A Matter of Faith

This from a S&M parent...

2005-11-16T04:02:51Z

They start telling the REAL stories to parents after they have been out a couple of years. (I have laughed until I hurt over stories of an extremely "muscular" SLI in Hunt, "plucking" juniors out of the bushes around Hunt Dorm after curfew on a weekend. He caught them by calling their cell phones and then "plucking" them out of their hiding place when their phone began to ring......of course, all the guys telling me this story saw it from their 2nd Hunt dorm rooms where they were safe and sound and exactly where they should be on a Saturday night....).

N&O Article, and nice note from Boarman

2005-11-15T03:34:22Z

Here's the link to the N&O article--factual, but tasteful, I thought.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/366740.html

Also, after asking Boarman if we could pass out bookmarks in lieu of selling the books at the alumni basketball game, he had a kind comment to say--

Brian,

Passing out bookmarks is fine. Thanks again for understanding the position I am in regarding your request. Sometimes we have to follow the advice of counsel at a professional level, but would like to do more at a personal level.

Jerry

Process of writing, etc.

2005-11-06T21:21:14Z

I'd asked a friend if I was being a little self-serving here, and she said this:

It doesn't come off as grandiose...it is, after all, an *author's blog*. An interesting thing to read about might be some more details about the process of writing the book... what bits came easily, what was "stuck". Why certain things were included. What you wish you could've put in there...

:)

Hmmm...maybe just talk a bit about how it started....

About six or seven years ago, i swore off dating for all the normal reasons that one swears off dating. My career was in good shape, and I'm not really the type to spend 80 hours a week at work. But I do need to stay busy.

My brother had also just asked me to be his daughter's (Lily) godfather, and I had written about thirty letters for Lily to open later--if you've read the book you get the drill.

I'd also always wanted to write a novel. I just don't have the intensity to do short fiction, and a novel takes, i imagined, a year or so.

Take my love for my niece, add in a touch of sadness, and a tragic character that was broken in ways only God can fix (she'd tell you the same thing), and then I just started writing my childhood, adding this stuff in.

I didn't start out to write a Christian novel, and in some ways this qualifies (but not in the ways that will find it in a Christian bookstore...) However, much of it was written on lazy Sunday afternoons between church and my weekly Ultimate Frizbee game (with the cutest group of Christian girls you'll ever see, plus a few guys like me).

The first draft was terrible. Six hundred pages of meandering drizzle. I have met people who were blessed with a natural talent for writing well. I was not. What I was blessed with was what my high school football coach called a "bad attitude" and my English teacher a "unique voice." So over the next four years or so, I read books by authors I'd like to write like, I read books on writing, and I relentlessly edited and rewrote, refining both the story and the writing. Finally, around draft number six, I showed it to a few people. My wife read the first hundred pages before it got too boring for her. A few S&M students (now graduates) read it, and gave me good ideas. A few good friends read later versions. Eventually, I had it down to 325 pages, and in a form that had at least a few coherancies to the whole. Then came the idea to publish it ourselves, and donate the money to the School, and you know the rest of the story.

Boarman responds

2005-11-06T02:27:00Z

Dr. Boarman,

It was a pleasure to meet you at the NCSSM Alumni Award Ceremony last month, and you may remember me as the alumni who has written a novel and is donating the proceeds to the school.

So far, the sales of the novel have gone quite well. We've sold well over 250 copies over the web, Amazon, and at one bookstore (The Regulator). Though it's hard to tell because some venues like Amazon pay after 60 days, it looks like our total to date is approaching $3000. Amazon has had the book for three weeks now, and ordered 2 copies the first week, 3 the second, and 55 in the third week. It will be interesting to see how that goes over the holidays.

