From about 10:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. every day, Elvin Duggan works in water, chest high. He gets out of the heated water for about an hour to eat lunch, the same to eat supper and sometimes to watch a television program. But, that schedule is flexible. And his wife, Helen, has sometimes had to scold Duggan to get out of the pool late in the night after he’s been there for more than 17 hours.

He doesn’t want to leave because after eight years of being bedridden, and at the age of 65, he’s finally found a way to fulfill his life’s dream of writing a novel.

With a computer beside and an e-mail machine floating in the pool he had constructed in 2001, Duggan now can write comfortably.

Back Problems

Suffering from degenerating disks in his spine accompanied by arthritic spurs, Duggan’s back hurts so bad he can’t sit down for more than five minutes at a time. At home or an event, he must get up and walk for about as long as he sits to get the circulation flowing again. To go places, he must find somebody to drive his Oldsmobile while he reclines across the back seat during travel.

Back troubles began for this Calhoun County native in the 1970s in the front yard of his Jacksonville home. He was running his own smelting business at the time.

He said he had a pack of firecrackers in his hand. After he lit them, the fuse spat at him.

“So, just as a reflex action there, I jerked around to get away from them,” Duggan said. “And when I did, I twisted my back very badly and hit the ground. And I didn’t have any feeling in my back for many hours after that.”

After a visit to the hospital, a doctor told Duggan his bones seemed to be in shape. But he did strain all the muscles in a region of his back. About eight years later, that injury became arthritic. That discovery was made as Duggan suffered his first “bout.”

From just picking up a box that weighed about three pounds, a pain shot up Duggan’s spine. For three days he couldn’t stand up straight and stayed in a constant bent position.

A doctor advised him to keep ice packs on his back, take anti-inflammatory medication, rest and lie in bed as much as possible. After a week, he was “as good as ever,” he said.

A couple of years later, though, another bout struck, seemingly without any provocation. Duggan said he just woke up one morning with pain in his back and an inability to walk around or sit up.

He again was given medication and similar resting advice from a doctor. This soon became a pattern.

In the late ‘80s, bouts occurred more frequently. Recovery for each would take four to six days.

As time progressed, Duggan got out of the smelting business and attended Jacksonville State University in 1983 and ‘84 with a double major in mathematics and English.

He didn’t graduate JSU because had a family and had to go back to work.

And while working in advertising for a radio station, he had two bouts within a couple of days of each other. They began to regularly occur closer and closer together.

In 1992, he then had a spell with his back that never went away.

“And I suppose it will always be with me,” he said.

From 1993 to 2001, Duggan was pretty much limited to lying in bed.

Through the years, Duggan has had about 14 cortisone injections and two botox injections for his back problems. And in 2000, he went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for a radio frequency procedure.

A unique treatment, the idea was to shoot radio waves directly on the nerves that were passing Duggan’s back pain signals to his brain, he explained.

“They missed horribly,” he said.

For about eight months, Duggan’s pain became worse, then happening in two places rather than one. However, he emphasized that Emory gave no promises and he chose to undergo the procedure even though he was aware of the risks.

A Writer’s Dream

Duggan said he always has been fascinated with writing. He began to write seriously when he was in his early 30s. First dabbling in poetry, he soon began composing short stories as well.

From writing continuously since, he estimated he’s written 500 poems and 25 short stories.

In 1999, he sent one of the short stories he composed in the 1970s to be printed in a literary periodical out of Saginaw, Mich., called “Eyes Magazine.”

“And the first one I sent in to a periodical was accepted,” Duggan said.

The editor even sent a letter requesting the rest of Duggan’s works for him to look over. But Duggan was focused on writing a book, and never responded. He also was trying to figure out a comfortable way to write a novel.

“To somebody who’s never tried it, it would seem to be an easy task to lie back on your back and hold something up (like) a clipboard and just write overhead,” he said. But “in about 10 minutes, your arm starts going on you, and your neck, and your shoulder. I started getting arthritis in my neck and shoulder from doing that so long.”

He couldn’t sit long enough to write on a typewriter or computer and he couldn’t write standing up. If he stands too long and a certain pain shoots through his back, it takes four to six days to recover.

“Finally, one day, I just said, ‘Dad-blame this!’ “ Duggan recalled. “And I threw it down, I said, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore!’ I told my wife, ‘I’ll be dog-gone if I’m gonna just grow old and not ever be able to do anything.’ I said, ‘I’m going to put a pool back there.’ “

The idea of building a room on his house in which to put a pool was something Duggan said he had pondered for many years. His thoughts were that if he kept the temperature in the mid-90s, the heated water would stimulate blood flow in his arthritic joints. And the water’s buoyancy would lessen his body weight, allowing easier movements for extended periods. In the pool, he would then be able to fulfill his life’s wish without hurting so much.

He was right.

Completely written from his pool, Duggan is now editing more than 100,000 words that will equal more than 300 pages in a paperback edition of his debut novel.

Western inflections

“There’s something in the West that just flows in your veins,” Duggan said. “Once it’s there, it’s there forever.”

Duggan used to live out West, spent time in his youth crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains and rode trains across Montana and through the deserts. He often would visit family. When he was 16, he even ran away from home with a buddy and went out West, camping in Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona.

“Even though I’m an Alabamian and I love Alabama, there is still a part of me that’s Western,” he said. “There’s something, to me, poetic about the Western scene.”

In that vein, Duggan’s debut book is a Western called Scarlet in the Sky.

It’s not solely in that genre, however.

“I’ve seen enough John Wayne movies in my life to (ask), ‘How many different ways can you tell about the outlaws coming and rustling somebody’s steers?’ “

Therefore, Duggan has mixed an element of fantasy with traditional Western inflections for a unique and interesting approach, he said. The fantasy involves a character named Callie Farraday, aka Calico Callie, who can project herself into an alter ego called the Scarlet Phantomess. The Phantomess can ride through the clouds on her horse.

Duggan said he’s researched the history of the West back to the days of Spanish occupation and has read many classic novels. However, not to be influenced by popular contemporary styles — “here’s going to be the shocker” — he has never read Western novels.

He hasn’t read Louis L’Amour’s books. He hasn’t read any Zane Grey.

He simply doesn’t want to be influenced, consciously or subconsciously, in phrasing or presentation. He truly wants to be original.

“If my book sells one copy, or it sells a million copies, I don’t want anybody to read my book and say, ‘You know what, that sounds a little like Zane Grey’s book,’ “ he said.

Duggan simply was so inspired by the Western life and scenery that he wants his book to be a unique presentation of it.

In another artistic gesture toward the West, specifically the desert scenes, Duggan even plans to purchase a couple of acres in the near future on which to make a desert scene. He’ll clear the land, lay down sand and plant desert flora.

Like a large painting or huge sculpture, it will be a piece of art.

“It’s all about art to me,” he said.

Future Swims

Duggan hopes Scarlet in the Sky will be available for purchase in February. He’s scouting publishers and contemplating various avenues.

And because he’s finally discovered a way for him to comfortably write, that’s what he does every day. He’s hoping to compose one novel per year for the next 15 years.

“And I’ll move heaven and earth, I guarantee you I will, to accomplish that,” he said.

He has ideas now for at least three.

“But, if the world out there sees fit that I’m not what they want, then I might alter my plans some,” he added. “But I’m going for it.”

Purely stated, the pool Duggan built has changed his life. He hopes his books will do well, but he also hopes he will be an inspiration to people suffering from similar ailments.