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A New Book for a new cycle.

A New Book for a new cycle.

Not sure why, but this is the time of year when my projects seem to take flight. With Bohemian Row (now known as “Anything But Ordinary”) in the final revision stages, I’ve turned my sights to a new story.

Something about the concept of intimacy fascinates me. People have a desire to be intimate — even the most anti-social of us seek out contact with others. By intimacy I of course do not (necessarily) mean physical intimacy. What of the intimacy of friends, close friends. Families are intimately connected. Intimacy unite and can divide us.

One of the ironies of writing, for me, is that the ideas for my stories tend to start with a picture, an idea of some sort. Usually it is a situation. Occasionally it is a place. And rarely is it a person. Only in the most extraordinary circumstances is it that I have found myself obsessed with a potential story that encompasses all three.

In this project, I have found it.

It isn’t a book yet, but it will be. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that a book grows from within itself. (Perhaps for this reason, it is only recently that “Tender is the Night” is increasingly considered his masterpiece. It has spent a century growing from within itself.)

So as this project grows from within itself, I will stop, start, start again, and abandon the endeavor all together. I’ve been down this road four times now, and have met obstacle, pain, success and failure. But I have not found an enduring flame. Perhaps this will be the spark that lights that flame.

Wish me luck.