My former agent said “you know, I’ve not seen any good brother/sister books lately,” and I thought “OK, I can help you with that.” I have a pretty beloved brother, so I can use our relationship as a model for a story. So, this book is about hopping trains, hobos, maybe drive-ins, and probably HIV. Ian, the brother of the pair, runs away because he’s become HIV-positive (or maybe he’s terminally ill, or maybe he just wants to run away, I don’t know yet), and he can’t stand to have his family know. Ivy, the sister of the pair, can’t see any reason for her beloved brother to leave, so she chases him. Can you imagine how hard it will be to chase someone on the freight rail system in the United States? But Ivy’s going to try.
Trains are woven through my family, and I’ve always wanted to write about them, so this will be a fun book to work on. And the research will be a blast.
I’m hoping to work on this novel at the same time as VERNE.
I want to write about streaking, and I'm not sure why—I find it hilarious, and something only a strong individual would do, and I want to write about a strong guy who’s not afraid of being different. I've always wanted to write about art, too, and I think I can tie it to streaking via Michelangelo’s David. We’ll see. Haven, the main character, will be a combination of two guys I had as students with my son-envisioned-at-sixteen added into the mix. That’s where the crazy boys come in—all 3 are just funny and insane in a good way. I've also been collecting spam e-mails (which is where "Big My Piano" came from), and there are some FUNNY things to be said about them--how many different ways can a person refer to a penis? This book seems to be about penises. I have no idea if anyone would ever buy it--but right now, it's about penises. I need to ask an editor, huh?
This one should be nothing but funny. And that’s good! All of my books have humor in them, but the serious factor is very high. It’s about time to quit being serious. : )
This novel will be third, but I'm so tempted by it, it may come first! It depends on the research and how quickly I can make it happen.
Scowl will be in verse, and will be about a model's daughter, in Paris, in the 50s. I was lucky enough to know a Vogue model who lived in Paris the 50s, and I'm hoping her daughters will share more of her life with me. By the time I'd conceived the novel, she was too ill to talk for extended periods. I’m also hoping to make it a graphic novel, because they’re so much fun, and I think they will lend themselves well to poetry. I see this one illustrated with black & white photography, one of my favorite media (mediums?).
I can't wait to tackle a verse novel. Getting back to poetry will ROCK—not that I don't like novels, because I obviously do. But to combine the two? Excellent. And to shape it as a graphic novel on top of the poetry? Spectacular.
