| Desert Rain |
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| Written by Wallace Dorian | |
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It was a wet Los Angeles afternoon when I went to visit Wallace Dorian about his new novella entitled “Desert Rain,” so it seemed apropos given the title of his book that is being published online through www.wormebooks.com later this month. I wanted to get a sense of the story through the author himself. Looking much younger than his sixty years, his black hair streaked with gray and smoking cigarettes one after another, I interviewed Mr. Dorian about his book and how he came to write it after he talked about his many years of struggle and coming from very humble beginnings while growing up in a small rural town in Massachusetts. BK (Barbara Kowal): Your book, “Desert Rain” is your first novel, correct? WD (Wallace Dorian): Yes, that’s right. Actually it’s a novella, shorter than a regular novel. The whole story of how I came to write it is a journey in itself. Most of my writing has been screenplays and stage plays. I was living in Colorado and feeling frustrated so I wrote this screenplay originally titled, “Hopi Rain” but then changed the title because “rain” is the central character of the book. For the Hopi and Native American peoples and for all of us for that matter, rain is an essential part of our lives, which boils down to water. Water has many meanings. It can sustain life, grow crops for our food and also be the very thing that kills us as it does to my central character, Cynthia Ryan. I don’t want to give away too much. BK: I want to talk a bit more about that Character but what you’re saying is, “Desert Rain” was originally written as a screenplay? WD: Yes. Usually, it’s the other way around. One writes a novel and then it is adapted into a screenplay. I first wrote the screenplay in 1998. After some friends read it they said, “Gee, it reads like a novel.” So one day I decided to do just that a few months ago, adapt the screenplay into a novel that for me was a daunting task because of all those words and exposition. I’m basically a visual person. After I wrote the book it didn’t quite come in as a full-blown novel of say, 40,000 to 50,000 words. I think it’s a bit over 24,000 words, which classifies it as a novella. It moves along at a nice brisk pace though. BK: I see. The story I understand has a very haunting quality to it. It seems to have all the mythic elements that a good story should have, that is, the hero’s quest or journey into a kind of heart of darkness yet, a “new-age” sensibility. You also incorporate the Native American theme into the story that makes it even more compelling, particularly the Hopi people. How did that come about and why the “Hopi?” WD: When I was a child, my father mentioned something about the Hopi Indians after showing me a painting of the Hopi snake dance and how certain elders or dancers during the ceremony would put a rattlesnake in their mouths and so this image always stayed with me I think. In writing the story, the main character, Cynthia, a documentary filmmaker, is also a very independent woman in her 40’s who is making a comeback after the tragic suicide death of her young teen-age son, Steven. This in fact is the ghost that haunts her throughout the story even though we never see the events that precipitated it. I thought of the metaphor of the desert and this woman entering the arena of the southwest, mainly Arizona and New Mexico. I then thought of the southwest Native Americans and did a lot of research from already existing material and books about the Anasazi, Pueblo and Navajo. But what really struck me as more intriguing were the Hopi Indians and the idea of the Kachina cult. Thus, ! BK: One of the interesting characters is an eighteen-year-old girl who is half-Hopi and her coming of age as well. WD: I’m glad you mentioned her because it is this character Mary, whose Hopi name is Kuwanyauma, that for me symbolizes the new emerging generation of Hopi in a high-tech, frenzied world that, for the Native Americans, tries to cut them off from their native roots. BK: That’s another aspect of the book that is getting attention. The story opens up 500 years ago when Coronado was trying to conquer the City of Cibola or seven cities of gold. You have a scene where this mother is telling her small son a story about their past before they are murdered by Conquistadors. WD: Yes. Ironically, the prologue came about after I wrote the first draft of the book and developed Mary’s story a bit more fully from the original version. This idea of storytelling to carry on one’s respect and love of their culture. This Storytelling concept comes full circle in the end when Mary, now successful in the year 2023, is relating an old Hopi folk story to her small son who wants to know what “Hopi” means. It is here that I feel the story really comes together in expressing the need for future generations to never forget who they are and where they came from. BK: I don’t want you to tell us too much about the book. What do you hope to accomplish with this book? WD: I don’t know. Someone once said to me that I was in the “emotion” business. Someone else even said why me? I’m not Hopi. How come I came to write a story with the Hopi in it? I don’t know. Maybe someone was writing it through me in some strange way. I’m just an instrument. I do believe that the story has universal appeal and is not just about Hopi or Native American culture. I think it speaks to all of us about the nature of love, redemption, loss, sacrifice, family and tradition that everyone can relate to. I just tried to convey it in a literary and emotional way. I hope the book might also strike a nerve with young adults and teens as well. BK: When will the book be out? WD: The book should be online at www.wormebooks.com around March 12th I believe. I also have a website that can link up to where one may purchase it online as well. It is: BK: Thank you very much and good luck. WD: Thank you. About the Author: |
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