I’ve been working on a novel. Big shock, right? Actually, I have four or five novels in progress, but the one that seems closest to the point of, well, getting written is one that has had me researching everything from Benjamin Banneker to the history of the Kamikaze, from the effect of trauma on the developing brain to the theories of ego and brain evolution. Oh, and I had to study the history of the Dalai Lamas.  In the course of making a lot of notes and brainstorming, I wrote the core of an ...