While this blog might appear to be about me, me, me, my book, my musings, blah, blah, blah–a ‘blahg’, in fact–it’s actually intended as a springboard for your thoughts and our discussion together. Various topics will open up, and your responses are vital, though I do reserve the right to cut off discussion.

Here’s the secret, and it really IS one, because there’s a fine line in discussing one’s book as to how much to reveal. But then if nobody reads a book, there’s no point in keeping its secrets. Except for that person who finds it fifty years later in an attic (if we still have them) and goes, “Woah, dude!”

Reviewer/friend L. M. wrote, “So tightly wrapped and profoundly structured that I’m sure I missed at least 14 significant clues as to the REAL meaning of the narrative!”

Well, he’s right; besides the various connections and interweavings of the characters, the book is written in layers. I didn’t set out to do this. The book is a marriage between inspired (meaning “breathed in”) stuff that just showed up, my own musings and internal conversations, many real-life events, and some pretty careful and detailed steering, editing, honing, trimming.

Roughly, the layers are, from the surface inward:

1. A matter-of-fact reporting of experience that is simple, even dumb, with a kind of  ‘What? Who, me?’ innocence.
2. Some fairly sardonic but not unkind parody and ribbing, ranging from the very broad to the subtle, including some fun with words.
3. Two love stories.
4. An impassioned plea to save the earth.
5. A bunch of individual quests, ranging from the absurd to the lofty.
6. A love song to Northern Nevada and the South West.
7. A dash of genuine mystical experience. Can you find it? It’s not the obvious scene.
8. Oh, yeah, and it’s “metafiction”. Halycon Sage is pretty much writing it as we read it.

Do you see why I have a hard time when someone says, “What is your book about?” My automatic response is, “Duh . . . ” Won’t that be a huge hit with interviewers? Okay, tune in next time for “Fun with Words!”