I
remember the exact moment that THE LAKE OF LIVING WATER, my sixth novel, was
born. I was running in the woods on a November afternoon in Vermont.
The air was cool-- almost cold-- and smelled of evergreen and tannin. The long
shadows of pines were intersticed with reaches of wan, hollow, almost–winter New
England sunlight.
As I ran, two visions
appeared in my mind’s eye-- simultaneously, as I remember it. I saw the image
of a man sitting alone in a room inside a cold, dark, stone tower. He was looking
out a window and across the broad expanse of Lake Champlain,
at the patterned skeins of late autumn sunlight that moved and shimmered on the
water.
The other image that
came was that of a book… a small book, to my surprise, full of white space around
blocks of text, of stories written in many voices.
I knew that the
book would tell me who the man in the tower was. And I knew that I would have
to write the book.
Those who have
read my other books, my poems, who have seen my paintings and listened to the
music I compose, will know about my fascination with the nature, history,
geology, and PRESENCE of Lake Champlain—in particular the shoreline and
waters of Burlington Bay. This future
book, I knew in the moment of its apparition, would have this locus itself as a
main character.
I had,
that fall, just finished reading John Cowper Powys’ A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE, and
that novel was still looming large --it is, after all, more than 1,000 pages
long-- in my thoughts. I was captured by its sense of place, of mystery, of
intersecting lives. I suppose, then, that I was being called to write my own
version of a book like that. (I am still, however, a bit puzzled that it would
appear to me as such a small volume…)
I came home from my run that November afternoon and began
writing. I went on to write about 80 pages and an outline over the rest of the
month and through December. (This is, so far, the only time I have ever
committed to an extended stretch of writing in the afternoons—I am most
definitely a morning writer!)
I didn’t come back
to the manuscript until the following spring and summer, when I finished a
first draft-- also accruing, along the way, a notebook full of the results of
historical research. Over the next two
years I kept writing, editing, and revising, finishing an 8th--and
final-- draft in the summer of 2012.
THE LAKE
OF LIVING WATER shows some traces
of the mystery/detective genre, but I have no doubt that it is ultimately a
strange and not easily categorized novel.
I accept this, knowing that in writing this book I have done everything
I can to get to the heart of my own perceptions of --and connections to-- the
mystery and power of the lake and shoreline that inspired it.
-KMB
You can order THE LAKE OF LIVING WATER here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/kevin-macneil-brown/the-lake-of-living-water/paperback/product-20419011.html
Also available in Kindle edition:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lake-Living-Water-ebook/dp/B009JJQZMA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349301457&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lake+of+living+water
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