I Have a Secret

(In the Gertrude Stein Salon.  Photo Credit: Julie Foster Hedlund)

Actually, I have two.  But due to signed NDA agreements, at this point I'm unable to discuss the television series production team I've joined as a writer, or the national book award I'm judging.  I will, however, in due time.

Ever since I was a young boy lifting up the other telephone in my grandmother Lovey's house and listening in on adult conversations, I've had this thing for secrets. I write about them constantly -- family secrets, secrets that terrify, secrets that inspire.  In recent years, I've attempted to make my life that cliched 'open book' and often remark that if you're not interested, stop reading and move on to other peoples' stories. Still, I find it difficult to resist the attraction of secrets and mysteries.  More than twenty years after its broadcast on network TV and the big screen treatment that followed, I'm fascinated by, fixated on David Lynch's surreal glimpse through the curtains of a seemingly sane and simple American town called Twin Peaks.  There, the secrets were ominous, deadly.  And oh such fun.

So here's the latest news from my world regarding the things I can discuss.  In the past month, I was cursed with a crippling knot in my neck and one of those zombie colds popular at this time of the year. But the blessings far outweighed nagging ailments -- the world did not end on the Twenty-First of December (not that I thought it would), though after a fashion it transformed, as on that very afternoon, we learned that our offer on the new-old house we sought to buy was accepted.  A beautiful lady, we knew instantly that Xanadu was the home for us.  There, I plan to continue the prosperity I've enjoyed here in our present home, but in my new and, hopefully, final Writing Room.  One of my 2013 goals is to pen the writing manual that has haunted me for a few years now, If You Can't Eat It, You Don't Need It: A Starving Writer's Guide to Survival, a subject I'm something of an authority on.  My new home office is stunning, with wide antique pine floors reminiscent of the knotty pine walls of the enchanted cottage where I grew up.

(Welcome to Twin Peaks -- from my articles file)

In 2012, I traveled to three writing conferences, four writing retreats, and gave two readings -- one in New York City.  The total time I spent on the road enjoying these adventures tallied to almost three full months -- an entire season!  My most recent found me back at the wonderful When Words Count writer's retreat center, where it snowed daily and where I wrote some 10,000 words over the course of my four days, including the concluding pages of my novella "The Arsonist," a project I am most proud of.  While camped out in the luxurious Gertrude Stein Salon at WWC, I added up my 2012 word totals: 377,000 between fifty-two completed projects -- three novels, five novellas, the rest stories short and long.

While 2012 was a year of travel and adventure, I look forward to 2013 being one where I snuggle down in our cozy new-old home to write and complete even more of my stories, old and new alike, though the possibility of travel exists via the incredible promise contained within the TV series.  And the awards ceremony, held in New York City.  But again, I can't talk about those luminous and exciting facets in my writing career's orbit just yet -- they're still secrets.