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OUR Writers-world is filled with those who live in the shadows; whose moments of Glory are private, who simply live for the joy of living. They are not wealthy, nor famous, nor bidding that the world look at them. They do, however, have a story to tell. The UNASSUMING CITIZEN is our friend, our neighbor; people with whom we hold no common bond in belief but who share the world with us. We may not even like them but we have to learn to listen to their stories.

TRANSITIONAL PAGE

Voice as Truth – Giving the Unassuming Citizen Action in Words: “Yeah, I got you and bills I can’t pay and bad knees and an empty face now that your daddy used up what he wanted and then left. I got you boys but sometimes I gotta figure your daddy came out a little better since he don’t have to pay for you. Man’ needs hit by a truck - -we can hope for that – but even the bastard would still be out of paying up and quicker than I ever will be…” Mamma, “We Come From Good Family, ” T. M. Eaton, 2009

VOICE & WISDOM – The Unassuming Citizen and Life They Convey “I know what happened because I was brought up on the Bible but I don’t read it much anymore. I coulda’ told them that if they were to read the description of the Whore of Babylon and then compared that description to the party dress that little girl wore in her pageant pictures they’d have figured it out Probably have me a good job now, famous even, not standing out in the plastic bus-stop outside of Wal-Mart waiting for Reggie to come get me and my 18 years of skinny, freezing backside. Good thing one of us has a job that’s for sure. He can’t keep one … …I knew -- that moment – that all beautiful girls, plastic or real or with shining hair, got killed by silent, vanished men, or women with voices and talons that moved beautiful girls from one high shelf where they could see the beauty of snow, to a face-down loneliness on a dark, dirty floor. ” Waffle House Barbie, (T. M. Eaton, 2011)

WRITERS of The UNASSUMING CITIZEN THERE IS a subtle difference between writing about people – obviously all writers do that – and writing the unassuming citizen. In writing about citizens, the writer goes with the character to find that fame – the adventure. For the writer of the Unassuming citizen, the writer stands with the character and dreams, going nowhere. Life happens to the Unassuming Citizen even when he or she isn’t seeking it. . The adventure is in the mind, not of the body and the fame. • • Flannery O’Connor Rod Serling Sherwood Anderson Jean Sheperd Alice Walker John Steinbeck. Connie Fowler

DEFINING THE SHADOW: Celebrating Their Light WE OFTEN BELIEVE, as Writers, that we have to wait for the great story; that character based in real life who is going to make that big change. We have to be there and witness it and write about it. THERE IS ANOTHER WORLD though, that of the Unassuming Citizen. In this world, the stories are here every day. They do not move out into the world – rather, the world moves in and affects them -- often to a point of silence. WRITERS CAN GIVE Voice to these silent ones and by standing next to them quietly, and by learning and listening, we can see that at some points in our life – we are them and they are us.