The title Three Summers has been stuck in my head for several years now. I have some vague ideas about the plot and the characters. It will likely involve a father and son, and possibly a nuclear family. If you’ve read any of my books, you may have noticed that the families are never typical. That’s no accident. I’ve been circling them.
Whatever the plot and characters end up becoming, the book will definitely take place in three locations, covering either one summer in three settings, or three settings over the course three separate summers. Like I said, this is all pretty vague, but I have no question what the locations will be: New Mexico, the North Shore of Long Island, and a Lake House in New England. If much of the idea is unformed in my head, the reasons for choosing those locations couldn’t be clearer. The first two are nostalgic throwbacks to places where I spent my childhood summers, the third is the memory of a summer that never was (but should have been).
If you’ve read Rosé in Saint Tropez and noticed the dedication, I doubt we’ll see those characters again, but that book’s missing character (or the idea of him) will undoubtedly feature prominently. I’m glad I’ve waited on this one. I think I’ve become much more understanding about fathers, in part by becoming one, but also by realizing that nothing is ever as clear cut as it might have seemed at one time.
Here’s the main thing about Three Summers, it will involve someone whose mind is stuck in the past. I know what that’s like, both as a son, and now as a father. For some reason, a part of me is stuck in three places in my past, but I don’t entirely know why. Perhaps writing the book will help me figure that out. Or maybe I won’t tackle Three Summers until I’ve sorted out just what it is that I need to come to terms with. Either way, when Three Summers emerges, maybe this post will make for some interesting reading, and the answers won’t all be hidden between the lines.