#391 Inside the Emotion of Fiction SHADOWS OF THE SEEN by Timothy Gager, published by Pierian Springs Press on May 15, 2025
https://pierianspringspress.com/timothy-gager/
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What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you finished the piece of fiction?
I started on the book in 2023 (BELOW LEFT), and first draft was finished in 3 months. The final version of the manuscript was completed in 2025 (BELOW RIGHT).
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail.
I have a desk at home which is quiet and private. Some days I’ll write before work, and others I’ll write during my lunch break (Below Left.) I’ve had this set-up for a long time.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day?
I write directly onto a Microsoft Word document. I use the internet for research purposes.
Click below to view Timothy Gager’s interview and reading on Shadows of the Seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxxhJ71sx0&t=10s
Shadows of the Seen is a darkly riveting tapestry of lives caught at the intersection of politics, violence, and personal demons-a story wrapped in a subtle, entrancing whodunit. Through four interlocking storylines-centered on the ambitious politician Candace, the tormented Peter, the luck-driven but troubled Lucky, and the opportunistic Bobby-Joe-Gager delves into the heart of contemporary American struggles, from gun control and mental health to personal responsibility and redemption. Told through a nonlinear narrative brimming with raw emotion and incisive dark humor, The
Shadows of the Seen is a provocative exploration of how we navigate power, personal trauma, and the murky line between right and wrong. Gripping, unsettling, and unflinchingly honest, Gager’s novel challenges readers to confront what lurks beneath the surface-and within ourselves.
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
This is the opening of Shadows of the Seen
Forward: They Do Not Ring Out
Shots do not ring out, they pop. Whoever says ring out never has been in an outdoor area with gunfire raging, where you are cursing God for the unfortunate location you are in. If you describe gunfire ringing out, you are a bad poet, songwriter, or newscaster. Anyone who knows anything about the sound of gunfire will describe it as a pop, like small fireworks, during the exact moment your mind tries to determine what exactly it hears.
Most of the time the mind is too busy with denial, convinced it is fireworks…some kids involved in a prank. That denial is quickly overruled, for why would there be screaming if it’s just a string of firecrackers the size of a pack of cigarettes. Pop-pop-pop. Once you have adjusted for denial you quickly scan the location looking for a shooter. You tell yourself a shooter will be wearing military garb, perhaps black in color, definitely wearing a heavy, bulletproof vest. The shooter would be dressed the same way a member of a SWAT team would when defending people from a cold-blooded killer with a semi-automatic.
Then you see him, because your mind has tricked you again—he is just wearing a light t-shirt and jeans, with a well-worn, fatigue-patterned hat. You think if you must describe him later, it is a false memory of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals. or New York Mets. You are the only person within 500 yards, as there is not a parting of a Red Sea of people falling like bowling pins between you and him. Not yet, and even so, they might not see him. The other people are a distance away, but still not safe. He now opens fire. Pop-pop-pop.
It is just your dumb luck that you’re in this position, the one of you and him. Then you think, what happens if he turns around and shoots you? Will it be quick? Will it hurt? Maybe it will just blow your head off. But also, what happens if he does and you just don’t give a fuck. I mean, life’s not been all that good, so no harm, but foul? Definitively foul.
Instead of your life flashing before your eyes, the thoughts are more concrete. You think you will not be missed. You’ve told yourself that so many times, right after you have told yourself that it might be useful being hospitalized to adjust your mental health, but the depression and thoughts of negative self-worth will just pop up once more. You never act on it; it never changes and nothing seems to help. People suggest you talk about it. What has always stopped you is those thoughts are so hard to explain to others. Just observe others having trouble after, say, a suicide. You remember a friend who did it forty-or so years ago, and his now eighty-year-old parents are still trying to explain it. They are trying to find the answer, still trying to crack the case.
You and a lone shooter. People are far away, but your main discomfort isn’t him, it is the wind and cold drizzle.
He is still not turning around, not seeing you, as he walks toward Broadway shooting, bullets ricocheting off buildings, cars, and striking a few people at a distance, not knowing what hit them, the chaos beginning, the screaming now a sustained din. You know you could escape, but you also know that there is nothing left for you to lose, just your life, which as you check in again, is still the same nothing it was a minute ago. And the shooter is still fifty yards away, walking…walking…walking. And suddenly, you find yourself running; the distance between you and the shooter seems to be halved in every step you take, like a runaway roller coaster descending from the upmost peak of the ride, never slowing down. Why are you doing this? You are a stride away, and the shooter still has not turned to face you…and he will not pivot, or fire off some rounds and kill you. It is not going to happen right now, because he can’t. You are upon him. You lower your head and bury your right shoulder as hard as you can into the center of his t-shirt between his scapula, the semi-automatic weapon firing randomly before nose diving, muzzle straight down into the cement, the force from all this ejecting the gun away from him.
And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? This emotional moment must not be from the character’s emotion but from your emotion as a writer.
It’s the setup. The gun issue is real and out of control in the US and this opening ends up appearing later in the book in a different point of view. I felt like I was a reporter reporting the inner-works from a character doing a terrible act. Honestly, I stayed kind of detached from it.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt.
Did you know that editors are asking for this to prove a writer isn’t using AI. Rough drafts are also needed and there for a reason. I’m not real comfortable showing my shitty first drafts…being judged is a terrible thing in the writing community.
Anything you would like to add?
Something should be done. Doing nothing when there is a problem, never helps the problem.
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