Hawk Dancer - Author Interview

Questions and Answers for the Author: Bro. Joshua Seidl, SSP
Joshua Seidl

    This is based on interviews and public appearances I made, and on questions others have asked me regarding how my books came about. How did I write them?

    What influenced me?

    Is any of this based on my personal history?

    How did I get published?


     Here's all on how it got started, and grew.

    Scrolling will vary by device. Follow sections by number.
1. Encouragement to write

     I, like many of us, daydreamed of writing a book.
     Folks would say, “You should write a book on that.”
     I gave it a few tries and realized that being an author was not in the cards for me. Creating my first novel, Hawk Dancer, just sort of happened. It began with a short story I wrote in an advanced Creative Writing class at Walsh University, North Canton, Ohio around 1998. I was 47 years old.
     Apparently, the story made a big hit with my professor and fellow classmates. They wanted to know more. I shared my short stories and poems with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Elaine Browne. They wanted more, and I loved the limelight ever since I was a preschooler.
     “Plug a nickel into him,” Mom often said about my storytelling as a kid, “And you’ll get a quarter’s worth.”

2. The Cure

     The Cure is the short story that started it all.
     It is set in the pristine wilderness of the Upper Peninsula along the shores of Green Bay near its opening to Lake Michigan on December 23/24, 1957. The parents of 6-year-old Randy Vanwesterdyke feared that night might be the last for their terminally ill boy. A powerful blizzard raged outside knocking out the power and made all roads impassable.
   The father left the house in desperation so seek the assistance of their estranged neighbor, Job, an Anishinabe Potawatomi rumored to have been an Indian Medicine Man. The neighbors and the Vanwesterdykes had been at odds over the rights to adopt Randy, a Native American orphan that literally popped into their lives five years earlier.
   Job and Hazel petitioned to adopt the child to keep him in the tribe and raise in the culture of the regional First Nation. The Vanwesterdykes, along with most other White Americans felt the child had a better chance being raised in a civilized White Christian home. The courts agreed. The battle for custody, however drew a cold curtain of silence between the side by side neighbors living at the edge of the village of Birch Clump.
   The child survived and the events surrounding his recovery that long night set the stage for conciliation with the neighbors.

(Conciliation vs Reconciliation)
 Note that I chose to say ‘conciliation’ instead of ‘re-conciliation.’ Conciliation is the original point of mutual good will between parties. The suffix ‘re’ indicates a return to mutual good will when relationships have soured. The Dutch-American Vanwesterdykes’ point of mutual good will, or conciliation, with the Potawatomi/Ojibwe couple Job and Hazel began the night of the cure 1957.
Character development thus far casts the introductory cast in a good light. Both households are law abiding citizens, practicing Catholics generously involved for the good of their community. Each with some faltering, but over all good people. The battle to adopt the year-old child who was orphaned in a single car accident in the spring of 1952 in front of the Vanwesterdyke home, however misguided by today’s standards, was done with the child’s interest in mind.
  Randy is portrayed as mixed race (Metis) favoring Native American features. He is notably diminutive compared to his same age peers. His exceedingly cute facial features and vulnerability, good manners and quick smile endears him to others in the story and novel. It’s the perfect formula to win over the readers as well.

3. Building up the First Novel, Hawk Dancer

  Demand from my fellow classmates, namely the young ladies who fell in love with Randy, and encouragement from our creative writing professor and my Uncle and Auntie prompted me to create a history before Randy is born and to let readers know what became of him after the night of the cure. The novel opens in late December 1934 with 17-year-old Richard White the night of his parent’s funeral.
   His Great Uncle John Wounded Bird has Richard move onto his farm. Not long after, a new minister arrives to take over the Birch Clump Village Community Church. Richard witnesses the small gathering of parishioners welcoming their new minister as they sour and try to drive him off. They never expected that the tall Reverend Luke Matthews (Minwahjimo Winini) and his wife Sky Woman were Ojibwe. The White congregation objected that anyone of Color would have a leadership role over them.
 Uncle John Bird was also Ojibwe. His nephew is Metis, or mixed Ojibwe and Euro-American, somewhat dark completed, brown eyes and blond hair and tall. He could “pass” as was said in those days for White even though he retained Native features. The encounter between the protestant congregation and their new minister was a significant first for Richard to observe.
   Days later, the Ojibwe Minister and young Job, (also 17 years old in 1934) meet at the Bird farm getting introduced to Richard White. This begins a long friendship between them.

