I've been busy with a new novel and that's where my energy is going. At this point I have only about fifteen thousand words. Usually by this time in the process, my characters are sitting on my shoulder telling me their stories, but that hasn't happened so far. I don't know if that means I don't know my characters well enough or that they don't have any stories to tell. I'm hoping it's the former. Time will tell.
In any event, a conversation with a friend over lunch the other day suggested another project (perhaps a simultaneous project? How many undertakings can I juggle and keep in the air at once?) for me, but I am going to have to do interviews.
I'm hoping you will be interested in allowing me to interview you briefly on this question:
What was the unspeakable secret in your house when you were growing up?
An unspeakable secret is one the family took you aside and whispered to you as a child, and then never mentioned again, one you were never to speak of either within or outside your family.
For my friend, it was her Uncle Mike, who spent most of his time at the tavern. As a child of nine or ten, she and her cousin would leave family gatherings and sneak into the local to spy on him. Her parents never spoke about his drinking, and never really mentioned him or anything about him at home. He was the unspeakable secret when she was growing up.
A close relative's father was divorced after a couple years of marriage. He remarried my relative's mother and they were married for over fifty years before he died. No one in the family talked about it except to say, when it was revealed at my relative's adolescence, "You are never to tell anyone." Divorce was shameful in the late 1930's. He and the first wife never had kids, she was told, and many years later they heard that the first wife had died. The father's divorce became the family's unspeakable secret.
If I interview you, I will do my utmost to keep your identity confidential.
I don't know what I'll do with the information I collect. Your unspeakable secret may become an article or a book. It may end up being the basis for something completely different. Or it may amount to nothing.
If you're interested in talking with me, please email me at bill@billmoser.net or comment below. I'll buy the coffee. Thanks!
