From the Desk of...

Katherine V. Forrest
An Interview with Jan Donley, author of
The Side Door
Jan, The Side Door is one of the most remarkable novels I've ever edited because of its young protagonist, Mel, the beating heart of your book. My hope as a reader as well as an editor is that she's a prototype that will lead writers in a new fictional direction in future portrayals of our new generation, and that Mel will also be the prototype for a new kind of young lesbian who will just as determined and assertive in embracing her identity as Mel is. Tell us, where did wonderful young Mel come from?
About five years ago I wrote a short story called "Jell-O," about an unnamed high school girl who develops a crush on another girl, and the narrator's first person voice really stuck with me. She became such a presence in my life, she soon informed me that her name was Mel, short for Melrose, not Melinda, not Melanie. I had a sense of Mel's voice, its rhythms.
I wrote a series of short stories with her as the narrator. Or perhaps she decided to narrate some stories to me. In any case, she had places to go and people to see, and it was up to me to follow, to help her realize her journey. In one of the stories Mel discovers a side door entrance into her high school, and that led me to the concept of those stories about her as a novel and the novel's title.
Readers always want to know if a novel is autobiographical. So I'll ask you: is it?
I guess I thought of her as a sort of alter-ego. Not me, but a version of me I wish I had been at her age. So, yes and no. I wish I had been more like her: sure of her identity, outspoken, ready to take on a just cause. Yes in that I grew up in the middle of America, and I have a real fondness for prairie states.
I did not know a boy who killed himself, but I could have, back in those days, and I did not have a gay best friend. I wish I had been like Mel. I hope Mel inspires real-life teenaged lesbians and gays to trust their own identities, and I also hope she inspires parents.
I do too. Jan, how did your stories and ideas about Mel develop into this novel?
The novel went through several incarnations, but I knew all along that I wanted it to take place in the middle of America where I spent my childhood. As little kid, I rode my bike through the Wyoming prairie where I collected tadpoles and salamanders. I didn't move east until I was in my 30's. I've always found the world between east and west coasts to be both harsh and comforting. I wanted to set my novel in that paradox.
I did not "plan" the novel's story. The story evolved as I got to know Mel and her world. Frank was there from the beginning, her best friend. It takes me a while to discover the structure of a novel or a play. Some writers outline their stories, but I do not. I just keep writing scenes until an overall world comes through.
What are you working on now?
I'm working on some short fiction. I may have another novel in the works. And because I'm a playwright, I'm thinking about play ideas, too.
A question from one writer to another: What matters to you as a theme?
I am very drawn to stories of identity and moved by stories that illustrate how difficult it is to find and maintain an identity in a world that constantly tries to dictate what we should and should not be.
As a teenager, learning to play guitar, I wrote lyrics and put them to music. I was a huge fan of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and Carole King. I suppose they were my earliest influences. My father was a geologist by profession, but he was also a writer, and so I heard the click clack of his electric typewriter, and that rhythm got inside me.
I took courses in playwriting in college and found that I had a real knack for dialogue.
When I started teaching in the late 1980's, I began a practice of writing letters with my students. I still maintain that practice, and I find it to be some of the most satisfying writing I have ever done. Also, I love to read student letters.
Putting words to paper is my favorite place to be. It calms me. It focuses me. It humbles me. It opens me.
Will we hear from Mel again?
I don't know. She is certainly a force, and her voice is so much a part of me. So, who knows? Maybe.