It’s been a long time coming. In a matter of days my debut novel, Living in Glass Houses, will be available for sale. This is a project I began several years ago. What started as unorganized notes I jotted down based one of the thousand what if’s which had swirled through my mind. One of the things I’ve learned in my thirty-something years is that people come in three categories. Picture the proverbial bell curve we all learned about in 10th grade math. If you don’t remember its that graph which looks like an upside down U. It’s graph that plots the distribution of data. In its simplest terms and as it relates to people, it holds that more people are alike than not. Most of us are accounted for in the peak of that curve and on the tail ends of either side, you will find small amounts of people who are the extremes. We are more alike than we are not.
There are some really evil bastards out there, not many, but they do exist. Then you have some truly good hearted people out there. Those who literally would not hurt a fly and are selfless to a fault. Those are the extremes. Most of the population fall somewhere in the middle ( at the peak of the bell curve). What I mean is that humans are layered beings. Good people sometimes do bad things and folks of questionable character are capable of doing good things. We live in a world where it’s so easy to judge others and hold people to high standards. I am guilty of it too. Especially in my youth when things were simpler, I was known to start a sentence with, “I would never . . . “ Well as the years progressed and life became increasingly complex, I found myself saying and doing things I’d sworn years prior I never would have. Some were based on selfish needs, others based on fear and others, I guess I still don’t know why, but I’m not ashamed to say I’ve made my share of mistakes. And have learned from them and know I’m sure there are more to come but I believe what makes me different than some is I can admit that I don’t have all the answers. I am wonderful is some ways and flawed in others.
I wanted to create characters who reflected these realities about people. I thought, what happens when you put some inherently good people in some messed up situations? I believe most people will find at least one character with whom they can relates, one they will despise whether because they know someone like that or because secretly they know they are that person. I expect you will feel sympathy, empathy and adoration for some of these characters. You will root for some and hope others fall on their face and I don’t really care who you like and who you don’t but I want you to feel something. To be engaged and sucked into their personal journeys.
I hope you have as much fun reading Living in Glass Houses as I did writing it.
Oh and don’t forget to take a sneak peak of the sequel, What Happens in the Dark, when you get to the end.
Cheers!