Four Characters And A Bad Day

“You know, it would be nice if just one thing today would go right for me.”

That may be a tall order, given the events that play out in Bad Day, the novel by author Devon Cooper. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong for the characters in the book, which is set primarily in real time, on a single day, in and around an office building. It’s a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story begins with an unnamed man (in third person, the exception in what’s mostly a first person perspective book) taking an item back inside the night before, a set-up for what’s to come. This is a wise choice to give the character anonymity early on in the action, particularly for the events of the novel.

The day’s action starts by introducing us one by one to the four main characters. Angie is an office worker eager for a promotion, preparing a presentation she hopes will get her on her way. Her day starts off badly right off the start, from sleeping in, seemingly running in circles getting dressed, commute troubles, and ultimately spilling her coffee onto her blouse.

Frank and Sam come next, two construction workers who are busy finishing up work high up in the same building where Angie is working. Frank is single, soft spoken, and we quickly pick up on the fact that he’s a man with anxieties that he tries to keep under control. Sam is older, happily married to Joanne, his high school sweetheart. Sam and Joanne have a good life together, a home and children, and Frank can’t help but be a bit envious. Their day doesn’t get off to quite the right start either; we find that their arrival is at the same time as Angie, who is in the midst of her day from hell. Their work at the top of the building goes awry when Frank has to head back to the garage for something he forgot. This is a problem for Frank, who has problems with heights, and deep-seated fears about closed spaces.

Joanne, the last of the four major characters to be introduced, is a teacher, and we first meet her ourselves after things start going wrong. We know enough about her from the earlier sequences that we already have a good sense of who she is, and as events unfold and she becomes increasingly worried about her husband, we feel sympathy with her.

Frank and Angie end up in the same elevator by chance, and with that, the day from hell really gets underway. The elevator comes to a screeching halt, setting off Frank’s fears and providing a breaking point for Angie’s building frustration. On top of this, a bomb threat is called into the building, prompting an evacuation and the summoning of the police. Frank and Angie, having no idea what’s happening, are trapped, and initially are very much at odds. Frank is frozen by his own fear, while Angie is less then sympathetic towards him, agitated by what she believes is the end of her professional aspirations.

Sam, whose age is starting to catch up with him as old injuries from his days playing football manifest themselves, must make his own lonely descent to ground level by the stairs, worrying that he’ll never see his wife again. And Joanne, upon learning what’s happening, makes her way to the building, frightened at the possibility that her husband’s life is at risk.

The novel succeeds due to a number of critical factors. First and foremost is the characterization. Cooper writes these people with a well-rounded humanity, and gives them depth. Both in the narrative of the one day (and the flashbacks to the past, the only other exception to the single day rule, which really flesh out the character’s histories), she gives us personalities who are flawed yet likeable, well drawn out, with the sort of attention to detail that results in each of them having their own distinct voices. The long relationship and deep bond between Sam and Joanne, whose love is deep seated, contrasts well with Frank and Angie, who start out in this very conflicted place and yet who quickly find an unusual chemistry. The good characterization extends from the major characters even to the minor ones- I particularly liked the way a group of bomb squad police officers were being written.

Another factor that I enjoyed was the pacing of the story, and how that reflected itself in the style of the writing. The narrative flows well, doesn’t seem to drag, which is a very good thing. And writing in the first person suits this author and the story well. Much of the book is written in multiple first person point of view, and there’s never a problem keeping track of whose point of view we’re seeing things.

Something else that I really enjoyed about the book is its sense of humour. Even with the dangerous situation these characters find themselves in, there are those moments of lightness to the book. From the small details like a security guard playing solitaire rather than paying attention to his work (hey, it’s a boring job!) to the black humour Angie really brings across at times, the author succeeds at defusing tension at the most appropriate moments. Cooper doesn’t take things too seriously, which is a very good thing.

