We are so close to getting this book out there for the public that it is both exciting and terrifying. I was talking to Laura the other day trying to remember when the book was originally written. She reminded me that it was written for Nation Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2006. Seeing as November is NaNoWriMo that means it was exactly six years ago that Crumbling Walls, though it was untitled at the time, was born. Time is such a funny thing. It seems like both an eternity and just a second ago since she gave it to me to read. I don’t know what Laura’s intentions were for this story, but it was clear to me after I finished reading it that it was definitely something I could see on the shelves of bookstores.
My measure of a good book is if I can’t put it down because I need to know what happens next. As anyone who knows us is already aware of, Laura and I (along with significant others and later children) vacation together every summer. In the summer of 2007 we were traveling out to the Grand Canyon. As everyone who was with us that year will tell you, every free moment was spent by me sitting and reading this story Laura gave me that she has written. There were a couple of times I even choose not to join the others on excursions, instead staying behind at the campsite to read more. I both wanted and needed to know what happened next.
Considering we are now within months of publishing Crumbling Walls, it is strange to think back at everything that had to happen to get us to this point. As one of the characters in the book says when faced with this same question, “entirely too much.” Entirely too much indeed. Perhaps someday I’ll sit down and document that story, but to fully do it justice I would have to start well before 2006 and I just don’t have the energy or time right now. Just know, in actuality, that the story of the publishing of Crumbling Walls began in September 1976 when Laura was born. The next chapter occurred two months and ten days later when I was born. And entirely too much has happened between then and now.
I hope you are all ready to get your copies, because we are so very close now.
Orange Publishing 