As you might expect, there has been particular interest from Alumni, and email and word of mouth have done quite well there, and I have recieved some wonderful comments that make it all worth while. One alumni suggested that I attend some alumni events, such as the upcoming Alumni basketball game in November, and sell the book there. I have been shying away from selling the book on campus, etc., because, while it sheds the School in a wonderful light, it is at it's core a work of fiction that should be more closely associated with me than with the School. However, after this alumni's suggestion and the reception it has gotten from other alumni, I think it is a wonderful opportunity and that the alumni will continue to receive it well. One alumni even made the comment that he was brought back to his time at NCSSM more closely by my book than he was by visiting campus and talking with his classmates at his reunion. Bringing them back like this can only increase their affection for the School, and hopefully also their long-term contributions in addition to the $15 for the book.

If you agree, then I will happily make the trip up for the Alumni basketball game, and events like this, and we'll keep the sale of the book low key--a table by the concession stand or something similarly appropriate. I definitely want your feedback, as this is my book, and not an official School publication, and has a religious message (not too strong) and other topics that should not interfere with the wonderful acceptance of diversity and culture that has been present at the School now for over two decades. You can read more about the book at the website, www.amatteroffaith.org.

Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to seeing you again.

Brian Morin, NCSSM '85

Brian,

I enjoyed meeting you as well at the Alumni reunion. Thank you for the update on the book. It sounds very promising and I do appreciate your generosity in terms of donating the proceeds to the school.

I have asked our in-house legal counsel to review your request, since we are a state agency. I also asked Dr. Steve Warshaw, Senior Vice President for Academic Programs, to review your request as well.

I will get back to you regarding your request as soon as possible.

Thanks so much again for your support!

Jerry Boarman

Jerry, and all,

Thank you, and I appreciate the attention. Just so Dr. Warshaw and your legal counsel are clear, I'll be selling the book through a non-profit organization which will then donate money to the School as a donation. I am setting up the non-profit now, and it will be complete before I would come on campus. I'm also happy to put in each copy, and on the website if necessary, any disclaimer that is necessary to make sure it is clear that the School has no association with the sale of the book, and that it is a work of fiction, not meant to represent real persons or places, etc., and honestly anything else that might be necessary to protect the School. The alumni response has been very good and very positive. There are a few alumni responses posted as reviews on the Amazon website.

Thanks again, and take care,
Brian

Jerry,

Any resolution on whether to allow sales at the alumni basketball game next week?

Hope all is well.

Thx,
Brian

Brian,

Since the alumni basketball game is a school-wide activity and not a private one, we have to give careful consideration to any additional outside activities that we support at the time of the game. In essence, if we allow you to come on campus and even unobtrusively sell your book, we open ourselves up to having to do the same for any outside group that wants to sell items. Our legal counsel and alumni office have reviewed our role as a state agency and a 501c3 organization and strongly suggest that we do not allow this type of activity for anyone on the campus of NCSSM.

We all appreciate the wonderful contributions that you made here as a student and your wonderful success with the book,as well as your generosity to the school. I do hope you will attend the alumni game next week. I look forward to seeing you.

Respectfully,

Jerry Boarman

...why a lot of us stick together through the years.

2005-11-02T02:58:26Z

Brian,

I remember during my senior year at NCSSM seeing something asking for stories for a book and can only assume that was for this project as two of my close classmates were mentioned in the Author's Note. I was very excited to finally see someone write about the world inside of NCSSM. It's difficult leaving there and trying to blend back in with your peers in college. I suppose that's why a lot of us stick together through the years.

I ordered your book off of Amazon as soon as it was available (and an autographed copy at that, thanks) and finished it within two days, crying at several points, particularly during Peter's story. It was wonderful to see so many familiar places and ideas. Breaking into the cafeteria was something we were still doing my senoir year. It was a touching story, written rather beautifully. Thank you.

-Lauren '03

Lauren,

Thanks, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think it was Grace who is responsible for the skinny dipping scene. She told me that I had the same proposal scene in there twice. I told her that's the point, but she said Caroline was a different person, and either to drop one, or change it--make her go skinny dipping in the waterfall or something. So there it was. The other folks helped in about a hundred different places, as did my classmates, who ganged up on me and told me to make a new beginning, and redo the ending. "The middle is fine," they said.

