Harold’s
story arrived the way some do, with that opening line:
“It’s been sixteen days since I spoke with another
soul.” I had the sense of a lonely old man, but not much
else when I began. At first, I pushed Harold and his sentence
away – up to that point, I had not written a male narrator, and
wasn’t confident I could. The idea of a narrator who had
chosen silence also intimidated me. Luckily, despite his silence,
Harold wouldn't shut up in my head. His story demanded to be
written. My son, Scott Donaldson, is graduating college soon and hopes to be a graphic novelist and cartoonist. On this blog, he posted a drawing, inspired after reading this story --- http://scottdonaldson.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/the-silence-of-harold/ |