After around three months of writing, I’ve finished my third book. De La Soul was right: 3 really is a magic number. It’s also my favorite number. Good things come in threes: The Past, The Present, and The Future; The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit; and The Original Star Wars Trilogy. This is one of the reasons why this may be my final book. “But Mike,” you say, “you said that about your last book.” That is somewhat true. I said my last book would probably be my final novel, and that is still the case. Yes, that means my new book isn’t a novel, though it still is fiction.
Enough with being vague: My next book will be a collection of my favorite short stories I’ve written over the years, specifically six tales from a wild, warped imagination. I was actually nervous putting together these stories because I thought the reader might be ping-ponging back and forth from one theme to the next (if you read my last book, Déjà View, you’ll know that theme is a very big deal for me), but I’m happy to report that, by sheer luck or coincidence, the half dozen stories I chose have pretty much the same theme. They’re all about sane people trying to live in an insane world, which is something I can unfortunately relate to “all too well,” as Taylor Swift might sing.
One of the reasons why these stories share that theme is because I wrote most of them either during high school or immediately afterwards, while I was still processing that experience. But don’t worry; I didn’t simply transcribe my stories word for word. (If I did, it would only take me about a month to write this book.) Similar to how my first two novels were based on short stories, I “pumped up” the narratives like Hans and Franz, expanding them and adjusting the language to find the right word. One annoying trait I had as a young writer was not being able to decide on the correct word, especially if it was a verb, so I just listed them all, e.g., “He jumped, leaped, and hopped out of bed.” It’s like, “Pick ONE, dude!”
One neat feature of this new book is that even if you don’t like a story, you can just skip to the next one—or, if you’re brave enough, simply suffer through it; each story is only around 40 pages. Because of the format alone, this is probably my most entertaining book. And there is a ton more action in a few of these stories, even more than in Danger Peak. We’re talking shootouts, car chases, fistfights, fires—all that fun stuff.
I mention that this may be my last book because of the magical number 3, but that’s not the only reason. There are actually three more reasons. (There’s that number again.) Here they are, in no order:
- There are only so many good ideas I have. This was my kitchen sink book where I threw all my best ideas out there to see what stuck. I would never want to write another book just so I could say I wrote another book. I want to make sure it’s one of quality and something I think most people would enjoy. As my best friend said after he read Danger Peak: “It’s one thing to write a book. That’s something most people can’t do and is an accomplishment in and of itself. But to write a book that’s actually worth reading is something else entirely. I think you’ve done the latter here.” (Okay, he may not have worded it exactly this way, but you get the gist.)
- This is probably my most controversial book. There’s murder, suicide, violence, the works—with many of these incidents involving young people. (I warned you I wrote many of the stories during high school.) While there are young protagonists, I probably wouldn’t categorize this book as young adult, and unlike my last two books, there are no stories that take place in the 1980s, though there’s one story that occurs during the year 1995, the year I graduated high school (and now you know how old I am). In other words, this may mark the death of my writing career. Some of the writing is shocking—upsetting, even. It’s not for everyone. I’m already bracing for the backlash. But I believe in the book—obviously, or I wouldn’t have bothered to write or publish it.
- Without divulging too many gory details, my writing career, such as it is, has actually hurt my personal life. There have been times in the past few years where I’ve agonized over whether it’s worth it to keep writing. I’ve had to shift priorities around in my life, which has been uncomfortable for those I love, to say the least. Again, I’m not going to explain exactly how my writing has affected my personal life. That’s for my family and therapist to sort out!
The last thing I’ll mention about my latest (and last?) book is that it matches an overall theme of all three of my books. They fit neatly into what I was going through for each school I attended, while advancing in mature subject matter. I’ll explain:
Even though Danger Peak takes place in early junior high, it’s actually more a reflection of my life in elementary school: all the fun and games I had with my two best friends riding our bikes around town, with the unfortunate tragic center of my brother’s death smack dab in the middle of the ‘80s. If it were a movie, I would label this book as “PG.”
Déjà View takes place in late elementary school and early junior high, but it’s mostly about how I felt about life in junior high and how much I missed my childhood in elementary school. I would classify this book as “PG-13.”
And, as I wrote before, my newest book is preoccupied with the feelings I was dealing with during high school, even if it’s composed of six different stories. A few of those stories even take place during high school. And, as I mentioned before, the book gets pretty violent. I would rate it a soft “R,” though I tried to limit the nasty language.
Does this mean my next book, if there is one, will take place in or involve college in some way? Well, as it turns out, I do have another story in mind with a college-type setting, but the jury is still very much out on that one. Let’s see how the new one does first.
You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned a title yet. Well, it’s still early, and while I have settled on a name, I’d like to leave at least a little mystery before the book is ultimately released, which should be later this year. Like I said, this may be my literary swan song. I want to enjoy it as long as I can.
MTP
P.S.: Next week’s blog: Another Surprise!
P.P.S.: Déjà View is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:
Michael Thomas Perone 