4. Annunciation Monastery
 
    Richard aspires to be a priest. The next 15 years is devoted to his seminary studies along with formulating the first ever Native American Catholic Order of Brothers and Priests. John Bird offers the farm for the fledgling Order’s use. Job and Hazel, and a handful of non-indigenous villagers get involved on a volunteer basis. Anishinabe cultural tradition is the norm for the congregation’s life style, pastoral and spiritual direction. There is hesitant support from some leaders of the Euro-centric Churches, not without some suspicion over the mere thought letting Natives take charge of their local Church affairs; worried that some traditions might not be in keeping with the faith.
  The name of the congregation and the Mother House (the former Bird Farm), changes during the initial development stages. The official name becomes Annunciation Friary and the Order is titled Congregation of St. James, based on the Franciscan 3rd Order Regular Rule with the Epistle (Letter) of St. James woven into their constitution of common life.
   Membership is open to all races, but with the understanding that local First Nation Tribal cultural norms dominate. Thus, the founding Friary or monastery follows Anishinabe (Ojibwe. Potawatomi and Odawa) norms.
5. Writing behind the Camera

 
 Richard White is a Conscientious Objector when WWII breaks out. Many fellow Americans consider him unpatriotic for doing so. 
    The manner, or style I use to write my lead into World War II draws from my education, training and experiences in TV and Video production. I employed several short cut-away shots (or scenes) showing the Japanese ships approaching Pearl Harbor, and then quick snippets of war fronts in Europe and Asia, and of an indigenous boy in the Ranchi region of India seeing a plane fly overhead for the first time wondering what it could be.
    Meanwhile, Richard is getting ready for his ordination to the Diaconate in Boston as Japan is bombing Pearl Harbor. Bostonians learn of the attack during the post ordination celebrations.
    The readers view several scenes as I would from a TV camera operator’s view. I give a close up of blizzard packed snow melting on Job’s soft thin goatee when he steps into the small foyer of the Vanwesterdykes home for the first time.
fight, fist fight, tight jeans, teen boys fighting
   Fight scenes go from wide angle catching the pair fighting and those nearby who are jolted by the sudden break out of violence to become excited witnesses of the contest between two teen age boys. I then move in closer, showing their serious faces, misses, ducking, and then a punch and the shock of the one who went down. I switch cameras to show the excited audience and an imaginary third camera zooms in on a chipmunk escaping the pair wildly rolling on the ground. The faster I make these pseudo-camera shots via text, the livelier the scene comes through for the reader.
6. Virtue and Vice

   The stories promote good virtue but are by no means soft and syrupy sweet throughout. I keep it ‘family friendly,’ my own way of rating the books. Yet several portions of it is dynamically driven. The story of The Cure is energetic, even though the players are quiet, whispering or talking in low, easy tones.
   Our Founder, Blessed James Alberione, cautioned us not to always write about religion, though we should write religiously. In that light, the story has a positive goal and values good living along with conflicts to our inner peace. I include smoking of tobacco, and the Indigenous offering of tobacco. I bring in ceremonial wine, and the recreational or sociable drinking of alcohol and it abuse and wretched effects it can have. I include violence: war, racial violence, and personal conflicts that seek a fisted resolve; but not in a manner to lionize it.
   Aside from the direct reference to tobacco use, the Bible treats these as well. King David lusting for Bathsheba is a great example.
 
  My works are far less violent than many television series that have been touted as promoting wholesome family values, such as Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Murder She wrote. The peaceful small town of Cabot Cover had a gruesome murder each week, that’s 52 killings a year, vs a few brises for my characters. Per capita, Cabot Cove murder rates with several of our big cities.
   On other moral matters, we see families that are wholesome and together, those that are dysfunctional, sometimes due to moral improprieties. The reader will be aware that certain individuals have pre-marital or extra-marital affairs; but I do provide explicit detail. I treat these issues much as TV programs of the 1950s would keeping in mind that young children would also view what Mom and Dad see. We fad to black, or simply know via indirect references after the fact that such-n-such may have been done.
   For example, one of the characters is known to have children, never married and each child had a different biological father. I see no reason to explain how that was accomplished.
Catholic authors, seal of approval
7. Guadalupian Tres Culturas
Guadalupian Message and the Three Cultures

   Three cultures dominate my story and the regional make up of the Northern Great Lakes region, specifically Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and neighboring areas. These are: Native American, Euro-American and Metis (mixture of the other two races).
    The tradition of Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing to St. Cuauhtlatoatzin (Juan Diego) in Mexico, 1531 combines these three races. I draw in part from that influence the means to slowly, but gradually and progressively improve relations between Native and Non-Native Americans in the novels.
  Several cultures or religions have an on-par prophesy that says in effect, “That a day will come when a child shall lead them.”
  Randy takes on that role in a natural, unassuming, unplanned manner, simultaneously being significant among several characters inducing unity amid the three cultures.

