By Jeanné McCartin
features@seacoastonline.com
March 23, 2008 6:00 AM
James Buchanan of Exeter just released "Selling Their Childhood" through Publish America.
A former reporter and editor with Seacoast Media Group, today he stays busy as a freelance writer. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Automobile Quarterly, Scholastic Instructor, Mothering Magazine, Wines and Vines, the Boston Globe and Antique Trader Magazine. He has also done consultant work for gubernatorial and New Hampshire Senate campaigns. Buchanan is a dad to Violet, age 7, and Quincy, age 10.
HERALD: So is "Selling Their Childhood" your first book?
BUCHANAN: It gets kind of complicated. It's my first book of fiction.
HERALD: Complicated?
BUCHANAN: I ghost wrote a book for MIT on Internet governance. It's been kind of languishing and not published yet. So, yeah, I wrote a book but can't say go to the store and buy it.
And then I just finished ghost-writing another book. ... It hasn't come out yet. It's on business uses for Web 2.0; ... to facilitate ongoing business model innovation.
HERALD: Not a book for the average guy.
BUCHANAN: No this is for very large, companies and corporations ... a quick example would be like Facebook, social networking Web sites... interactive web-based applications.
HERALD: So, let's talk "Selling Their Childhood" — the available book. How long have you been working on it?
BUCHANAN: Some of the stories are about eight or nine years old. Some are more recent. ... It's a collection of short stories. I didn't intend to write the collection. I just wrote the stories individually. When you read the book they're not related in any significant way. That's intentional. The thing I want was for the reader to be surprised by what comes up next ... surprised by the emotional triggers elicited by each story.
HERALD: Is there any underlying theme?
BUCHANAN: Most of the stories, not all, are based on characters or situations that in one way or another I encountered through various life experiences. I spent a great deal of my 20s traveling around the country and just basically working a number of jobs. They ranged from construction to being a night snow-maker, to working a tulip bulb harvester, to cooking in kitchens and working in the North Woods as sawyer.
HERALD: Does anything tie them together?
BUCHANAN: Each of these characters face a moment of decision or realization. And the stories tend to be about how they came to that moment.
HERALD: What drew you to these stories, these people?
BUCHANAN: I've always enjoyed talking to people and learning what they have to say about themselves. The story of the title story "Selling Their Childhood" is about two teenage boys sitting on the steps of a bus station in Omaha, Neb. They basically sell themselves to older men who drive in from the suburbs.
It's about one of the teenage boys coming to the realization that this is something he can't continue to do. It's too damaging. ... But he doesn't know who or what will happen to him when he moves on to do something else.
HERALD: Did you actually come across this boy?
BUCHANAN: Yeah, this is based on two kids I met when I was 19. I rode from Philadelphia to San Francisco on a bus. We had a very early-morning stop at 4 or 5 in the a.m. in Omaha. While sitting on the steps smoking a cigarette one of the kids asked to bum a smoke from me. And as we sat there smoking I noticed there were a number of cars that would continually drive by. And he said that those were older men looking for kids that were basically out hustling. As each drove by he would explain what the driver's individual predilection was. It became obvious that he was one of the kids that were out doing that.
For me coming from a Quaker boarding school and that sort of thing, and being at that age, young, I couldn't imagine doing what he was doing. ... He started ... explaining what they did and why in an almost prideful way. Because after all he'd been through in his life, which was very much different from my own, he felt pride that he could take care of himself.
HERALD: Your reaction at the time?
BUCHANAN: Just interest. It was sad that he had to do that; that life had gone that way for him. But the sense I got from him was even though he lacked control over his life, the control he did have he felt he'd really earned. (My) story then supposes what would this person be thinking when he realized what he was thinking was false pride and decided he had to make a change in his life.
HERALD: Are most of the stories deep or dark?
BUCHANAN: I would describe the stories as a set list, like what a musician would have when they play a gig. ... You want to take the audience in a number of different directions and in the end have a big satisfying piece.
HERALD: So your range?
BUCHANAN: The story I just told you, to the last story titled "The Blue" about a woman who ... was able to find solace, and in many ways save herself, through her deep emotional reaction to the natural hues of the color blue that are found in the landscape and ocean where she lives.
HERALD: True story?
BUCHANAN: Again very loosely based on someone I knew. The story of her life is told as she is waiting while her husband and her sister try to make a baby that the three of them can share, because the lead character is unable to have a child of her own. This is a way her sister has found to thank her for all she's done in her life.
HERALD: It sounds as though all of them dig a bit deep and hurt?
BUCHANAN: No. A lot of them dig deep but they don't have to hurt so much.
HERALD: How many tales?
BUCHANAN: I think there's 10. I haven't counted. The other point I'd make is it's not a long book and that's my intention too.
HERALD: Why is that?
BUCHANAN: So many collections of short stories ... are very long. By about the time you're half or a quarter way through you're tired, especially if they're centered around a specific theme. ... I wanted to have a book that's not too long that has a lot of variety in it that hopefully someone would read and find interesting, and hopefully thoughtful.
HERALD: What does the work say about human nature?
BUCHANAN: That it is diverse.
HERALD: Redemption?
BUCHANAN: There's the potential for redemption, but it's up to the individual to make the choices to be redeemed or not.
HERALD: What's next?
BUCHANAN: I'm working on a memoir, or memoir-like piece. ... It's based on the year I spent being treated for (rectal) cancer. ... It looks at how everything we've ever experienced in our lives comes to that moment in time and informs the way in which we react to being diagnosed with cancer and the challenge of being treated for cancer. It also talks about relationships.
HERALD: How's your health now?
BUCHANAN: Cancer free.
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