Classing it Up

Here's a little sample from my book, Dear Creature. I decided to name the chapters from classic Roy Orbison songs, since I listened to a lot of Roy while working on the book. I had a whole soundtrack worked out, with Sam Cooke, the theme from La Strada, The Flamingos, etc. Roy rose to the top though— his melodramatic take on romance and heartache seemed to fit the book best.

Growing up, I spent hours upon hours traveling with my parents, in the car or on our boat, and Mr. Orbison was a frequent accompanist. I learned to love him even before he was all gen-X ironic via Blue Velvet!

The weathered canvas is also taken from memories of being on our sailboat, leafing through the old hardbound books on navigation, knots, and other seafaring stuff. The water and mildew would eventually get to everything, and those old books were especially susceptible to the salt air.