Three years ago, I mentioned the big one. I said I’d have more to say about that soon. For me, I guess soon is three years. After Seattle On Ice, I wrote the follow-up, Bloody Pulp. Then I revised Rosé in Saint Tropez (my little romance set on the French Riviera), and wrote another book called White Russian. Neither of those will likely be released before the current project, which is actually four separate novels that together make up one massive story. So I guess the big one is actually four regular ones.
So what did I mean by the big one? Well, as dear as Brick Ransom is to me, the book I think touched on more of my personal obsessions is still On/Off. That imperfect debut novel, which some (including a magazine I used to write for) have written off as bad porn, has a lot of elements I’ve been wanting to explore further and better since I first decided I wanted to be a writer (and had my mother help me forge a writing degree from Harvard University to make things legit). It’s a romance, it touches on the afterlife, it has characters with very Garp-ian interests, it takes place in a cold climate where the places, people, and things that matter the most to me have all blended into a fictional town called Grimwood, and there’s going to be a lot of snow. In case you haven’t noticed, my books almost always take place during the winter for some reason.
Anyway, after five months of preparation, I’ve just finished outlining all four books scene by scene, moment by moment. It’s the most intricate, detailed outlining I’ve ever undertaken for a book. So, I guess it’s time to get to work. To paraphrase a bunch of movie taglines, real and imagined: “The big one is here, and this time… it’s personal.” Needs a little work, but I’ll run with it for now.