What It Is NOT About

I tried for a very long time NOT to make my novel about mothers.

I failed.

There are subplots about mothers…and daughters…and growing up…and coming to terms with less than perfect parents.

I also tried to keep Erik Jansson’s presence to a bare minimum because there were things I didn’t want to discuss.

Failed at that, too.

But I managed to put off dealing with him until close to the end of the book.

I wasted a lot of time in the process of failing to deal with those issues.

The lesson I learned was not to avoid the difficult topics. Not to try for definitive answers. Just put in enough information and thought to be enticing.

I think it turned out to be a lot like one of my favorite Rhymes with Orange cartoons:

A woman tries to decide which piece of pizza to buy for lunch. She asks the guy behind the counter what’s on each.

He says, “One has pepperoni and one has little bits of truth.”

She chooses the slice of life.