Where did you come up with the name “Welken”?

Years ago, at Christmas time, I heard an explanation of the writing of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Evidently, Charles Wesley’s first version had the line and title “Hark, how all the welkin rings.” Charles’ family talked him out of it, helping him see that in 1750, the word “welkin” was already archaic. What was Charles’ loss was my gain. Instantly, I loved the word. It sounds like “welcome,” and I learned that, when used in the middle ages, it usually meant “sky,” or, as medieval folk would have said, “the vault of heaven” or “the firmament.” Over the years, the word has been spelled various ways, including welkin, welken, and wolcen. Though the “welkin” spelling is more common, I took liberties because I liked the look of it with the “e.” Don’t confuse it with the verb form, which means “withered, faded, or dried up.” You can find out more by looking it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. The word is used twelve times in Shakespeare’s works.

How did you get the idea for the story?

When my kids were very young, I started telling them stories about our cat, Percy. They loved these stories and often requested that I weave some idea or object into the plot. When I decided to record some of these stories, somehow another story, with brand new characters, emerged. I really don’t know where Len, Angie, Bennu, and Lizbeth came from. I know it sounds strange, and I’m not saying I took dictation from God or anything, but most authors will talk about a story taking on a life of its own. That’s what happened when things moved from featuring Percy and Bones to featuring the Misfits.

Are any of The Welkening’s characters or situations drawn from reality?

• As I said, it all began with Percy, a stray cat who adopted us. My wife and I tried to ignore him at first, worrying that he was someone’s long lost kitty. After we came home from a weekend trip and he was on our front porch as if we’d had him for years, we decided to keep him. We named him “Persistence,” and called him Percy for short.

• The event at the Peterson Homestead has a (not quite as) horrific source. I won’t say anymore than that I ran for help when some teenagers lowered a noose around my older brother’s twelve year old neck.

• The name “Henley Hornbrook,” a minor character in the Percy and Bones sections, comes from a sign for an exit from Interstate 5 in northern California.

• Here’s a clue about other Welken connections: Each village in Welken has roots in historical or legendary places.

• On another level, of course, all characters come out of an author’s reality, some from experience, some from the imagination. The latter is more important than we realize. I believe that, as a mentor told me, “the deeper I go inside of me, the closer I get to you.” In other words, as I delve into my own person, as I reflect about all that I am and all that I am capable of, I will find empathy for others’ experiences. As Henri Nouwen said, "all men are one and the wellspring of pain and joy.” So, you might say that Len is a bit like me, and so is Lizbeth, and so is Angie, and so on. By the same token, so are you. (You probably wanted more details, like a story about how I knew someone as beautiful and mystical as Angie or about how all of the characters’ most glaring weaknesses are currently manifested in my everyday behavior. Sorry, you’ll just have to wait for the tabloids to pick up that angle.)

How long have you been working on the story?

About twenty years. Crazy, huh? I kept an “oral tradition” going for a while and then I put ideas into a file. For years I did this, writing on church bulletins, envelopes, anything in my hand when an idea came to me. Finally, in 1995, I wrote about twenty-five pages. The story felt monumentally hard to get onto paper, as if each word weighed fifty pounds. I think the reason for this difficulty was that once I started to write, all the talk about “writing a novel” could now be evaluated. Though we can’t succeed unless we venture out, we can’t fail either.
In ’96 I added about fifty pages, and kept up that mollusk-pace until the summer of 2000 when I wrote about 150 pages. And then in the spring of 2001, I finished the last 150 pages. Along the way, writing became easier (not that it didn’t require a lot of rewriting). On some “magical” days, I would sit in a chair on my porch at 8:00am with a sketchy plot direction. Four hours later I would suddenly realize that time had passed and that I had been fully immersed in Welken. I left these times exhilarated.
Well, I guess I’m getting off task. I just get excited remembering the moments when I felt like the recipient of grace.

How would you describe the main themes of The Welkening?

Using words and expressive hand gestures. (Now you know where Len gets his sarcasm.) On one level, I’d rather not answer the question. It feels like being asked to explain a joke. However, I’d be happy to respond to particular questions about what you think it means.

So many characters have a special relationship to words. Why?

As Percy might say, “you took the words right up my alley.” Hey, I ain’t a professor of Communication Studies for nuthin’.

Why is the number four featured in the story?

The number three has had its share of attention. Likewise, the number seven. Four has been an outcast, a numerical misfit, nobody’s favorite number. You might find some other reasons in the story.

What is a Tetragrammaton?

As the teacher in me wants to say, “look it up.” Tell me what you found, and I’ll probably add an idea or four.

What is the key that unlocks every mystery in the book?

Hmm, I had it just a minute ago. Now, where did I put it? If you want to talk about it, email me at: spencer@thewelkening.com