Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with John McCluskey

What inspired you to write “Ogden’s Proverb”?

McCluskey: I wanted at some point to bring together a few elements of my own personal experience, fictionalize them greatly, and then see where it all lands. This appears to be the time to do just that. Most importantly, though, I wanted to explore elements of anxiety, OCD, loss, alcoholism, and the effects of all this on the teenage years, when so much emotional processing is required, yet our ability to do so at that age is limited.  This conflict can really determine how we live our adult lives, and it may even involve a lot of adult time spent unravelling what had happened years before.  Ultimately, though, I want to show this conflict in terms of a teenager begrudgingly gaining some understanding of the complexities of the relationships that define him/her and how it will ship his/her future.

Lastly, on a personal note, I wanted to introduce the character of Adam Lastings and immerse the main character Ogden, and hopefully the readers, in the impact Adam’s tragically short life had on one person. To me, the personal success of this book has already been achieved by documenting his existence to hopefully last a very long time, maybe forever. I feel this is a gift to his family, those who knew him, though I don’t even know many of those people, and, of course, the real Adam Lastings.  I realize the book has to be read to fully understand what I’m saying here, and I’m trying not to provide a spoiler alert, and this is not at all intended to be a teaser to purchase the book, I assure you, as Ogden himself might say.  This character has stayed with me all my life.  It’s that simple.

How did you come up with the names of your main characters?

McCluskey: The key character names: Ogden Skully, Chloe Ellen Quinn, and Adam Lastings came about after careful consideration of the auditory appeal of the names. I liked the way the first and last names sound together.  But there’s more. In Ogden’s case, he himself goes onto explain how he got his name, which I won’t spoil here. Chloe’s name is pure auditory bliss: quick, musical and no nonsense, much like Chloe herself.  Adam’s name is the most meaningful.  In addition to the appealing yet unusual cadence of his two names, he is, as already stated, the most important character (to me) in the book. His story is one that I feel compelled to tell, however somewhat fictionalized, which ties back to Q1 above. I wanted his last name to reflect a continuation of his life and impact on me, and so after careful deliberation, I chose the obvious last name of “Lastings”.  Highly unusual, a bit quirky and thought provoking, I hope.

Equally important to me is the noticeable lack of names of many other characters in the book. This is done with purpose, to illustrate the disconnect Ogden has with certain parts of his life and the people who inhabit those parts.  Some of those characters beg to have a name to complete their identity, but it is important to the story that they remain nameless (with one comical minor character exception who is named, the source of which is also revealed in the book). I think this is a rare case where absence tells its own story and is equally important to presence, each in its own unique way. You can probably tell that names are very important to me.

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process, or your book?

McCluskey: As a writer, I think it's important to know who you are and who you are not, and to be honest with your own personal life experiences. While writing fiction, this frees you up to strike a good balance between informed experiences and fictionalized elements of a story, lets you write with authority and confidence. Knowing who you are is important; though it can seem limiting at first, it's actually quite liberating, and it opens up many avenues of writing to explore, to see how your experiences might work in larger fictionalized scenarios. Gives you access to greater degrees of wisdom and insight.

If "Ogden’s Proverb" were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?

McCluskey: Depending upon the decade in which the movie would have been made (or is yet to be made), there are so many characters that could play these roles. I guess I could come up with a few examples going as far back as the seventies, but, in this particular case, I would really like the reader to imagine who they see in many of the roles without any outside suggestion.  This book tends to break some rules in terms of writing style, naming conventions, and even timeline, so I might as well break a rule here too and not provide an answer!

What are you working on next?

McCluskey: Right now, I’m in one of those “processing” periods, by choice, that I described in Q5 above. I don’t have writer’s block; I’m in a   self-induced, delightfully quiet period. Anxious to see what comes out of it. I am a photographer as well, so something about that is stirring, I can tell.  We’ll see what happens. This non-writing time is often my favorite writing time.

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