I appreciate the kind note. To this day, I can't read the part about "Seniors approach graduation..." without bringing a tear to my eye, and it has nothing to do with the words and everything to do with the place. It is why we stick together, and why many of us still have our closest friends as those formed during those years.

Thanks again, and glad you enjoyed it.

Brian

An excerpt about the reality behind the book...

2005-11-01T02:19:59Z

Now, a little bit about real life, because I know that part of your concern is that I may have had a warped experience while I was there. Here goes a bit of the truth behind the novel. I have conceived only one child, and she is on the front cover of the book. I have twice been asked by friends to accompany them to abortion clinics, and could not go, but tears fell for both mother and child, and I did consider proposing. I have never seriously considered suicide, but did drop some bullets into the dumpster behind Hardees late one night, long after curfew. I never broke into the 1908 building, and loved exploring it once it opened. I know several people who did break in. I never went into a girls' dorm illegally, and felt somewhat "dirty" during intervis, but during my time at NCSSM, late in the Spring of my senior year, someone pulled the fire alarm in Bealle, and something like 30 guys were found either exiting the dorm, or hiding in the rooms during the walk through. I stumbled on the model of "Deluculose Charmulase" when I visited the campus for my 15 year reunion, and knew I HAD to put it in the book. One of my seniors climbed the smokestack and hung a flag painted on a sheet which said something like "1984--the year of the PARTY". I like the flag in the novel better.

How about another??

2005-11-01T02:08:44Z

Brian,

Good book - is it based on a true story?

My husband went to the same HS ('83). He and I've taken several trips there.

I hope you write another - A fan

Thanks for the kind words. There is a lot of truth to the story, but most of it has been assembled in a fictional way. I worked at a boys camp for underpriveledged children, and knew several orphans. Twice in high school and college I was asked to visit an abortion clinic with a friend...not my child...but didn't have the courage/maturity/whatever it took to stand by them. Peter had to be better than I was. I don't know anyone who kept the baby, but when i got to the point...to the point of actually writing about the inside of the abortion clinic and researched proceedures and talked to my cousin who's had one...I couldn't write it. So that is how "Faith" was born. I certainly didn't start to write a story about a lost child. And your husband can tell you how close I came to getting the "real" NCSSM on paper.

I'm working on two books now--one a memoir of this year (long story), and one a civil war story based on the ancestors of a close friend. After those, I plan to revisit Faith, bring her to Science and Math, and reunite her with Caroline and the rest. More than that I don't think I'll know till we get there.

Tom Camp's initial response

2005-10-30T22:27:01Z

Brian:

I just finished the manuscript and I sit with the beauty of the might of the story. And I wonder, who is Brian? Who is Trey? Who is Gina? Who is Tim? Is Mary Jean in here somewhere?

But mostly I want to see this story published. It is good. The writing is excellent.

Tom (father of Mary Jean '86)

That was a compliment that was from a much earlier draft, so I deleted the rest of the email, which told me what needed fixing (and has since been fixed). It also had names which made people much easier to recognize. One thing I did to scramble people's memories was change everyone's hair color.

Camp Ancestors

2005-10-30T22:23:33Z

Hi, Brian...

Absolutely...I'd love to read what you've penned.

One question: how exactly did my dear friend Mary Jean Camp-Leonardi's ancestors manage to make their way into your thoughts for the subject of a new novel?

If you're in touch with her, please send her my love and tell her to drop me a line.

Best of luck...looking forward to your book!