At its heart, Bad Day is a character study, which allows for depth and sympathy in its characters. It tells a story of how anything that can go wrong in a given day does go wrong, and then how life goes in an entirely unexpected direction from there. I enjoyed it a lot. You will too.



Bad Day is now available in ebook format, with the paperback soon to follow. You can find it at Amazon.com, here at Devon's Amazon page.

Devon Cooper: Bad Day

A bit of business today before we get things started. I wrote a guest blog for Shelly at her blog The Life of A Novice Writer, on the topic of researching for a book. Drop by and check it out.

And today I've got a guest blogger here. Devon Cooper has released her book Bad Day in the ebook format, with paperback to follow. You can find it here through her Amazon author's page. I've read the book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll be reviewing it here in the coming days, but for now, I'll leave it to Devon to introduce herself and tell you a few things about it. Take it away, Devon!

Thank you, William, for having me over to your blog today. I really appreciate you doing this for me. Beth Muscat over at Bent River Books (http://www.bentriverbooks.wordpress.com/) and her friends, including you, William, have been especially helpful in getting my name out there.

Hey folks. My name is Devon Cooper, and I'm a newbie to the Indie Author world. My debut novel is called, "Bad Day" and I'm quite proud of my first writing accomplishment.

Writing a book has been something that I've wanted to do for a while, but nothing I wrote seemed good enough. I started writing a paranormal romance type book that had werewolves, angels and demons in it, because that seemed to be all the rage, but it just didn't work out.

Then I wrote this piece about a woman who was trying to get herself and her family ready for the day. If a woman has a family that requires her to seemingly do everything for them, while leaving little time for herself to get ready, well, you can almost feel the stress she might be under. But, as with the above story, it never went anywhere.

However, I didn't throw out those two unworkable stories. I kept them in the hopes that one day I could get back to them or use them in some other story. And, that's what I did.

Bad Day takes place over one day, which is not the way I had intended on writing it. However, as I continued to write, it kind of wrote itself that way. As each character goes through his or her own personal turmoil, I added bits and pieces from the unworkable paranormal story into this, creating memories for the characters. I was able to use three different parts from this story to create memories for three of my characters.

I also incorporated some of my own memories into the story for my characters. Of course, I embellished them, or changed the context, but still, some of those are mine own.

The beginning of the book (after the equally stressful prologue) features Angie, a driven hard-working woman who is to make a presentation for a spot on the Board of Directors of the company she works for. Of course, the comedy starts with her trying to get herself ready in the morning after waking up late. Her day doesn't get any better when she gets to work. She still has to make it to the top of the high rise.

Add in more characters that are having similarily stressful days, and you have the makings of a comedy.

Frank is a construction worker, who is working at the top of the same high rise building with his boss, Sam. But, to get to the top, Frank has to get into the one thing that he fears the most. An elevator.

Of course, it doesn't help when Frank forgets his drill in his truck and has to go back down to get it. He must face his fear head on. Then, to make matters worse, the elevator gets stuck on its way back up, trapping him in there.

When the fire alarm goes off, Sam can't trust that the elevators will be working properly. He opts for the stairs, but with his old high school knee injury, his trip down the stairs proves to be a long one. To make matters worse, he has no way of knowing where Frank is, and he left his cell phone in his truck, so he can't even call his wife Joanne to let her know that he's ok.

When Joanne, a teacher, finds out that the high rise building has had a bomb threat called into it, she leaves her classroom to go find Sam. When the police check their list to see if he exited the building, his name isn't on any of their lists. Seriously, I don't think their days could get any worse...or can it?

Some of the memories are funny, and some of them are sad, but the memories of the characters help build the stressfulness of how they feel throughout the book. And, what's a romantic comedy without a little romance...just a little.

This was one book I felt was good enough to make my debut novel. Set in multiple first person point of view, it's an easy read, and one that I hope you will all enjoy.

Thank you again, William, for allowing me to come here and talk about Bad Day which is currently available in ebook format (paperback coming soon) at Amazon.