Profile: Bruce Ario

About This Author

Bruce made a decision to be a writer as he met with another homeless man in the library in 1983. Previous to being homeless, Bruce had completed two years of law school. The man asked, "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?" Bruce thought and then wrote something that had been in his heart since childhood, "I want to be a writer." The man smiled and then said, "Go do it." Bruce was seeking justice. He learned how the law students dealt with it, but he was on a different mission than most of them. He tells stories of justice in his poems, plays, and novels. He hopes that his stories are inspiring, ones where the justice served is universal but not without shades of gray. He tends to write on themes of recovery where the story takes us to the depths before bringing us to a new direction and understanding. Bruce wants the reader to grasp something substantial and sustaining. These are get rich quick stories; not with money, but with emotions. His unique experiences and recovery-orientated, universal insights bring us a calming relief. Bruce knows the importance of the language used by a character. For that reason, and maybe because he once was a playwright, a good portion of his novels are dialogue. "The words people use are defense mechanisms (see the lawyer in me?) which they choose to convey - and protect- the image they have of themselves. Simple language does not mean simple thought. Great wisdom can be related through quite plain words." Bruce's characters use straight-forward, direct conversation. That is the nature of justice. It's adversarial. You cut to the chase. His characters are people who have an image of themselves that is not how other people see them. Subsequently, they feel misunderstood. The story then describes their struggles with a victory in the end. Their reward, if not monetarily great, gives them an achievement of growth and a new understanding with themselves and among others. He refuses to pass judgment on his characters. He doesn't think this produces anarchy, he just makes his characters subject to a higher authority than himself.