Book News: Bellflower

 

 

“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”  --Willa Cather

 

I was thinking about this quote a few years ago, when a character occurred to me: a middle-aged man, attending the 50th birthday party of the husband of one of his wife's friends, when he meets a woman who will unexpectedly alter the course of his life. A classic Boy Meets Girl scenario, only complicated by modern times and circumstance. I started writing about him, just for fun. When scenes occurred to me, I wrote them too. Other people in his orbit soon appeared, people whose classic human stories may have turned out just a little differently than they had imagined. Eventually, this project, started just for fun, began to turn into something, something about three families living in southern California and weathering what life had to throw at them, those times when events go off script.

 

If there’s such a thing as a novel-in-stories, then maybe this could be called a novel-in-moments. And this week, I signed with an exceptional indie publisher to bring the finished product, BELLFLOWER, to print. More about them, and the novel, in the coming months (not too much, I promise!), and more about why this might be a book unlike others you’ve read, and about what influenced it and how it came about. Life throws many curve balls, and it’s a good time for me to delve back into this project so close to my heart.

 

We writers know how amazing it feels to find someone who believes in you and your work, and I’m thrilled to have this unique novel find a path to readers. Details soon.