Ten years ago, an idea came to me. Ideas are a funny thing. I don’t believe they are something we create. Ideas come from a place of nothing. From nowhere, and most often when we are doing something else. Such as driving, which was what I was doing when the idea for Sentient came into my consciousness.
A series of events led to this. You might say it was my subconscious; because for the entire year prior I’d been immersed in documentaries and books about factory farming and animal rights. Perhaps it was bound to happen.
One evening in the summer of 2014, I was driving along 75-South in Ohio and I saw a transport truck ahead of me. It was packed full of pigs, most likely on their way to slaughter.
In that moment, I felt I could no longer turn away. I couldn’t ignore what I saw, and go on with my life. No judgment to those who do, but I had to respond somehow. Seeing that transport truck made me feel powerless. The only thing I knew to do was act, and my way of acting has always been to write.
Somewhere in that moment as I was driving and witnessing the transport truck, an idea was born. It almost felt like it fell from the sky, right into my lap. I suddenly imagined a book about animals confined in factory farms. A fictional account with very real and graphic detail, for an audience of non-vegans.
By the time I got home, I had it all planned out. It was to be a punch in the gut, a response to what I felt was society’s long time ignorance of and blatant disregard for farmed animals. I was angry. This was to be my social protest.
Sentient originated as a book with strictly animal characters. A pig, a cow, a chicken and so on and so forth. All animals would be aptly named by the foods they became; Burger, Egg, Bacon…you get the drift.
Yes, I wanted to be facetious.
In addition, the book was to be interactive. A psychological experiment, if you will. Expose readers to the realities of factory farming by way of fictional prose, and at the end of each chapter give them a chance, collectively, to vote on what happens next to the animal. My hypothesis: readers would become attached to the characters, and this would in turn get them to reconsider whether animals ought to be used for food.
I was a social worker, after all.
That was just the beginning. A far cry from where Sentient is today. Over the next several months, I will be continuing this story of Sentient‘s origins. I think the evolution of it is quite fascinating. It’s not simply a book I wrote, or a series I created. There is way more to it, way more to the social, political, spiritual implications of our use of animals and our abuse of nature.
It is also a journey through my own self-discovery, both as an author and a human. A journey through failure, uncertainty, doubt and success.
I hope you’ll continue on it with me.