I was always communicating about things my mother felt should be left alone. She didn't realize she'd made me responsible for turning on the lights. I think fear and silence were a big part of my parents' relationship. They were almost doomed to find one another, to find an exiled silence together. I was about breaking through the script from the very beginning.
Scripts save lives.
Literature is always about transgressing. Writing is personal transgression, spiritual transgression, and risk. If art hasn't scared someone or empowered someone into considering or feeling what they might have feared, it really has not worked. Transgression isn't seen that way in any small community, whether it be an isolated Appalachian town, or a tight-knit family of any ethnicity. No, I was incredibly relieved to have stepped outside.