Lunatic Fringe…I know you’re out there.

I woke up this morning with the song “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider stuck in my head. As I pressed the snooze button several times, playing the mind games one does when trying to rise before dawn to write, the eerie intro coursed in and out of my consciousness, always in my subconscious.

This song is in my head for one reason: I’ve been watching “Vision Quest” a lot lately.

Vision Quest is a book written by Terry Davis, former Professor of Creative Writing at Mankato State University, and Spokane, WA native.

In 1985, Vision Quest was made into a movie starring Matthew Modine. It’s about high school wrestling. I was a wrestler in high school. It’s also about the parallels between a Native American vision quest–fasting for a particular period of time as a test of manhood and to find one’s true calling in life, one’s true name–and the near insanity of training and cutting weight to compete at a wrestling dual.
For a wrestler, they are the same. And sometimes the vision never ends.

The movie is inspiring, and led me to order the book, which I assimilated in about two days. Next thing I know, I’m looking up ways to order new Tokay High School Wrestling sweatshirts, cutting calories and getting up early to make the final push to finish what I think will be the last major edit of my novel, Highway Bleeding.

I got up in the near-light this morning to embrace the madness. I looked at the manuscript. I picked up my latest copy of Writers Digest. I flipped to the dog-eared page I had prepared for this morning’s reading. Title of the article: “On the fringe.”

This website is meager, at best. But if you’re interested in a peek at my novel, I plan to post some chapters soon. Perhaps within a week. So come back before too long to check out what I’ve been obsessed with for the past year. I know you’re out there.

-Jeb