The day I "saw" Alvin, the main character in one of my favourite stories.
Sometimes I see something that just sticks in my head until I start writing about it. It happened early one morning as I drove by the large Co-op building that had just closed down in my home town in Central Alberta. An old man stood in the middle of the large parking lot, leaning on his cane and staring at the boarded-up building with a rather befuddled expression on his face. That man stayed with me until, a few days later, I was able to sit down and weave a story around him. I called him Alvin Ford.
He became the main character in my short story, "Breaking Alvin’s Fast," published in Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon: Stories of Finding Love in Unexpected Places.
Like many of those men, Alvin Ford was the kind of person who didn't change quickly nor easily. He’d be grumpy about anything new that came his way. He’d be reluctant to admit that any modification was for the better. And he’d be reluctant to admit that God might have had a plan in it all.
But I liked Alvin Ford, admired him as I did many of those real-life men I’d known.
Alvin was a composite of many people I’d met since moving to Alberta—men whose faces were weathered and whose cowboy hats and boots looked like they’d been purchased about a hundred years ago. I had gotten to know a lot of these men, admired their strength and tenacity, loved listening to their stories, but also groaned sometimes at their overly “red-neck” opinions.
I’d seen a couple of them go through some rather astonishing changes when God intervened in their lives, so I decided that’s what would happen to Alvin in my story. But I wanted the change in his life to come from an unexpected source.
I added a few real-life details about some of the changes that were happening in our small town—businesses closing, strangers appearing who didn’t look at all like most of the folks who had lived there all their lives.
One day, I had a conversation with my daughter about one of those families, who had immigrated from Lebanon. She went to school with one of their kids and she was upset to learn that the front window of their shop had been smashed in the night. “Why would anyone do that?” Laura asked.
“Fear,” I said, “and ignorance.”
Because of that, I chose to show Alvin another side of those who were strangers to him, and I revealed a soft spot in Alvin’s gruff exterior.
My goal was to show my readers that things are not always as they might seem, that those who appear rough and tough may have soft hearts, and that those who are not at all like us in appearance may be able to change us for the better.
Above all, I wanted to show the truth of that old adage, “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.” Many times, I have seen God use the most unlikely of people to accomplish His purposes, so I created Sammy and wove his story into Alvin’s.
I’m often asked if I have a favourite of all the stories I’ve written. "Breaking Alvin’s Fast" is definitely in that category.
Marcia Lee Laycock enjoys life across from a pond in central Alberta, along with her pastor husband. She has five published novels and four devotional books, all sold on Amazon. Marcia’s column, “The Spur,” is widely distributed, and she blogs regularly for novel–rocket.com. Marcia has been a frequent winner at The Word Awards and InScribe conferences. Her published books include One Smooth Stone (Castle Quay Books) and Christmas (Small Pond Press).