E. Davis Enloe is the author of the new novel Into the Night Woods.
Q: What inspired you to write Into the Night Woods?
A: I wanted to write a story about two 12-year-old boys that are thrust into an unmanageable adult world that taxes their relationship to the breaking point.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your characters Boyd and Roger?
A: I see a powerful Catch-22 dynamic between Boyd and Roger. The boys’ lifelong friendship pulls them close to each other, but their bond is threatened anytime Roger’s abusive alcoholic father enters the picture because of Roger’s trauma-bond to his father, Earl Daggett.
When Boyd tries to get Roger to see that his father is going to continue to harm him, possibly even kill him, Roger becomes defensive and accuses Boyd of not allowing for the prospect that his father could change. Boyd’s dilemma is how to save Roger from his abusive father without losing his friendship with Roger.
Q: The author Ron Rash said of the book, “In this impressive debut, E. Davis Enloe has the talent to create an utterly convincing twelve-year-old protagonist, and we cheer on young Boyd and his best friend Roger as they enter the bewildering world of adults...” What do you think of that description?
A: Because I greatly respect Ron as a writer, I feel both humbled and greatly appreciative of his comments. Ron succinctly identified the emotional stake around which the action of the story swirls, one where a determined but largely naïve 12-year-old is forced to navigate a perilous and confusing adult world in his effort to save his best friend.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I did not know how the novel would end, though I think the final chapters of the novel were the easiest to write because they seemed fated to unfold out of all that came before. There was a lot of editing, and I was fortunate to have input from some very smart and experienced writers.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: My second novel, currently titled Still So Beautiful, is an adult-themed story about a man named Joe Raines that is at odds with the local sheriff, also his father-in-law.
There is this fascinating character named Truth that catches her ex-husband Doyle, a suspected child molester, with her granddaughter. Doyle is also a deputy sheriff, and Joe Raines is furious with the sheriff because he doesn’t understand why he is protecting Doyle. Moreover, Joe’s wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I’ve written the story from beginning to end and it’s now time to kill my darlings and get down to a serious rewrite.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carl Phillips once told me that when he walks his dog, he’ll pick words that he wants to use in his next poem. I think there was something similar going on with Into the Night Woods, but with me it was about gathering many powerful images and memories from childhood and weaving them into the story.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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