I want to talk about my narrator in THE FORGIVING KIND, Sonny Creech and her brothers, Ross and Trent.

Like her daddy, Sonny loves their cotton farm, all three hundred acres of it.  Despite the fact she spends hours doing hot, difficult and unrelenting work, it’s the land she connects with, from the soil beneath her feet, to what they grow, to the steel blue sky above her head. Aside from being the youngest of the Creech children and the only girl, she’s also a bit of an anomaly, not only because of her desire to be outside, and in the fields, but also because of the special gift she has and shares with her father.

She has two older brothers, Ross and Trent. Ross is sixteen and at that typical stage for boys his age, not yet a man, yet feeling like he ought to act and be treated like one. To Sonny, Ross reminds her of her daddy, the one she turns to when something is bothering her, and Ross is protective of his little sister. Meanwhile, Trent is a troublemaker with a mean streak that’s not always present, which makes Sonny cautious around him.  Trent sometimes acts like he’s unsure of where he fits in while behaving as if he could care less. He hates cotton farming, and only does what is absolutely required of him. He and Sonny have a tenuous relationship.

Sonny’s love for the land is deeply rooted, and so maybe it comes natural to her, this gift for divining water. What she has no way of knowing is how important this ability is, or how her family will look to her as the drought deepens.

Chapter 12

I couldn’t make up my mind where I should start.