8. Character Development

   
I roll in several events that may have or could have happened, and fictionalize them. Several events are assigned to specific characters. In this way, I can cover a lot of real historical events and issues and show how they influence the residents of the Village of Birch Clump, and even have them act them out.
     The taking of Alcatraz in 1964 and again 1969-1971 by Native American activist is raised in the novels. None of my characters partake in the occupation, but opinions for and against are brought up by several of my cast members.
     My characters respond to World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Great American Civil Rights Movement, AIM (American Indian Movement), and work towards some landmark legislation, and the Supreme Court cases on American Indian Freedom of Religion law, the American Indian Relocation acts of 1945-1971, Native American Grave Protection Laws, and in general the promotion of Indigenous Cultural rights in general society. Cultural slavery, Native Mascots and logos in sports, and inculturation is presented using my characters.
   All characters have better and worst sides. Randy is presented as friendly, personable, courteous, and basically a very good person. But, he can be moody, temperamental at time, and known to push or shove and throw a punch in his youth.
   Erik Fern is a delightful character, but he endures three difficult years in his youth that renders him incorrigible and edging on becoming an at-risk youth for some years after.
    David White is mostly rotten to the core, but not without hope for redemption.
  Authors are often asked which of their characters best represents him (or her). None of them are based on me, though I admit some aspects of my experiences, personality, agendas, have been sprinkled into some of them.
9. Who is Sarge?

 
  As I just mentioned, he is not me; but there may be reasons some fans of my books or of Sarg T. Douglas on Face Book might b e me.
    My Editor, Uncle Charlie and I, felt we needed to build in some reason as to why I as an author would have so much information stemming from 1917 to the present. I also attempted to write the book in the first person, though the teller of the story would not be me, and I was not certain if I would ever say who that chronologist is/was. Uncle pointed out that such a person giving the account in first person in that time frame would have to be around 110-115 years old when the first novel closes a bit before 2010. Plus, I was having difficulty keeping in the first-person narrative and switched to more common narration (third party more or less).
    I created Sgt. T. Douglas during the writing of what became the last third or quarter of my first novel. I then found it convenient to pass onto him the role of village and monastery historian, more aptly called a chronologist. That is, a person who chronicals events as they happen, but who can also annotate the events and do some historical research.
   From then on, I was able to say my stories are based on the works of Sarge the historian, T. Douglas the chronologist of Annunciation Monastery, Congregation of St. James, and for practical purposes of the Village. He employed journalistic methods and tools in doing so, and some detective styled work.
    I use old photos of me to draw new illustrations of what Sarge might look like. And I admit it is helpful that he and I were born 10 days apart, and just happen to have had reason to cross paths. Otherwise, our lives have little in common. Sarge was born of a teenage unmarried mother, abandoned by his father, and nearly killed by his grandfather. I, on the other hand, had a very stable life with two loving parents and wonderful grandparents.
   We are both on the passive side. Sarge is reserved and rather quiet. I love the limelight and am very talkative. Both of us were very well behaved and avoided trouble. 
   Those that only know him via Facebook might be surprised how laid back and unassuming he is in the novels and in a few short stories. He’s highly impulsive on Facebook, yet very thoughtful and cautious in the role I created for him in the novels.
    What’s not to like about Sarge?
    As for the initial “T” in his name?
   I don’t give that away until my 4th Birch Clump Village Reader titled “Ten Things,” in the short story “Changing a Flat.” 
sarg t douglas, baby boomer, tight jeans, hawk dancer, joshua seidl
Sarge T. Douglas

Born: March 19, 1951 near Traverse City, Michigan.
Grew up Idlewild, MI near Ludington.
Air Force veteran of six years.
First appears in the Novels when he is nearing the end of his USAF assignment in Turkey, around 1973 and again in Birch Clump as a civilian in 1978, age 27.

Six feet, 1 inch, weighing in at around 140/145 pounds in those early adult years. He is Metis (mixed Scandinavian/Native American). Keeps his hair very long, except for his Air Force years. Was rejected from seminary. Ended up starting his own Order. 

More on Sarge, click here
Share by: