From "Amy's" Heart
"Hi! My name is Amy Cavanaugh. I am 13 year's old. I am going to be a ballerina just like my Grammy! People call me bad names, but I don't care beacuse my Grammy loves me so much and I am good girl. I have friends and I can do things and be good."
In a nutshell, this is Amy, my favorite character I have ever written. She wears her heart bravely on her sleeve for all to see. She wants those that need her love and brightness to find it. She doesn't hide her emotions. This is sometimes a very dangerous thing for her... sometimes it is a very painful situation she puts herself in. Thankfully she has a grandmother who watches over her and protects her.
She is mentally challenged, sensitive, loving, caring, shy, timid, but.... she is talented, wise beyond her years, innocent, playful, and the kind of girl who somehow manages to find the good in the bad and the light within the dark. Despite her appearences and passive demeanor, she is a survivor. She manages to somehow look beyond the pain that somehow surfaces in her everyday life and finds the sunrises, the rainbows, the Babbling Brooks, and the colorful trees and flowers....
Amy is a ballerina. Or at least she wants very much to be one. Her leotards and tights are her security and her confidence. Her dance steps and poses and postures are her escape and her weapons against sadness and feelings of helplessness. In her world a mean person may hurt her feelings or cause her pain... but as a dancer... she has beauty no-one can take away or tarnish... as a dancer, she has something no-one else can have... a dream, a fantasy, an expression.... something better. And these things are hers and hers alone.
I think of the title of my first book often... there are double meanings in the words "Dancing with the Moon". Amy is dancing with a vampire named Moon. Amy is dancing around the issues, dangers, and worries... following the light she finds in the midst of darkness... even in the dead of night, there is at least a moon that shines.
"I like the moon... he's my magic best friend cus he dances with me no matter where I go. And he has magic to help me dance better and he makes me feel better beacuse he's shiny in the sky and doesn't scare me."
There is a lot of me that comes out in Amy... but at the same token... years later... Amy is very much her own character now. She isn't so much a part of me anymore. She's growing up all on her own, becoming her own personality and her own identity. In a sense she is transcending from the written words and becoming something more than just a few passages in a book. She's becoming an image, a voice, a feeling...
I gave Amy life. But now she has become independent of me and is now giving ME life. Or at least she is showing me what life can be. Such a strange situation it is for me to explain how words on a page come to life... such a strange thing to see a character take on a life of their own. But unlike most horror writers who fear the things they create and refer to them as monsters... i.e. "Looks like I've created myself a real monster..." I can sit back and truly admire this one character and smile. It looks like in Amy, I have created a beautiful, talented, young girl who will one day be a real ballerina just like her Grammy.
In a nutshell, this is Amy, my favorite character I have ever written. She wears her heart bravely on her sleeve for all to see. She wants those that need her love and brightness to find it. She doesn't hide her emotions. This is sometimes a very dangerous thing for her... sometimes it is a very painful situation she puts herself in. Thankfully she has a grandmother who watches over her and protects her.
She is mentally challenged, sensitive, loving, caring, shy, timid, but.... she is talented, wise beyond her years, innocent, playful, and the kind of girl who somehow manages to find the good in the bad and the light within the dark. Despite her appearences and passive demeanor, she is a survivor. She manages to somehow look beyond the pain that somehow surfaces in her everyday life and finds the sunrises, the rainbows, the Babbling Brooks, and the colorful trees and flowers....
Amy is a ballerina. Or at least she wants very much to be one. Her leotards and tights are her security and her confidence. Her dance steps and poses and postures are her escape and her weapons against sadness and feelings of helplessness. In her world a mean person may hurt her feelings or cause her pain... but as a dancer... she has beauty no-one can take away or tarnish... as a dancer, she has something no-one else can have... a dream, a fantasy, an expression.... something better. And these things are hers and hers alone.
I think of the title of my first book often... there are double meanings in the words "Dancing with the Moon". Amy is dancing with a vampire named Moon. Amy is dancing around the issues, dangers, and worries... following the light she finds in the midst of darkness... even in the dead of night, there is at least a moon that shines.
"I like the moon... he's my magic best friend cus he dances with me no matter where I go. And he has magic to help me dance better and he makes me feel better beacuse he's shiny in the sky and doesn't scare me."
There is a lot of me that comes out in Amy... but at the same token... years later... Amy is very much her own character now. She isn't so much a part of me anymore. She's growing up all on her own, becoming her own personality and her own identity. In a sense she is transcending from the written words and becoming something more than just a few passages in a book. She's becoming an image, a voice, a feeling...
I gave Amy life. But now she has become independent of me and is now giving ME life. Or at least she is showing me what life can be. Such a strange situation it is for me to explain how words on a page come to life... such a strange thing to see a character take on a life of their own. But unlike most horror writers who fear the things they create and refer to them as monsters... i.e. "Looks like I've created myself a real monster..." I can sit back and truly admire this one character and smile. It looks like in Amy, I have created a beautiful, talented, young girl who will one day be a real ballerina just like her Grammy.
posted by The Vampire, David at 11:50 PM
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