It is my pleasure and privilege to bring you this Tuesday Treasure by my friend and fellow author, Linda W Yezak.
PRISON TALK
You never know what you're
going to find at an auction, or where it'll take your imagination.
The Bremond Fall Festival and
Church Bazaar always features an auction, and we try never to miss it. True, we
usually come home afterward having paid too much for silly things, mostly
foodstuffs that would've cost far less at a grocery store, but occasionally we
come across some treasures.
What I found this year is a
true gem.
This wooden jewelry box with
inlays was handmade by an inmate in Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known
as Angola Prison--aka The Farm, the largest maximum security prison in America.
This is a beautiful piece of work regardless of who created it, but when we discovered an inmate made it, we had to have it. A piece with a history is always appealing because it's interesting, different. Because Angola is a maximum security prison, I wonder about the man who made this, what he did to land himself at The Farm, and how someone with such patience and talent could do anything awful enough to be sentenced there. Perhaps if he'd exhibited that amount of patience and talent long ago, he wouldn't be there now.
After MSB won the bid, the
lady who donated it for the auction told us she'd bought it for $60 at the
Angola Prison Rodeo, which is also an annual event. Every year, the warden
challenges inmate artists to design a poster to advertise the event. The
posters are terrific works of art themselves. This one is my favorite, from
2007:
The artistry and
craftsmanship of the inmates' works bring out a series of "what if"
questions and turn this writer's brain toward the plot of a new story. My mind
wanders, plans, designs. Who would my main character be? A guilty man, like in Dead
Man Walking, or an innocent, as in The Shawshank Redemption? Would I
want a story where the prison is reformed, like Brubaker, or would I aim
for an inmate-hero story instead, like The Hurricane?
What I know, since I'm a
Christian and write Christian novels, is that my MC would come to the
Lord--probably through his art, since I find it so fascinating. But from the
salvation scene, where would I go? Prison release? A depiction of life in prison?
Death row?
I also know that I wouldn't
want to glamorize or romanticize prison life or the crime that landed my MC
there. But what would my MC be guilty of? Can I depict some of the awful things
that happen in real life, or would I prefer a soft-soap white-collar crime? So
much to consider . . .
And to think, all this
daydreaming and speculation came from a handcrafted jewelry box....
Definitely some things to treasure!
Linda W. Yezak lives with her husband and three cats in a forest in east Texas, where tall tales abound and exaggeration is an art form. She holds a BA in English and a graduate certificate in Paralegal Studies. Thirty years later, she’s finally putting her degree in English to good use, combining it with her natural inclination toward story-telling to create fun, unique novels. Follow her on Twitter @LindaYezak and connect with her on Facebook: Author Linda W. Yezak
Emily Taylor loves to help people, loves to ease their burdens and make their dreams come true. But when a conman ruins her reputation, she discovers that helping others is safer and easier from behind the scenes.
When one of Emily’s gifts captures the attention of an avid journalist, her identity as the town’s anonymous benefactor—and her renewed relationship with her high school sweetheart—are threatened.
As her private life begins to unravel, she realizes the one hope for regaining control lies behind prison walls.
Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this week's Tuesday Treasure. Beginning June 24th I'll be participating and posting books from Authors Helping Authors "Rocking Summer Romance" blog hop so check back every week for great Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and of course, Saturday Spotlights!
Until next time....take care & God Bless!
PamT