So, now that I had decided to put those little gems that were given to me into this journal, it stood to reason that the journal had to be the focal point of the story. And because the poetry is, in most cases rather touching, my dying fellow character had to be changed from a gruff old man, to a sensitive and much younger man.

This seemed at the time, to be an almost insurmountable task; one that would require much thought, and more than a little inspiration from somewhere outside my own fertile imagination. But, just like any writer who has written any type of fiction, I find inspiration everywhere, and often in some of the oddest ways and places … and sometimes almost mystically.

I had decided by this time that the structure of the story would be based upon the writings I put into Kennison’s Journal, and that all but the bookstore scenes and the ending, would be told in flashback. Good enough, but there were many questions that required answering, not the least of which were; who is this guy Kennison? Where did he come from? How did he come to write poetry in a journal, and for that matter, where did he get the journal?

Well, much of the inspiration that helped me “flesh-out” the Kennison character, and consequently added to the story in immeasurable ways, came to me through a book I read; “Grand Central Winter-Stories from the Street”, by Lee Stringer. As a side note, I loved this book. It is Mr. Stringer’s own account of how his addiction to crack cocaine took him from successful businessman, to homelessness on the mean streets of New York City.

As Kurt Vonnegut said in the forward to Mr. Stringer’s book, “Nowhere in all his first-rate writing has Lee Stringer concealed the hook of collective guilt, should we dare to bite. But those who do bite will find resonant new dimensions, as have I.”

And I add, as have I.

I unapologetically borrowed heavily from Mr. Stringer’s life experiences; made my main character, Ken Kennison, homeless. Also made him an addict, but his addiction being not of the medicinal variety, but addicted to his quest to learn who he was. However, I did make a female character addicted to cocaine—but that came later when I got another revelation, and from an entirely different source, as you will see.

Additionally, I used Mr. Stringer’s experience selling a street newspaper as a lead-in to a part of my story, and even, but without naming him, gave him a “walk-on role” in the story. However, I did mention his name during one of the bookstore conversations between Rosie, and Will Healy. And finally, Mr. Stringer’s experiences were the guiding force for a piece I wrote and included in my book, titled, “Street Theater”.

For all of this, and his sharing his life experiences with me through his book, I owe Mr. Lee Stringer a great deal of gratitude.

All of this is great so far, yet still, there are questions to be answered, and the biggest one of all is: Why is this wretched soul, this young, sensitive, homeless man, lying in a lonely hospital room, grieving, and dying?

Well, being the cynical cuss that I am, I figure his present, very unhealthy predicament, must surely involve a woman! Only partly kidding, however, I did figure he had to have somehow lost a love, but I had never considered this, and so, didn’t even have a clue as to who she might be.

Then one day, while listening to a song called “Walk in the Sun” from Bruce Hornsby’s album, “Hot House”, and dancing the cha-cha around the kitchen while preparing dinner; yes, I often do this, even now, when it doesn’t look as good as I thought it did when I was young and fit, I began singing the lyrics, and suddenly, the woman whom I had not known before, floated right out of my stereo, and into Kennison’s life.

She took the name, Madeleine, and yes, she is the cocaine addict I mentioned earlier. If you’ve read my book, please listen to the “Walk in the Sun” lyrics, and if you have the imagination of a reader and writer, you may also see Maddie float out of your stereo …