DWELLING - AN ORIGINAL NOVEL - INTRODUCING THE CHARACTERS v2: Rube

This is the second in a series of posts to introduce the characters of my original novel DWELLING which I'll be exclusively premiering on the platform in the coming weeks. My aim is to help transform the landscape of publishing fiction on Steemit, and help raise the bar by exclusively premiering a full length novel I've worked on for ten years, thereby attracting new interest and readership to the community. In short Dwelling is a crime novel based on true events that impacted my life while living in New York's Lower East Side... You'll find out a whole lot more in the weeks to come...

Rube

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Sometimes characters stare back at you out of the darkness. Confront you with something deep within yourself that you can’t make sense of, can barely understand.

What makes someone capable of murder?

Rube was a loner. Street smart way beyond his own good. A pusher, a punk kid. Pizza flipper. With huge American dreams of a player’s life. And a ruthless razor’s anger.

I started writing Dwelling ten years back. A previous tenant of the apartment I was living in had disappeared and my landlord was in prison on murder conspiracy charges. But who was the conspirator? Spotting the stalker warning in my downstairs alcove I began to wonder...

Sometimes it’s amazing to go back and see the rough unformed clay that now has been edited and polished with so many passes. Here are some early Rube impressions:

Rube is always hamering a beat. He bobs his head to his own rythm,
Making music with household items. His rythms.

These were the first clues about who he was.

Rube steals a bike right after getting shaken down.

That was the whole note, this later became the foundation for a whole bike stealing sequence.

Rube and Nastassia in bed together, Rube going down on her.

Rube: See, I provide for you what you need.
Nastassia: Yeah you're a regular ol' family man.

In a late night scene he's taping a rythm for his baby girl.

Nastassia: She dont like that.
Rube: What, B-girl loves my rhythms

The resentment of having responsibilities, grounding Rube, these were shackles he railed against from the start. Leading him eventually down the darkest of paths.

Inspiration strikes from all places. For years I bent my ear to the streets of New York, to the alleys, bars, subway platforms, junkie hangs, police precincts, and the halls of haunted tenement I called home.

Hundreds and eventually thousands of these tiny little moments cumulate to whole. Rube. A life staring back now from the chapters. Out of your head. And into the readers.

I can’t wait to introduce you to Rube. Sorry in advance if he sticks around for a while. He has that way about him.

Yours in the Chain,
Doug

Stay tuned for our next character, Morris aka “The Ogre”... and for the first chapter of Dwelling, soon to follow.

Thanks so much for reading & Steem on!
Doug

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SPECIAL THANKS to my wife @zenmommas for years of support during the writing process, @ericvancewalton for his trailblazing, inspired collaboration and incredible guidance, @andrarchy for his mind blowing insight, friendship, @bakerchristopher for being an inspiration as a human artist and bro, @complexring for his brilliance and enthusiasm, Masie Cochran, Taylor Rankin and @elenamoore for their skillful help in editing the manuscript and to Elena Megalos for the fantastic illustrations she created exclusively for the novel's launch on Steemit. I’d also like to thank Eddie Boyce, Jamie Proctor, Katie Mustard, Alan Cumming, Danai Gurira, Stephan Nowecki, Ron Simons, Dave Scott, Alden Karr, Missy Chimovitz, my dad Andy Karr and late mother Wendy , and everyone else who helped lead me to this moment.

DWELLING BLOCKCHAIN COPYRIGHT © DOUG KARR, 2018

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I am a Brooklyn based writer, film & commercial director, and crypto-enthusiast, my projects include @HardFork-series an upcoming narrative crypto-noir and my novel Dwelling will soon be premiering exclusively on Steemit, and you can check out more of my work at dougkarr.com, piefacepictures.com, and www.imdb.com/name/nm1512347

Please comment, up-vote and resteem and I'll gladly upvote your comments!

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10% of all profits from Dwelling will be donated to Amnesty International.