Bruce Elliot Alford

Bruce Elliot Alford

The Inspiration

How a Ghost was
Brought to Life

The memories, landscapes, and obsessions behind Let Them Fall

I am an explorer.

Recollections of childhood adventures and near-death escapes fill my journals: getting stuck in quicksand near the Mississippi River, or the time Twain and I built a raft to float down a flooded canal, only to realize our mistake as the churning current violently accelerated. We had to abandon ship and swim for the muddy banks.

 

My novel, LET THEM FALL, began with one of those visceral moments. Back in graduate school in 1998, I wrote a scene based on the time my cousins and I boldly went “exploring” deep into a forest in Osyka, Mississippi, and got hopelessly lost.

So much of this book is grounded in true events. I’ve rearranged sequences and changed names, but the primal fear of the wild remains alive on the page.
For instance, the fierce panther that my protagonist, Toy, and her brother Etienne encounter in the dense forest was inspired by my wife’s real-life standoff with a bobcat.

Voice & Form

My love of poetry — particularly Shakespeare — played a major role in shaping the novel’s voice. If you read closely, you’ll notice much of the prose falls into the rhythm of blank verse. I endeavored to capture the Bard’s linguistic musicality and the emotional movements of his tragedies, blending both the dark humor and the horror found within them. Toy’s complex quest for justice, family, and survival mirrors this delicate balance.

Philosophy & Structure

I wanted to craft a narrative that does more than simply string together thrilling scenes. LET THEM FALL explores profound frameworks — Martin Heidegger’s ideas of estrangement and authenticity, alongside scientific concepts like chaos theory and the theory of emergence — all anchored by the earthy, potent cadences of the King James Bible.

 

Yet, beneath these literary and philosophical underpinnings, comic book fans will easily recognize the classic heroic journey structure that drives Toy forward. It is a story of trauma, fierce loyalty, and the gray areas of morality, brought to life from the ghosts of my past.

— Bruce Elliot Alford

Sources and remains: the books, drafts, and bones beneath Let Them Fall.

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