautiful place. When I
write, that’s what I’m looking for–that beautiful place. I have no problem
walking away from a book if the characters aren’t telling me their story. They
have to flesh themselves out, I have to believe in them in order to work with
them. My books are absolutely character driven … just like real life.”
When
she’s not being held captive in her home office by words, Ashley fancies
herself a flea market hunter with a weakness for Japanese glass floats and
repurposing vintage goods.
“There is such bliss in the things from once upon a time. I
can’t walk past a piece of furniture without wondering how I can change it. I
can’t see pretty glassware and not want to own it. I see these ordinary objects
and wonder — what’s the story behind this, how did it end up here? Where has
this been? Who loved this? I can really get swept away in that sort of
wondering.”
Writing was always in her blood from the
time she was a little girl always eager to say something, but until a trip to
the Olympic Peninsula in the spring of 2011 she never had the vision.
“You know, it’s sort of cliche how this all started. I just
turned 28 and my husband took me on vacation. I wasn’t at a crossroads in my
life — at least, not that I was aware of, but I came home from Washington and was
inspired, that place changed me. I had this story inside me and it was so loud
… I couldn’t quiet it down, I simply had to tell it.
So, I sat down and just started writing. I didn’t even think
about it. Once I hit 30,000 words I was like … oh … this is pretty serious. It
felt really natural, as though this was just how it was supposed to be for me …
so I let go and let the story unfold. I didn’t really worry about outlining, or
plotting … now I know better. I ended up with this book about life and death
and love and even I couldn’t believe it.”
Ashley wrote her entire first novel with
only three people knowing about it. She had no idea where this journey was
going to take her or how she would finish it … or even if she would finish it.
“I’m a big believer in wild dreams. My Dad used to call me
an enigma, which I suppose is very true. I was a hairstylist … the last person
you’d ever think would ‘write a novel’ let alone publish a novel — I mean,
really–a writer? Even I wasn’t so sure how this would turn out.
And, at the same time, I was always the type to just ‘blurt
it out’ (I’m not the best at keeping big, life changing secrets)… those sort of
loud proclamations usually lead to expectations. I knew that if I was going to
write authentically, I had to play it close to the chest. I needed to know
where I was going — gather my answers and figure it out — before I let too many
inside.
It was hard … but not impossible. I think it was the best
gift I ever gave myself. It worked. And when I finally was at the point when I
knew this book was absolutely going somewhere, it was an exciting thing to
share with the people in my life.”
Ashley’s
writing style reflects the sort of books she herself enjoys reading. Never one
to shy away from the uncomfortable or heartbreaking, her novels often ping into
the defining moments of life in the middle of great conflict.
“I’m a writer a of real life, I actually really like real
life. I enjoy putting my characters into very hard situations and I like seeing
how they figure it out — much of the time I have no idea how they’ll do it, but
in character driven pieces, they usually give you clues.
Good endings aren’t always as simple as ‘boy and girl live
happily ever after’ … that happens sometimes, sure …. but it’s not always genuine.
If bad things happen, my characters need to be able to figure out how to adjust
and live within them … you can’t force that to fit a mold. That’s what I’ve
figured out about my writing.”
Before the launch of her first book, THE
MILESTONE TAPES, she is already hard at work with the follow up.
“There is a lot of downtime when you’re working on the
publishing part — a lot of hurry up and wait. I couldn’t help but to be forward
thinking — excited about how I’ll follow the first one up. I’ve found a rhythm
to my style, I’m an author of ‘real life.’ My second novel definitely pings
into same emotionally whirlwind I touched upon in THE MILESTONE TAPES while
still being totally different — it has a very different vibe and undercurrent
to it, it’s a darker story — it’s all about hard — yet totally self created —
circumstances and the relationships we cultivate in our lives and the choices
we ultimately make.”
Ashley is set to debut her first work of
literary fiction in early 2012 with much excitement and enthusiasm.
“THE MILESTONE TAPES is more than a book … it’s a year of my
life and a whole new chapter. I am beyond thrilled to be in the position to
share my words. This really is a dream — a wild dream — come true.”