Jamie '86

I had the misfortune of attending boot camp at Fort Jackson during the summer of 1986, about a year after Mary and I "started being friends." (Note: We've been friends now for 20 years and counting, three kids, attending each other's weddings, and I still have to return her serving bowl...) Aside from my parents, her father was my most faithful correspondent, and this to a guy who could pen 8-10 letters in one fire patrol. We've been friends ever since, and when he told me the story and asked me to write it, I had to. His story below:

During the Civil War, four of my ancestors, (brothers), joined the army. But three brothers joined the Confederate Army and one brother joined the Union Army. At a battle in Virginia (I believe it was Cold Springs but will have to look it up) one of the Rebel brothers was in on a capture of Union soldiers, many of them wounded. One of the captured Yanks, only slightly wounded, was his Union brother.

During the night the Rebel brother took his Union brother from the captured group, left and marched his brother all the way back home to South Carolina and the family farm. His family locked the Union brother in the corn crib and kept him there until the war was over. He became a prisoner of his own family, to keep him from getting killed.

The Rebel brother who brought him home went back and joined his troops. When asked where he had been, he told them he had been captured during the battle but escaped. He was never punished, as no one but his family ever knew what he had done. And here is another twist. The Rebel brother who captured his Yank brother was engaged to marry a local girl when he returned from the war. She was the only one other than family they let know the brother was locked in the corn crib. She started visiting him, bringing him food and water, reading to him, etc. And after the war she married him, not the Rebel brother she had been engaged to.

I think it is a great story.

I think it is a great story, too. I'm about 75 pages in, and am having a little romance of my own with the hapless little girl who marries the brother of her fiance'.

Common point of reference

2005-10-30T21:57:11Z

Brian,

Yes, missed you at the reunion but got the book at the regulator - I'm 1/2 way through -great. I bet everyone who attended NCSSM and reads your book takes different angles. fiction mixed with a common point in all of our lives.

Thanks, Ben '90

Yes--People from '84-87 timeframe may recognize a few people, while people from all classes will get a glimpse of how the setting was captured at our time. I'm planning out another novel, with Faith attending NCSSM, which would be close to the present time frame. Needless to say I'm going to have to get some input from current students, which might be half the fun of writing it. In any case, I hope it's fun.

Quotes from '84-85

2005-10-30T19:34:02Z

My name is Katie and I'm a senior at NCSSM. I borrowed a copy of your book from Therese Taxis. I read it this past extended and I absolutely loved it. I just wanted to convey the enjoyment that I received in reading your book and express my thanks for writing it. A Matter of Faith had just been added to my Top Ten. I really feel that the essence of our school was extremely well portrayed and in such a manner as only an alumni could. It was truly a fantastic novel. Thank you.

Katie '06

Katie,

Thank you, and I am glad you enjoyed it. Every writer is insecure about his/her writing, and I have been especially so, probably because of how much the school has meant to me, and some of the subjects raised. Emails like your help me to pick my head up and feel like I've done what I tried to do.

PS--Two quotes that someone in my class wrote, and put in a student-produced play while I was at School, and I wanted to put them in the novel but couldn't remember them until someone reminded me at my reunion last month: 1) "Don't let schoolwork get in the way of your education." 2) "Education is much to important to be taken seriously." Love your time there. If you are like me and nearly every other graduate, you will fondly remember it for decades to come.

Christian Alumni...

2005-10-30T15:50:08Z

Congratulations on the publication of your book! I just bought a copy on Amazon and I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm glad that you've chosen to write about the Christian faith. I hope that your book will be a vehicle to help bring people to accept Jesus as their Savior.

Good luck!

Ted '87

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it. As the title indicates, there is a definite Christian message in the book, heavy on the love and forgiveness, and light on the "thou shalt not"s. As you may guess, it is mostly written for a general audience (such as S&M alumni), and that's who I'm hoping to reach. Don't be too surprised that there are one or two PG-13 scenes in the book, but they are there for a reason, and I was selective.

oxymorin @ 2005-10-30T10:42:00

2005-10-30T15:47:41Z

I read your novel and thought that it was a great first novel! The story was amazing and the characters were easy to identify with. I will recommend it to all of my friends. My wife read it first and loved it too.

