An Introduction

Here is an introduction to this novel, which is about twenty-six days late. But that does not mean it should be skipped.

The inspiration for this story struck, as is often the case, in the most inopportune time. Generally speaking it was the Holiday season and more specifically, on the M15 bus with several bags of groceries. For future reference, this is a terrible workspace. Fortunately, I was close enough to my destination to remember the spark of this, so once I was home and the perishables were safely ensconced in the fridge, I was able to put a few pages down and do a very rough outline.
As I mentioned, it was the Holiday season when time tends to slip away like a greased Christmas melon. What, you don’t know that tradition? That’s weird. Lots of people know that one. It seems that Melchior had brought a large, bountiful melon when the star in the east… Sorry, it’s kinda a long story.
Anyway, I had no time to write and suddenly, it was New Year’s Eve. 2012 to be exact, and I was at a party. The hostesses of this fete had hung a board where people could write what they wanted to accomplish in the coming year. Now I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. The drunken fervor with which people make life-changing vows is matched only with the rapidity of the abandoning of the same. But the idea of writing down what you wanted to do rather than what you would do made it more palatable. At least to me.
So, I put that I would write every day. And I did. I will freely admit that some days were much more productive than others. There were eight page days and one paragraph days, even some one sentence days. But I did not break the chain. And what you are about to read is the result of all that. Now I actually finished the first draft in late August and then started a short story the next day. I wrote a bunch of smaller stuff the rest of the year, some of which I will post here, a lot of it I won’t. But I kept the promise to myself and wrote something every day, a thing I am very proud of.
This year I found a very intelligent and generous editor, Ms. Jackie Coffey, who has the distinction of being the first person in the world to read this book. If there are any errors, that’s on me. She has helped me make this a better story in every way. Thank you Jackie for all your patience and kindness, and for calling me out when I needed to be.
I hope you all enjoy this novel, I had an enormous amount of fun writing it and am putting it out here on the interwebs so others might do so as well. If it’s not for you, just remember, it’s free.

Thank you,

Leo Byrne Jenicek

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