The Sixth William
By John Neely Davis
Book Review
This is an updated and extended version of the story of the prodigal son. Mr. Davis has wrapped it in a mystery and demonstrates that just because the father accepts the son’s return does not mean that all the scars have healed, for either the father or the son.
The story is narrated in first person by the protagonist, William Creighton (Creight) Roane. Mr. Davis’ writing skills are so powerful that while reading the novel I almost felt that I was sitting in the shade of a porch on a warm sunny afternoon in East Tennessee listening to Creight himself tell the story.
When he writes a sentence like, “The smell of coffee brewing and the nose-wrinkling odor of frying ham caused me to hobble downstairs on sore legs” he stimulated my appetite for breakfast. And then there is the country-style wisdom of something like this one, “Daddy drove like most old men, part of the time in the middle of the road and part of the time with the bushes along the side of the road slapping at Old Pony.”
Aside from great writing skills, Mr. Davis is an outstanding storyteller. “The Sixth William” is a story of family secrets, generational feuds, opportunities lost and opportunities regained, a penetrating look at why men withhold their feelings. This is a novel that will make you laugh and cry, and you will learn that cats like watching basketball.
Interview with John Neely Davis, Author, “The Sixth William”
MJT: John, “The Sixth William” is a complex story of inter-generational family issues with unresolved father-and-son conflicts. When did you first get the idea for your story and how did it evolve?
JND: Corny as it sounds, I dreamed the basis for the plot. It was not a good dream. I didn’t wake up in a cold sweat, but I did wake up with tears in my eyes. It was so emotional that it stuck in my brain. Sometimes mental notes can be more powerful than paper notes.
I dreamed my father, his best friend and I were hunting a man in the hills of Perry County. Our intent was to kill him if we found him. We searched along an embayment where the water was littered with the wreckage of boats. We found the man standing in a cane thicket – only his head and upper body were visible. I centered the cross-hairs of the rifle on the man’s forehead and started the gentle trigger pull. My father’s friend laid his hand across my rifle barrel and said, “I don’t think you want to shoot him.”I ask, Why?” He responded, “He is your son.”
This unsettling dream sequence was the basis of the book.
MJT: You report that it took five years to write your novel. What was going on during that time period and what was your writing process?
JND: I was contemplating my second retirement. My wife, Jayne, and I were spending the winter near Tucson and I had my laptop with me. We’d watch the glorious sunsets from our patio and I’d run plot-scenes by Jayne. I’d peck away early in the morning listening to a pair of mourning doves calling outside my window. The haunting call of doves was inspiration for some of the sadness in my book.
The actual process of writing was pretty spasmodic. I would spend an entire day writing and then maybe nothing the next day. When completed, the story was linear but just didn’t quite click in my mind. I put it in a desk drawer for a year – didn’t touch it and thought about it very little. It had become something like an immature teen aged son who had grown up and wouldn’t leave home. I wanted the book out of the house but somehow it just wasn’t ready.
A hundred pages into the prequel of my unfinished novel (I do have an optimistic soul) I decided The Sixth William needed to have foreshadowing, back story and to be shortened. The nice thing about writing with a computer is the ability to move large sections of material with almost no effort. So I did that and additionally shortened the book by 150 pages.
Three months later, The Sixth William was on the market.
MJT: Whitewater canoeing and kayaking play an important role in “The Sixth William” and your bio suggests that you’ve enjoyed the thrill of treacherous whitewater. What have been some of your more harrowing experiences with that adventurous sport?
JND: There is an adrenalin rush that comes from white water that probably rivals skydiving. Unless you experienced it, there is not much way to explain what Class Five rapids will do to your heart rate. Running the 9.8 mile section Upper Gauley in West Virginia is comparable to being in a series of automobile wrecks that occur in a two hour period – and you are seeing others doing the same. This is particularly exciting when you see it happening down river from you and know that you are going to follow through those same rapids.
Sweets Falls is one ‘The Big Five’ on the Upper Gauley. This rapid consist of a 12 to 15- foot water fall. I use it as an example of sheer terror in The Sixth William. Even scarier is ‘El Horindo in the Russell Fork Gorge – never heard of it? – have a look on YouTube. This is the last white water I ran. There were several seasoned white water enthusiast on this run – it was also their last. You are just not wise to continue to tempt Lady Luck.
Errant paddle grips cause black eyes and smashed lips. The ejection from a canoe into roiling water can lead to broken limbs and sometimes worse. Watching rescue teams trying to retrieve a drowning victim from an under-cut rock will haunt you. For a long time.
MJT: Your protagonist, William Creighton Roane, is an Alaskan bush pilot when we meet him at the beginning of your story. Do you have bush pilot on your resume as well?
JND: No. I wish I had that on my résumé but I don’t. I spent hundreds of hours in the right seat of a Piper Aztec with one of the original, but then retired, Blue Angel pilots. Anything past that is pure fantasy.
I’ve made several unsuccessful jumps from a barn roof with an umbrella, but I guess that does not count.
MJT: I’m sure our readers would like to know more about you. Tell us about your family and your life’s work.
JND: Jayne and I have two daughters that live near us here in Franklin. Guess you could say we mated for life – our 55th anniversary was in April. We have grandchildren scattered from Murfreesboro to southwestern Oklahoma. I was raised on a farm in west Tennessee. After escaping the cotton fields, I worked as a surveyor and real estate appraiser across the southern tier of the United States from the mountains of West Virginia to the deserts of Arizona.
I’ve lived in the Appalachian area of West Virginia while working with The National Park Service. I found their sense of humor to be a little different but there is also a tremendous bond within the family. Appalachian pride is unsurpassed.
MJT: You are working on a second novel what is it about?
JND: It is a prequel to The Sixth William and shares some of the same setting. The Morning Will Come for You begins on a sheep ranch in Australia in 1870 and concludes in the Findhorn River Valley in the mountains of Tennessee in 1945. An important part of the novel is the relationship between a young man of both Aborigine and white blood and his adoptive American mother. Naturally, there is a love interest. Racism is a theme, as is revenge.
Success, failure, and hatred can be triplets. The Morning Will Come for You weaves these emotions into a single person.
