On the 15th October 2022 my short story collection, Candescent Blooms, is being published by Salt Publishing. I've previously posted here with regards to the background to the collection, and the fact that twelve Hollywood actors whose lives ended prematurely are the main characters in each of the twelve stories. As stated in that post, the intention in the run-up to publication is to focus on each actor with some snippets of information (both about them and the writing of their stories). These posts will follow the same format for each. Our third character is Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
1: the reason for the title of the story
Roscoe had what might be considered to be a bumpy career. Playing on his surname, "Buckle Up" seemed a good descriptive.
2: why I chose that actor
Roscoe was one of the highest paid movie stars of his generation until scandal wrecked his career. Whilst he was completely exonerated after three trials, his career never completely recovered. Arbuckle died of a heart attack in 1933 just as a new contract suggested his star might regain ascendance.
3: one 'gift' that enhanced the story
His three trials with three main witnesses in those trials gave me the idea of telling each story simultaneously (twice within the story the text is split into three columns). This enabled me to present all sides at once - without myself forcing an opinion. The reader becomes the jury.
4: one thing I never knew about them
Despite his physical size, Arbuckle was remarkably agile and acrobatic. Mack Sennett, when recounting his first meeting with Arbuckle, noted that he "skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire" and that he "without warning went into a feather light step, clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a girl tumbler".
5: an extract from the story
The air is so thick you could swim in it. Roscoe holds another drink, the contents warming in his hand. These are peripheral people, he thinks, surveying the room. Few of them will amount to much. He wonders how they were chosen – for we are all chosen, in some way, to play a part. He watches himself from the other side of the room, a mirrored duplication. It as if he is watching a movie, the gilded frame representing film sprockets.
6: what music I listened to whilst I wrote it.
Normally I keep an obvious note of the music I write to, however here my note is simply: "Jazz Thing". From memory, my father gave me a triple CD of something he didn't want. I'm not a fan of jazz, and so I subsequently passed it on. I'm expecting it was from that CD that I listened to as I wrote this story, but who or what exactly will now remain a mystery.
Buy Candescent Blooms here.
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