Will we read about Faith and how her life turned out someday? I think that would be a great follow up novel.

Jesse (SC Reader)

Thank you for the kind words. I'm working on my second novel now, which is a civil war history of a friend's family, based loosely on a true story. I think when I finish that, I'll return to Faith, and probably again to NCSSM by having her attend there, and get reunited with Caroline, and also Grace. Not sure how it will work out, but usually the story tells me once I get the characters worked out. I'm looking forward to it.

"A Matter of Faith", Author's blog

2005-10-30T15:37:54Z

I've gotten enough emails over the last two months about the book that I thought I'd post some of them, and my responses, in case anyone else is interested. (If anyone sees anything posted that they don't want up, let me know and I'll take it down.) Plus a couple stories about the School, etc. I'll try to go back and start chronoligically:

Now I won't have to superimpose my experience at S&M onto
Hogwarts--there'll be a real book about US! I was class of '*83 and look
forward to it!

Mary Margaret, '83

I was the book reading at the Regulator with Nikki, Jessi, Keith, and Tim and I have a question for you. I was wondering where the 1908 balcony? Thanks again for writing such a great book and i hope to hear from you soon.

-Luis '07

Great to hear from you, and glad you are enjoying the book.

You have to remember that I was writing this from 300 miles and 20 years in distance, and so had to make things up a bit. So, I imagined that there was one facing Wyche, with a streetlamp, etc., that had a view over the area between Bryan, Wyche, and Hill, which was popular even back then for frisbee throwing, etc. I left the description vague, because I know there is one right over the front steps that would work as well, without quite the same view.

Now comes the awkward truth. When I was at S&M, the 1908 building was broken into many times, but more often for debauchery than for study. I'll leave that to your imagination. I was much to much of a "nice boy" to break in myself, but found that it fit well with the story, and filled the real need I felt nearly every day to find some time alone, to repower the batteries.

I was a little different from Peter. I needed the alone time just as much as he did, but I could be very comfortable "alone" and not necessarily isolated. More often than not, I would grab a book and prop myself up against a tree, or on the front porch of Wyche, or in an abandoned lobby (there was a very unpopular one (but popular with me) in the basement of Wyche. Also in some of the nooks and crannies around the classrooms. While I could study for hours and not be bothered, I enjoyed the occasional interruptions, especially since there was a small group of people who knew my study hidey-holes, who would come find me to force me to take a break. Kind of special when you're hiding, and there are only a half dozen people who know where you might be, and one comes to find you, just as an expression of friendship/concern/love.

When I needed to be alone, I took to exercising, and can't tell you how many times I circled the School a pieds, and can guarantee you that I laughed every time I ran past "Sprunt Street," laughing to myself that it was the past participle of "Sprint Street," sprint-sprant-sprunt. A shame I didn't remember that until I visited a few weeks ago, or I'd have put it in the book for sure.

A friend of mine gave me a hard time for not putting in one more little "habit" of ours. We all had these little dorm refrigerators in our rooms, and we would walk down the road that goes past Wyche (Broad?) away from Duke to a little store that carried 16 oz Pepsi's and Cokes in glass bottles and buy a bunch. Picture two guys holding broomsticks like they are the handles of a stretcher, and from each are hanging about 6-8 x 8-packs of 16 oz glass pepsi bottles (do the math--heavy!). We'd put these in the refrigerator, and then spend days getting the temperature exactly right, so that they were not frozen when they were unopened, but froze immediatly on the change in pressure when you opened them. Not only is it a nice piece of physics, but it is also the very best way to make a Pepsi Icee, as the sudden pressure drop gives an immediate seeding of thousands of ice crystals, and so the slush part is much softer and munchier than when you make a real Icee, the boring machine way. Get Doc John to explain the physics to you--he and I had a long discussion about it way back when. Has to do with the inversion of the slope of the solid-liquid phase change line which, as far as I know, is unique to water and is of course the reason that ice floats and that we have icebergs, etc.

More later...