night falling

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what's the theme of "night falling"?

night falling is a story
that looks into human nature and modern marriage
revealing how resentment and blame
can destroy love   

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can you give a short description of the story?

rick davis, an up-and-coming deejay
on a metropolitan radio station
is finally given the coveted rush-hour slot

but as his career catapults to sublime levels
his marriage collapses
while a bizarre array of characters moves in and out of his life
mirroring his despair and a growing sense of isolation

a caller threatens arson,
a cab driver finds his fare dead,
a beggar on the sidewalk crouches in the darkness
singing a haunting melody as rick passes by

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do i remember this right,
you really worked as radio dj yourself?

yes i worked as a dee jay
but not on the all night slot
only the afternoons and evenings

but i did work on the midnight to dawn slot
as a journalist newsreader on a radio network

and yes i would record the program
and play it back later or on another night
so i could have some free time

one incident that didnt make it into night falling
was when a temporary program manager
tried to make me wear a tie!!!!!!!
while i was on air

when i refused he attacked me
and pushed me against the wall
so i just walked out
there was this long silence on the radio
until someone else stepped in

the station manager's secretary
ran after me and said
dont worry it will be all right

and it was
i was allowed to be on radio
without wearing a tie
HAHAHAHAHA
sigh

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how did you get the idea
of writing a novel in free verse?

i dont think of it as free verse
i suppose it has to be called something
really it is just writing i suppose
it's the writing you do when you are instant messaging
no capitals and the only punctuation
is a line break

anyway i started writing the story this way
maybe thinking of it as a first draft that i would fix up later
and then i thought hey wait a minute
there are things i can do writing like this
that i cant do with just straight stuff
nuances in images and emotions

so i kept on going with it
and maybe it works all right
it's all right in some ways
but limited in others

i thought it was the instant messaging
that got me writing like this
but then i was looking back at some notes i wrote
way before the internet
and i realised i had been writing notes and story drafts
like this way back then

ive got in the habit of writing like this
all the time now
except in my stories
where ive gone back
to the usual conventional style

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Some links you want to share?

34thParallel Magazine:
34thParallel

about the book:
night falling

available online:
night falling - order page

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back to the story:
second silence

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answers: Martin Chipperfield, Adelaide (34thParallel)
questions & photo: Dorothee Lang (blueprint21)