The Lexical Funk!

I’ve just finished a sketch draft of a new novel, tentatively titled “Statues in the Cloud”. The novel is pretty ambitious. Who knows if I’ll ever finish or when I’ll finish (four or five years is my best guess). But it’s important to celebrate the completion of things -- even small steps. So with that in mind, I present you the first two paragraphs from the sketch draft.

*For those of you who are interested, a “sketch draft” is the step before a first draft. It is just a series of scenes and explorations in a somewhat organized format to help understand what plot elements and characters work.

The Tease

Once upon a time, perhaps ten years ago, perhaps longer, the states of waking and dream became more and more similar. Then, suddenly, I was healed. I thought perhaps that it was the telling of a particular story that made the difference between the awake-state and the dream-state clear.

Now I wonder, Am I dead? It was hard for me to ask this question and not smile just a little. I wasn’t dead. I was older than I ever thought I would be, and in my own small way, I was happy. I had my books. I had my stories. I had a rich internal life where people -- real people -- lived and played. But every once in awhile, I would be going for a walk and I would feel in my bones that I had already died.