James Wade: On Turning a Short Story Into a Novel

James Wade is the author of River, Sing Out and All Things Left Wild, a winner of the prestigious MPIBA Reading the West Award for Debut Fiction, and a recipient of the Spur Award for Best Historical Novel from the Western Writers of America. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In this post, James discusses the process of transforming an early short story into his new literary novel, Beasts of the Earth, what surprised him in the writing process, and more!

Name: James Wade
Literary agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group
Book title: Beasts of the Earth
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: October 11, 2022
Genre/category: Literary
Previous titles: All Things Left Wild; River, Sing Out
Elevator pitch for the book: The novel follows a quiet groundskeeper named Harlan LeBlanc at a Central Texas high school in the 1980s, and alternately a young boy name Michael Fischer who is growing up in the Louisiana bayou in the 1960s. Both characters witness violent acts that alter and intertwine their lives as they seek out their respective versions of justice.

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One of the first pieces of fiction I wrote was a short story that essentially crammed much of this book’s action into a few thousand words. Since then, Harlen’s character has stayed with me, lingering. I’ve always been curious about his past, his thought process, and why he makes the choices he does.

In the years since, that curiosity has only grown, merging with my own meditations on trauma, morality, and how much our choices truly belong to us. Beasts of the Earth was the perfect opportunity for me to revisit Harlen, get inside his mind a bit more, while also expelling some of the other ideas that were causing that “No Vacancy” sign to stay on in my head.

I wrote the short story in 2015, but I didn’t begin the novel until 2020. The novel version of Harlen is certainly more complex, more heartbreaking, and more tortured.

Even so, the main thematic elements stuck pretty close to their origin from beginning to end. I was able to add some existential ruminations, as tends to be my predilection—and there were a few characters who I didn’t see coming until they were already alive and on the page.

This is my third novel, and each publishing experience has been different. Fortunately, all three books have been with Blackstone Publishing and the folks there help things run about as smooth as can be expected in this business.

I’ve outlined everything I’ve written, and I’ve never followed an outline. The writing process itself is always one big surprise. I think I know what the story is, or what it will be, but I’m usually wrong.

I tinker a great deal as I’m writing, and Beasts of the Earth was no exception. There were several scenes added, and even more that were cut. The biggest surprise to me was Remus, a character who was never intended for this book, but who I believe becomes the story’s moral compass.

It’s a tough book, there’s no doubt about it—there’s some violence, some dark thematic material, and some uncomfortable questions. But I think that lends itself to the book’s ability to get inside of you and poke around, which is something I always look for as a reader and as a writer.

I hope the folks who read this book will also feel it. And that they’ll let it stay with them. I hope they’ll take something from it—something beautiful or tragic or ponderous—and just grab hold of it and let it be there with them for a while.

Read.

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