When I sat down to write The Courier, I knew who I wanted Cyrus Driskoll to be at the beginning of the the book. I knew who I wanted him to be at the end. I had a rough idea of how I might get him from A to Z. To me, the most important objective was exposing his guts so that we could really see him. Because The Courier was my first novel, I was surprised at the clarity of the … [Read more...] about Dreaming of Cyrus
dream
Don’t let me look
My cousin, Ken, has a favorite story about our Granny. He says when he was little, he used to sneak up on her to scare her. One day, my aunt caught him. "Don't scare your Granny like that!" she scolded. Now, you and I both know that my aunt was afraid Granny's old heart couldn't take that kind of exercise. But later on, Granny pulled Ken aside and told him to keep doing what … [Read more...] about Don’t let me look
In my dreams
I awoke from a dream before 5 am, heart pounding. There were no zombies, no shadows chasing me across dark parking lots, no threat of my untimely demise--just a room full of strangers. I was supposed to be speaking at some sort of conference, but no one would acknowledge my presence. They just kept talking to each other. Even when I addressed them individually, they ignored … [Read more...] about In my dreams