Journalism, Real Creativity and Reactionary Creativity

  On January 1, 2002 I had finally finished authoring my latest fiction book, which is titled The Great Teen Fruit War, A 1960’ Novel. The work was quite a Promethean task to complete, having 162,000 words on 468 pages presented in 46 Chapters. When I read my final draft, I think I felt a little like Victor Frankenstein must have when he first fully viewed the monster that he had created.

  The Great Teen Fruit War is set in 1960’ Hammonton and involves conflict between the Blues, the sons of blueberry farmers and the Reds, the sons of peach farmers (please remember, a novel is fiction). The Blues are the antagonists and wear button-down blue denim jackets, and the Reds are the protagonists and wear zip-up red James Dean’ jackets like those worn by the famous actor in the 1955 classic film, Rebel without a Cause. The Great Teen Fruit War is the sequel to Black Leather and Blue Denim, A ‘50s Novel.

  In the Great Teen Fruit War, Bellevue Avenue is the dividing line between blueberry country to the east and peach territory to the west. To spice up the story, the Reds have one “antagonist” named Ronald “Goose” Restuccio, the son of a Mafia kingpin. Complicating matters even further is a third gang, The Ramrodders, a group of greasers that interact with the Reds and the Blues.

  Now here’s the essential difference between fiction and non-fiction. The Fruit War’s setting is real, but the story and the characters are not. Most of the “characters” are composite, a combination of two or more people I have known. I have taken elements from these past acquaintances and synthesized each of them into a new person just like Victor Frankenstein had done with his monster.

  In all due respect to Gabe Donio, Gina Rullo and to Ben Meritt, front-page journalism or news reporting is relatively easy. It is basically accurate descriptive narrative’ writing that involves the questions Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? and then providing a few direct...