Good afternoon, everyone!
Today, I have a very special interview to share with you all. I recently had the opportunity to ask author Charles H. Norman some questions, and his responses were just extraordinary.
For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, Charlie is the author of several novels published through Jan-Carol Publishing: Remembrances, Remembrances II, and Road to Reconciliation... and Beyond: Unlikely Friends Become Brothers.
Charlie writes how he speaks, creating a unique writing style that feels authentic and true to who Charlie is as a person.
Charlie also recently appeared on Daytime Tri-Cities to talk about the release of Remembrances II. His interview can be viewed below.
Now, without further ado, please enjoy the following interview with Charlie.
BOOKMARKED: How did you first become interested in writing?
CHARLES NORMAN: Well, some 55 years or so ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, the journalism teacher recruited me to choose journalism as an elective for the next year and come join him in the department. I thought that would be a good thing, and I could work on the yearbook. He agreed.
But over the summer, he left, and a new teacher came on board. Schedules and classes got changed around, and the first day of school I found myself in the high school newspaper class. What’s this?! The new teacher would not relent nor let me and a few others work on the yearbook. I was stuck. So, newspaper it was.
I became a reporter and was assigned to write various stories (sports, school activities, and human interest-type things). I did okay, and the teacher liked my writing. So, the next year (pretty much by default; there were only a handful of seniors-to-be in the class), the teacher picked me to be editor of the school newspaper. I wrote a column for each issue that came out every 2-3 weeks. I particularly liked writing human interest stories.
Tell me about your books, Remembrances and Remembrances II. What inspired you to write these true-to-life stories on paper? Do you have a favorite anecdote from either volume?
I really didn’t pursue writing or journalism in college. I studied marketing, advertising, and communications there. Much later, I did do some journaling about my kids as they were growing up, and every once in a while, there would be some person or event that came my way, and I’d write it up as a short story that people seemed to enjoy.
Over the years, I came to realize that the Good Lord gave me a good memory for things that happened a long time ago (in early school days and beyond), and I’d always been a talker and storyteller. Along the way, I found that I did have somewhat of a flair for sharing and putting words together as stories on paper. A number of years ago, our little weekly local paper, the Glen Rose Reporter, put out notice that they were looking for monthly guest columnists to write articles/ short stories on anything the writer would chose write about. Hmmm...
I had just retired from my job with the airlines and thought, well, I do have some ideas, so I wrote a story up about an elementary school coach that had positively affected my life. I submitted the story for consideration, they liked it, and so I did become a regular guest columnist with the paper for several years.
The thing is, I cannot/do not know how to write fiction. Crazy thing. I only write true-to-life happenings in my life, and I write pretty much like I talk. I think I relate to people that way. So Remembrances and Remembrances II are collections of these stories (32 in each) of intriguing people I’ve met, special places I’ve been, or may I say, providential experiences that have become a part of my life.
One anecdote that comes to mind is the story I wrote in my first book, Remembrances. The title is "Everybody’s Favorite Is Still Remembered." It’s the story about my eighth grade girlfriend who later became Class Favorite/Homecoming Queen/Miss Odessa High School. You get it. Everybody loved Becky. Not a “classic beauty” in the physical sense so much, but oh so beautiful on the inside. Everybody loved Becky, and Becky loved everybody. She was smart, kind, outgoing, a little crazy, fun, genuine, unselfish -- that was Becky.
The thing is, Becky died of cancer at the age of 33. Of all the people I went to school with, she would have been the one I thought deserved to live a long, productive life. She just brought so much joy, laughter, and a sense of worthiness to those who had the privilege of knowing her. Well, I wrote my story about Becky for our local paper and sent it on to a few classmates and folks back in Odessa that I knew had memories of her. One of those people who came across the story was Becky’s mother, 95-year-old Kay Rhodes!
I never had an inkling that Becky’s mom would still be around 35 years after Becky’s passing! Oh my... Well, Kay called me, and we talked. She told me that my story about her precious daughter was about the nicest thing that has happened to her in a long, long time, that ever so often, she’s read it over again, and it would bring tears to her eyes every time. And of course, she thanked me. The thing is, it was when I was reflecting on our phone conversation a little later that it came to me that, in the bigger scheme of things, I was not writing Becky’s story for myself, the Glen Reporter, or even our fellow classmates or a school reunion. I was writing it for Becky’s mom, whom I didn’t even know. I told her so. What a special, providential sense of humility and gratitude that came over me as I realized my writing had brought such strong emotion and joy to a person in the winter season of her life.
You also wrote the book, Road to Reconciliation... and Beyond: Unlikely Friends Become Brothers. What was that like? Did it differ from writing Remembrances?
Absolutely it did. I don’t normally think in terms of a storyline that would lend itself to a full-fledged book. And actually, the narrative for this book started out as an idea I had for a short story about a nationally-known doo-wop singing group from my hometown of Odessa, TX.
