Welcome to the website of writer C.A. Clemmings
What is the title of the book?
I have a novella and a short story currently in progress. The title of my novella is Rebirth, and the title of my short story is Placencia.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
For Rebirth I drew inspiration from Bad Girls, the TV series about women in prison. Since my ideas originate with character, however, I wanted to write about a woman who comes out of that kind of environment and to examine how she rediscovers and redefines herself in society.
Placencia was supposed to be a fun, easy project. It was an attempt to take a “vacation” from the extensive work that goes into longer projects. Turns out it takes just as much effort for me to produce a short story.
What genre does your book fall under?
Literary Fiction
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I had not given much thought to this, and when I did, I found it difficult to select the right actresses who could embody my characters. I think I will leave up to readers to shape the characters with their own imagination.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Rebirth is about Nicolette, a young ex-convict who goes to live on ranch that once belonged to her deceased parents, and ends up acquiring a racehorse and an attractive female jockey who convinces her to get into the horseracing business, which inadvertently unearths Nicolette’s parents’ shady past.
Placencia is a about a woman who, while on her way to meet her girlfriend for their vacation together in Honduras gets thrown off-course and ends up in Placencia, Belize, where she is tempted by an alluring woman and encounters a fisherman who is a haunting reminder of the father she’s never met.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The first drafts of both Rebirth and Placencia were completed in a few months, however the process of transforming them into their current versions took considerably longer.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
In general, I am inspired to tell stories about ordinary people with an enigmatic quality. For Rebirth, I was inspired to write about a woman who had lost nearly everything and had been stripped down to her “flinching muscles.” I wanted to rebuild her and bring color back to her life.
Placencia was born out of the idea of taking a vacation away from the things that we obsess over in our daily lives such as work, relationships, and our families. However, interestingly enough for my main character Elodie, Placencia becomes the place where she finds herself confronted by the things that burden and haunt her: the tremendous fog of failure and the potential for failure that seems to envelope her, and the unresolved issues that stem from not being given an opportunity to know her father. The impact of this is depicted in Elodie’s aimless spirit. I enjoyed writing Placencia because it allowed me to explore this flawed and self-absorbed woman, who at the end of the day is good-hearted and makes the right decisions.
Is your book out in print, upcoming from a publisher and/or represented by an agency?
Placencia and Rebirth will be self-published in the spring and summer respectively.
Morsby
I first wrote At the Heart of War as a personal essay many years ago. Since then I rewrote it many times, and even tried to fictionalize it. I decided to go with the true story as much as possible.
Morsby (name changed) was a character from my childhood who seemed like the most malicious person in the world and was very scary to me as a child. He was always angry and cursing us; always attempting some spell to harm us. That said, children can be just as malicious, especially to someone like Morsby, who was alone. A large group of children and their friends being mischievous can be just as intimidating. That's the reason I decided to make the protagonists We against Morsby. I wanted to show the imbalance in terms of number.
A couple instances in the story: "We let our legs dangle over the verandah ledge..." and the almost encounter in the garden was really supposed to be He, my brother.
And the scene where: "We ran outside and hurled two rocks..." should also be He, my brother. That did happen, but we did not all collectively hurl rocks. We were too busy cowering in a corner.
So some of it was embellished for the sake of the story, but I also left out a section that was in the original essay. That was a memory of Morsby right after Hurricane Gilbert, which struck Jamaica in 1988. I was eight years old and this was after my siblings and I had already had many adventurous encounters with Morsby. Here is an excerpt from the end of my original essay:
Parts of our roof had been blown off, one wall had a large crack that ran from the ceiling down to the floor, and water was everywhere. My father, the carpenter, did the repairs on our house and my grandmother’s, and after a few weeks we were beginning to get things back together.
But Morsby had no one. I remember seeing him trying to do as much as he could to help himself. He had lost just as much as anyone else, but he had to try to put his life back together alone. Almost his entire roof was gone. The interior of his house was in disarray and had been flooded. I don’t know how it happened --- if he asked or not --- but one day while we were experiencing a brilliant after the storm sunshine, I went outside and saw my father on top of Morsby’s roof, repairing it for him. I found it strange that he was helping this long established enemy of ours. In fact, I didn’t understand it at all at the time. But I also didn’t see any evil in Morsby that day. He was busy offering advice and assisting my father, flinging foot as he passed up supplies. They worked together like they were old friends, my father hammering and nailing and sawing, with Morsby flinging and dragging and reaching.
Read the final version of At the Heart of War here.