The title of the blog says that I am a writer.  And I have written some interesting blog posts. I have have been writing my novel with some diligence. Parts of it are good, parts are only so so, and a few parts are very good.  At least this is my opinion. My wife who has been reading along thinks that some of the chapters are very good as well. That might not matter to you but it matters immensely to me.

At some point in the process the baby bird has to struggle up on the edge of the nest and fly into the sky. Or fall screaming to the earth to die. OK, it has been a long day and my rose-colored glasses are caked with sardonic cynicism. The point of all this is that it is time to show the world some of what I have been working on.

Last weekend my wife and I were visiting in North Carolina. North Carolina is known for its beautiful waterfalls. We went off to visit a waterfall that my relatives had not seen before. It is Pearson’s Falls. It is beautiful. It is about the most non-commercial attraction that I have ever been at. The one item upon which you can spend money on is a $0.25 post card. There is a selection of one. Pearson’s Falls is owned and maintained by The Tryon Garden Club. The link to the web site just a few words back is well worth visiting. They have videos and pictures and much more.

The head of the falls is located in a gorge cut by the water running down from the top of the hill. It is a bit of a hike up the hill (given that the average age of the group was around 74) but we had brought stout shoes and walking sticks and were rewarded with a wonderful morning. I knew from the first few steps that I had to write about the experience. The protagonist of my novel, Eric Stapleton, had to visit this place.

Over the next few days, I drafted and revised a chapter in the book. As is often the case, the contents of the chapter twisted and turned before becoming what it is now. It started out as an inconsequential decoration and became a key turning point for Eric’s development. I had heard other writers (how cool is it that it is “other writers” rather than just “writers) say that the words sometimes go where they want to go, despite the intentions of the author. I had mocked them, “whose fingers were on the keyboard?” That was then, this is now. The fingers may be mine but the ideas that flow through them sometimes seem to come from a dark place deep in the cluttered vault that is my mind. More than once I have marveled at what has shown up on the manuscript screen.

In any case, the chapter can be found at Escape, in Asymmetric Time. While not exactly essential, you can read at the master page for the novel, The Shepherd of Arisa, about some background that may add some seasoning to the chapter. That page has the same link as just above, and will have additional links as new chapters show up.

Please enjoy! I will probably post a new chapter every couple of weeks.  I also may publish some of the chapters of the background “bible” that I am writing to keep track of the world that I am building. My guess is that some parts of the bible will make it into the book but it will be said of the rest of the chapters that “they also serve that stand and wait.”