In the very early '60s, The Velvets had a number of songs on the national music charts. Though I grew up in Odessa in the '50s and '60s, The Velvets were just a little before my time. I found out that nobody I knew had ever heard of them. Hmm...
I became aware of them through a song that ole Pat Boone featured on this oldies show, “The Pat Boone Hour,” on Sirius XM Radio. He introduced the song “Tonight Could Be The Night” as a song from one of the very first ever doo-wop singing groups (made up of an eighth-grade English teacher and four students from his school), and that they all hailed from the west Texas town of Odessa. What?! I started doing some research and found out that two of the five guys from The Velvets were still alive, and one of the guys, 78-year-old Mark Prince (the bass singer), was living in Ft. Worth, about an hour’s drive from where I live.
Well, I got his number, called him up, told him I’m from Odessa and loved his music, and could I come meet him and, with his permission, maybe even write a short story for my local paper about him and The Velvets? What I thought would be an hour’s interview turned into three hours. Oh my, the things I learned about our old hometown was very educational, revealing, and somewhat disconcerting. I had no idea that Jim Crow and his ilk were living well in the discriminatory town in which we grew up. When gently probed, Mark told me things I knew not of. I was ignorant, embarrassed, and ashamed about what he said.
But Mark handled the racism that came his way in the Christian way. As he told me, "That’s the only way, Charlie." Forgive and forget. He’d turned the natural inclination to harbor bitterness into personal betterment. He’d exchanged the tendency to resent for a heart that forgives. We became friends and brothers that day, and when he told me he loved me as his brother that 2020 summer day of the George Floyd uprisings, my life changed. I knew the Good Lord had put me on to something, something much bigger than a short story for a little ole community newspaper. Mark had changed my life, and it became my calling for the next two years.
The product of that afternoon’s conversation with Mark evolved into the book, Road To Reconciliation... and Beyond, and so much more. Little could I imagine what the “and Beyond” would entail and what the Good Lord had in mind. I would love for those interested to read the book, and as Paul Harvey said long ago, learn “the rest of the story.”
What do you hope people take away from reading your stories? Is there a central theme or feeling you hope people experience?
A couple of things, really. With my style of writing, I like to think the stories are an easy, inviting way to have a respite from the busyness and stressfulness of everyday life. The stories are all true -- some funny, some poignant, emotive -- and I try to write as if I’m just speaking to someone about an incident they can relate to that maybe happened to them as well, even if it was an awkward or embarrassing moment or situation they’ve had that they've been too shy to mention to others. Not me... Hey, at age 73, if I can make a person laugh or smile at my expense, I’m good with it.
The other thing and, really, the more significant one is if I can, through my writings, help someone draw closer to their Maker, then I’m really for that. A long time ago, someone cared enough for me as a person to tell me I could have (and “needed to have,” actually) a relationship with God’s only son, the Lord Jesus. Not by joining a church or particular denomination or religion -- or even just believing in or acknowledging God or trying to be religious -- but that I could have, as a free gift, a real, everyday relationship with the creator of the universe. One who knows me and has a plan for me individually. That said, in many of my stories, I relate how the Good Lord has orchestrated certain events, timing, and people into the tapestry of my life so that I might to be able plant spiritual seeds in others for His purposes and the greater good. I’m just an ordinary guy who endeavors to serve an extraordinary, omnipotent God.
What’s next for you? Do you have any other books or short stories you’re working on?
I’ve actually taken a little bit of a break from writing on a regular basis. I need my own respite. Ha! But should a person or situation come my way that I sense I’m to write about, I will do that. Not for another book per se, but as a way to honor a particular person and, of course, the Good Lord, who gave me the idea for a story in the first place. I do have a cache of previous writings/stories I’ve saved for no particular reason except to pass on down to my kids and grandkids someday.
I will say, I recently wrote a story for and about a football hero of mine from over 60 years ago. He’s still around at age 83, lives about a half hour away, and I got to meet him for the first time recently, and we’re friends now! Who could have planned that? I know. It was a privilege to write about this particular moment in time/memory where he did become a hero to me. He loved the story, and it made him feel special that people still remember. I do.
But I stay busy -- a “good busy,” if you will -- and I am working on organizing a couple of other projects that will hopefully be a benefit to others.
Is there anything you’d like to say to your many fans and supporters over the years?
First off, I’d just like to express my appreciation to my readers for taking the time to read my stories. Really, 10 years ago, if someone were to have said to me I’d have three published books, I’d have thought, “Uh oh, what have I done?” Ha!
But again, thank you all, especially the nice, good people at Jan-Carol Publishing for believing in me and allowing me to share my stories and my heart with readers on a much larger scale/venue than I would have imagined. I hope what you read brightens your day, lifts your spirits, and draws you a little closer to the One who made you and me.
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Thank you again to Charlie for a fantastic interview. This Friday, don't miss our new podcast episode, because Draco and I will be talking all about Charlie's publications in great detail!
Allison Chudina
Magazine Content Editor & Editorial Assistant
Jan-Carol Publishing, Inc.
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