DID I SHOW YOU THIS OLD SAILBOAT PROPELLER?

It’s off a 40′ ketch built in Massachusetts in 1929 by Casey Boatbuilding. I was part of its boatyard party crew in the early 1980s.

And, of course, that’s my first novel Blue Rubber Pool—a surreal tale of mid-life meltdown during which so much was set aside to follow a Southern belle back to her home in rural South Carolina.

Blue Rubber Pool Casey Boatbuilding

Bad things happened, an entire run of them that shut me down, caused me to withdraw from everything except my inner self.

One afternoon, in a hammock, I took a photo of myself. Just my legs. But there was no one to send it to. No one to understand.

I needed a sidekick so I sketched an armadillo because they’re crusty on the outside but not within. I made him my butler. Crusoe’s manservant Friday.

We began interacting—my hammock photo speaking to that critter, that critter speaking back.There’s a folder of cartoons somewhere. For now there’s just this one. (LINK)

Eventually after that I began writing novels.

I’m still a hermit, marooned you might say, but leaving my shell more and more—my inner self seeking its freedom through writing.